The power of curb appeal

A couple months after moving into our new home my husband started convincing me that we needed to re-do our landscaping. It was a hard sell because landscaping for me is the equivalent of a car, I don’t care what it looks like as long as it gets you from point A to point B. We had a front gate, a walkway and some plants. I didn’t see the problem. Additionally, for someone who loves interior design, it was low on my priority list. But my husband, a lawyer, quickly built his case and persisted until I agreed. He soon found a local landscaper and in a couple of weeks we signed a contract to start the process.

I knew how I wanted it to look and feel but struggled to communicate it because I didn’t know the name of plants and flowers the way I did kitchen materials. I drove around San Juan taking pictures of plants I liked and then would show our landscaper. “What’s this called?” I asked. Salvia leucantha, otherwise known as Mexican sage. It’s a beautiful purple bush that I had seen all over San Juan and was drawn to its color and look. After a week or two I quickly got into landscape design and dove right in. I was googling the names of plants and flowers at night after my daughter went to bed and finding pictures on Pinterest that inspired me.

Our home has a pretty decent side yard and I wanted a private oasis (aka no amazon delivery men sending me into a rage when they rang the doorbell while my daughter was napping) so we decided to create a courtyard with a front gate. This required building a 6 foot block wall which we then put a smooth stucco veneer on. The smooth stucco veneer is beautiful and completely transformed the space but buyer beware it will add a couple of thousand to the process (depending on the square footage you're looking at anywhere from $2,000 - $5,000).

I also decided to have a fountain in the middle of the courtyard and surround it with jasmine vines and succulents using decomposed granite as the hardscape. For years I have swooned over homes, parks and outdoor spaces that had decomposed granite. I always thought it had a secret garden feel to it. When it was installed I was overjoyed with how it looked (the color lightens with sun and time, the dark color you see in the picture has now turned to a light tan).

After about three months, the outside of our home looked completely different. It was beautiful and I loved it. I loved the new paint color, the drought tolerant plants, the lemon trees sitting by the fountain, the pathway to our backyard, the brick columns flanking our front gate, the lighting, everything. I learned a lot from the process (but that's for another day and another post). I will say this, I was surprised at how much it made a difference to the look and feel of our home. Curb appeal...you've made me a believer.