A: However lovely your house may be inside, it can be depressing coming home to what looks like a blot on the landscape. If you can face it, we’d advise you live there for a year without doing any major work on the exterior. This will give you a chance to see what your house looks like through the changing seasons and in varying light, and you may even decide that it doesn’t look so bad after all, and save yourself a lot of money.
A few cosmetic changes may make a difference, so paint the front door and window sills, and add some pots of foliage and flowering plants up the steps to detract from all that greyness. Place a row of fast-growing bamboo close to the side of the house to soften its stark appearance, and see if there’s any improvement.
If you still feel that something major is called for, you could paint your house, or clad it, but don’t do half and half as this won’t look good on a house that’s built on different levels. As an alternative to traditional wooden weatherboarding, try James Hardie’s HardiePlank fibre cement cladding, which comes in a range of colours and textures, is very durable and, unlike timber, doesn’t need additional treatment to protect them after installation.
For more design inspiration, it’s worthwhile employing an architect who may recommend, for example, remodelling the roofline, replacing the windows or adding an extension. Also, try Back to Front Exterior Design, a company which specializes in stunning exterior transformations.
Top tips from George Clarke and Naomi Cleaver!
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