Story of my life: I enter a challenge, don’t finish on time, take a break then jump into a challenge for a different space before the previous one is complete. Oops.
Today is the first day of a fun challenge my friend Deb of Seeking Lavender Lane brought together a group of us to work on upgrading our curb appeal. Mine is bad. So this is a really good opportunity for me to shift focus on my home’s first impression. If you’re like me, you like to work on spaces you actually use first, but I don’t want to wait until we’re trying to sell this house to make it pretty.
Here’s what I’m starting with: *warning: things are about to get real*
Just.. don’t ask. Things were crazy this past year and this whole area was priority 1,000.
So anyways, I gravitate towards a cottage bungalow vibe when I look at homes online or when I’m driving about. But I’m also all about that boho. So that’s the style I’m after. If I were to get everything I want done to this front yard done, this would be the list:
Replace roof.completed just a couple weeks ago- Edge Lawn.
- Pull the bushes out. Replace the bushes in front of the living room (far left) and the far right window with a garden bed full of banana leaf plants, azalea bushes, gardenia bushes, beachy grasses and hostas.
- The middle window’s awning gets removed, a pergola put over this space to provide shade for a patio in between the porch and the garden bed in front of far right window.
- On this patio put a small seating area and proper storage for the garden hose and front yard toys.
- A solution for drying shoes.
- The other awnings stay but get a good cleaning and a new paint job. In the good ol’ 4 season state that Virginia is, we get hot summers these awnings help protect the temperature in our house from and they help protect the windows from high winds and rain that come with our hurricane season.
- Paint the brick a cream/tan color.
- Paint the porch, porch railings and front door.
- A second tree will be planted in the right side of the yard to help provide shade for the bedrooms.
- Remove the pseudo lattice and repurpose wood to make planter box.
- Repaint the house numbers and hang them.
- Replace and hang mailbox.
- Replace chain link fence with wood fencing.
- Fence in front yard with a white powder coated iron fence.
Most of that won’t get done but those are my goal. Beautiful front yards take some time to grow into their look. Follow along these next 3 weeks to see how much of this gets done and to see how my friends below transform their spaces: