Help with kerb appeal of an existing house

[Sparrowhawk]

We're going round in circles here with the number of possible options, so I'd appreciate the forum's input.

 

Having overhauled the front garden this spring, we need to bring the rest of the front up to scratch. Over the next few years we need to:

 

• Rerender the ground floor
• Repaint the house
• Replace the blue painted timber cladding and white PVC cladding (no ventilation behind!)
• Decide if keeping the barge boards and facias/soffits black or change to white
• Replace the windows
• Convert the garage to workshop/gym and pop an airtight front door on it (I see many ugly conversions, I don't want to be them)
  • French windows on front? Or 1.2m+ wide door and window?
    • Need to get wide handlebar push bikes and larges sheets of wood in and out
• Eventually rebuild the porch, so there's free rein here

 

So there's lots of freedom, except for the roof colour which we're stuck with. We are struggling to choose the garage/porch style and pick colours that work together and visualise what areas should be what colour. We don't like the current magnolia/blue/white/black combo. The blue wood and the white PVC cladding sit awkwardly together.

 

It's a seaside location. Next door has gone sage green for their doors and woodwork. We'd like to add a climbing rose between the current garage door and the bay window.

 

 

 

I sketched something modern with cedar cladding for the garage door infill but my wife wasn't keen, and pointed out that french doors are more practical as they give a wider opening and more light, and will need less maintenance than wood, as neither of us like the natural grey it goes.

[ETC]

I think you need to look at what the house originally looked like - try taking some inspiration from Edwardian Architecture.

 

I could do a sketch or two but it won’t be until at least next week. Let me know.

Edited June 11 by ETC

[ETC]

[DevilDamo]

As above, search for traditional character properties for inspiration. ChatGPT can also be quite helpful.

[Sparrowhawk]

11 hours ago, ETC said:

I think you need to look at what the house originally looked like - try taking some inspiration from Edwardian Architecture.

 

I could do a sketch or two but it won’t be until at least next week. Let me know.

 

Thanks @ETC a sketch or two would be appreciated.

 

That's a good idea about looking back, I will look for earlier photos but I know it was built c1926-8 as the middle of 3 houses and extended (porch, 2 story side extension w. new garage) in the late 90's. I suspect the first floor pebbledash is original and it was red brick for the ground floor. Later rendered over to hold the soft red bricks together! The original roof was slate.

 

Not much help but I have a B&W aerial photo from 1948 where our house (middle) is right at the back. Bournemouth is nearby so I'll look for similar period photos from there.

 

@DevilDamo ChatGPT certainly has ideas 😂

[ToughButterCup]

I've found that running suitably edited  Chat GPT feedback in DeepSeek  (and vice versa)  - while remembering to keep the interaction private - can be  useful