Monday, August 20, 2012

7 Tips to Improve your Home's Curbside Appeal | Olger Fallas Painting

The level of sophistication in the marketing of real estate today is truly impressive. Significant investments are made to ?stage? houses on the market and one of the most important steps is to make sure your house has killer curb appeal.

And, if you aren?t getting ready to sell your home, improved curbside appeal can pay off even bigger for you. ?Why?? you ask. Because you?ll be able to personally enjoy it every day and it will probably inspire your neighbors to do the same. Before you know it, the whole neighbor will be looking better! Here are seven tips to get you started:

1. Hardware is Easy
Stand in front of your property and make a list of all the hardware. Obviously you have a doorknob and lock. You probably also have a porch light and mailbox. You might also feature house numbers somewhere on your home. Are these items a hodgepodge of different styles and finishes? Use this opportunity to make them all harmonize with one another. And, if you didn?t have house numbers on your building, these can be added as a design element.

2. Shutter Up
Add shutters around your windows. These come in a variety of materials and styles, including wood, metal and vinyl along with board, batten, raised panel and louver designs. Sometimes the shutters on smaller windows get skipped when homes are built; now?s your time to set that right. Adding shutters also gives you an easy opportunity to inject an accent of color into the street side view of your home.

3. Go Horticultural
How much time do you have and how much work do you want to do? Certainly trim bushes and mow the lawn, and if you have the time, pull out plants that haven?t worked out the way you had hoped and bring in ones more suited for the location. If you want to go quick and easy, think containers. Everything from hanging baskets to window boxes to containers flanking your steps are easy to work with. Plus, you?ll have instant color.

4. Get Down with Downspouts
There have been significant improvements in gutters and downspouts over the years. If yours are from a previous era and starting to look their age, replace them. There are snap-fit vinyl systems today that never require painting. Yea! And if you want to shoot for the moon, copper makes a real statement. However, with copper thieves on the prowl, they could disappear one evening?

5. How Would You Define Spaces?
Use edging and pavers to define spaces in your front yard. If your planter beds are only ?cut in? from your lawn, find a decorative border that you like. It will also make maintaining your beds easier. How about using pavers to create a walkway to your front steps? If you have any problem areas in your lawn, you might be able to wend your pathway through that area, solving two problems at once. If you have a walkway that?s looking a little tired, spruce it up.

Front Door6. Lose the Door That?s a Bore
If your front door is rather blah, replace it. Take a trip to your local home improvement center and browse through all their front doors. If your entrance way is a little dark, a door with lites will immediately shed some light on the problem. If you want to go quick, easy and low cost, a coat of paint will work wonders and you can also improve on the trim around your front door.

7. Add Some Bling
At the very least chuck that ancient ?welcome? mat. Is it really even welcoming anymore? Find something new that you?ll be proud to display at the front of your house. Attach a hook to your front door so you can easily display wreaths and other decorative items throughout the year. Do you like garden flags? And how about some sculptural elements for your garden beds and maybe even a water feature?

You can dive into this list of seven tips to improve your curbside appeal as shallow or deep as you want. Some projects can be knocked off in an hour or two while others will take a bigger commitment in both time and money. But they?ll all yield great results.

Chris Turberville-Tully is a marketing strategist for Purely Shutters, a UK company providing shutters in various styles and sizes to help your home stay cooler & look classier. Find shutters perfect for your home here: http://www.purelyshutters.co.uk/

Source: http://olgerfallaspainting.com/curbside-appeal/

dick cheney hcg drops reason rally mad hatter azerbaijan ryan howard ps i love you

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.