How We Improved the Curb Appeal of Our Home

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Improve curb appeal to a suburban brick house with paint and new lighting

Improving the curb appeal of a home can feel like a daunting task. Our suburban home was built in the 1990s with faded green shutters and cream trim—not my ideal style and I knew we could personalize the exterior to make it feel more our own.

Last month I hired a local paint team to paint our exterior trim, shutters, and front door. I spray-painted the doorbell, and brass accents, replaced the hardware, and added solar path lights. We replaced our dated brass lanterns with oil-rubbed bronze modern fixtures.

Scroll down for details on paint colors and the products we used to improve the curb appeal of our house exterior!

Front door painted sherwin-williams inkwell

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Improve curb appeal to a suburban brick house with paint and new lighting (before picture)

brick exterior before paint & exterior updates

We lived with our exterior house colors for several years before changing the paint color. Big expenses like car repairs, vacations, and medical bills came first. Until this year when we changed our strategy. We opened a checking account dedicated to house projects.

Improve curb appeal to a suburban brick house with paint and new lighting (before picture)

the front door before paint & updates

Improve curb appeal to a suburban brick house with paint and new lighting

5 Things We Updated to Improve the Curb Appeal of Our Home


1. Exterior Paint

Changing the exterior paint colors of the front of our house was the biggest change we made. We live in a neighborhood and can’t paint our brick, but I received approval to change the trim color and door/shutter colors.

We hired a local team to paint our exterior. They did great work and also painted our house numbers, door knocker, and garage handles a modern dark bronze. I chose SW Alabaster for our white trim and garage doors because it is white but has a touch of warmth. I wanted to eliminate the cream trim color but needed to blend with the beige siding on the side of our house.

If you are looking for the perfect white color, I wrote an article that reviews the most popular white paint colors (with examples and swatches).

    Garage doors painted alabaster to improve curb appeal

    For our front door and shutters, I knew I wanted a dark color, ordered large swatches of several black paint colors, and held them up to our brick. I thought SW Black Fox would be the one, but after seeing the colors against the brick I chose SW Inkwell. Inkwell is a beautiful black that goes a little blue depending on the time of day.

    If you are looking for a black paint color, check out the article I wrote on the best black paint colors.

    Sherwin-williams inkwell on front door

    2. Wall Lights

    Our rusty brass lanterns were likely original to our house (over 20 years old) and needed to go! I researched lanterns online but decided to shop in person so I could see the scale of the light. I ended up purchasing 4 of the Kichler Linford (17.25in) light fixtures in olde bronze

    The classic fixture works well in our traditional neighborhood and I am a fan of the straight lines and vintage-style wavy glass.

    Improve curb appeal by changing wall sconces
    Improve curb appeal by changing wall sconces

    3. Storm Door Update

    Our storm door was in functional shape but needed cosmetic updates. I replaced our brass handle with a new oil rubbed bronze handle set. If you go this route, keep your old hardware until the new handle is installed. We ended up needing a lockset from the original (and didn’t know this until I read the product reviews).

    Replaced storm door to improve curb appeal of suburban brick home
    New storm door

    To match the brass kick plate with the rest of our exterior colors, I removed it using a drill (a screwdriver would also work). Then I spray-painted the kick plate with metallic oil rubbed bronze spray paint. The base was a little tacky after a few hours, so I let it dry overnight before reattaching the plate to our door.

    Painted brass kickplate of storm door dark bronze
    Painted brass kickplate of storm door dark bronze

    4. Doorbell

    I looked at the home improvement store and saw I could purchase an oil-rubbed bronze doorbell button for around $18. Since I already had spray paint, I decided to try it and in the worst-case scenario, we would need a new doorbell! I was able to pull the doorbell out a bit from the wall, while the electrical wires were still attached. Painter tape is important to use if you are going to paint the doorbell while attached.

    Overall the spray-painted doorbell was an easy project! Spray paint is so easy to apply, and it saved me $18. I did get a small amount of overspray on the trim and touched it up with paint. 

    Paint doorbell to improve curb appeal
    Paint doorbell to improve curb appeal
    Paint doorbell to improve curb appeal

    5. Solar Lights

    We added solar LED path lights to our front walkway and can’t believe it took us this long to try them. They are easy to install (including a peg that goes in the dirt) and the lights charge during the day and turn on automatically in the evening. I picked a minimal light design that blends with our nearby dark brown planters.

    Added solar lights to front yard
    Added solar lights to front yard

    Product List:

    Kichler Linford Outdoor Wall Lights $80 each

    Solar LED Path Lights $10 each

    Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint $7 each

    Pella Door Oil Rubbed Bronze Handleset, $49

    Improve curb appeal to a suburban brick house with paint and new lighting

    I hope this article inspires you to add style to your home exterior! Changing your house paint colors will make a dramatic difference to the front yard, and there are also many small changes you can make like painting the doorbell and changing light fixtures.

    Improve curb appeal to a suburban brick house with paint and new lighting. Storm door painted sw inkwell
    Improve curb appeal to a suburban brick house with paint and new lighting
    author avatar
    Julia Fain

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    3 Comments

    1. Nice job! It’s a big improvement from the before pic. Have you considered painting your garage doors the same black color as your trim? We recently painted our trim a dark bronze black and it looked great, but once we painted the garage doors the same color– our house went from very pretty to wow spectacular!

      1. I didn’t because most in the neighborhood have light trim, but I like that idea! It would give the house a more modern/bold look. I’m sure yours looks great!

      2. Hi.
        Searching for dark bronze black, but want to be sure I get the color you. recommend. Do you remember which brand it is?. We have a dark red/black exterior and would love to try that color… Also thinking an antique dark bronze light fixtures may match? thank you.

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