curb appeal!

One of the things I want to focus on while we save our money for the foundation is small things we can do to spruce up the curb appeal for our house. Both the outside and the yard need a little attention. I want to focus right now on the outside of our house. Here is the most recent picture I have, taken last Christmas:

Snow on the roof

We obviously need to touch up the paint around the front door! We don’t want to spend the money right now to paint the whole house, so we thought we’d find the closest color and try to patch up that front area so it doesn’t look quite so bad. :-)

I also have been looking at the other houses in our neighborhood, and I’ve noticed that usually the shutters are a different color than the window frames. Also, the shutters tend to match the front door. I am thinking of painting our shutters, then, as a more inexpensive way to update the outside. What do you think? And, what color do you think I should paint them? I am leaning towards black. Should we also paint the front door, or leave it white? I’d like to leave it white because we can’t change the color of the storm door (or can we? I guess we could paint that too).

Thoughts/feedback/advice would be helpful. :-) I’m so glad it’s warm enough to paint! (Although everyone thinks it’s going to get cold again before it becomes summer for real.)

5 thoughts on “curb appeal!

  1. Our trim is white and our shutters are black. I really like it. We don’t have storm door though. I don’t know what I’d do with that. Your house is adorable! I have a picture of our house on facebook if you want me to tag you in it.

  2. I think black sounds nice. Do a color that will work with whatever you paint your whole house later, if you plan to repaint the whole thing at some point. No idea about the doors!

    What are the brick piles?

    Also, if you’re painting the shutters, maybe you could also repaint the handrail and stoop, or just handrail if you’re low on paint. Probably black or white would make sense. The stoop, maybe a dark grey?

    I have no idea about this sorta thing.

    • Me either! I did consider painting the stoop and handrail. I wonder if a black would really help set the house apart? Or perhaps go with the same brick-red color as the stoop for the shutters?

      The brick piles are around the vents that go down to the crawlspace. Apparently the screen that keeps animals out is gone, or something like that. That whole flower bed area needs some major labor – it’s full of rocks and weeds. I’d love to clean it out but we need to construct a filter of sorts to sift out the rocks.

  3. I would go to a decent paint store and get some of their color coordinating palate cards for exterior homes. I definitely think you could spruce up the outside by painting the shutters. Good idea.

  4. Pingback: This Old House » Blog Archive » let the painting begin!

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