Lush Exterior Design Features That Make Your Home Unique

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You don’t have to limit your design ambitions to your home’s interior. You can also add exterior features that make it more functional and welcoming.

The choice of features here is spectacular. There are all sorts of things that you could try. These include outdoor lighting, charming fences, spacious porches and so on. What’s great about working on your home’s exterior is that it makes it feel welcoming while also enhancing its curb appeal. Approaching your property will never feel the same again.

In this post, we take a look at some of the types of exterior design details you might want to add to your property. Check them out below.

Garage Doors

Standard garage doors aren’t much to write home about when it comes to design. Sure, they are functional, but they don’t provide much of a wow factor.

Today, though, the range of garage doors available is greater than ever before. Consumers have more choice over styles, designs and appearance than they did in the past.

Today, most homeowners choose garage doors that reflect the overall design and appearance of their property. They can be matching or contrasting with the rest of the house – the choice is yours.

Front Porches

Another exterior area ripe for upgrade is the front porch. These days, many property owners are looking for seating that allows them to lounge outside the front of their homes while at the same time storing their possessions.

Porches built during the 1960s and 1970s are quite uninspiring and many of them are now in a dilapidated state. Flat roofs don’t add much charm to properties, making them appear austere and uninviting.

Newer porches, however, often feature pitched roofs that make them more appealing to look at from the road. They also have space for all the things you need to grab quickly before you leave the house, such as your umbrella, coat, jacket or shopping bags.

Doors

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Doors can make a tremendous difference in how your property appears from the outside and security. What’s more, the market is expanding. The feature set of ProVia entry door options is increasing. For instance, modern doors offer both energy efficiency and customisation. Manufacturers are combining features so that homeowners don’t have to make tradeoffs.

Doors are also becoming more durable. Instead of making them out of wood or UPVC, vendors are choosing fiberglass, since it is both strong and weather resistant.

Exterior doors should be the focal point on your home. When your exterior door is expressive, it helps to bring the rest of your property to life. Bright colors immediately add personality to your home.

What’s more, you can add interesting architectural features to modern exterior doors. These include iron railings down the middle, large knockers, and paneling that makes your home stand out.

Even if the main door to your home is at the side of your property, it pays to invest in it. The higher the quality of your door, the more welcoming your home will appear, and the more secure it will become.

Exterior Lighting

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Exterior lighting is becoming progressively more popular among homeowners. The idea is to illuminate your property from the outside at night, instead of relying on interior lights.

There are both aesthetic and security reasons for doing this. From a security perspective, exterior illumination makes it difficult for anyone to come onto your property without being seen. From an aesthetic point of view, it can help make your house look more attractive at night.

How you arrange your lighting depends very much on the way in which you want to illuminate your home. The majority of homeowners install lighting at the foot of their exterior walls and then project beams upwards which reflect off their cladding, woodwork or masonry. You can also illuminate your home from a distance, however, this is a less common option.

With modern LEDs, the opportunities for customizing your home’s light show have never been greater. Not only are these lighting sources inexpensive, but they also come in different colors. This lets you add real ambience to your home.

Landscaping

When it comes to customizing your home’s exterior, don’t forget landscaping. Adding trees and shrubs can work wonders for enhancing the architectural features of your home. What’s more, a well-tended property with beautiful plants and shrubs elicits an emotional response. You can’t help but feel happy when you approach a house that’s overflowing with beautiful flowers.

Hardscaping is something that you’ll also need to consider. It’s not just about the organics that you include outside of the front of your property, but also the appearance of your driveways and decking too.

When choosing materials for these options, look for something that complements the rest of your property. You want the colors to match.

You should also consider the scale. A small driveway at the front of a large home could look a little odd.

When arranging your plantings, put them in groups with contrasting colors. Try to avoid being too monotone if you can, or just having a large expanse of lawn at the front of your home. While this can look good on very large properties, it isn't the best approach for smaller dwellings.

Window Trim

Window trim helps to complete the look of a home. When you get the windows right, the whole aesthetic and ensemble comes together and just makes a lot of sense.

There are many different ways that you can use exterior trim to improve the appearance of your property. You’ll want to look out for things like shaping, containing and sharp edges. You’ll also want to check that the trim color matches the rest of your property as well as surrounding siding, doors and other architectural features. Of course, vinyl is the classic material, but if you live in a modernist home, you might also want to consider aluminum. UPVC is an option too, with an increasing selection of colors now available on the market.

So, which of these exterior design features will you use to make your home unique?