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24 Things Aging the Outside of Your Home Faster Than You Think

The outside of your house is what visitors see first and the initial impression they form of your home. As such, you want to do your best to make it look welcoming and stylish.

The last thing you want is for your home to look dated or for elements to seem broken. Even small details, like rusty lighting fixtures, may make your home look drab and old.

What makes a place look out of date varies, but these things don’t improve curb appeal.

Expired Trends

A Midwestern McMansion style house
Image Credit: John Delano of Hammond, Indiana, Attribution/Wikimedia Commons.

What’s popular today won’t necessarily stand the test of time ten years from now. Whether you build a house from scratch or renovate a fixer-upper, don’t pick the hottest trends.

To prevent it from looking dated in a few years, lean into traditional elements and make your home look more traditional rather than picking contemporary accents or elements.

Incongruous Styles

A gray house with a jagged decorative facade next to a run-of-the-mill house. The original photo is titled "Ugly on purpose"
Image Credit: planola, CC BY 3.0/Wikimedia Commons.

Besides avoiding trendy looks that may not look fresh in a decade or two, you should also avoid the wrong aesthetic for your neighborhood — a modern farmhouse might not belong in the middle of the city surrounded by mid-century architecture.

We’re not advising you to fit in and curb your creativity, but you don’t want to stand out like a sore thumb. It’ll attract attention, and not the kind you’re hoping.

Inconsistent Materials

A single building with two distinct facade styles: clashing stucco and brick
Image Credit: Hannes Coudenys, CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons.

One sure way for your home to look stuck in a particular decade is with leftover materials from that era. For example, a brick home will show its age easier than one covered in cladding. If you own an older home, embrace its past and use consistent building materials when you renovate it.

Any new additions should fit in with the overall theme, so don’t mix old and new elements that have nothing in common.

Peeling Paint

A house with peeling white siding
Image Credit: Roberta, CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons.

It goes without saying that old or peeling paint is a dead giveaway that your home has seen better days. It’s also so easy to fix.

Try a coat of fresh paint on your front door and garage to immediately freshen your home’s look and curb appeal. One trick is to use an accent color. It will immediately elevate the overall look.

Overgrown Plants

Overgrown hedges or bushes
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Overgrown shrubs that obscure your front porch and old, half-dried-out plants can also make your house look outdated. Prune your plants regularly and consider replacing plants that have grown too big for your property.

The home’s look will go from an abandoned house to welcoming and cozy when your plants add texture and color rather than taking over the place.

Out-of-Style Planters

home front door decorated for Christmas, stone urn planters on the stairs
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Old planters may be too big and bulky for your home’s new look. They may detract from its allure, especially if they’re rusty and in dire need of paint.

Update your old planters with a fresh coat of paint that complements the home’s color palette, and replace containers that don’t add much to the overall decor. While fake rusty can look vintage, real rusty just looks old.

Old Gutters

Brown house surrounded by bushes with a single rusty gutter pipe
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Old gutters hang on your house lifelessly and take away any appeal it may have. They can also be leaky and overly loud when it rains, so replacing them improves more than the aesthetic.

If you have the budget, install a new copper gutter system. It will effortlessly upgrade your home’s look and make rain sound lulling instead of keeping you up at night.

Cracked Pathways

Cracked stone porch steps
Image Credit: Козлов Михаил, CC0/Wikimedia Commons.

Cracked pathways with weeds growing out of them make the outside of your home look neglected and contribute to its lack of appeal, even though you’re not directly to blame for their state.

The good news is that it’s not hard to repair cracked concrete and brick paths, especially if you’re a DIY enthusiast. Once done, your home’s exterior will get a huge lift.

Dirty Facades

man uses a power washer to clean mold and grime off the siding of a house
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Dirty facades make homes look old and unkempt. They’re also an inevitable result of age, especially if you live in an area with dust pollution. There’s nothing about dirty facades and driveways that a power washer can’t fix.

If your house’s cladding is old and could potentially fall apart if you use a power washer, it may be time for an envelope project to replace all the exterior fixtures. That’s more expensive than a deep clean, but sometimes, it’s the only solution.

Dim-Lit Bulbs

A dim light bulb barely illuminates a shadowy brick wall
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

This one is as easy to fix as they come. Dim-lit bulbs make your home’s exterior look tacky, but you can easily replace them. Replacing bulbs is an easy way to make your home look clean and well-kept.

If the glass encasements are dirty, you’ll have to use elbow grease to clean them. Replace them if they’re past cleaning or missing elements.

Ratty Welcome Mats

A coconut broken doormat
Image Credit; Javier Perez Montes, CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons.

Old welcome mats are full of grime and dust that you may drag across the floors when you enter the house. They also make your front door look neglected and dated, especially when they reference seasonal events or gag jokes.

It’s not hard to fix the problem. Head to the store and pick up a brand-new mat without jocular double-entendres or references to Christmas or Halloween, unless, of course, that’s your preference.

Shutters That Don’t Fit

A possibly derelict entrance to a building with boarded-up window, shutters barely holding on, and a "KEEP OUT" sign on the wooden door
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

If you’ve bought a home and the shutters aren’t the right size, color, or scale, that will be the first thing you’ll have to take care of when you move in. The wrong shutters can negate any effort you put into sprucing up the look of your new home’s exterior.

The right shutters should properly cover the windows, be functional, and fit the overarching style of the place. While they’re an investment, they’re worth it to keep your home from looking dated.

Fake Plants

Fake shutters and fake ivy on a shabby chic porch
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

One can argue that fake plants are drab and dated inside and outside a home. Still, we feel they don’t look more awful and aging than in hanging planters, window boxes, or on your front door.

Besides, what’s stopping you from using living, native plants? After all, this is the outside of your home — the perfect environment. If, for whatever reason, you can’t go with living plants, use preserved plants. They’re a million times better looking than fake flowers.

Short Curtains

A bench in a garden overlooked by a window with slightly short curtains
Image Credit: Joseph Mischyshyn, CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia Commons.

You’ll say curtains are an interior design feature, and you’re correct. However, you can see curtains from the outside; if they’re half-curtains or shorter, they’ll make your home look dated.

Ditch them and replace them with floor-length curtains or blinds that properly block light when needed. Both look better from the outside and give you proper function inside the home, which short curtains can’t do.

Frosted Block Windows

A small glass block window
Image Credit: Daderot, CC0/Wikimedia Commons.

Glass block windows go back to the beginning of the last century, so you can already see why they wouldn’t make your home look up-to-date. While they can offer great insulation and privacy, they don’t look “in” today.

Replace glass block windows with regular ones. They look timeless and won’t go out of fashion any time soon.

Mismatched Colors

A house painted coral with blue, white, and bright green accents
Image Credit: Chad Miller, CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia Commons.

If you’re ready to repaint your home, avoid a mismatched paint scheme. Instead of refreshing your home, mismatched colors will reduce its curb appeal. Your best bet is to use the same color family to paint your home’s body, trims, and windows.

The secret is to go lighter or darker for the accent pieces. That way, your home will look neat, stylish, and timelessly modern.

Overly Ornate Exterior Fixtures

An ornate entry into a home in the UK
Image Credit: Row17, CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia Commons.

Overly ornate exterior fixtures like hardware and lighting may look posh and appealing, depending on your home’s style.

Stick with functional, simple designs for your lighting and hardware. They don’t age easily and are quicker to clean and maintain than overly ornate ones.

Brass Hardware and Lighting

Paired brass door knobs
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Besides avoiding non-functional hardware fixtures, you should also avoid polished brass, which looks maximalist and opulent but also like a holdover from the 1980s.

While a lighter variant of the brass style is “in” right now, it’s not a good look for a home that wants to remain ageless, and throwbacks to earlier decades only work for buildings that fit the overall style of that era.

Damaged Roofing

Damaged red roof shingles
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

A damaged roof screams disrepair and neglect and automatically makes your home look dated. It’s also a sign of structural damage and may greatly decrease the value of your house should you want to put it on the market.

You should attend to roof damages as soon as you notice them. They’re not always cheap to fix, but they’ll go a long way toward preventing further deterioration of your home and its appearance.

Old Niche Styles

Vinasa Winery showcases Tuscan style architecture and patio setting
Image Credit: Jim G., CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons.

Old niche styles, like stucco roofing and Tuscan-style villas, were fashionable at one point. We’ve already discussed avoiding anything that may become dated in the future, but with these niche styles, you’re already stuck in time unless it’s your neighborhood’s overall aesthetic.

If your home is in a niche style and you don’t feel like making any major changes, concentrate on keeping it a neutral color and tending to its outside elements to avoid it looking decrepit and outdated.

A Cluttered Front Porch

A porch on a brick home cluttered with chairs and whimsy
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

The outside of your home is your calling card, and your front porch is the first thing visitors judge when they arrive. If your front porch is cluttered and paint is peeling off the walls, it gives off a bad first impression and makes you seem sloppy.

Keep your front porch organized and clean. The best way to do that is to eliminate clutter and keep everything in its place.

Retro House Numbers

Fading metal address numbers (no. 13) above a mail slot on a white wall
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

If your house numbers look outdated, don’t rush to replace them with the latest trend fonts. They, too, will become outdated in no time. Instead, try a more traditional style that can be long-lasting and timeless.

Also, pay attention to the color you choose. While you want your house number to stand out to delivery drivers, you don’t want a color that clashes.

Cheap Windows and Doors

A gray or brown front door on an unremarkable covered porch
Image Credit: Shutterstock.

It’s easy to replace windows on a budget but beware of windows and doors made of cheap materials. They don’t last long, can cause structural damage to your walls if their insulation fails, and contribute to the dated look of your house.

When you see cracks and peeling paint, you know it’s time to replace windows and doors. Invest in sturdy items whose style fits your home to create a timeless look.

Rusty Mailboxes

A rusty mailbox made to look like a rusty traincar
Image Credit: cogdogblog, CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons.

Rusty mailboxes signal that you don’t care much about the exterior of your home. They’re so easy to replace that passers-by may wonder why you don’t put even minimal effort into the appearance of your yard.

Paint your mailbox or buy a new one if the old one looks like a bucket of rust. Alternatively, you can easily make a mailbox from scratch if you’re into DIY crafts.

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