Bungalow welcomes couple back where they belong
Retirement home needs fresh look
After becoming empty nesters, with their children and grandchildren living away, these senior homeowners decided three years ago to return to their roots. They left their side-split home with many stairs and a large yard for this 1960 bungalow located in Cornwall, Ont.
When I first looked at their home, I asked them to take a better shot of it with a camera and not a phone. To my dismay, the clearer picture revealed a less-than-flattering colour combination.
Two neutral tones were competing: a soft grey roof with a hint of green and a light grey beige wall with a modest dull brown-burgundy marbling. These subtle coloured veins in the bricks were pulled out for inspiration in some of my choices of vegetation foliage and contrasting pops of colour much needed on the facade. If ever the shingles require replacements in the future, a medium taupegrey tint would look more appropriate.
There’s nothing like a new door and reflective metal accessories to spruce up a building. To substitute the actual metal and screen doors, a full single pane one, dressed in an oxblood shade would look stunning against the bricks. The glass could either be textured or frosted without any fancy details. The top moulding over the entrance should lend its place to a low relief triangular shape that would be brought a bit forward, but not quite flush to the fascia. Alongside the door, the two vertical ribbed mouldings ought to be changed for a couple of more simple smooth ones. To give more presence to the porch space, square columns could be added on each side of the small and shallow roof structure. The same look would apply even if our owners decide one day to extend the overhang roof for extra protection from rain and snow when entering the home.
The vertical gutters are not installed properly. The straight part should rest on the side of the house, not the front. On the bottom, the elbow ought to be lower and the angled arm shorter. Except for the first inches on top near the fascia, the pipes should be painted in the exact colour as the grey-beige brick background in a matte finish.
A new wider, warm, light grey walkway will start at the bottom corner of the last step riser. On both sides of the stairs, rectangular beds are formed. On the opposite edge of the path, a long and slim strip, bordered by white blossoming perennials and a divider will flow up to the start of a perfect triangle near the driveway. A hit of deep foliage from the two new hedges defining the backyard perimeter will frame the home. Other merlot plantings, like the pink blooming Weigela Wine & Roses as well as the purplish persistent Heuchera Palace Purple will pick up on the front door hue. The newly created ample flower box will also contribute a welcomed injection of the same colour. It should measure the same length as the window, be at least eight inches deep and host radiant pink cascading annuals. Touches of rosy florets will ornate the flaxen Spirea, the citrus Lamium ground cover as well as a mass of Hemerocallis, whose hearts are golden. The rest of the composition will consist of tall white, pink and yellow flowering perennials and a compact snowy crab apple tree.
The proprietors’ two identical persistent variegated shrubs will be saved and placed together in the centre of the longer rectangular patch. Evergreens will serve as visual anchors in winter and solid backdrops in summer for the vivid botanical selection. For the holiday season, these shrubs — as well as lush branches of cedar, fir, pine branches adorned with dark red fruits and cones decorating the window box — could be brightened with mini pure white lights.
As the residents put it: “The landscaping had not been touched in 30 years. It just needs a little love.”
I suspect, like their five grandchildren could most probably attest, they have plenty of that.
Vegetation (left to right):
Malus Sir Lancelot (small crab apple tree, white, scented, centre of triangular bed)
Hemerocallis Rosy Returns (perennials, mass planting, pink with yellow heart, triangular bed)
Campanula carpatica White Clips (perennials, white, exterior edge of path)
Heuchera Palace Purple (perennials, white, burgundy, edge of two rectangular beds)
Thuja occidentalis Holmstrup (two small pyramidal evergreens, emerald, bronze in winter, front corners)
Lamium maculatum Aureum (perennial ground cover, pink, yellow, between Heucheras)
Weigela florida Wine & Roses (shrub, pink, burgundy, under smaller window, foundation)
Owners’ Euonymus Emerald Gaiety (two persistent shrubs, variegated, centre of left bed)
Alcea rosea (several perennials, auto-sowing, white/ pink/yellow, between two small windows, foundation)
Spirea bumalda Goldflame (shrub, pink, yellow, under medium size window)
Thuja occidentalis Danica (globular evergreen shrub, near porch floor)
Buxus Green Velvet (persistent shrubs, hedge, foundation, right bed)
Begonia Dragon Wing (cascading annuals, pink)
Physocar pus Diabolo (hedges of shrubs, burgundy, between yard and front lot)