Real Life Rooms: Ranch Home Curb Appeal

Update your ranch home curb appeal without a major renovation or even paint using these easy curb appeal improvement ideas in this virtual home makeover.

Hey there Remodelaholic readers! Dawn here, from AD Aesthetic, and I’m back this month with another reader question mockup to hopefully inspire some creative ideas for your home. If you’ve missed any of my previous reader question mockups, you can always see all my posts here.

If you follow Remodelaholic on Facebook, you’ve probably seen several of the reader questions that are submitted every month. Well each month here on Remodelaholic, I choose one reader submitted photo to offer my two cents on, and I create a Photoshop mock up of what I would do if I were in your shoes! (Pssssst— you can submit your reader questions by messaging Remodelaholic on Facebook! Don’t forget to include a high-quality photo!)

First though, my standard disclaimer: While I can recommend ideas that I think look nice, I have never seen this house in real life and don’t have accurate measurements. I am also not an architect or landscaper and do not know the planting recommendations for your area- I just like to make things look nice. I can’t guarantee that any of the items I put in my ‘virtual’ design will actually work in real life (or that they’ll fit your design style for that matter), and this is not intended to be a professional design consultation. So think of this as a just-for-fun rendering that hopefully gets your wheels turning and provides some inspiration!

On to the fun!

READER QUESTION from Niki —
We are wanting to paint the shutters, door, and garage doors to something besides this dark brown but cannot decide on what would look good. Any suggestions?

I love the simplicity of this home, and thought it could be a great one to help inspire other readers with similar issues. Before I get to my thoughts on the curb appeal though, here are a few more ranch style homes to help inspire.

Ranch Home Curb Appeal Inspiration

Image Source: It’s Great to be Home on Flickr 

Image Source: Houzz

Image Source: Houzz | Photo Credit: Young House Love

Image Source: Houzz 

Image Source: Zillow Porchlight

See more ideas for a ranch-style home update

How to Increase Ranch Home Curb Appeal

Since Niki’s original question was just about painting the shutters and garage doors, I didn’t want to get too crazy with ideas for a complete remodel on the house. Instead, I tried to approach the mockup with a few simple suggestions to enhance the curb appeal without expending a ton of money or effort. Here’s what I came up with:

Dark Exterior Accents

To start with, I darkened up the shutters and garage doors to a deep black/brown. I love this color combo with the brick, and it really packs a punch of contrast that the house was lacking before. I didn’t stop there though. Painting the gutters and trim work in the same deep contrasting color ties everything together and makes the house feel more polished.

Porch Curb Appeal

The other big change I made was to beef up the porch columns and add a brick accent to the column bases. This gives the porch a more substantial appearance, and makes the whole facade feel more balanced by bringing the brick from one side of the house into other areas of the structure. That detail keeps it from feeling like the house is two separate structures stuck together.

Landscaping

Finally, I added a ton of personality by bringing color and texture into the landscaping, and adding a new stone and rock path from the drive to the front door.

Overall, I think the additions really polish the curb appeal, without actually doing any major construction to the home.

So what do you think? What would you do if this were your home?

As always, thank you to Cassity and the Remodelaholic team for having me back each month. If you like this post, and have a design dilemma you’d like me to mock up some ideas for, you can ask your questions by sending Remodelaholic a message over on Facebook, or checkout my mockup design services over on my site adaesthetic.com. And be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram and say hello! Have a great day, friends!

-Dawn

More ranch home curb appeal update ideas:

• Adding curb appeal to a blank slate brick ranch-style home
• A reimagined ranch-style home exterior
• Garage door curb appeal updates

Published: October 21, 2019Filed Under: Contributor, Contributors, Landscape, Remodel Inspiration By Room, Sketches/Renderings Tagged: curb appeal, ranch, ranch-style home, Real Life Rooms

About Dawn Sailors

Dawn is one half of the team behind the creative blog, AD Aesthetic. By day she works as the VP of Creative for a design and marketing company (getting paid to make things look good!), while by night she renovates her Midwest home, refinishes thrift-store furniture for fun, and works with her husband on raising two tiny humans. Dawn believes in the potential to design your surroundings and your life one day at a time, and lives by the motto, 'Make everything beautiful.' Get to know her better by visiting her blog, ADaesthetic.com, or following along on Facebook and Instagram.