Timeless Style Design: Curb Appeal

If you're familiar with my blog you will have noticed the photo on the top right with the words "my beloved clematis". It's a photo of one of my flowing/climbing clematis I had in the garden of our last house.

I became quite a fan of these ambitious little climbers at our last house, as they provide an important vertical element in the garden.

Though a perennial (not annual) most clematis feature a long blooming period, or alterntively bloom twice per season. They come in a variety of colours and petal types as the photos above(from my last garden) can attest. They also have the added benefit of doing well in partially shady parts of the garden.

Last year I picked up some small plants at Home Depot but I fear they may not have been well enough established before they were planted to survive our cold winter and my dog's attempts to bury her bones.

And so I was delighted to pick up "Rouge Cardinal" at Costco yesterday:

My new plant is already about 3 1/2 ft high, has a large root ball and already has some flower buds. I'm thinking of planting it in the front yard against the house (to the left of the front window), to soften the corner. I think the red blooms will be a nice contrast against the dark blue of the house and will also tie-in nicely to the red of our front door:

What are you planting this season?

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Dreaming of Spring

Well, the weather here has turned cold and winter-like (just when we thought Spring was here). I'm longing to tackle my garden.

We bought our house just about two years ago. The first summer was consumed with the move itself (across the country), having the floors re-done and painting almost every room in the house. Last summer we were into full-on renovations of the kitchen, back porch and basement. We also had a new puppy. In short, the garden has been neglected since we moved in.

So, 2010 is the year of the front garden and enhancing curb appeal. The back yard will have to wait since we plan to build a new (detached garage), erect a new fence on one side of the property and build a deck or patio.

As you can see from the photos, our front yard is a very small (city lot) space but I have visions of a London or Paris style front garden. I envision boxwood (but I'm not sure how well it will grow in Calgary), a little fountain, lillies, climatis and roses.

We also need to address more practical matters like the peeling paint on the front concrete steps, beautifying or covering the concrete foundation beneath the siding, replacing the lattice with ballisters and figuring out new decking for the porch.

Here are some before photos (the first photo is from before the house was painted) and some inspiration shots.

BEFORE: (Note that we have added shutters to the upstairs windows since these photos were taken)

AFTER (?):

Any and all advice is welcome!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

A Lick of Paint Makes all the Difference

One of the first things we did when we bought the house was have it painted dark blue (Benjamin Moore's HC-154 (Hale Navy), with Ivory White(CC-130) trim. We hired professionals to do the outside, while we tackled every room in the house with the exception of the bathroom (as we're still trying to decide what to do with it) and the kitchen (which we knew we would be gutting).

I was thrilled to see how painting the area beneath the front bay window dark blue (instead of the white trim colour the previous owners used) significantly improved the look. We also repainted the front door a darker, richer red (it took three attempts to get the right, rich dark red colour, soI can't give you the colour number). We also replaced the bare light bulb with an actual porch light fixture, and installed shutters to visually widen the look of the house.

(Before shot -- prior to re-painting. Note the white space below the bay window).

Next spring we will replace the lattice railing and the wrought-iron hand rails with something more substantial looking. We also need to tackle refinishing/refacing the stairs and foundation in some way. So you'll have to wait for the after shots.

Quest for a House

Let's just say that buying a house in the Spring of 2008 probably wasn't our smartest-ever financial move. Of course, we didn't know that a global recession was a few months away, and we were unjustifiably smug in the knowledge that the Calgary real estate market had already peaked the previous summer, so we were getting a deal, right? Besides, we needed somewhere to live and didn't relish the idea of having to move once to temporary housing and again to a permanent home.

So, we were on-the-hunt. While hubbie favoured new (he'd endured two previous renovations), I was pining for an old fixer-upper. After two failed attempts at a house purchase, we finally scored this beauty (ok, so beauty is in the eye of the beholder). Yeesh you say. Well, once past the front door, things improved somewhat.