Enhance the Curb Appeal of Your House: Spruce Up Your Front Steps and Landing

How does your house look, really look, to your neighbors? Could your home use a little improvement? How’s its curb appeal – the look it has as people walk and drive by? Potential buyers, not to mention loan officers conducting drive-by appraisals, look for that curb appeal and what’s called pride of ownership. You can increase that curb appeal easily just by sprucing up your front steps and landing. Whether you’re in a townhouse, Victorian house, or farm house, this is one home improvement that you shouldn’t pass up. Drive through your neighborhood and look at the houses. Notice which ones you admire and why they appeal to you. Here’s a list of ten things you may consider when increasing the curb appeal of your own home.

1. For wooden steps, replace any treads that are too worn or splintered. Clean the steps with a high pressure spray (if you’re not under a water ban). Then add a coat of paint or vanish.

2. If your steps are cement, clean off any fungus or mold. Look closely for cracks and fill them. Spruce up the steps with a paint made for cement, being sure it won’t make the treads slippery, especially when they are wet.

3. Brick steps need mortar refilled or replaced every so often to keep them looking fresh. Replace any broken bricks as well.

4. Cement and brick stairs can be pretty heavy and may start settling below the level of your porch or landing, especially in newer houses. From the curb, this will make the steps look lopsided and seemingly unsafe. When this happened to our house, we hired a home improvement company that leveled the stairs by pumping cement under them, raising them and getting rid of the ugly gap between the steps and landing.

5. Look carefully at the railing. If it’s also wooden, sand down any splintered areas. Check for loose or broken spindles and fix or replace them. Then paint or varnish, of course. If your stairs don’t have railings, consider how it would look to add them. Wrought iron or wood, railings can add that extra touch to the curb appeal of your house, as well as provide older guests better safety when climbing the stairs.

Now that the stairs look inviting, how about the landing? Is it welcoming from afar? Take a close look, too. Remember that this is the area people look at, even unconsciously, as they ring the bell and wait for an answer. Pretend you are a guest and stand there for a minute. Look around. What do you see? Here are a few more suggestions to improve the overall curb appeal of your home and help make your guests feel more welcome.

6. Just as you did for the steps, be sure the landing itself is in good shape. Whether it’s wood, brick or cement, freshen it up and clean it up. Same guidelines apply here as for the steps.

7. Do you live in an area where mailboxes are hung on the wall by the landing? How does it look? My mother’s mailbox seemed to attract spiders, and their webs attracted leaves and flying insects. Keeping it clean and looking half decent was a weekly chore. Be sure your mailbox doesn’t detract from the house’s appeal.

8. Is the landing drab? Add color with flowering plants in summer and small evergreen plants for winter. Floor planters work well on larger landings, or for smaller landings, use small two- or three-foot-long planters that can be set near the edge, which don’t take up much space. Begonias or marigolds bloom for quite a while with minimum attention and maximum color. Check with your local nursery for suggestions on types of plants for your area.

9. If your stairs are wider than three feet, you can also place flowers and plants on the stairs. If you choose to do this, be sure the railing is still accessible. You can even train vines like morning glory to grow up the railing.

Now step back out to the curb. How does it all look? Want one final suggestion?

10. Spread the color you’ve created on the steps and landing to the entire front of the house. Use flowers and small bushes (I like barberry and low-growing azaleas) to guide the onlookers’ eyes to the front door area. Let the plants lead your guests to your door. Not too much, though, or you’ll hide all the work you put into the stairs and landing.

Now how does your house look? Does it say, “The owner is proud to live here”? Do potential buyers slow down as they drive by, writing down your realtor’s phone number? Do the steps and landing give a warm invitation to your visitors? Do the neighbors drool over your front entrance? Then you have accomplished your mission – enhancing your house’s curb appeal.