Expert Help

How To Update the Exterior of Your Home

When it comes to decorating we think about inside, but what about the outside? With our range of exterior house paint and tips, give your home exterior a makeover.

Exterior house design tips to make your place stand out from the crowd.

Whether you’re selling your home or just can’t stand the sight of weathered, peeling paint anymore, Dr Dulux is here to answer your questions for a home exterior makeover to be proud of.

The importance of a modern house exterior in selling your home

Q: Hi Dr Dulux. We’re in the process of selling our home, but the outside of our property isn’t looking its best. We’d love to know how to make it look more appealing to buyers. Any tips on which colours we should go for and how to make easy updates? - Harriet, Wembley.

A: Harriet, I’m glad you asked. Exteriors are so often neglected. But, as you know, a tidy facade is crucial if you want to make a good first impression with potential buyers. Follow these tips and I promise your place will make the right one.

The importance of a modern house exterior in selling your home

A study by Dulux Weathershield found that adding a lick of paint to your home’s exterior can help increase its perceived value by up to 25%! It also identified that flaky front doors are a top pet peeve for Brits, followed closely by crumbling masonry and cracked walls. Furthermore, 93% of us are more likely to attend a viewing if the house’s exterior is well maintained. Need any more proof? Check out how to boost your kerb appeal.

If you only do one thing to update the exterior of your home, make it a fresh coat of paint for your front door and window sills. With almost a third of Brits expecting to pay 25% more for a freshly painted home, consider whether it’s also in your favour to paint the entire exterior. After all, it’s those social media photos that’ll attract buyers in the first place and a fresh paint job puts your home ahead of the rest. Here’s how to get started.

Use the right exterior house paint

The most important aspect of exterior house paint is that it stands up to the weather and lasts the distance. Dulux Weathershield All Weather Protection Smooth Masonry Paint protects against dirt and mould growth with our unique Stay Clean technology. Along with looking fabulous via long lasting colour for up to 15 years, it comes with the new Weathershield Promise on qualifying products. This means if there’s mould growth, or peeling and flaking walls within the paint film while you live in your home, we’ll return the value of a replacement product to you.

Make a statement with masonry colour

When you update the exterior of your home for yourself, go wild and pick whatever shade takes your fancy. However, when you’re looking to sell, it’s best to go for a crowd-pleaser rather than the hot pink of your dreams. Weathershield found that 46% of Brits prefer exterior house paint that’s classic white or cream. Consider Cream Tea for mass appeal, which is especially good for cottages and countryside homes.

The next most popular colours were pale blues, like Frosted Lake and shades of yellow, mint green, lilac, red, navy blue and grey, in that order. To make a statement that’s always on-trend and blends beautifully with natural surrounds, choose a shade like Tuscan Terracotta. Combine this with a fresh white door and white window frames for a fresh, stylish result.

Highlight your front door

While you might not want to splash out with intense colour on the whole house, it always makes sense to highlight the door to your domain. Best of all, your front door offers the easiest way to update the exterior house design with a minimum of fuss or effort. Just ensure the colour complements the exterior house paint and don’t forget to include the colour of the roof in the overall vision.

For example, make a splash with a Volcanic Red door on an otherwise white and grey backdrop. Offset your pale blue house with a Gallant Grey door and bright white accents for window frames, fences and trim. Is your home blessed with interesting architectural details? Highlight them with darker colours to draw attention to assets.

Impress with exterior décor

Research shows that poorly maintained gardens and dirty windows are also among our top bugbears. So, if you’re selling, pop the gardening gloves on for a tidy-up and don’t forget to make those windows sparkle too. After that, exterior décor helps to polish the overall appeal of a modern house exterior. Start with outdoor wall décor that fits with the style of your home. Great options include lanterns or wall plants placed above the door or in between the door and a window.

Window décor helps to unify paint colours, so consider pots on the sills in a shade that matches your door or window frames, if this differs from the rest of the house. Depending on how much room you have, it’s a nice touch to add outdoor ornaments and furniture to highlight the lifestyle benefits of living in your home.

Whether it’s for you or potential buyers, nothing says ‘welcome’ like a home that looks lovingly cared for with a fabulous home exterior makeover.