We love the growing popularity of home renovation projects, and we’re all the more ecstatic to see the focus shift from just the interior to exploring the outside of the house, most especially the front yard. And while some would argue that fixing up the back and inside should take priority, we want to remind everyone that the world sees your front yard first, and the curb appeal it carries most often decides a huge chunk of your property’s end value.
However, despite the growing enthusiasm and excitement for front yard overhauls and landscaping projects, plenty of homeowners are misplacing their efforts and putting too much into their blueprints and layout plans to the point of overdesigning. And so, to help swerve everyone away down this highway of future troubles and unnecessary design features on their front yard, we’ll be going through a short assessment of your current circumstances and how you can fix them.
How Can You Tell If You’re Overdesigning A Front Yard?
Sometimes, plenty of us are guilty of getting carried away by the blissful feeling of designing and exploring different styles, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with experimental projects, you do lose out on a lot of aesthetic points in the process. So, one excellent way of telling you’ve already fallen down this rabbit hole is three specific checkpoints, namely; (1) the front yard overpowering the home itself, (2) unclear pathways, and (3) front yard maintenance becoming unnecessarily burdensome.
- It’s Overpowering Your Home, Not Complementing It: Sure, you still get some credit for designing an eye-catching front yard, but if it overpowers the home itself and doesn’t complement its features at all, then you’re missing the point. Your home will feel like a constant battle of design, and because your front yard is clearly winning out, your house never gets noticed even if you switch out the exterior colors.
- Your Pathways Are All Over The Place: Another way of telling you’ve gone past the point of what’s acceptable design is when you’re struggling to get to the front door because there’s just too much in the way. Of course, we love the effort to try different design features and adding things like potting, centerpieces, and maybe even mini water features, but please understand you can’t have them all.
- Front Yard Maintenance Feels Like A Heavy Burden: Last but not least, a telltale sign of your front yard having too much going on at the same time is when upkeep and maintenance take up a whole weekend to finish. You want to keep things functional, light, and in line with your lifestyle; it shouldn’t feel like another job you end up coming home to and doing every Saturday.
Balance Things Out And Keep It Simple
Now that we’ve assessed the situation and you’ve had ample enough time to discern the sheer weight of the problem you have going on, rest assured that fixing these issues, no matter how colossal, is not rocket science. You just want to take a step back, gather your bearings, and follow the principle of balance and simplicity.
- Decide On A Final Overarching Design Theme: Firstly, try to decide on a final design theme you want to follow to keep things uniform and give you a baseline reference on what’s good and what’s not. For example, a colorful take on this family home worked wonders because the designer made sure the hues complement and contrast each other when needed. And in the case of a front yard, follow through with whatever design you have in mind, be it a seaside getaway, Mediterranean, or modern-classic.
- Play With Depth And Height: Secondly, when choosing design features and fixtures to place on your front yard, do your best to layer them all throughout the environment by playing with depth and height. For example, the house itself can be a backsplash for flowers of different sizes, and you can also add medium-level centerpieces to keep things in proportion to one another.
- Think Functional And Sustainable, Not Just Pretty: Lastly, no matter what design, style, and aesthetic you’re trying to achieve, always keep in mind that your choices must be functional and sustainable, not just for the sake of looking nice. As we’ve mentioned before, you don’t want to be spending an entire Saturday dedicated to cleaning and polishing the place, so limit your plans to what’s possible and what will keep you loving your front yard design.
Your Front Yard Should Make A Great First Impression!
In conclusion, we firmly believe that all front yards should make a great first impression because these past few months have been nothing but opportunity after opportunity to test our skill in design. Plus, the time, money, and effort invested will also reflect itself on your next FHA Loan, which will guarantee a much better value out of your property.
