Many houses have one or more of those plain exterior walls that have little to no visual interest. These walls are typically not very interesting on their own. And it may even bug you a bit whenever you’re in your yard and have to walk past it. We think all sides of the exterior of a house should be interesting!
You may be wondering what you could do to add interest to a plain wall to enhance its appearance, especially if it is in a well traveled part of the yard, adjacent to a high activity area or on a corner lot where the side of the house is as visible as the front of your house.
We’ve assembled some wonderful examples here for great solutions that you could emulate. Or they may inspire you come up with your own ideas to add interest and appeal to your plain wall.
Use a Small Ornamental Tree
The small ornamental tree (a multi-stemmed Serviceberry) that was used on the side of this two story house is perfect for enhancing the visual appeal of this area. This house has a lot of wonderful architectural features, like the shutters, the brickwork, the chimney, and the copper downspout. But the chimney and the blank wall to the right of it start to look a bit bleak with the brick being the only material used on the wall.
A tree such as this, with a graceful open appearance that will have a manageable mature height, will not overwhelm the area and will not obscure the beauty of the house’s features. The mature height of this tree will help the two story wall look more interesting, also.
Be sure to know all about the plant you select (height, width, fruit – will the fruit make a mess, etc.) so you can make the best choice for your situation. Don’t plant trees too close to your house foundation – mature roots can push against the foundation. A tree’s canopy will fill out, so don’t worry about the void created from planting it away from the house – at ground level, this area can be filled in with a bed of groundcover or some low to medium height shrubs.
Add a Trellis
First up is a simple, yet beautiful solution to the monotone of the exterior siding. This trellis has such a classic old world look, and the pink flowers are a gorgeous contrast to the black metal of the trellis and the white siding. These types of trellises are typically available in garden stores.
The second trellis is more of a structure-type example. It is an exquisite classic wood trellis bursting with architectural detailing. Notice how it adds interest to, and works so well with, the beautiful clapboard siding of the house. We think that acquiring this type of feature in your yard can be equated with purchasing a special piece of furniture for your house.
Photo credit: Walpole Woodworking
Installing this type of trellis is a bit more labor intensive than the metal trellis, since it would require digging footings for the posts.
Corner Lots Have 2 Street Elevations
When your house is located on a corner lot, you really have two elevations to contend with that face a street, which is the case with this beautiful traditional style house. In this example, we removed the shutters in the top photo to show how adding even one architectural feature such as these great board and batten shutters can enhance the visual appeal of your yard for you.
You can see what the shutters do for this wall. How plain it looks without them! They really add so much to the side of the house, and also raise the visual interest for any activity that would take place in this area of the yard.
The Hood Roof
Talk about adding charm to your outdoors! We just love this architectural feature for a side or back porch (beautiful for a front door, too!). This type of roof can be designed to be simple or highly detailed.
If used for a smaller house it has a very cottage feel. And for a two story exterior wall that lacks interest, it is a perfect solution and opportunity for adding some great detail. Another benefit that this entry door roof provides is that it breaks up the overall wall mass into smaller visual parts, and lets your eye come to rest on or below the roof itself thereby keeping you visually focused more at ground level instead of being overwhelmed by the entire wall.
Renovating, Additions, and New Houses
If you are adding on to your house, making big changes to it, or perhaps building a new house, these are great times to have visual interest and architectural features built into your house.
This French Country style house was designed with great features that intrinsically provided visual appeal. The architect included arched windows with the arched stone header above, a vernacular single shutter, and a copper downspout and collector box that will age to a teal patina which just adds more interest. Unfortunately, the use of copper is not as commonly used nowadays since it is such an expensive material.
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