When it comes to home décor and design, the interior gets the spotlight. And, while it’s certainly important to love the space in which you’re actually living, it’s nice to be equally as enamored with the outside of your home. Unfortunately, many facades come without the customizations and quality that you have put into your home’s interior design — that’s where the following five ideas come in. Each one is an area in which you can invest your time and money in order to give your home that sophisticated look that you’ve been searching for.

1. Add Shutters

Shutters are a feature that you cannot truly appreciate until they’re a part of your home’s façade. Imagine, for example, that you have a handful of beautiful family photos that you’d like to showcase in your home. You would never tape them to the wall — you would frame them and hang them to make them a clean, eye-catching focal point. Shutters do the same for your windows by drawing the eye to the architectural features that make your home special. This is especially true if you live in an older home with intricate wood trim around the windows, since shutters will further accentuate each little touch. Just be sure that you’re hanging each one with care or enlisting the help of a professional, since properly aligning and hanging shutters can be difficult for an inexperienced hand.

2. Steal the Shine

An old house has its charms, but it also might have its design missteps (orange shag carpeting or linoleum kitchen floors, anyone?) The exterior home could also show its age through old-school hardware in hues that are simply no longer “in.” Imagine, for example, that you have your house’s numbers above your front door. Are they written numerically or literally? The latter was trendy years ago and dates your home back to that era. And, to that end, so do formerly trendy metallic finishes like bronze. Replace any numbers, doorknobs, mailbox accents, etc., that might be holding your home back a few years.

3. Make a Grand Entrance

If you live in a modern development, your home might have the same front door as your next-door neighbor’s, and the next one’s, and the next one’s. This definitely made your home’s builder’s life much easier, but it doesn’t do much to make your place stand out on the block. A new front door will solve this problem, though, adding a touch of character especially to newer homes that lack the aforementioned intricate details of yesterday’s builds. You can choose from a lengthy list of front-door types, including rustic craftsman, fiberglass, and protective steel. Just make sure your choice is a blend of your personality and your home’s.

4. Go Green(er)

Another great place to add pizzazz is with your home’s landscaping, again, thanks to developments built with matching in mind. Because they’re designed to suit just about any buyer’s taste, these builder-grade gardens tend to err on the side of safe. There are plenty of ways to personalize these pre-existing plant beds, though. For one, you could widen them so as to include more flowers, bushes and small trees into the mix — just be sure that your layout has a natural flow that leads the eye from, say, the driveway or sidewalk directly to the front door. The entryway to your home should always be at the center of your landscaping efforts, since it’s where the eye wants to go.

5. Light It Up

The sun does all of the work during the day, but at night? It’s on you to keep your home’s best features illuminated. The soft glow of dangling walkway lights guides the way to the front door, ensuring that guests make it there safely — it also shines up ever so slightly so that you can still show off your home’s great architectural features, even at night. You can take that one step further by having a professional install automatic lighting that turns off at dusk and brightly highlights your home’s best features. No matter the level of brightness you go for, your home will look better under the light.

This list only scratches the surface of all of the ways that you can make your space radiate sophistication in the way that you envision. Whether you implement one, two or all five tips, you’re sure to end up with a home that’s polished — and that you can be proud of, both inside and out.

About the Author:

Kacey Mya Bradley is a lifestyle blogger for “The Drifter Collective.”  Throughout her life, she has found excitement in the world around her.  Kacey graduated with a degree in Communications while working for a lifestyle magazine. She has been able to fully embrace herself with the knowledge of nature, the power of exploring other locations, cultures, and styles, while communicating these endeavors through her passion for writing and expression. Her love for the world around her is portrayed through her visually pleasing, culturally embracing and inspiring posts.

The Drifter Collective: An eclectic lifestyle blog that expresses various forms of style through the influence of culture and the world around us.

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