6 Stylish Front Porch Curb Appeal Ideas

Landscaping is an important part of the equation when it comes to maximizing streetside beauty, but front porches also play a large role in increasing your home's curb appeal. Whether you have a small front stoop with room for just a few plants or an expansive area that offers space for a dining table, there are strategies you can put in place to up the style factor of your home's first impression.

1. Establish a Connection Between The Street And Your Front Porch

From overgrown shrubs to a hidden walkway, too often the pathway to a home is difficult to find or navigate. The very first thing you can do to boost your front porch's curb appeal is to clearly articulate the way to your home's entrance. Hardscaping or other structures such as arbors can help designate an entrance, as can strategically-placed planters that direct traffic.

2. Offer a Gentle Transition

The abrupt change from a lawn and flower beds in the front yard to the material of the front porch—brick, stone, wood—can be jarring, both in approach and from the street. To better use your front porch to improve curb appeal, include plants—in containers, window boxes, even a few potted up on the porch—to effectively move from outside to in.

3. Include Seating For a Cozy Break

Even the smallest front porches benefit from a small chair or a tiny table as a break between outside and inside, and that in turn can help boost your curb appeal. Because your front porch is the public face of your home, seating can encourage guests to stay outside and engage with neighbors and streetside activity, too.

4. Understand Your Porch's Limitations

Your front porch can work wonders to boost your curb appeal—but only if you help, too. Overgrown bushes will hide windows and make your porch and home seem foreboding; Peeling paint discourages passersby from feeling welcome; An empty area can make your home feel less warm and inviting. A little investment of time for maintenance and upkeep—as well as a few thoughtful resources for furniture and plants—can do wonders to make your front porch a key element in your home's best curb appeal yet.

5. Highlight the Front Door

An instant way to use your front porch to improve curb appeal is to offer a front door that's easily identifiable. That may mean a distinctive paint or stain color, a pendant light overhead, or sconces on either side.

6. Choose a Complementary Color Palette

In the same way that your home's tree, shrub, and flower choices are in tune with your architecture—a cottage garden for a cottage-style house, for example—rely on the color palette of your home's front porch to help update and upgrade your curb appeal.