Our Home Exterior
Tell me, do you really have to live on a farm to consider your home a farmhouse?? Can it just feel like your home and life is as crazy as a farm to consider it to be a farmhouse? (Kidding friends!)
We live smack dab in the middle of a LARGE development where our home looks exactly like our neighbors other than house exterior color, shutter and front door! The insides are all different layouts and all different finishes. Which was fun picking out while we were building! But none the less, every home is the same outside. It doesnt bother me too bad..maybe. Maybe it doesn't bother me, maybe it does. Ok it does. It really, really does. Now before you go all - then why'd you move there?! Well because I still love my home. I love that Nick and I built it, made the inside everything we hoped it to be and I LOVE being a hop, skip and a jump away from the lake. And the house was the perfect price. That my friends was our selling point.
Back to the neighborhood. So because we can't do any major exterior renovations, simple upgrades, changes and landscaping are what we plan to make this house differ from the rest! Here's our plan:
1. Get Grass. Well that's an obvious. We've had to wait until this past summer to get our driveway poured before we could even begin thinking about getting our yard installed. Well, driveway was poured at the end of July and putting in a yard in the dead heat of summer just wasn't a wise choice. So this spring we will FINALLY have a yard. And our neighbors will all clap to not have to look at a Amazon of weeds we have growing. Actually while I type this - our landscaper should be prepping our yard to begin the installing now! Woot woot!
2. Create A Sitting Area. Y'all, it kills me not having a front porch. KILLS ME. I mean I'll live but I envy every home with a porch. And I die when I know friends have gorgeous front porches and they DON'T use them. Uh, ya may find me parking my tush on that front porch tomorrow morning drinking my coffee. I'm a porch gal. I spent a LOT of time when I was little on my parents front porch watching the cars pass, my brother practicing his drums for some Friday Night Football and enjoying the smell of my mama's lavender growing on the side. Or at my memaw's where we gathered outside to drink tea and swing on the swing. Makes my heart melt. Now, we don't have the mula or the space to extend the front stoop but I plan to find a small, sweet chair that I can park my tush on to drink some early morning coffee.
3. Build (Or buy!) Window Boxes. There is just something so charming about a flower box. Spilling vines, bright colored blooms. Ah, I am just dreaming of what cuteness this will bring! I haven't made the decision yet if all 4 front windows will get them or just the two main ones or the three in the very front. But I love how easy they will be to water as the windows are for the master bath, bedroom and nicks office. Easy peasy. And bonus - no other house in the NEIGHBORHOOD has them! (I stalked, I mean I checked 😁) Winning!
4. Add Farmhouse Outdoor Lanterns. All the homes have the same, tiny lanterns outside their garage. I want to beef those babies up with some larger lanterns. And it will create more ambiance lighting out there which I love!
5. Create the perfect landscaping. Along the walkway, closest to the house - I will be planting hydrangea bushes and dwarf bush trees in the front of garage (under the big lanterns!) To the left side of the front stoop, we have enough room to plant a smaller, circular design with a tree, day lillies, rose bushes and boxwood bushes. Simple & classic!
6. Paint the front door.
Oh this is my BIGGEST dilemma. Our front door currently is actually red. Which is very farmhouse like. However, our neighbors front door is red too. And I want to be different. And because front doors are expensive, paint is what our option is for now. I've been going back and forth between a classic black and a minty blue. What would you do??
7. This is a MAYBE - add a pergola above garage door for hanging wisteria. OH my friends how dreamy that could look. But this would be a large project, time and money consuming and a big commitment. Not sure how ready I am for that.
So what do you think? Think these ideas will help our home stand out from the rest? I just want to make this girl shine like I know she could! 😁 XO.
P.S. It's my last week for the guest room challenge and I'm making some big things for in there this week. Wish me luck that I finish by Sunday!!