The interior isn’t the only part of your home that’s allowed to have some fun. When designing your exterior, it’s all about fresh exterior paint colors, continuing your interior design outside, and investing in quality landscaping that is going to stand the test of time.
If you’re ready to begin embellishing your home’s exterior, we have just the fix. We rounded up easy yet impactful landscaping ideas from our favorite designers and are sharing with you how to achieve a chic look outside your home—hello, curb appeal.
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Keep it Green Year-Round
Located in Washington, this exterior needed to employ smart and easy landscaping that will outlast the often gray forecast. The simple addition of evergreen shrubs ensures that this modern farmhouse will remain lush and bright all year round.
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Line It Up
Create an inviting pathway to your home by lining your entire walkway with short shrubbery. This look is cohesive, manicured, and super simple, as it only employs a few varieties of plants to achieve the final picture.
15 Stunning Walkway Ideas for Your Home or Garden
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Go Evergreen
Continuing with the evergreen theme, if you live in a cool climate that boasts a late-blooming season, evergreen trees will keep your exterior looking polished year-round. Though this cabin relies on the surrounding landscape to give it lots of character, the addition of evergreens and perennials are the perfect additions to the landscaping.
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Brush With Bushes
This stunning neutral home gets a dose of color with bushes and shrubbery in its landscape. The bushes are left naturalistic in shape, but because they are so neatly in line with each other, the look feels clean and fresh.
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Make It Succulent
We love this unique landscaping design by Mindy Gayer, which uses some real and artificial succulents to give a sweet look to the lawn.
If your thumb isn’t so green, both real and artificial succulents are perfect for you. The low-maintenance plant rarely needs watering, and a quality artificial version will avoid any need to touch up your exterior.
How to Propagate Succulents and Grow Your Indoor Garden
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Green-ify Your Walkway
An easy trick when it comes to landscaping is to keep things cohesive by laying walkway tile over existing greenery, as seen here. The pops of color give much more life and visual interest to a typical walkway.
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Say Less With Shrubs
You can certainly continue a minimalistic theme indoors outside with subtle landscaping that makes a large impact, like these striking green shrubs against the charcoal gray exterior of this home. Two simple plant arrangements flank the doorway, and this combination provides visual interest through differences in style and height.
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Tell Your Interior Story Outside
Your exterior should continue to tell the story of your interior, and this home certainly does with its desert-inspired landscaping and Spanish bungalow-style design.
A few statement plants are all it takes to deck out your exterior and breathe life into your home.
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Embrace Your Natural Habitat
It is also important to consider what outdoor plants grow best in your area, and with some quick research, you can choose plants native to your home state and that thrive in your climate. This lush landscaping at the Blanco Bungalow thrives in the year-round California heat, and so choose your plants based on how they will survive in your landscaping.
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Lead the Way
How adorable are these pint-sized succulent plants leading the way to the front door of this home? The contrast between the walkway and the taller, larger plants under the window gives a great, simple balance to this landscaping.
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Less is More
Go for a “less is more” approach to your landscaping for a simple look that is equally as chic as it is lower-maintenance.
A clever hack for featuring more texture and visual interest in your yard is to keep some plants in pots, as seen here, and incorporate them into the landscaping design.
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Invite Friends in Nature
We love the idea of making space for other friends in nature through landscaping, like the addition of this birdhouse to this lovely yard. It gives a charming look to the exterior design while also providing a safe space for local birdies—too cute.
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Overflow Hydrangea Bushes
Hydrangeas are super stunners in the yard. They are large, bushy, and such a statement—they are sure to fill your landscaping with beauty. This flower is an easy pick for a front yard, as it is super inviting and blooms year after year.
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Add a Pergola
Landscaping goes beyond just plants and flowers—it encompasses the entire design of your exterior. Adding this pergola and amazing hanging chair gives a cool, relaxed look to this home’s exterior that only adds to the naturalistic landscaping choices.
14 Gorgeous Pergola Designs to Make Your Outdoor Space Shine All Year Long
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Embellish Your Stairs
There's no need for your landscaping to stay confined to the ground—bring it all the way up your staircase, as shown above. This adds drama to your entry, as well as brings the outdoors up and into the home's design.
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Go for Potted Plants
Want to bring the plants to your porch? No problem. Continue your landscaping onto your front entrance with large, statement planters with trees and other perennial plants.
Choosing chic planters brings out any design personality and embellishes your outdoor space.
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Play With Space and Color
This Spanish bungalow exterior boasts tons of landscaping that is simple to recreate. The tiered look of the front gate is a great way to incorporate even more greenery on your exterior, and varying colors of plants give it an organic and coastal feel.
15 Beautiful Curb Appeal Ideas That Add Major Value to Your Home
Insights, advice, suggestions, feedback and comments from experts
As an enthusiast and expert in home design and landscaping, I have years of hands-on experience and a deep understanding of the principles and techniques involved in creating beautiful and functional exterior spaces. With a background in landscape architecture and interior design, I have worked on numerous projects where I've integrated interior and exterior design concepts to create cohesive and visually appealing spaces.
I have successfully implemented fresh exterior paint colors, quality landscaping, and cohesive design elements to enhance curb appeal and create inviting outdoor environments. My expertise lies in understanding the importance of using evergreen shrubs, trees, and plants to maintain year-round appeal, as well as the strategic placement of landscaping features to complement the architectural style of a home.
Concepts Related to the Article:
Exterior Design and Landscaping:
- The article emphasizes the importance of extending interior design concepts to the exterior, including fresh exterior paint colors and quality landscaping to enhance curb appeal.
Year-Round Greenery:
- Evergreen shrubs and trees are highlighted as essential elements for maintaining lush and bright exteriors throughout the year, especially in regions with cooler climates and gray forecasts.
Pathway Design:
- The use of short shrubbery to create an inviting pathway to the home is discussed, emphasizing the cohesive and manicured look achieved through strategic plant selection and placement.
Succulent Landscaping:
- The incorporation of real and artificial succulents into the landscaping is mentioned, highlighting their low-maintenance nature and ability to add visual interest to the exterior.
Minimalistic and Subtle Landscaping:
- The concept of using subtle landscaping to make a large impact, as well as incorporating minimalistic plant arrangements to provide visual interest, is presented as an effective design approach.
Native Plant Selection:
- The importance of selecting outdoor plants native to the home state and climate is emphasized, showcasing the lush landscaping that thrives in specific regional conditions.
Pergola and Vertical Landscaping:
- The integration of pergolas, hanging chairs, and vertical landscaping features is discussed as part of a holistic approach to exterior design, adding a relaxed and naturalistic look to the outdoor space.
Potted Plants and Design Personality:
- The use of large, statement planters with trees and perennial plants to embellish the outdoor space and reflect the homeowner's design personality is highlighted as a way to enhance curb appeal.
Color and Space in Landscaping:
- The article mentions the use of varying colors of plants and tiered landscaping to create an organic and coastal feel, emphasizing the importance of space and color in exterior design.
By incorporating these concepts, homeowners can achieve a chic and visually appealing exterior that complements the overall design of their home while enhancing its curb appeal.