Protecting Your Investment: Essential Exterior Upgrades for Your Home
Some homeowners assume that upgrades are all about the interior. They imagine design ideas to revamp the living area, kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms, infusing elements of their personality into these spaces.
Nevertheless, you can also do the same to the exterior using strategic upgrades. Such exterior upgrades improve your living experience and boost the curb appeal if you decide to sell the property later.
Therefore, below is an easy-to-follow guide highlighting the exterior upgrades with the most appeal and what they can do for your property.
Exterior Upgrades Homeowners Should Consider
Apply Fresh Paint
Fresh paint can transform your house from a neighbourhood landmark known for its timeworn, blistered exterior into a house known for its vibrant, professionally curated colour scheme and flawless finish.
Imagine hearing neighbours using your pastel pink building or blue shutters to direct visitors on when to turn right or left.
A Modern Roof and Gutters
The roof also needs an upgrade to tie all the exterior elements together. You can install modern roofing that's durable and weatherproof. Go for a material like metal that's also energy efficient.
Another area you should not neglect is the gutters. Old and sagging gutters cause constant leaks and poor water drainage, increasing maintenance costs.
Thus, you need seamless gutters and some gutter guards to avoid clogs. Consult experts like ARP Roofing & Remodeling to identify the repairs your roof may need and the suitable new roof and gutters.
Upgrade Your Front Door
The front door is a focal point of the exterior. You can modernize it. For instance, replace the existing one with an energy-efficient material like fibreglass, insulated wood, or steel. They reduce heat transfers and maintain the temperature indoors.
Therefore, in addition to modernizing the exterior, you also make your home more attractive to buyers who are conscious of sustainability.
Further, you can incorporate fresh accessories in your entryway, such as a new mailbox, entryway lighting, or a stylish board displaying your house number.
Enhance Landscaping
Foundational features include flower beds, a healthy-looking lawn, and trimmed hedges. Work on those features first to add visual appeal, increase shade, and enhance the property's privacy. However, you can take the landscaping work to another level. For instance, install a stone pathway running to your front door.
On top of that, you can edge flower beds with bricks to define the lines. Another feature that can modernize your exterior is lighting. You can have accent lighting on features like water fountains and flower beds. Uplighting is another modern solution, which highlights trees or statues because it lights upward.
Make the Outdoor Space Functional
You can do something special to your outdoor space to turn it into an entertaining spot. The beauty of such upgrades is you can be as creative as you want. For instance, you can partition your backyard to have a small kitchen garden and leave the rest for weatherproof furniture where you can host family and friends. Some features, such as a small pond or fountain, help you manage rainwater.
Increase Safety and Security Features
One of the changes to improve your property's security is motion-sensor lights. You can use these on the dark corners of your property. They turn on automatically when they sense motion, which can deter intruders. Further, such smart lights conserve energy as they do not stay on throughout like traditional lights.
Another security measure is installing surveillance cameras and video doorbells. They help you monitor your property and record activities so you can look at them later. In addition, you can use the video doorbells to talk to visitors even when you're not around, a modern sophistication that can boost your home's appeal to potential buyers later.
There are modern fencing solutions, such as vinyl and composite fences. These are durable and low-maintenance materials. For instance, a vinyl fence requires occasional washing to maintain its appeal, but you don't have to paint it. Further, it does not warp or rot.
Nevertheless, consider materials like hedges or bamboo panels if you love more natural materials. The fence can also be as simple as a lattice screen to enhance privacy as you entertain.
Use Materials that are Easy to Maintain
While considering all of these upgrades, ensure you focus on using low-maintenance materials, as doing otherwise could make the project unsustainable in the long term. For example, composite fencing combines wood fibre and plastic, making it resistant to fading and insect damage.
Other low-maintenance materials are aluminium and steel, which you can use for siding because they are fire and pest-resistant.
Conclusion
Transforming your exterior will involve improving the aesthetic appeal and functional upgrades. For example, you can boost the visual appeal by painting the exterior and adding modern landscaping features like smart lighting. In addition, you can enhance the functionality using efficient gutters or creating an outdoor living space.
Use low-maintenance materials to avoid high maintenance costs. In addition, consider what is suitable in your area so that the materials used are weather-resistant to eliminate costly repairs. You can start with one upgrade, such as a new paint job, and build on it.
Jenny Kakoudakis likes to blog about interiors. She launched award-winning Seasons in Colour in 2014 and the luxury interior design blog All The Pretty Homes in 2024. When she is not chasing criminals out of the financial system (her day job), she gets creative by redecorating her own home.
