If you are looking to give your home some curb appeal on a flat-fronted home, you are going to be doing a little bit of different work than if your homes facade has a little bit of depth. Adding some structure outside your house really helps the depth of interest created by the exterior of your house.
After taking the whole home from the street, the next thing to impact your curb appeal most is the front entryway. A striking front door draws the eye toward itself, leading visitors into your homes entryway.
The primary portal into your home, your front door can be a powerful symbol for potential new homeowners, so spend time choosing a bold, fun color that makes it pop and grabs the most attention. If you prefer to do nothing extra with your house, one very easy upgrade is painting the front door with a bold color. The contrast in colors from the front door to the outside of your house will create a sense of depth and interest that is an immediate improvement.
For accent color, use the idea of contrasting colors to add shutters which will add character, dimension, and texture, drawing attention to the windows. You can directly apply these colors to the outside walls by adding molding around windows and doors.
You can also plant fun things in your yard to provide a colorful contrast to your home facade. When adding plants in the front yard of a brick house, you may want to go for something that will compliment the rose-colored appearance brick has. Adding tall trees to the side, evergreen shrubs in the middle of the home on flat land, and rocks with flowers from various types of plants would add various heights and a splash of color to the front of your house.
These will frame your windows with a little extra texture, and if you pick a good color, will break up your homes front too. As you can see above, the same principle was used for both plants, though these add some colour too which compliments your homes door colour. Lining your front door walkway with plants is a natural way of leading your eyes toward your entrance, while giving an illusion of texture.
More specifically, when it comes to your front porch, heres what you can do with it so it helps to enhance your homes curve-to-curve charm. If you have the budget, you could even add a porch on the front so you add size on the front or sides of your house. Given that your homes front is entirely flat, you may afford a little extra fun with the front yard. I usually preach about how your front door is a focal point, and this may still be true depending on how deep and how much styling goes into the front door, but sometimes a front door becomes your new centerpiece.
Consider adding light sources on your porch, above your front door, around the garage, and along your walkways for added focal points. Installing lights into your homes eaves, as well as sconces at high-end locations either side of the front door, can help to provide that warm glow that makes passersby slow down for a longer look. Sidelights on either side of the doors leading into your house will be a nice touch, as well as making sure that you have adequate exterior lighting.
Putting some shutters on your front can add a little dimension to the front of your house and greatly increase its curb appeal. Window boxes or shutters are another good way you can bring some life into a front elevation with otherwise limited charm. Adding elements such as shutters, front porches, and landscaping also will build a diverse texture on top of your house, giving it a bit more character.
You could also just opt for painting your doors or parts of the house, if you are not looking to spend much, but you still want to add some freshness. Or, if you are looking to stick to your current style, you can have the contractor who built the home recommend a style that blends in with the rest of the home.
For example, try to experiment with darker colors, which adds more drama, while also making your suburban house pop. Choosing siding colors that contrast your homes colors is a good way to highlight architectural elements found throughout your homes exterior. Painting the garage in the same colors as the rest of your house, and adding lights that are in a similar style as those used at your main entryway, can be very different. For instance, if you installed wooden siding on your front entrance, and combined that with a different wood siding style, or different type of siding, throughout the rest of the home, you will eventually create more visual interest at the entryway – creating dimension and drawing attention away from the flatter parts of the home.
You also want to avoid using too many horizontal lines in your landscape, which could highlight the flat, geometric qualities of the outside of your house. If the house has horizontal siding, as well as horizontal hedges, that means that the diversity is not there.
Getting a few big planters and spacing them evenly spaced apart could give the appearance of a sense of depth leading up to the house. When accompanied by landscaping before and behind the wooden or metal gates, this draws the eyes inside, making even a small front yard seem deeper. No matter your homes style, if your homes front facade is flat and lifeless – a home facelift can work wonders to boost curb appeal. From adding lights to the sides of the doors, to investing in dimensional lights that add shapes to the front of your home, lights can create visual effects that work wonders: they add a seamless layer of curb appeal to a flat-fronted house.