Everyone wants a beautiful home. A home that is warm and welcoming yet chic and sophisticated. A home that reflects your unique style, taste, and personality while still being a space where all guests feel that they can relax. A home that’s clean and tidy without feeling cold, sterile and utilitarian. But such a home isn’t just made through interior design ideas… it’s what’s inside that counts, too.
When decorating your exterior you need to achieve a finer balancing act than when decorating your interiors. You need to marry certain aesthetic considerations with logistical, security and privacy concerns. And in managing this balancing act we can tend to lean too far in one direction or another. With that in mind, here are some exterior decor mistakes that we should all avoid making…
Overdoing it
The exterior of our home offers all who visit their first taste of our unique design concept. And because we never get a second chance to make a first impression, it’s not uncommon for us to overcompensate and say a little too much in our exterior design, overdoing it with items of outdoor furniture, ornaments, and plants to the point where our exterior looks and feels visually cluttered. When you have too much stuff indoors or outdoors it can actually elevate stress levels and make us feel less calm and relaxed than we should. It’s better to settle on a few statement pieces and letting them do the talking.
Valuing security shouldn’t mean that your home looks like a prison
In this security-conscious age, we’re all aware of the fine line that needs to be walked between making your home inviting to visitors and making it an inviting target to opportunistic thieves. However, valuing your security and privacy shouldn’t mean that you need your home to look like a prison. From stylish security to fencing that’s secure yet aesthetically pleasing and using trees, plants, and shrubs to protect your privacy, there are numerous ways in which you can walk the line between security and aesthetic appeal.
Failing to account for the weather
No matter where you live, the weather is likely to take a toll on your home’s exterior decor if you don’t plan for it properly. It can cause plants to wilt if they get too little sunlight or too much water. It can cause you heartache when installing aluminium fence slats because if they’re not pre-galvanized they can become susceptible to rust. It can cause ornaments to become sun-bleached making them look prematurely aged and worn while string winds spare no thought to hoe expensive your garden furniture may be as it sends it careening down the road. Likewise, even your driveway can become cracked and riddled with potholes if it’s not chosen with the caprices of the weather in mind.
While exterior decor requires a little more foresight and mindfulness than its interior counterpart, it can still be just as fun and rewarding when you get that all-important balance just right.
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