Easy Tips to Boost Your Home’s Curb Appeal

This is a guest post by Friends of Pfister community member, Kelly of A Swell Place to Dwell.

Adding some visual interest to the exterior of your home doesn’t have to be daunting or expensive.  It can be something you work away on during and after summer. By just adding a few easy touches when you have the time and budget, it can be a huge help to your home’s curb appeal.

We live in a builder basic house.  Let’s be honest – it’s a box with windows.  A box in the middle of the city, next to 100 other boxes that look just like it.

When we moved in a few years ago, we knew that we didn’t want to do anything too drastic or we’d stick out like a sore thumb amongst the other boxes, but we did want something that made our house stand out a little bit – in a classy way.

The first thing that people usually notice about our house are our window boxes.  They were actually a gift to us on our first anniversary, so on top of adding some dimension and color to our house, they also have special meaning.  They are cedar boxes that I stained in a semi-transparent navy stain.  Since our house is light grey, the navy blue really makes them stand out.

I loved the navy blue so much that the next year, we decided to go bold and paint our front door navy, too.  I won’t lie – I was terrified to paint the door.  What if it all went horribly wrong and we were left with a big gross mess of a door?  Then we’d have to spend hundreds of dollars on a new one. Well, let me tell you, it was really very easy! We primed and used exterior paint, and within a weekend we had what looked like a brand new door.  Huge difference for under $50.

Do you still have your builder-grade light on your front step?  We did too, until last year, when we ripped it out and replaced it with a new light fixture.  Exterior lights can be surprisingly inexpensive (under $50), and will instantly update your entry.  Doesn’t get much easier than this.  If you find a light you love and don’t love the finish, don’t be afraid to dig out the spray paint and go to town (like I did with our formerly ugly mailbox).

Another thing that really helps our house stand out is our side walk flowerbed.  With basically no money and just a little sweat, you can add so much color to a totally boring front yard.  Each year it’s easy to buy inexpensive flowers (hello, Petunias) which fill the space, are easy to maintain, and brighten up the whole yard.

While we are on the topic of flowers, let’s talk flowerpots.  I like to use pots that aren’t your traditional flowerpots.  The pots that are sold in the garden centers tend to be too expensive for my tiny budget, so re-purposing other containers usually works just fine and can add a little quirk.  On our front steps I’ve used old buckets as planters.

I drilled a couple of holes in the bottom and added a layer of rocks to help with drainage, and they are good to go.  I’ve also been known to use watering cans to hold flowers, too.  Easy.

Obviously, there are so many other things that can be done to boost your home’s curb appeal (we still have a long way to go), but hopefully the ideas above have inspired you to make some small changes that can have some big impact.  If you are interested in learning more about the projects we have done to the exterior of our ‘box’ (and poke around the inside of our house), please pop on over to A Swell Place to Dwell.

Bring on summer! Let’s get out and enjoy it!