When it comes to improving our homes, it can be too easy to focus on the interior as opposed to the exterior. However, especially when it comes to a sale, the outdoor part of our property is what makes that first impression. That is why, whether you are looking to sell your home or improve its aesthetic, you can improve the curb appeal of your home.
Let’s look at how you can enhance your home’s curb appeal quickly and easily.
Fix Up Your Fence
The first place we always recommend you start when improving curb appeal is to look at your fencing. Fencing, or any boundary around your outdoor area, should be a priority. Getting rid of green spots on a wooden fence or rusted spots on a metal fence can be a good place to start. Paint the wall a new colour to add a bit of freshness that makes a positive impression.
Make The Most Of Your Lawn
If you have a lawn, try maintaining it as best you can. While you can easily follow some useful gardening tips to keep that lawn in better shape, tidying it up and trimming it can be a good start. Focus on getting rid of any weeds that have sprouted up, and try to give the grass a clear finish; unkempt lawns can make it hard to know where the lawn begins and ends.
Enhance Your Patio
If you have a patio, ensure this becomes a priority for tidying up. Patios immediately draw the attention of anyone visiting your home, so making sure the patio looks nice and clean can improve your home’s curb appeal. We recommend using something simple but effective, like gravel for your patio, to help add better aesthetic appeal overall. Something as simple as gravel around your patio can make it look more modern, clean, and welcoming to guests.
Add Some Outdoor Lighting
Especially if you will have people coming over later in the day, some useful advice is to add some outdoor lighting. The outdoor lighting should be around places like your gate, pathway, and entrance to your front door. This can be great if you have people coming to view your home during the later hours of the summer or during the winter when it gets dark quicker and sooner.
Focus On Utilities & Access Points
Another thing worth focusing on is any utilities near the front door. For example, do your gutters look like they are overflowing or damaged? What about your steps and pathways? Is anything broken, chipped, or otherwise decayed? If so, it would make sense to have this replaced so that you can create a better impression on anyone coming to view your home.
Hide Unpleasantness
Whether it’s a bit of green algae/fungus growing between flagstones or your bins are on show, find ingenious ways to hide these unsightly factors. Sometimes, we leave things like our bins out to make it easier for the binmen to get to the path. Or, you might feel that your outdoor area looks empty, and thus, you use things like your bins to populate it. Instead, we recommend you look to mask or hide these features whilst cleaning up anything that makes your home look worn or dirty on the outside.
Wash Down The Front
Lastly, take the time to have the front of your building power-washed. This will make the entrance look brighter and more welcoming and cause your home’s original colour to shine slightly more. Focus on things like your window sills and your door; if these need to be cleaned and repainted, so be it.
Stick to the above tips, and improving your home’s curb appeal is not as difficult as it might first appear. This makes your home more welcoming and can enhance its value – or at least avoid the value tanking due to a negative first impression.