Meeting John Gidding of HGTV's Curb Appeal: The Block

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Photo from Nashville Home Show.com

This past Friday, I attended the Nashville Home Show and met HGTV's John Gidding.  We actually had a special blogger/media event with John.

Did you know he graduated from Harvard with an architecture degree? Wow! He had lots to share about adding curb appeal to our homes.

The biggest takeaway from his talk was that he always looks at these five things when approaching a home's curb appeal:

1.  The Front Path - Is that path easily accessible from the driveway or street?  If not, make changes so that your guest have an obvious, welcoming path to your front door.

Consider adding pavers like these!  A few of these stone looking pavers are inexpensive yet create an obvious path to the front door where no sidewalk exists.

2.  The Front Door - Can the front door use a fresh coat of paint or even a color change?  Some colors are traditional to certain styles of houses so the color choice may be fine.  See if it needs freshening up.  If you want to change the color, choose a color that fits with the style but also adds a pop of color to the front facade.  I have used and recommend Modern Master's Front Door paint.  I painted the front door of our former home with their Elegent (Navy Blue).  Loved it!

3.  The Mailbox - Is your mailbox sad, beat-up, or just plain boring?  Add a little pizzazz.  Here you can get a little expressive!  Love this bronze one from Amazon. Even just adding your house numbers in an exciting, eye-catching color helps.  Which brings me to the fourth item.

4.  The House Numbers - Here is another area you can express yourself.  John said adding nice looking numbers to the front of your home gives your guests an idea about you.  Do you have the sad reflective stick on numbers?  I confess, my mailbox is the only place we have our house number and, YES, they are those 96 cents reflective stick ons.  I've added it to my list to change ASAP.  Many online sites have inexpensive numbers in a variety of styles.  Why not choose a fun one?!  I'm considering something like this from Etsy.

5.  The Not So Perfect Items - Are there things that need fixing up?  Is there an item that's broken or just doesn't belong?  Those are the last items John considers when adding curb appeal to a home.  

See, it doesn't take a lot of money to make your home more appealing.  These are great tips if you're considering selling your home.  If you are, just make sure your choice of door color as well as the mailbox adornment would be pleasing to most everyone.  

Hope you learned something.  I sure did!  John was very nice and generous to share his tips with us.

Thanks for stopping by!

Angie

Front Porch Fall Decor - Blogging Tour

Welcome to our final week of the (most awesome) Fall Blog Tour!  This week is our theme is Front Porch Fall Decor.  If you missed the first two posts, check out The Striped House with her amazing trailing vine and metallic pumpkins (loved them!) and Concord Cottage with her adorable cottage porch decorated with vintage rake and pitch fork (totally jealous!).   Two different but equally beautiful styles.

My post is pretty heavy on the photos so you may want to grab a cup o'something.  I'll try to keep the commentary to a minimum as you enjoy the scenery :)

 

I found this beautiful wreath at a discount store on clearance for $7!  After season sales are the best!

Yellow mums, white and orange mini pumpkins, and wild blackberry leaves.

I usually plant my large urns with purple wandering jew each spring.  I hated to pull them out even though they will be killed with the first frost so I used them with the large pumpkin and goldenrod.

The harvest basket was also a discount store clearance sale find many years ago.  I love using it on the porch during the fall and near the fireplace holding quilts during the winter.

This sweet table was built for me by my oldest daughter about 13 years ago.  We lived in a tiny town (pop. 300), in a tiny old house.  There was an old table on the back porch when we bought the house and I loved it.  Unfortunately, it had been on the back porch for many years and had lots of damage.  My daughter, with my husband's help, took the old table apart and was able to salvage enough wood into this little table.  She surprised me with it as a gift.  The green paint, worm holes, and knicks are all original and, of course, being refurbished by one of my daughters, make it very charming and special. 

Well, that's it for my front porch.  Have you pulled out your fall decor yet?!  The temperature here is finally staying cool and I love it.  Fall is my favorite season.  

Be sure to check in with 2 Bees in a Pod tomorrow!  Then our tour will finish out with The Crowned Goat on Friday and BluWaterLife on Saturday!

Thanks for stopping by and God bless!

Angie

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I'm linking here:
THE STYLE SISTERS
JENNIFER RIZZO
HOME STORIES A TO Z
FROM MY FRONT PORCH TO YOURS

COMMON GROUND

HAVE A DAILY CUP OF MRS. OLSON
COASTAL CHARM'S NIFTY THRIFTY TUESDAY

FRIDAYS UNFOLDED

FEATHERED NEST FRIDAY

ONE MORE TIME EVENTS

TWIRL AND TAKE A BOW 
SAVVY SOUTHERN STYLE

STONEGABLE
UNDER THE TABLE AND DREAMING

A DELIGHTSOME LIFE
ART IS BEAUTY

CLEVER CHICKS BLOG HOP DIY SHOWOFF IT'S OVERFLOWING

THREE MANGO SEEDS

ELIZABETH JOAN DESIGNS

WEEKEND CRAFTS

PRETTY PINTASTIC PARTY
THOUGHTS FROM ALICE
HYMNS AND VERSES
MISS MUSTARD SEED

Outdoor Fall Decorations

I'm finally able to get a few pictures of my fall decorations posted.  Right now I'm doing good to get just the outdoor decorations posted.  I hope to have the inside pictures posted soon.

We'll start with the front door.  The burlap bows around the porch lights were made from a burlap coffee bag that I had sitting around from last year. 

Our front door is black but I'm really toying with the idea of painting it a turquoise blue.  A post on that later!  

Another view of the front porch with the pumpkins and mums on the steps.  I know the flowers in the urn below the flag are a little puny.  They're leftover from summer and were still blooming.  I finally just turned my head and dumped them over the fence.  They've been replace recently with more mums.  

There's a story behind the little wheelbarrow in this next picture.  We were at my in-laws this summer when my father-in-law, Emmett, mentioned that he had something for me.  He went on to say that my husband had tried to talk him outing of getting it but decided to get it anyway.  Emmett was right.  I loved it.  It was sitting, discarded by the side of the road.  The inside was pretty rusty and he sanded it back to a nice finish.  He left the outside as is...perfect!

Since taking the pictures a couple of weeks ago, a few of my decorations have become MIA.  Hmmm...I think I know how.  

His name is Cooper.  He's our 1 1/2 year old Schneagle.  That's a Miniature Schnauzer (his mom, our other dog) and a beagle.  He obviously felt that I had left a bunch of balls out for his enjoyment.  I have yet to find the big gourd.  I found one of the smaller ones in the yard...in pieces.  

The last picture is a do-it-yourself project.  Remember the corrugated metal flag I made for my shed?  If not, you can find it here.  I had a small square piece left over and decided to turn it into this.

Sorry, I'm a bad blogger.  I didn't have my camera with me as I was making it.  It was really a very quick project.  I drew a pumpkin shaped oval on the metal and included a stem at the top.  Cut it out with tin snips...wearing gloves!  Once it was cut, I used Krylon Pumpkin Orange (of course!) spray paint to color the pumpkin body.  I sprayed it lightly in the center area giving it some depth.  You can see it's darker around the edges.  The stem is painted using Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze.  It was the closest thing I had on hand to a brown.  The leaves were cut out of the last remnants of the corrugated metal and spray painted Krylon Ivy Leaf.  All of the shadowing was done with the Oil Rubbed Bronze using a piece of cardboard cut in a curved shape and giving a light spray in one direction.

That was it!  Very easy project!  Also, I found out that a piece of corrugated metal at my area Lowe's is less than $10 for an 8 ft. sheet.  That could do a lot of pumpkins!

I hope you enjoyed the few things I did get done outside.  There's a whole lot more inside.  Check back soon to see ironstone, pumpkins, gourds, acorns, and leaves with lots of orange and turquoise yumminess.

Thanks for spending some of your day with me.  God bless!
Angie

I'm linking here:
THE STYLE SISTERS
JENNIFER RIZZO
HOME STORIES A TO Z
FROM MY FRONT PORCH TO YOURS

COMMON GROUND

HAVE A DAILY CUP OF MRS. OLSON
COASTAL CHARM'S NIFTY THRIFTY TUESDAY

FRIDAYS UNFOLDED

FEATHERED NEST FRIDAY

ONE MORE TIME EVENTS

TWIRL AND TAKE A BOW 
SAVVY SOUTHERN STYLE

STONEGABLE
UNDER THE TABLE AND DREAMING

A DELIGHTSOME LIFE
ART IS BEAUTY

CLEVER CHICKS BLOG HOP DIY SHOWOFF IT'S OVERFLOWING

THREE MANGO SEEDS

ELIZABETH JOAN DESIGNS

WEEKEND CRAFTS

PRETTY PINTASTIC PARTY
THOUGHTS FROM ALICE