Make an entrance: improving your home’s kerb appeal

When moving house and looking to buy a property, first impressions are everything. We’ve just moved into a new house near Brixton in leafy south London (very exciting!), a big change for us from a 2-bed flat in the hustle and bustle of King’s Cross. It wasn’t quite love at first site for us though – this house was let down by its poor kerb appeal. We were initially put off by its uPVC windows, flimsy plastic door and thickly textured grey facade (the rest on the row are brick), yuck, yuck, yuck – it was only when we went inside and visited a second time that we started to see its potential. Unlived-in for months and looking tired, it just needed a bit of love and care.

As with many things, looks can be deceiving and with just a few small changes, I believe we can gradually begin to bring this house back to life and restore it to its former glory. When B&Q approached me for their ‘Make an Entrance’ appeal, encouraging people to get outside their home and bring style and kerb appeal to their entrance, it was the perfect opportunity to kickstart our renovations and start to make the house our own.

 

Improving your home’s kerb appeal needn’t be expensive, time-consuming or complicated; it doesn’t have to be that ‘big’ DIY job you keep putting off or saving for a rainy day. It really doesn’t take much; a fresh lick of paint on the front door, sweeping the small front garden and tidying things up, adding a new door mat, a beautiful plant pot outside, for example.

A lot of the time, we just focus on the interiors of our homes, but the exterior deserves the same attention. If I’m not walking down a street trying to peer into people’s homes and nosily see inside (one of my favourite pastimes…) I’m checking out their front doors and seeing which I’d want as my own. Not only can a quick spruce-up make your home look more beautiful, it will also make it a nicer place to return to at the end of the day. Instead of rushing in, slamming the door and shuddering at the state of your front door, you can walk in proudly and feel that little bit smug that you have one of the nicest entrances on the street…

So here’s what I’m planning on doing: removing the horrible uPVC porch door, replacing the old front door with a lovely new front door (such as this one for £97.00) and painting it a rich, dark grey in one of the three colours below. I think it will look instantly better just with a lick of fresh paint, but with a door, the details are everything, so I’ll be adding chrome-effect door furniture to give a clean, contemporary effect. I’ll finish off the look with a new door mat and a grey plant pot bursting with fresh blooms, such as lavender or hydrangeas to bring a bit of colour to the muted colour scheme. And here’s what I’m hoping it will look like…

I really hope that a few little changes will make a big difference, not just with the overall look of the house from the street, but for us as new homeowners; to be able to put our stamp on it and make it our own. It will make me feel so much happier to have a lovely entrance to come back to, a place which we’re really proud to call home. I also hope that it will make us feel a bit more safe and secure – at the moment the door doesn’t fit the frame very well, it feels slightly flimsy and the glass panels make it feel even less solid. It needs to go and be replaced by an efficient, contemporary addition that brings the property into the 21st century.

This will be the first project in a whole line of work for the new house and it’s going to give us that little push to get on with it. What better place to start than the front door, which we walk through everyday. I can’t wait to show you more – follow my progress on instagram and snapchat (I’m catesthill) with the hashtags #cshhouserefurb and for this particular project, #makeanentrance. I’ll be showing the results of this front door makeover in the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out!

Have you ever thought about your front door and giving it a bit of added kerb appeal?

For lots more handy tips and tricks, check out B&Q here for easy ways to smarten your front garden and entrance, whether its scrubbing up your front steps, sprucing up your front door or dressing your windows.

This post was written in collaboration with B&Q, all opinions my own.

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