Kerb Appeal - Help / Inspo

[loulou0402]

Hi
We recently moved into a gorgeous 30's detached house in a fab town centre location. We have had to compromise on a few things, namely inheriting some strange choices previous owners made. The kitchen with a utility at the front, is fully extended out to the side of the property, so there is no side access.
The property has therefore retained two doors - front door into hall and 'the ugly black door' that goes into the utility / shower room.

We have a dog and so this entrance could be useful after dog walks (although hallway fully tiled too)

Tips and inspo required - I hate the way it looks from the road. I think because it's not even recessed back it's just to stark. How can I make this more attractive? The house inside is amazing but whenever I pull up onto the drive I think 'ugly black door'

How could I improve the kerb appeal?

A different colour door?
A different style of door?
Trellis / flowers up the side?

THANK YOU

Picture attached

My first thought is a brighter main front door and a lighter wooden door on the utility door. Some plants too probably.

Do you need the ugly black door? Or could you put a window in in instead and accept that you'd have to walk through the house to get to the utility?

(I'm also surprised the previous owners were able to extend right up.to the neighbour's adjoining wall? Was the structure already there (eg garage?))

That’s a bit odd. Doesn’t flow well with the house. Could you make it look like a little quirky house on its own?? (No idea how!)

Agree with painting the second door a colour that will blend in a little more and perhaps brightening the other so it is more obviously the main entrance.
Could you put a small area of Minton type outdoor tiles on the step and just in front to lift it and define it?
Put a nice tall pot with shrub either side of main door.
For the other side, I'd get a couple of low planters (or make yourself to fit shape) and plant it more like a border as you want to detract from the door rather than emphasise it

That is an odd extension to be honest, it’s like crammed in there. I’m surprised it got planning, I don’t think the doors are the issue, I think it’s the extension itself.

Personally I’d grow a climber round the front of the house if short of cash, or personally I’d remove it and either brick it over or add a window instead,

The structural extension itself was done about 18 years ago. The bit that is now the utility was the garage / store then converted into a utility about 8 years ago.
Not sure if we need the ugly black door, we haven’t used it yet, but we may feel differently in the winter with a wet dog / boots! So want to wait until we’ve lived here a year through all the seasons to make the call of whether a door has to stay or it could become a window.
My old front door used to be a nice country sage green which I want to change the main front door to. I don’t think it helps that the black colour is so harsh against the brickwork as you say

Good idea

Agree with others. I’d probably paint the black door white and put some nice potted buxus or similar on either side of the front door to highlight that is the main entrance. You could also consider changing the side door to something that looks less like a front door.

@mobear

Agree with others. I’d probably paint the black door white and put some nice potted buxus or similar on either side of the front door to highlight that is the main entrance. You could also consider changing the side door to something that looks less like a front door.

Love the idea of making the front door more of an event. What types of others doors do you think for the second door? (If we keep the door that is, may replace with a window, winter pending!)

@mobear

Agree with others. I’d probably paint the black door white and put some nice potted buxus or similar on either side of the front door to highlight that is the main entrance. You could also consider changing the side door to something that looks less like a front door.

Part of me wondered whether put a roller garage door on it. So it just looks like a garage but would then be a second entrance into the utility room

Build out from the front door? Put a little roof across the front? How much do you want to spend?

Hm, the extension does look a bit "stuck on". I'd wondered whether extending the render across the top of the extension gable end would make it seem a bit more integrated with the house. Hopefully the pic attaches...

I was thinking something along these lines. I think it will look much more like a side door than a main door then. I think it might help to have a little step as well.

Cross posted with Paq while I was faffing with the photo! Both ideas are similar in that they blur the boundary between the extension and the original house, they just achieve it in different ways.

@Paq

Build out from the front door? Put a little roof across the front? How much do you want to spend?

Not a bad idea. Or I change the ugly black door for more of a garage type door like the picture?

@FGSWhatNow

Hm, the extension does look a bit "stuck on". I'd wondered whether extending the render across the top of the extension gable end would make it seem a bit more integrated with the house. Hopefully the pic attaches...

Ah wow thank you. Makes it look more integrated for sure. Not sure they'd be able to add the bottom 'lip' Of bricks though (?) it would just be the white render. This could look good too if the door was changed to a window in future

Out of interest.. How many of you would keep the second door there? Do you think it’s useful / a good compromise for no side access. Or does it make no difference and may aswell stick a window there?!

Given it is a 1930s house you could put a really nice patterned glass in it if you did decide to go for a window

We used to have a house with no side access, and speaking from experience I'd keep the extra door. It's not just getting wet dogs into the house at the front, it's traipsing garden waste from the back out to the front every time you mow the lawn / trim the hedge / etc. We could access the front through the garage, I would hate to have had to bring all that through the nice house. It depends on your exact set-up though and whether this would be an issue for you (e.g. you might have an astro-turfed lawn and no plants out the back! )

Incidentally (just because I'm nosy): where does all the rainwater from your extension roof go? Is there a gutter along the bottom edge of the roof? Surely it doesn't just run off onto the neighbour's wall...?

Is definitely add the white render that a pp mocked up, then change both doors to be a nicer colour but make one more obviously a front door - more glass etc. Add a hanging basket or something and it will be fine. The render will make the most difference, its the different lines on the building throwing it off, not the black door.

The white meter box or whatever it is is the ugliest bit. If you completely rendered the extension, it would fade into the background. It would also hide that the brickwork doesn't quite match. The side door could either match the front door or be painted the same colour as the render to blend in.

FGSWhatNow's idea looks really good but if you can't have the same brick trim "lip" where the render stops, I think it would just look like a higgledy piggledy, cheap bodge job.

I would probably grow climbers in a pots around the side door, then have 2 more formal, architectural plants in front of the front door, like bay trees, to make it more of an "entrance".

Something like dwarf wisteria, Trachelospermum or jasmine that have some "body" rather than clinging tightly to the wall might disguise the roofline, or 2 tall cypresses in pots. If the roof weren't on an angle, it would look more like a garden wall with a gate, IYSWIM? If it looked like a separate structure to the house, I think it would jar less.

I think extending a little roof to bridge between the extension and the entry porch is the best idea so far, along with changing the door to a simpler door (look up craftsman doors for indoor)

@FGSWhatNow

Hm, the extension does look a bit "stuck on". I'd wondered whether extending the render across the top of the extension gable end would make it seem a bit more integrated with the house. Hopefully the pic attaches...

That looks tons better! Clever poster