August 07, 2012
Reader Mockup: Bryan's First Home
Hey friends! Dawn here, and today I'm super excited to be sharing another reader curb appeal mockup with you. If you're new here, our reader mockups are a feature where our readers submit their photos, and I make some Photoshop magic happen to show them what I would do with their design dilemma. If you want to know more, you can visit our services page to read all about how to submit your own photos.
Now, on to the show! Today's mockup was submitted by Bryan, and here's what he had to say in his email:
Hello, I’m looking to have a mock up of my new home. I’m unsure weather to paint windows and shutters, or keep them the same color, please help!!! I'm just looking for a few ideas. One issue is do I paint door? Do I paint Windows, or should I leave them white? Also my garage door is brown. I also need gutters. I'm not sure do I go brown with the gutters to match garage door, or do I do white? Or should I just paint everything some other color? I'm really torn. I'm a 32 year old single man, I like hip modern contemporary style. This is my first home and I'm really looking to make it look as nice as possible. I'm open to all ideas, mild or wild.
I'll get to my ideas for Bryan's first home in just a second, but first, my standard mockup disclaimer:
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 that that's out of the way, let's have some fun. Here's the original image that Bryan sent over:
To start with, I always like to browse around for some inspiring images to help fuel the creative fire. It also helps to get an idea of what is possible when you're looking at a lot of options. Here are a few of the images I found that inspired me when working on Bryan's home:
[caption id="attachment_1866" align="aligncenter" width="550"]
Found on houzz.com[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1864" align="aligncenter" width="242"]
Found on houzz.com[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1862" align="aligncenter" width="564"]
Found on makingmodernhome.com[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1863" align="aligncenter" width="550"]
Found on houzz.com[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1861" align="aligncenter" width="334"]
Found on houzz.com[/caption]
And here is what I came up with to give him the modern look he was after for his first home:
Source list for this modern curb appeal makeover:
Planters Porch/garage lights Shutters Front door Porch railing
The biggest struggle here was the color scheme. I think the combo of yellow and brown was just too 70s to look modern, but how to bring it into this decade without the expense of redoing everything? Well my solution was to leave two large investments (the roof and garage door) untouched, and focus instead on a few other updates that made a huge difference. Obviously the biggest change here is the house color. Going from golden yellow bricks to a deep, inky blue instantly makes the house look contemporary, and nicely balances out the warmth of the brown toned roof and garage door. New white gutters tie in the windows and keep everything from feeling too heavy or dark. The other major change I made was replacing the front railing for a modern cable and wood version. The painted and rusting iron scroll railing majorly dated the home, so swapping it out was another big shove towards this century. Since the porch and house now had a nice clean and modern look, the old door was sticking out like a sore thumb. To bring it in line with the rest of the changes, I switched it out for a very contemporary wooden door that is really a showstopper. Finally, I mimicked the horizontal lines of the door and porch railing in the new wooden shutters on the windows around the home. Add in some modern light fixtures and mostly symmetrical landscaping, accented by light limestone in front of the house and white planters by the garage door to bring the white accents of the house down to the ground, and this makeover was complete. So what do you think? Does Bryan's first home look more like the hip, modern space he was hoping for? What would you do if this were your home?
Thanks again, Bryan for reaching out and letting us share your home today. If you have a design dilemma you'd like to see us tackle, be sure to check out our services page for more info! Have a great week!
