5 Easy Exterior Home Ideas to Update Today

Transform the look of your home’s exterior with these five tips.

1. Landscaping Ideas are Essential for Curb Appeal

Your home’s yard and the landscaping design are often the first things people notice. Is your grass green and lush? Do you have a beautiful shade tree? Are there flowering plants adorning your front porch? Easily one of the most fun changes to make, a change in landscaping can transform the look of your entire yard.

Consider working with a local lawn care expert to help you keep your water use to a minimum. These experts can recommend various plants and grasses that are drought resistant as well as recommend irrigation systems that use less water.

2. Siding Ideas Can Improve the Architecture of your Home

If your home already has siding it might be time for an upgrade. No matter the quality of the siding material, the elements can cause damage over time and repairs could be necessary. Consult with a siding expert to get a quote and to assess any damage or potential problem area.

If you do need to replace the siding now is the time to make a color or texture change if you wish. Making the change from beige to a beautiful slate gray or brick red can make your home feel brand new.

3. Painting Ideas Can Instantly Give a Boost

While the actual painting of a house is a big job, picking out the colors for your exterior and trim is so much fun. People can spend hours poring over paint websites creating the perfect color combination. Yellow? White? Gray? Blue? The choices and shades are endless.

Be sure to hire a reputable painting contractor for this job. It’s time-consuming and requires precision so it’s best left to the professionals. A general paint job usually only takes a few days so you can enjoy your home’s new look sooner than you think.

4. Improve Exterior Home Ideas with Fencing

Your home’s fence doesn’t have to simply serve as a way to keep your dog in or to keep your children from accidentally wandering off. It can also create a statement and be beautiful to look at while serving the function of a proper fence.

A white picket fence is always a classic, especially when it’s entwined with a beautiful blooming vine. You could also consider a well-built stone fence, especially for the front portion of the yard where it will really get noticed. You can even try the exotic Japanese style fencing complete with a torii, which is a traditional Japanese gate.

5. Decorate your Exterior Home With Flair

Many people only decorate their yards when holidays occur and you should keep doing that but it’s nice to add some flair and a personal touch to your home’s exterior all year around.  Flowers are always a great choice for decoration and there are varieties of flowering plants that can bloom for most of the year, depending on where you live.

But why not consider other items as well? Statuary might sound trite and a bit gaudy, but it can actually enhance the look of the yard as well as being functional, like a bird bath. Consider using Mexican pottery as a flower pot or a half whiskey barrel as a planter. Head to your local estate auction or thrift store and see what types of reclaimed good you can find that will make your home’s exterior really stand out.

People take pride in their homes. Their homes represent a great deal of hard work and sacrifice. Be sure to maintain the upkeep of your home’s exterior, not only for safety purposes but to bring to life what might be an otherwise dull home, and really make it your own.

Yet this is ultimately a false dilemma – a fictitious “black and white” scenario. Truth be told, a home decor project doesn’t have to go over budget. In fact, there are a number of ways to end up with leftover allotted funds with these creative decorating ideas:

Decorating Ideas: Creative Ideas for Cheap Home Decor

Save money on painting ideas

Wall color dominates the look of a room. Change the paint and you can completely change the way a room feels when entered and enjoyed. The key, as far as pulling off a successful redecoration with just paint, is to select a color complementary to the existing furniture and accessories pallet. Just about every paint supplier has an online color selection tool; use one to find a shortlist of ideal hues.

Consumer Reports has a great article on how to save money on painting

In addition, consider using painter’s tape to easily achieve impressive paint patterns and shapes to transform the look of a room. Another inventive technique growing in popularity involves different colors for different walls – though this inherently involves buying more cans of paint.

Replacing furniture on a budget

Replacing furniture is perhaps the biggest money eater of most interior redecoration projects. That funky looking lime green chair and those glass end tables just don’t jive with any new design plan. For the sake of future redecoration projects, opt for furniture made to last in more ways than one. Companies such as Boyles furniture supplier pride themselves on durable pieces fitting a variety of decorating styles. It costs more in the short-term, but over time results in money saved as furniture isn’t being replaced every few years.

It may also prove useful to find ways to extend the life of seemingly worn out couches, chairs, and ottomans. Leather can be rejuvenated with oils, while a little sanding and painting can make tables and cabinets look brand new. Tweak these repairs to match the redecoration, or use the furniture to inspire a design.

Lighting ideas can help your interiors

Light is probably the most underrated aspect of interior design. Without light, we’d have a bunch of pitch black rooms and no way to see their design. Change the lighting in a room, and watch its look and feel transform instantaneously.

For instance, low key lighting can accentuate the details of a statue on a table or highlight a painting on the wall. Changes in white to yellow light are also shown to affect mood. Additionally, don’t forget about the greatest (and cheapest) source of light around – the sun. Plan the next home decor project with the path of the sun’s rays through the windows in mind to take advantage of natural lighting to the fullest.

If you’re trying to find out how much your home decorating project will cost, this Houzz article gives estimates.

Change furniture with the seasons

Switching out room decor with the seasons is the best way to avoid the look of a room from ever becoming stale. Taking advantage of timeless furniture selections and aforementioned techniques with paint and lighting can mean a simple swap of rug, curtains, and accessories can change a room almost entirely.

To save money, buy seasonally-inspired rugs, curtains, and accessories out of season. Within a year’s time, every season is covered. Afterward, rooms can be transformed four times a year for several years without any new purchases or changes.

Decorating ideas: considered used furniture too!

The classic way to save money on home decor is to buy used. However, finding the “diamond in the rough” – the used pieces worth buying for their genuine originality and sparkle – is more than a matter of visiting Goodwill when the time comes.

The key to finding gently used gems for a low-cost room redesign is to make a habit out of visiting resale shops regularly. Sure, it’s possible to find a gorgeous piece at a steal in one visit, but they aren’t all too common and when they’re put on the floor they’re gone almost instantly. Give it enough time, and those must-have used pieces of furniture will find you rather than the other way around.

There’s no need to let a room redecoration go over budget. Many paths exist for achieving unique interior design on the relative cheap. Give them a try to cut costs, boost motivation, and get the most out of each dollar spent on home decor.

For more home decorating ideas on Stagetecture, visit our archives.