Ideas on improving Front Exterior without a Front Door please?
Hi Everyone!
We have recently bought this lovely listed house (c.1925 formally part of Lord Hillingdon estate, used to be Kitchen gardens) and are looking at ways clean up and dress up the Front exterior, driveway and landscaping to bring out the full potential. The front door is to the side and ideally we'd like to keep it this way to retain the character. The roofing has concrete tiles (c.20 years old), any ideas on what we could to improve the roof would be most appreciated too. We are in two minds on whether to
1) keep the current concrete tiles and get these washed, or
2) redo the roof with clay tiles or similar to try to recreate the original features (house was built in 1925).
We would love for any ideas, examples and suggestions on how to make this place look its best without needing to move the Front Door from the side and around to to the Front. Picture attached to hopefully give a good idea of what we currently have. Any help most welcome! Thank you!
Comments (13)
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Comments (1)Hi there, your photo hasn't uploaded....See MoreFront door ideas please!
Comments (8)Hmmm. First thing to consider is would removing those side-light sections badly affect the light levels in the hallway behind the front door? Are you going to regret the total loss of light? I think maybe you will. So I would like to suggest that you go with new glass-panels that have 'frosted' opaque glass in them (perhaps you could get the number or name of your house etched into the frosting too). Then I would go with a coloured door. Many of the composite doors available on the market look super-smart and have all the benefits of the extra security and low-maintenance. Navy blue would look great against the turquoise of that plant pot, giving you a great excuse to get two more of those to group in a pleasing collection of three. Hope that's helpful. Good luck....See MorePlease help with exterior/front door colours
Comments (7)Thanks so much for responding, I love greeny/grey colours but our next door neighbour has their front door that colour so didn’t want to appear to be copying. Grey might be nice but do you think it will go with the existing creamy colour of the render or will it look a bit odd? We are due to repaint it anyway, so could change the colour of the render? Many thanks, Sam...See MoreIdeas to improve front exterior of house?
Comments (8)There’s nothing wrong with the extension but it does mean that there is a red brick overload and it makes the front door look misplaced. The solution is to soften the red brick- there are lots of ways from covering it (or part covering it) with render, or weather boards or tile or metal. Or to landscape the garden with trees and bushes to help soften the look. You might also consider better signposting the front door- this means a wide, deliberate path to the door, perhaps cladding the outside of the aperture to give your door more prominence or adding a porch. You could also have tall plants either side of the door like sentries or porch lights and a house name or number. So - not a bad looking house and it could be improved with some imagination...See More
Jonathan
5 years agoPreetvan Sangha
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoGood afternoon everyone!
We are blown away by the amazing response we have had from this community, thank you everyone for your feedback.
We are especially grateful to Jonathan for his valuable feedback.. the idea is genius and makes so much sense! Thank you so much Jonathan for taking out the time to help us! I have never seen my husband so impressed by an idea so much!!
I have attached a couple more photos showing view of the garage from the front of the house along with the entrance gate itself into the property. I have also attached a copy of our floor plan.
We would really appreciate your thoughts on what we could to with the garage and front exterior in terms of:
- Garage walls - What do you think about the brick work? Worth keeping, or should we clad?
- Garage roof - We currently have an unsightly metal sheet. We don’t want to fully rebuild but we’ve seen light weight roofing for garages which look like tiling. Any suggestions or thoughts on this?
- Front exterior - We’re looking to improve kerb appeal of the house from the front, any ideas welcome (cladding, paint, stone work?)
- Windows - these are the original single pane windows which unfortunately come with poor insulation. Any thoughts on what to do for those?
- Further to the front patio suggestion, is it worth installing an entrance which leads straight into the kitchen through the current ‘Study’? See floor plan. (We are planning to extend the current kitchen by a further 2.5m towards the rear garden).
Any ideas, suggestions and comments will be really appreciated, thank you for your help!
Preetvan Sangha
5 years agoJonathan
5 years agoRegarding the garage- this is a prefabricated garage so you can probably find out who was the manufacturer as they probably have new roof solutions.
Alternatively you could replace the garage with an alternative for likely £5500 for a timber garage or up to £25,000 for a solid construction. I suspect you are in a conservation area so do check what is permitted- there are probably height limits.
Alternatively you could disguise the roof with strategic planting or surround the whole structure with painted timber fencing and trellis.
Preetvan Sangha thanked JonathanJonathan
5 years agoRegarding the house there are lots of ways to lay it out. Personally I think putting French doors at the end of a long thin room turns it into a corridor and limits its use so I would use the room on the left as a study and I would probably reconsider the stairs position to simplify the layout and put a square extension on rather than one that is long and thin as I you could plan a layout without having to take out a lot of the back wall which necessitates steelwork.
But there are lots of ways to plan the layout- a designer or an architect will help you make decisions based on your lifestyle and budget too.
Preetvan Sangha thanked Jonathan
Jonathan