Help!

Help! We are giving a party next weekend and the front of our house just doesn’t say, “Welcome”. Thanks, Mary



Mary,
You should always feel good about pulling up to your home. Curb Appeal matters whether you are selling, buying, throwing a party, or just pulling in the drive after a long day. It is the first and often the only thing anyone sees. Statistics show buyers will not even look inside if they do not like the first impression.

Last spring I consulted with this young couple on the vegetable garden in their backyard and was happy to do a quick fix on the front.










You see these ranches from the 50’s all over the city so I thought you might like to have some simple hints for giving your home more curb appeal.

— We addressed the flowerbeds and shrubs with some deadheading of the perennials, trimming and weeding.
— Rather than mulch (they had done that in late spring) we simply used a tool called a ‘weasel’ that tills the mulch restoring the volume and making the mulch look like new. This is a real cost/time saver.
— The client painted the front door to match her living room walls. A black door can often feel like a big black hole and not very welcoming. A simple decoration on the door—in this case vertical to break up the horizontal lines of the ranch—gives an updated look.
— We also painted rather than replace the house numbers.
— Installed a new, slightly larger light fixture.
— The biggest change was to paint out the brick on the lower half of the front. Using one color really helps the house look larger. Because the house had been painted within the last few years, we didn’t have to paint anything but the bricks and were able to save by using existing paint.
— Again, to break up the horizontal lines, we planted vertical evergreens to accent the porch and beds.
— We added a few stepping stones through the large mulched area for both the postman and the children to use as a path to the neighbor.
— We cut the grass and trimmed the sidewalk and driveway edges.
— We finished in two days and we were even invited to the party!







Curb appeal takes some work, but it doesn’t have to be expensive. Contact us at agardenershome@gmail.com for help on making your home one people want to visit. We consult and/or do the labor.

Collections

Downsizing is a great way to organize your stuff. It forces you to only keep what you really love. I did not even realize I liked birds.


Obviously, I do like birds and nests. I think it all started when our friend Jane Mason came to paint in our gardens. Each year there was a duck that nested in the pool area and raised its young on the pool. It often caused a delay in the spring opening of the pool, but even the children did not seem to mind. Unfortunately, that spring the Labrador across the street escaped and took out the mother duck. Several eggs never hatched. It was such a beautiful nest. Jane sketched for hours in the 90+/-degree heat. Later a guest would tell me she was taking a class from Jane and remembered her working on “Judy’s Duck Eggs”. We think its one of her best. Jane displayed this at the Water Color Show at the Artists Guild and Mike and I were thrilled to be able to purchase such a personal piece of art. It continues to be a reminder of the wonderful, special summer Mike’s mom spent with us while under Hospice care.

You can visit Jane’s website at http://www.watchingpaintdry.com/
Jane also painted a quiet corner of our yard of large oaks, hydrangeas, white azaleas and a favorite bench called “Green Sanctuary”. It hangs in my office.

In the same room as the painting, in the small glass conservatory is a nest taken from the property. It is such a work of art. We waited until the baby birds had flown away before taking it down.

The dining room is another space where birds showed up. They are in the print on the draperies, the pullbacks, the table, and a very temporary grapevine valance (my husband removed it). I especially love using the little stone Mexican birds on the table.

Color in the House

The first time I saw this cottage I fell in love with the stone and tile work, especially the backsplash above the range. According to Maggie, Rick arranged these imported German tiles so the tiles never touch the same color, except one time. Neither Maggie nor I seem to think it’s important to find that one time, but feel free to study the tiles if you want.

Truth be known, our counter usually looks like the above as I do not like clutter. As many of you already know I have volunteered on the Symphony Showhouses for many years and become friends with so many wonderful designers and landscapers. Alan Brainerd is one designer that stands out. He helped set up the photo shot above for an article that will appear in Ladue News on the 20th of March. He loves color! My first employment was that of a ‘display artist’ in the gift wholesale business so I love displays.

I’m constantly changing out our accessories so its always fun to have Alan stop by. He refers to me as a ‘frustrated’ designer. Guess that’s why I head outside to garden!



Now that we live here I found the kitchen needed even more color to balance the tiles. You can see I painted the inside of the windowsill orange. White accessories make the color pop. I love these white pitchers. You can write on them with chalk. I found these at Pottery Barn a couple years back, but I recently saw some clear wine and beer glasses at World Market that also have the small chalkboard on them. They are called “chalk talk” and I think that they would be a fun alternative to the ‘wine charms’. You can also find colorful kitchen accessories (like the colanders in the photo shoot) at The Viking Store in Brentwood.

One out of town designer who also loves color is Linda Applewhite. She has a wonderful design philosophy of tying the inside to the outside. http://www.lindaapplewhite.com/