Cottage Style Curb Appeal
As much as I love a cottage inspired home interior, cottage style curb appeal is just as important to me. Today I am sharing the different elements we have incorporated to achieve this look.
Click here to view the entire video below which includes more outdoor inspiration!
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Summer is one of my favorite times of year, especially in Michigan. I love when our gardens and window boxes are full of beautiful flowers and my boys are able to enjoy the warmer weather. I love the cottage style curb appeal elements we have worked so hard to incorporate, and I am excited to share how everything came together this year!
Last week, I shared a porch refresh video on YouTube that you can watch here. I am still unsure on our storm door. I feel like it is a bit too modern for the cottagey style that I am trying to achieve, but I loved reading all of your suggestions in the comments.
Besides the porch refresh, many of the cottage inspired elements I am sharing today I have shared in the past both on the blog and my YouTube channel. I still love sharing a tour with you each year though, and hopefully I’ll be providing some inspiration if you’re trying to add cottage charm to your home exterior!
We have lived in our home for eleven years now, and since we worked hard to do everything ourselves and tried to be as frugal as possible, it has taken a lot of time for it to all come together.
In this post, I am summarizing what I feel are the main cottage style curb appeal elements we have worked so hard to incorporate that have made such a huge difference.
Let’s take a look at a before photo of our cottage home when we first purchased it over eleven years ago now:
Here is a photo of our home exterior today:
Each time I look back at where we have come from, I am both humbled and grateful for what we have now. With just a few simple changes, we have added so much charm to our home exterior.
Cottage Style Curb Appeal – Raised Flower Beds
The first element I want to share with you today are our raised flower beds. Taking a look again at our before and after photos, I would say these have a huge impact on curb appeal, and achieving a cottage inspired look.
My mother in law graciously helped me put these beautiful flower beds in and the combination of gorgeous flowers and a winding stone border add so much charm. I love when this garden comes in each year and it truly brings me so much joy.
Easy Ways to Add Cottage Curb Appeal – Shutters
The next element my eye is drawn to are the DIY shutters we added to the windows of our home. This was such a simple project and although I have painted them different shades throughout the years, I love what they have added to our home exterior.
Please don’t let the idea of a DIY project scare you away either, I promise these were so simple! I shared an entire blog post about our shutters that you can read about, here. The post helps explain my color choosing process and a little about how we made them. Seriously so simple, yet such a common cottage element!
How to Make the Outside of Your House More Cottagey – Window Flower Boxes
Flowers always add so much charm and window flower boxes are an excellent way you can incorporate more of them into your home exterior. Once I see the shutters in the after photo, I am immediately drawn to the overflowing boxes filled with whimsical cottage inspired colors.
These flower boxes were another super simple DIY project and something I look forward to each season. To read about how we built these and the flowers I love to purchase to fill them with, simply click here.
Cottage Style Curb Appeal – Porch with Stone Surround
Even though our front porch is simple, I love the curb appeal it adds to our home exterior. I shared so many thoughts on our porch in the porch refresh video I shared that you can watch here.
Thankfully our porch was already built when we purchased our home, but paint and stain helped us achieve a cottagey look along with a stacked stone surround around the bottom. Simple decor touches, including more flowers, help bring everything together.
Cottage Inspiration for Your Home Exterior – Flowers
I am sure it comes as no surprise that the last element I want to share with you to achieve cottage style curb appeal is flowers. I LOVE flowers. They are all around our home exterior. I have perennials in all of my garden beds and purchase annuals each year for my flower boxes, pots and hanging baskets.
Hydrangeas, catmint, and hostas are a few of my favorites, but I share an entire blog post on several beautiful cottage inspired perennial choices that you can read here.
Cottage Style Curb Appeal
- Raised Flower Beds
- Shutters
- Window Flower Boxes
- Porch with Stone Surround
- Flowers
Well friends, like I said, I know I have shared so many of these cottage style curb appeal elements before, whether in blog posts or YouTube videos, but I loved taking you along today. Each of these elements that we have worked so hard to incorporate over the last eleven years are so special to me, and I hope an inspiration to you as well. I would love to know what you think in the comments!
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You should be very proud. You and your husband have created a beautiful home inside and out. Next early spring could you do a video on planting hanging pots. I try to reuse the hanging pots I have but it never looks full and pretty. I just can’t get the hang of what plants to use and how to make it look full. Thank you!
Thank you so much Betsy, that is so sweet! Thank you for the suggestions as well!
Wow, what a transformation! I absolutely adore what you’ve done with your house over the years. And I like your screen door–it adds a pop of black that harmonizes nicely with your shutter accents.
PS: Our first house was a tiny one-story version of your house with no curb appeal whatsoever (it had aluminum siding in a terrible color, aluminum windows, and no garden). We had a limited budget and and only a few years in that house, but my dream back then was to make it look much like your house. So every time I see your house, I smile!
Aw, thank you so much, I hope wherever you ended up you are able to have these things!
I agree with Betsy. You both should be so proud of your charming home and gardens. I just found an instagram account-@loithai. Their home in Annapolis reminds me of yours and I thought maybe you would like to see what they’ve done. They have a second home in Maine and their gardens are so beautiful. You are an inspiration and I love your blog!