A little will go a long way for this Ottawa home
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 very engaged young family with a couple of active boys involved in sports live in this 1970s home in Ottawa, which only needs a nudge in the right direction. Eleven years ago, before they had kids, the submitters purchased it as a starter home. Together, they renovated every inch of the interior, but felt they lacked a vision concerning the exterior space.
Although the pink aggregate feature was not too loud, my attention was immediately drawn to its passé hue. A neutral medium sand tone would provide more heft and is best suited with the rusty brown and chocolate roof palette. The owner considered removing the aggregate entirely, but I assured him that this texture can be painted. First, it needs to be scrubbed and cleaned with TSP, then thoroughly rinsed with a power washer. After drying completely, the wall has to be sealed, primed and painted in several thin coats with a specialized product in a matte finish. These operations could also be executed by a professional spray-paint company. All vertical gutter pipes and the dormer’s siding ought to reflect the new matte golden sand hue also.
New shutters will be introduced alongside the large window. They would mirror the same relief pattern as the garage door. These elements as well as the custommade ample flower box would reflect the lighter shingle shade in a soft lustre. The wooden vessel will measure the length of the window casing and will harbour sunloving and drought-tolerant snowy annuals. If the large maple shades the area, white impatiens would be more appropriate. If, like me, the residents do not usually open their living-room windows, they could include deep pink upward annuals in the long box. The actual door and its contour should be painted, in a discreet sheen, in the darkest tone picked up from the roof.
The electrical wiring of the awkwardly positioned lamppost will be moved to the corner of the new walkway L-shaped bed on the right. In dark brown or silver like the door hardware, new, bolder matching glass light fixtures will instantly update the overall effect of the façade. A sizable floor planter, decorated with a vine branch sphere and hugging variegated ivy, will instill visual weight, interest and originality. The old miniature platform and path seemed shy and unpractical. Mimicking a small patio, a one-step floor made out of light sand-coloured pavers would leave more room for the family of four to enter their home with ease. The resident disliked the crushing of the lawn cause by repeatedly getting in and out of cars. I felt compelled to widen the car entrance by adding two strips of paving stones. On the right, it would start after the square bed while it would run all the way on the left.
Inside this square bed near the entryway, elegant ornamental grasses with their plumelike dusters will dance with the slightest breeze. These ballerinas will provide constant movement and, with their modern sense, a hit of youth to the property. A pyramidal evergreen will offer camouflage to the kid’s bikes and hockey net. Along the path, Heuchera Berry Smoothie, blessed with pink blooms, will hover over show- stopper bright raspberry foliage. This saturated hue also appears throughout a lengthy cascading annual overflowing from the hung pot and a lovely climber encircling itself up to the lattice of the chocolate fence.
They love their children, but as all parents feel sometimes, kids are too energetic. If the youngsters still have extra energy to spare after soccer practice, they could help with planting, watering, lay- ering of dark brown mulch over all bare soil, fertilizing and the pulling out of some odd stubborn weeds. Who knows, after helping mom and dad, they just might want to go to bed early.
Vegetation (from left to right):
Potentilla Abbotswood (shrub hedge, white blooms, left of driveway and right of yard path)
Juniperus Fairview (pyr- amidal evergreen, welldrained soil, side of left corner)
Pennisetum alopecuroides (4 ornamental grasses, light soil, cut back in early spring, square bed)
Hedera helix (green and white ivy, bring plant indoors for winter, decorative vine sphere)
Heuchera Berry Smoothie (perennials, pink blooms, bright raspberry foliage, outer edge of path)
Calibrachoa Million Bells (annuals, white blooms, white or brown wall-hung planter and flower box) or, only if less sunny, impatiens (annuals, white blooms, no over fertilizing, containers)
Gaura Belleza Pink Dark (3 to 5 annuals, dark pink, alternate 20-20-20 and 20-5-30 weekly)
Buxus Green Velvet (persistent shrubs, right foundation)
Taxus Hicksii (columnar evergreen, side of right corner)
Clematis Ville de Lyon (climber, magenta blooms, cut back early spring, compost, thick mulch) or, if less sunny, Clematis Carnaby (climber, white and pink blooms, cut back early spring every two years)