I'd definitely go for rendering the outside, and that of the garage extension. Pale Grey or neutral buff, with darker grey windows will look a lot more chic. If you can't afford to replace windows, then have them colour bonded. Change the front door., for something more like this

Definitely change the color but instead of white have you thought of a mid/dark grey render? Green trees and planters against the grey render will really give the property the curb appeal you are looking for.

You probably dont need to change the door either. I know budget is tight so I think this may work. I have very quickly and very roughly painted the outside of your building to show what it could look like....

Hope this helps :-)

Thank you for your suggestions so far. I like the idea of opening up the porch, although slightly worried about losing functional space. In any case, at this point, we can't afford to do that but might look into doing this at some point in the future.

Interesting about mild/dark grey render.I thought that going white-ish will make the house appear larger, so never even considered a darker colour. I am going to have a little think about this.

Thank you also for the suggestions about the drive. We definitely need to do something with it, as the current drive had to be dug up in few places to install new drains. Block paving is one of the options. We were wondering if perhaps gravel could be a cheaper alternative...

The loft can not be converted due to load/foundations implications. So the roof has to stay as is, unfortunately.

HI,

Are you planning/can you afford to change the windows at this time?

If you are getting tight on funds, this would be my suggestion:

I think you will be pleasantly surprised what a really good clean up would do so do not rush to spend.

Up date the front with a lighter render as you said. Off white is my personal choice. Clean up the driveway paying attention to the edging. Sort the plants/garden, again paying attention to the edges making clean lines. Lick of paint to the window and some curtains or blinds on the inside.. then reevaluate how you feel and what you do not like about how it then looks.

If you are not rendering the rest of the house, you could still get a cheap exterior paint for the sides/back so it doesn't look odd from the side, driving up the road etc.

I hope this helps and look forward to updates on your progress.

Create Perfect.

Hello Iraandoleh,

If the sound of a painted render is appealing to you, consider the idea of green grey... It's warmer than grey and could be rather lovely with kitchenpods suggested door and open porch.. I love sophistication and so a charcoal front door to compliment would be fabulous.. You might then consider charcoal window frames and wood work to compliment the front door.. A gravel drive and some large round buxus planted to compliment what you have gives the garden an architectural finish which is very stylish..

: ))

First, are you sure the house exterior can take render? Be sure to get professional advice as putting the wrong surface on can make all sorts of problems with damp. That apart, the colour depends to a degree on where you live, but how about a deep ochre. Can look rich and really splendid against the white. Cover the garage side with small hole trellis painted the same colour. As regards the drive, agree you will be surprised how a good clear out will help, and how about gravel? You will need to put bonding onto the first light covering, then top up all over. A concrete edging strip along the pavement will help retain it.

Wow, lots of suggestions! Thank you so much, everyone. The windows are new and so is the front door. So, unfortunately, we can't change these now. When I said render, I used it loosely. Our builder suggested monocouche, as it's supposed to be better than traditional render? So, at this stage, it's about choosing the colour for the front of the house and doing something with the drive. I like the idea of painting the rest of the house to match the front wall. The plants will be cut back somewhat to allow more light into the house (although it's quite bright inside even with all the plants) and I like the idea of clean edging. Thank you for the tips how to make gravel stick, I will discuss these with our builder if we decide to go with gravel.

I'm not expert on costs of renders, but how about exposing the brick to go with the garage? Some neighbours near me have done that and it looks great. I would keep the porch until you can redo it, as it is such a valuable space. More flowing lines with good edging will help the drive. You could look into resin-bound gravel which lets water through (front gardens now need to drain properly, see SUDS regulations - you can also get draining-through type block paving).

I think white render would look really good, and modern exterior paints keep their finish for a long time - no greening etc. I agree with removing the conifers, dastardly things, and a gravel drive can look good (I have one!). I spray it twice a year to keep down weeds. Mine is a sort of slate-type chips, might look good at your house too.

Thank you for all the suggestions and sorry for not responding earlier. Exposing the bricks is not an option, as there are different styles of bricks used (including breeze blocks). So the bricks need to be covered somehow. We will take a little longer to consider what colour/materials to use and I will update this post with the final look. Thank you everyone.

As far as the driveway is concerned you appear to have a sound concrete surface there already. If you can find a good local contractor who is properly trained in Resin Bonded Gravel then you could give you price to change the finish your driveway without digging it up at all.

That would avoid a lot of cost and wastage so it is likely to be cost effective. The edging and any areas which are not would need to be considered carefully. A contractor may want to drill out core samples to check the thickness of the drive but it has been used for some time and not cracked then it should be fine.

Resin Bonded Gravel is stuck onto the existing surface which will need to be clean and dry at the time. Check that any contractor has been trained and is properly insured.

Agree with Garden Design Guru. Saw Resin Bonded Gravel being put down only last week onto an 'old' surface. Took just an hour or so and looked great.

Thank you for the additional comments. The plants will stay- as Dundrum16 says, they are very pretty. We are just at the end of all the internal renovation jobs and will tackle the drive as the next project. Will likely go with resin bonded drive (we prefer not to have loose stones), but will depend on what sort of quotes we get.