How do you make your home stand out?

il y a 7 ans

Inspired by one of our latest Editorial pieces, it got me thinking how important it is to give our homes a bit of life and zest on the outside as well as the inside! Your personality should shine through on all fronts but the outside often gets neglected.

So whether it's a bold colour on the door or an eclectic piece on the windowsill, how do you make your home stand out?

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Réponse sélectionnée

hounoc

il y a 7 ans

I don't! I keep individualism for the interior. I like my home to sit sympathetically and elegantly within its exterior context and not jar unnecessarily and rudely with its environment. I do plan (eventually) to plant some nice colourful flowers in the garden though.

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Commentaires (28)

PRO
Laura Spring Studio
il y a 7 ans
Love the yellow! A brightly painted front door is always cheering and fun.
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Resh
il y a 7 ans
We have kept the front of the (early 1930's) house the same as the rest of the street, so that the street looks cohesive. Modifications are limited to a nice front door, reprint and refurbishment, and one day making the front garden and driveway prettier. It is actually quite a pretty building at the front, so this was fine.

The back is another matter as the ugly old 70's extension has been completely overhauled, repainted dark grey and had new black windows and doors fitted to make it look very modern and in keeping with the interior renovations.
056114
il y a 7 ans
Agree - one has to be mindful of the cohesiveness/harmony of the streetscape. Doing something individual or creative with the garden or front door colour/accessories is always good though
PRO
indigozest
il y a 7 ans
Lighting is a great way to make your house stand out without affecting it structurally and permanently. We have installed some solutions where you can have colour changing LED lights up a stairwell, that then glow out from any external window. They can be bright, subtle and dim throughout the evening.
Jayk
il y a 7 ans
Absolutely agree with the comments so far. Keeps things cohesive, complementary and well maintained.
Tom Flanagan
Auteur d'origine
il y a 7 ans
This is all really interesting to hear - cohesion is important but I'm of the mind that it's your home first and foremost! That said, perhaps I've been abroad too long and lost touch with my inner Britishness....
Julie Bennett-Pitts
il y a 7 ans
I think there is far to much fitting in with the norm, all being the same and it's about time owners showed some individualism in the front of the property. Cohesive is just another word for conforming.
Julie Bennett-Pitts
il y a 7 ans
Grammar correction before someone else does it for me "too much"
hounoc
il y a 7 ans
The streetscape and larger environment are also your 'home' Tom but they are shared with others. Exercising aesthetic sensitivity to your surroundings is important. No man, and no building is an island etc. Also, I am not British, so it's not just a British thing. Far from it. Have you ever been to an Italian city?
jelliest
il y a 7 ans
There are a couple of highly visible streets in Bristol where each terraced house is painted a different colour - they are well-known and much-loved local landmarks as a result! Many of the colours are bright and clashing, and would be very contentious in a 'normal' white/magnolia neighbourhood, but in this context they look great and ironically I *think* the planning busy-bodies have obliged them to keep it this way. They are such refreshing streets to walk along.
Jayk
il y a 7 ans
“Cohesion” is “the action or fact of forming a united whole”. In terms of this discussion that can be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on the circumstances.

Many years ago I bought my first home. It was a terraced cottage in the middle of the terrace. All the cottages had their original Victorian brick facades and were decently maintained. I painted my façade white and the woodwork a shade of mid to dark blue. I thought it looked great. I now bury my head-in-my hands at the thought of the eyesore I created and the total lack of respect I showed to both the original architecture and the feelings of my neighbours.

On the other hand, if an area has been neglected I accept it could well be a “breath of fresh air” to see people improving the exteriors of their homes in imaginative and creative ways.

However, perhaps as a result of my early experience, I would always carefully consider whether my creative efforts were adding to, or detracting from, the look of the neighbourhood before proceeding.
Jayk
il y a 7 ans
"jelliest" aptly draws our attention to "...highly visible streets in Bristol where each terraced house is painted a different colour". This is a great example of cohesion/conformity within the context of a single street. Cohesion doesn't have to be dull or unimaginative.
ShellbyFay
il y a 7 ans
We haven't been in our new home long enough to really think about the exterior.. at the minute it has an Olaf from Frozen fashioned out of pumpkins outside the front door that I should probably throw away now. But it was the exterior that drew me in really. It's a new build so I was expecting to find ourselves in an ugly box but ours has a kind of quaint, terraced cottage look to it. There isn't anything that I would change at the minute.
sukiharrison
il y a 7 ans
I'm sorry, but those awful windows have made the house lose all of its original character and style !
mayfly182
il y a 7 ans
I'm surprised by the number of people who think blending in is much more important than standing out.

I tend to prefer 'variations on a theme' in a row of houses with each house having something which makes it stand out from the rest, rather than complete uniformity. I've seen this done with particular success with ex-council-houses (now housing association houses) which were once all brick, now painted cream on the bottom halves and a wide range of green or blue shades for the tops, no two the same in a street. The area went from dreary identikit to charming.

My own house is a Victorian stone built house in a row of others. I have unassuming pale French Grey for the windows but a stunning glossy deep blue or purple (depending on the light and the viewer) for the door. The colour is Thai Sapphire from Little Greene. I'm planning to grow a deep red rose round the door when I get round to doing the garden.
lego_girl
il y a 7 ans
Dernière modification :il y a 7 ans
My previous home was a Victorian terrace. Rather than a deliberate wish to stand out, we did want our home to look neat, tidy and appealing as much for ourselves as anyone else so did the following:-

- painted the door a pretty grey green shade

- annually refreshed a small planted trough

- had cute ornaments on the windowsill that some would admire as they walked past

- the house front met the pavement with no front garden so we kept the front curtains shut until I bought a cheap frosted window sticker with a nice design.

- jaunty lining on the curtains which looked nice when they were shut

- we regularly washed the Windows, front door and doorstep as well as the brickwork on the front of the house as it all used to get filthy. (This made a huge difference)

Now we have a semi detached in the country it has been all about making the property look in keeping with its surroundings (it's a 1930s ex council semi).

- new porch with nicely painted stable door at the front, rose growing over the top of it

- lovely name plaque

- front garden with raised beds, veges and typical British flowers which looks appealing to me at least

- nicely finished drive

- aiming to keep internal windowsills free of clutter and Windows all clean!

*its the little things!
J
il y a 7 ans
I'm moving to the UK in a few weeks and I enjoy the traditional architecture. But some areas are so similar I have wondered how many people have walked into the wrong front door. Or at least tried the keys.
Tom Flanagan
Auteur d'origine
il y a 7 ans
@hounoc I have indeed and point taken - although I do feel there's something innately dramatic about traditional Italian homes, so standing out is less of an issue!

This is interesting though and touches on what @mayfly182 mentions - is standing out or blending in more important?
hounoc
il y a 7 ans
I think doing your part to make the streetscape look good is what's important. You can certainly do small things to make your house a little bit different to the one next door but I don't understand why you would want your house to 'stick out' like the proverbial sore thumb. It's about tempering your desire for individual expression in consideration of the fact that you live amongst others and share the environment with them. If it were perfectly fine for everyone to just do what they want then we would have no qualms about plastic cladding, a drive-through burger joint opening up in the middle of an historic quarter etc.

If someone's home stands out too much it just shouts 'Look at me! My house is the best. I'll do what I want and I don't care about what my neighbours or any other passers by now or in the future think'. It's just not an appealing trait and more often than not, the result is in dubious taste aesthetically.
jelliest
il y a 7 ans
hounoc (and others) we have probably the most restrictive planning system in the world here. So there are many countries to look at where people are allowed more freedom of expression and the result is not always awful. In fact if you move out of the safe middle ground you might get some examples of bad taste popping up, but you would also allow more examples of excellence in design. Of the plethora of innovative modern one-off houses I've seen over the years, I can only think of one that I really didn't like. Many of the others I wouldn't necessarily have chosen to live in or build myself, but I celebrate their ingenuity and the aesthetic statement that they make nevertheless.

Making a design statement is not necessarily about wanting to stand out, it is also about people having the courage to express what they are about, beyond what they plant in pots by the front door. And uniformity is not the only pleasing aesthetic, nor is it always pleasing (think Bath's Royal Crescent vs any of the thousands of cheap and nasty developments found all over the country); it's just what we as a nation have encouraged via our planning system. Because the planning system is so draconian, there is a widespread perception that if you want planning permission, you have to build something that looks like its neighbours, and this is perpetuating the blandness of our neighbourhoods. It is a rejection of the reality that people are different, and that this difference is sometimes a good thing.
hounoc
il y a 7 ans
Yes, but it also take a special kind of arrogance to override an architect's vision for a particular development. For example, my parents' housing estate was designed with no garden walls at the front so that the houses would seem as if they are almost in a park and there would be an expanse of green all the way along the roads. Then a few territorial types took it into their heads to build piddly little garden walls so now the road is a hodge podge of some green with a few silly walls around some gardens. There is no design consensus so the street doesn't look as good as it could look. Anarchy in design doesn't usually work. Usually it looks better when one person makes the design decisions and one, cohesive vision is expressed. For example, would you employ a different interior decorator with wildly different styles for each room in your house? It might work, but there's a greater chance it will look like the hodge-podge that it is. Would you have one dress designer make your whole dress or would you ask for pockets and collar to be cut by someone else?

In some cases, a good result can come of an individual resident on a street making their own strong statement with the exterior of their house (we're not talking about subtleties such as colour of doors etc), but they are definitely the exceptions that prove the rule. I can think of many examples of tasteless 'improvements' made by individual residents to their properties (e.g. the one pictured above, frankly) and only a few good ones.
peediewee
il y a 7 ans
Dernière modification :il y a 7 ans
i like how my victorian house looks from the outside. that's one of the things that attracted me to it. the only thing that makes it stick from all the other victorian & georgian houses on our street is the palm tree in the front garden. it was planted by the previous owner & is about 10 foot high at the moment. i like that as well. :)

i don't think any of the houses in tthe street 'conform'. everyone has different coloured doors & windows. there's a range of styles of architecture. different planting arrangements & garden ornaments. our houses compliment each other in our street but they're definitely not bland. :)
nicola holland
il y a 7 ans
would just love to look around that house !!!!
Sandra Marshall
il y a 7 ans
Really interesting discussion. I have lived in my 1930s semi for 4 years, painted my front door green,and put up hanging baskets and pots, but I still sometimes drive past. Need to take up some of the block paving and make a garden.
Catherine Ellis
il y a 7 ans
From a mismatched mess of fake Georgian Windows and an ugly upvc door. I've made mine stand out by trying to hide all the ugly features
Lucy Sawyer
il y a 7 ans
That's our house - the one on the left! Both houses have changed a bit since the picture was taken! Still very different but not as contrasty. Daylight was coming round the edges and through the bottom panel of the red door, so it had to be upgraded. We now have lavender at the front which is very tidy right now but goes wild in the summer time and attracts lots of bees - which we love! We are a small road but all the houses have lots of personality and and exhibit a range of Victorian terrace features. Here's a picture to show how we look now.
Catherine Ellis
il y a 7 ans
It's really lovely now, but I think I prefer the original picture :-D

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How do you make your home stand out?

hounoc

Commentaires (28)

Laura Spring Studio

Discussions associées

Resh

056114

indigozest

Jayk

Tom Flanagan
Auteur d'origine

Julie Bennett-Pitts

Julie Bennett-Pitts

hounoc

jelliest

Jayk

Jayk

ShellbyFay

sukiharrison

mayfly182

lego_girl

J

Tom Flanagan
Auteur d'origine

hounoc

jelliest

hounoc

peediewee

nicola holland

Sandra Marshall

Catherine Ellis

Lucy Sawyer

Catherine Ellis

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How do you make your home stand out?

Commentaires (28)

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Tom FlanaganAuteur d'origine

Tom FlanaganAuteur d'origine

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Tom Flanagan
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