Living In Your Home May 1, 2022

Enhance Your Outdoor Living Space

Updating your home includes your  home’s exterior…When the weather has warmed up our yards become an extension of our living area. Creating an outdoor space to enjoy is not the laborious task as you might think. Just a few enhancements could make all the difference. Here are some tips from Realtor Magazine that just might give you the incentive to give it a try…

Create a dramatic focal point. A water feature or fire pit, for example, can draw the eye, and many homeowners say they have a greater desire to be home since adding items like these. Fire pits scored a perfect “Joy Score” of 10, according to the NAR and NALP survey. Homeowners stand to recover about 67 percent of the cost to add a $6,000 fire pit with natural stone and a gas burner on a flagstone patio (10 feet in diameter). A container garden can also be a way to add curb appeal, says Kristen Coffen, a landscape architect and owner of Garden Architecture in Fork, Md.

Enhance the lighting. Use lighting to highlight a focal point outside or to create a more inviting atmosphere. Installing 20 LED lights and a standard 600-watt transformer will cost an average of $5,000 but could make a big difference, according to the report. “It can also be quite lovely to uplight some of the specimen trees, or if there is a water feature or a pond … to have some lighting in that,” Coffen says. Lit pathways or even just a few string lights on the trees can enhance a space, says Alice Cramer, owner of Alice Cramer Interiors in Atlanta

Focus on nature. Green up the space with plants and trees to increase the outdoor ambiance. Landscape architects say consumer demand is highest for native plants and low-maintenance landscapes, according to a 2018 ASLA survey. Coffen recommends planting a specimen tree or shade tree by a patio. “It’s like a piece of living architecture outside,” Coffen says.

Source: “The 5 Best Outdoor Renovations for Summer,” MagnifyMoney (July 11, 2018)