A hit of colour welcomed on aluminum siding
Larger porch, stairway improve look of entrance
This is a column in which designer Suzanne Rowe selects homes that could benefit from a little inexpensive help in increasing their curb appeal. After examining photographs, she then proceeds to sketch out an artist’s rendering of what they could look like with a few minor changes. We hope you enjoy the results.
A young family of three just bought their first home in the West Island. One of the owner’s requests was an alternative colour for the walls and new style windows. Since the roof was a quiet light grey, a hit of colour would be welcomed on the aluminum siding.
I chose a muddy blue green painted with exterior acrylic in a matte finish. As for the brand new windows, they ought to be white with square details on top. Dark grey louvres would help display and optically enlarge them.
The owners didn’t care for the vertical tongue and groove panels under each window. Painted in the same colour as the walls, they would practically vanish. As an alternative, the planks could be replaced by a relief pattern as shown.
A made-to-measure flower box will showcase an overflow of cascading white annuals and lime greenery as well as delicate baby’s breath hovering over some pink popcorn-like blossoms.
On the top of the house, the electrical tube extrusion should stay light grey like the shingles. Below the roof, the same pipe will mirror the hue of its background thus making it look less obvious. Strong white trellises will be made-to-measure and installed on both sides of this corner. Lemon blooms from two Clematis plants will brighten up the structure as well as the grey fence.
On the house itself, the actual white elements will benefit from a refreshing coat of white matte acrylic paint. To match the lustrous fur of their oversized Labrador puppy, the existing entry door, the side door and their contours will be painted in black thus conjuring contrast and elegance.
Another concern from the owner was that the side of the severely damaged steps and actual walk were hugging the foundation. The closeness looked harsh and didn’t allow for a needed space to establish a flower bed that would soften and improve visual interest. The new larger porch and staircase could be made out of casted cement, grey paving stones or wood. In the last option, the floor and the front and sides of the steps, which ought to be closed off, would replicate the colour of the shingles. The dark grey wooden handrails would be placed on thin black iron spindles. The new configuration of the pathway will procure a good use of a space for a gathering of silver border perennials, a soft pink blooming shrub, intriguing lime and pink flowering per- ennials, a green and yellow persistent bush that blushes in chilly weather.
These will co-exist and parallel the outer bed consisting of an ever flowering ribbon of dainty light yellow Coreopsis Moonbeam. They will frame a trio of Buxus, which have tiny round and shiny evergreen leaves. These will encircle a Caragana arborescens Walker decorative tree. Its foliage is airy and its trunk is a rich olive green. The owner’s Mugo pine will stay put as will the bigger evergreen at the extreme corner. This one will need a regular trim in a globular shape.
A hedge of Weigela florida White Knight will anchor the right half of the facade and provide a profusion of light pink buds and white blossoming. This repetition of the same plant has a way of calming the eye.
Three tall dark grey pots, evenly spaced, will contain grey green ornamental grasses, which will turn slightly pink in fall. Just before win- ter, these can be transplanted in the backyard to be reintroduced again in their vessels in springtime.
The owners will choose a decorative Malus tree that blooms in white. They should plant it nearer to the street and in line with the centre of the two bedroom windows. The address digits, placed sideways, the new light fixtures and the vertical mailbox should be either in the same metal finish as the hardware of the door or simply black. Vegetation (from the left):
Clematis tangutica (climbing, lemon yellow, trellises and fence)
Calamagrostis acutiflora Overdam (ornamental grasses, silver green, pots)
Gypsophila elegans (an- nuals, tiny white, flower box)
Pelargonium x peltatum (annuals, white, flower box)
Pelargonium hortorum Pop Corn (cascading annuals, white, flower box)
Pelargonium petiolare Limelight (cascading lime greenery, flower box)
Potentilla fruticosa Pink Beauty (shrub, light pink)
Echinacea purpurea Green Envy (several perennials, jade and pink)
Euonymus fortunei Emerald ’n Gold (persistent shrub, yellow and green)
Artemisia stelleriana Sil- ver Brocade (perennial border, silver, cut back in spring)
Coreopsis ver ticillata Moonbeam (perennials, light yellow, edge)
Buxus Green Velvet (three shrubs, lighter green)
Caragana arborescens Walker (grafted shrub on a trunk, yellow) Owner’s Mugo pine Weigela florida White Knight (shrubs, pink buds, white, hedge)
Owner’s evergreen