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Everyone talks about curb appeal because the front of a house is the first impression that guests, passersby, and potential home buyers get when they see your house. Having a beautiful front exterior to your home can make you feel better about your house, but how do you choose which projects to take on? To help you make the decisions, here are some of the most important projects that you should consider.

Add Some Furniture

Furniture on a front porch, stoop, or out by a flower bed adds a charm that’s quite functional. Wicker is a popular type of furniture that looks great with many styles of homes. Otherwise, two other often-used materials are wrought iron and wood. Yard Bird explains that you can create a conversation area on the front porch with a couple of chairs and a table. Otherwise, a bench on the front stoop is the perfect addition if you prefer your family to take their shoes off before they enter the home.

Get to Gardening

Don’t underestimate how much the landscaping on your front lawn impacts the overall aesthetic of your house. A well-manicured lawn adds drama to an otherwise plain house, but overgrown shrubs and trees make houses look messy. You can make your front yard more attractive simply by trimming back greenery. Then, assess if any of the landscaping has overgrown its current space. Also, consider adding plants and flowers that have color. Habitation Realty explains that planting fresh greenery makes your home seem cleaner and more presentable from the outside – as an added bonus, this improves your home’s curb appeal if you ever decide to sell. For instance, evolvulus is a shrub that has blue flowers, and the best part is that it blooms continuously. Pentas are another flowering shrub that has pink blossoms that bloom continuously. If you’re selling your home, make sure that you trim back bushes just before showings.

Paint the Door a Contrasting Color

Burgundy is one of the most classic colors used on front doors, but if you want to keep it bright, try turquoise or teal. Other popular colors for front doors include gold, blue, black, and orange. When you’re choosing a color for the front door, you’ll need to look at the undertones of the color of the majority of your house. Neutrals often have undertones, and if you don’t understand them, you can choose a color that clashes. For instance, if you have a beige house that has purple undertones, don’t choose red as the color for your door because, more than likely, you won’t like the color combination. Professional painters can help make sure the colors work well together and that your home’s exterior looks presentable.

Creating a comforting yet vibrant exterior for the front of your home plays an essential role in the way that you and other people feel about your house when first seeing it. Pick one project per weekend, and then you’ll slowly see it all come together.

Painting walls has been part of human behavior for 100,000 years. Paint tells the story of our travel through time, and allows us to express our personal style in amazing ways. More than just a pretty face, most modern paints have been rendered free of volatile organic compounds (VOC), and can be engineered to pull double-duty in a variety of ways.

Mood Enhancement

The colors you choose have a marked effect on moods and attitudes. Red and orange are invigorating colors that raise heart rates, blood pressure, and appetites. Yellow evokes sunshine, optimism, hope, and happiness. Blues and greens are cool, calming, and soothing. The intensity and quantity of color (whole wall coverage versus accents) will set the tone for each space and its intended activities.

Childproofing

Giving kids a place to vent (and sometimes spill) their creative juices saves a lot of time and frustration. Chalkboard paint provides a designated canvas for kids to release their inner Picasso. A high quality gloss or semi-gloss paint, in other-than-white, offers a tough, washable surface. Some paint is even infused with Teflon, so artwork practically slides off the wall, onto a sponge. Luminous, phosphorescent, or glow-in-the-dark paint, “collects” light and emits a greenish glow when the light source is removed. It can provide a soothing night light or soft lighting for a midnight trip down the hall.

Fire Safety

Fire retardant or intumescent paint, swells when heated, creating an insulating layer that does not conduct heat well. It may be tinted to match any décor, and dries with an “orange-peel” texture. Used on walls, doors, or ceilings, it offers flame protection for 30, 60, 90, or 120 minutes, depending on product rating. Keep in mind that fire retardant paint isn’t enough for full fire safety — protecting your home with heat-sensing smoke alarms offers advanced fire detection.

Quality Assurance

Halochrome compounds are added to paint, giving it a pink tint that dries white, ensuring there are no gaps in multi-layered coverage.

Accent and Illusion

Paint can be used to direct attention or movement in a room, as well as to make it look bigger. Strategic use of color can draw the eye to an object or feature, or create illusions of light. The trompe l’oeil technique — literally translated as “trick the eye” — visually creates three dimensional space on a flat surface.

Today’s paints create a brighter outlook on multiple levels. More than just a facelift, a good paint job is sound investment as a protectant, a preservative, and an energy saver.