A lot of people talk about the importance of your home having street appeal, but what does that actually mean? Essentially, it means that when a stranger approaches your home, it should be saying “Welcome! Come in!” rather than “Grrrrrrr. Go away, I don’t want visitors.” So let’s take a look at how you can improve the street appeal of your own home.
First, cross the street and take a look from the other side. What can you see? Do you get a clear view of the house, with an obvious point of entry to the property and to the front door? Or are you confronted with a high hedge or fence, no obvious entry point and you’re not even sure there’s a house there?
While high fences may be necessary for privacy, security or sound reasons, the fact is they’re not very friendly in terms of street appeal. So if you need a tall fence or hedge, it’s important to make sure you at least make the access point visible or even appealing.
Which brings us to gates. If you have a gate, make a feature out of it. If it looks overgrown, hard to open or non-operational, it just adds to the “Go away!” factor of your fence.
And if the main access to your property is via the driveway, make it easy to see it’s the correct way to get to the front door.
Of course, if you really would rather people went away and left you alone, ignore everything I’ve just said!