Upgrade Your Home's Exterior

by Rachel Lyon, Editorial Director for Direct from the Designers™

Interior design is big business—you see tips and tricks plugged in magazines and on television, and there are plenty of stores that supply furniture and various housewares in every possible style. On the other hand, exterior design has long been the domain of local craftsmen and home improvement stores, and homeowners don’t play as large a role in the decision making process as they do when it comes to furnishing inside. Many believe that there isn’t much to consider beyond colors and materials, but in reality, the exterior of the house is a canvas you can truly personalize as well.

The virtues of curb appeal are well known but often not understood by the average person, so here are some ideas to help make your home stand out from the crowd. The application of finer details separates a plain house from an extraordinary one, and you’ll love to see the results every time you come home.

Highlight Points of Interest

Take a look through history and you’ll see that homes have been accented by their owners and builders for centuries. Whether aesthetics or practicality were at the forefront of each decision depends on the time and the location, but now we are automatically drawn to certain finishing touches rooted in tradition. Think about the background of your home’s architecture, its features, and how you can draw attention where it should be.

The front door and windows naturally draw the eye, so complement them with the perfect surrounding trim and shutters. If you haven’t looked at options before, you’ll be surprised by just how many there are; running the gamut from modest to ornate, from pristine to apparently aged and worn, you can give your home a whole new vibe and take it in practically any direction. Work with the shapes in its construction as well—louvers and pediments are great additions to gables, while corbels can provide a touch of interest under the roofline of a boxy house that doesn’t give you much to work with in terms of areas to decorate. Of course, a ton of variation in these products means you can make the design your own, so take the time to explore some catalogs.

Build a Porch with Personality

If you have a deck or porch, turn it into a proper outdoor living space with the addition of the right railing, columns, and whatever else will complete the look you want. Enclosing exterior areas with these products gives you plenty of opportunity to instill character in your home and simultaneously create a more cozy, livable retreat that makes it easier to enjoy the fresh air.

Decide what kind of balustrade system fits the style of your house by searching for examples. Again, historical background dictates the basic shapes that look the most natural and inviting. For example, Craftsman designs are best complemented by square spindles, Victorian houses look complete with thin ones or elaborate baluster panels, and styles with Spanish, Italian, or Greek influence call for thick and curvy balusters, which would have been carved from stone back in the day. If you were to swap any of these styles, it would lead to an obviously mismatched exterior, but you’ll be rewarded with a gorgeous and balanced façade by sticking to innate guidelines.

Expand into the Landscape

When designing the inside of your home, you probably think about how to connect different areas. Maybe keeping consistent trim along the baseboards and around doors and cased entries helps visually link rooms despite their range of uses and designs. Use the same basic idea to make your entire property look coordinated—whether you have a close urban lot or a sprawling homestead, keeping a consistent design scheme will make the house look more attractive overall. That means you can expect a big improvement in its curb appeal, and the boost in value that gives you.

Take a step back and see what you have to work with. If you want to place lights around your driveway, along a fence, or around an outdoor living area, look into different types of lamp posts like you would with a mailbox. The shape and level of intricacy of such pieces should match the style of the house; they should look a lot like any columns around the front entry. The same goes for extra features like pergolas and gazebos, which complete outdoor living spaces remarkably well when they flaunt posts and railing like those found on the house. These various pieces have their own look that prevents them from seeming overly matched, so it’s perfect just to continue the general style around.

For a wide array of low maintenance and extremely durable architectural elements to help your home look its best, find your nearest Fypon® dealer. Fypon’s® polyurethane and PVC exterior products offer unbeatable weather resistance in practically every style, and you can also place custom orders to get exactly what you want if they don’t already have it. Home exteriors didn’t used to have so many choices, so now is the perfect time to create the design of your dreams!