June 28, 2012

Brick Ranch Curb Appeal Mockup

Brick Ranch Curb Appeal Mockup • AD Aesthetic

Hey there! Dawn here. I absolutely love doing Photoshop mockups for people, especially curb appeal ones. Sometimes just being able to visualize how a project will look when it's finished can give you the extra push you need to get started, or to make big decisions you've been vacillating over. You can see some of my previous mockups over at Remodelaholic.com, where I contribute each month, and find out more about having a mockup of your own created by visiting our services page, if that's something you're interested in.

So when my friend, Stevie, emailed me several weeks ago asking for some ideas to step up the curb appeal of her home.... challenge accepted! Here is a bit of what Stevie wrote in her email:

We are doing some spiffying up around here and I'm losing sleep trying to decide what colors to go with. I was hoping you could give me a little guidance ... I feel like I have a lot going on here. I love my door, my soffits and gutters are dark brown and are also new. If you have some time, would you mind chiming in? I'd really appreciate it!!

Before we get started, here's my standard mockup disclaimer: While I can recommend ideas that I think look nice, I have never seen this house in real life and don’t have accurate measurements. I am also not an architect or landscaper and do not know the planting recommendations for your area- I just like to make things look nice. I can’t guarantee that any of the items I put in my ‘virtual’ design will actually work in real life (or that they’ll fit your design style for that matter), and this is not intended to be a professional design consultation. So think of this as a just-for-fun rendering that hopefully gets your wheels turning and provides some inspiration!

Now then, on to the fun stuff! When Stevie emailed me, she sent along a few photos of the front of her abode... and I chose one to play with:

Photoshop Mockup Services by AD Aesthetic • Stevie's Mockup Before

I could see there was lots of potential here, and they'd already invested in some great upgrades to the house to improve the curb appeal. So really, it was just missing a few little extra pops to make it really shine.

Along with her email, Stevie sent me a link to a Pinterest board that she had started with inspiration images she liked. Here are a few of the images she had collected:

[caption id="attachment_1577" align="aligncenter" width="383"] Mockup Inspiration • AD Aesthetic

Image found on decorpad.com[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1576" align="aligncenter" width="556"] Mockup Inspiration • AD Aesthetic

Image Found on hazardousdesign.blogspot.ca[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1578" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Mockup Inspiration • AD Aesthetic

Image found on lizmarieblog.com [/caption] [caption id="attachment_1579" align="aligncenter" width="425"] Mockup Inspiration • AD Aesthetic

Image found on themarionhousebook.com[/caption]

So with all that in mind, here's what I came up with to pull it all together:

Photoshop Mockup Services by AD Aesthetic • Stevie's Mockup After

Looking through the pinterest boards Stevie sent along with her photos, it seemed like all the windows were fairly beefy in the trim department. I think you could get a similar look by spray painting the storm windows black and if you wanted to take it even farther, painting the accent brick below the windows black also. (Anna has a great blog post about painting aluminum storm windows.) I couldn't see the garage in any of the photos she sent, but I think a dark brown or black door would be awesome. Something with windows.. even better!

The porch seemed a little bare to me, so I added a black railing to tie in the dark shutters and door. I also updated the house numbers to something a little more modern and moved them to the other side of the door to help balance out the bigger expanse of brick on that side.

As far as landscaping, it seems like everything with the current walkway and house is pretty boxy, so adding in some curves in the form of planting beds would really help add some interest and soften things up. I lined the new planting beds with brick to bring some of the warmth from the house down to the ground and tie it all together.

For the plants, I kept things pretty uniform and organized, which I think works well with the size and style of the house. An eye-catching plant on the back side of the porch would be beautiful. Something tall and colorful like forsythia would work well. I also used some tall grass plants up by the house to fill in the area between the ground and higher windows. Then I accented all that with some low, symmetrical plantings farther away from the house, and threw in a few decorative limestone rocks for contrast and interest.