Your outdoor home is starting to become more in focus, now that the warmer weather is moving in. While your physical exterior home is one aspect, have you looked at the area that leads to your home? The sidewalks, walkways, paths, patios, covered walks, etc…. are all areas of your outdoor home that welcome guests in from the street. Choosing inviting elements to enhance these walkways will make your home more pleasing to approach, as well as give you a sense of joy when viewing your outdoor home from inside. Here are tips for choosing welcoming walkway elements.
- Beautify the journey: Whether the pathway to your home is long or short, the “journey” to get to your front door should be enjoyable. This can be achieved with beautifying your walkway with landscaping, lighting, colorful rocks, or even decorative benches and stepping stones. Many landscape designers enjoy this part of their profession, because the journey to your front door should be enjoyed and not just ran through. Stand outside your home and look at the colors of your home, landscaping, and surroundings to find creative ways to bring areas of visual interest to your front door.
- Coordinate with your neighbors: While your walkway doesn’t need to clone your neighbors, a unified street of coordinating exteriors is inviting and contagious! Try using similar plantings, colors of foliage, trellises, low fencing and decorative rocks and walls to connect visually and physically. Many neighbors like to participate in landscaping projects together to give their adjoining outdoor homes similar curb appeal. This will help create a gorgeous street of unification, rather than individualized creativity that may get lost amongst neighbors that are trying to be rebels.
- Decorate with creative light: A welcoming walkway should also be enjoyed in the evening hours and many outdoor walkways can come alive as the sun goes down. Choose from solar lighting to line your pathways or hang creative sculptural lanterns or even outdoor pendants from trees and overhead architectural elements. Even white string lights can brighten an outdoor patio area, as can large ground lanterns that mimic luminaries. When choosing walkway lighting consider safety and if there are changes in grade or elevation along the path. Sure, lighting can beautify, but it should also assist in safety and security for your guests to and from your home.
- Choose your outdoor components to work together: Similarly to your interior home in which you choose the fabrics, wall paint, and flooring to coordinate, so should be considered when choosing your outdoor components. In your walkways, choose lighting that coordinates with the lighting at the front entry and near the garage. When choosing colors for stained concrete pavers, choose colors that coordinate with your exterior paint color, trim and accents. Create a unified look to make your walkways beckon to come into your home.
Your front entry elements play a significant role in how your home is perceived and how your guests will enjoy the experience to your home. If you have your home up for sale, remember most homebuyers will make up their mind about your home before they even get to the front door. Use these tips to ensure they will want to come right in!
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