Home, Actually
The Curb Appeal Refresh
One of the things I love most about our house is its split level, midcentury character—but the exterior definitely needed a little help bringing that character back to life. The color palette was stuck in the '70s.
We weren’t ready for a major exterior renovation (yet!), so we focused on a handful of simple, affordable changes that would make the house feel more intentional. A little paint, new fixtures, and some good old-fashioned DIY made a surprisingly big difference.
We swapped the burgundy accents for black, updated the exterior lights, updated the house numbers, and cleaned up a few other details along the way. Nothing individually was a huge project, but together they completely changed the first impression of the house.
And that’s becoming a bit of a theme around here: before assuming something needs to be completely redone, we’re seeing how far a few thoughtful updates can take it.
Here’s how our little curb appeal refresh came together. Product links included.
Before → After
What we changed:
We did this one in phases-- the first thing we did was update the exterior lights. The existing ones were old, ugly and full of spider webs. I swapped them for some black dawn-to-dusk lights with wam white bulbs. The nighttime aesthetic is SO cozy & I love that they go on automatically. I used two larger ones on each side of the garage, and a smaller one near the front door which can't be seen in the photo.
The second phase was updating the house numbers to a more modern & larger style. Rather than anchoring the numbers directly into the brick, I opted to use a piece of wood as a backpiece. I painted the wood white for contrast & drilled the numbers right into that. So simple, but a huge difference!
The last phase was changing all of the burgundy accents to black. I painted the front door and frame & the accent panel above the garage. We opted to purchase new vinyl shutters rather than trying to paint the old woods ones (original from 1963!). We added a magnetic screen cover to our garage door for the summer as well, which I fell pulls it all together nicely. We don't park in our garage; we use it for storage and a workout space. Being able to have the garage door open while riding the Peloton & not feel like people can look directly at you, is wonderful! Also, it was only $38 on Amazon so it was a no-brainer.
Side note-- I have a similar magnetic screen for the interior door from the garage into the house that we love in the summer. We leave the garage door & the interior door both open with just the screens & it lets a nice breeze through our family room. I'll link that as well.
To round everything out, my husband took a sludgehammer to the triangular brick wall/garden border between the garage and front door. The bricks were alrealdy falling apart & it made the front of the driveway difficult to park ing (pretty sure the previous owner hit them with his car). We are still undecided what we are going to do here... rocks? grass? mulch & plants? To be determined...
Shop the products:
→ Exerior lights: Large [Dusk to Dawn Outdoor Light Fixtures Wall Mount 2-Pack— $46.99]
Small [Dusk to Dawn Exterior Lighting Fixtures, Outdoor Porch Light Wall Sconce— $20.89]
→ Warm White Light Bulbs [TJOY LED Edison Light Bulbs, E26 Dimmable Vintage Bulb, 8W = 60W Equivalent— $18.99]
→ House Numbers [5" Floating Stainless Steel Address House Number— $9.99]
→ Shutters [Polaris Homeside 4 Board and Batten Joined Vinyl Shutters (1 Pair) — $52.27]
→ Magnetic Garage Screen [AUGO Garage Door Screen Magnetic Closure — $44.99]
→ Magnetic Screen for Standard Door [Flux Phenom Magnetic Screen Door— $19.99]
