If there’s one thing we truly believe, it’s that cultivating an inviting home starts at your front door. With many of our customers embarking on outdoor projects more than ever these days, we’ve partnered with the online source for all things landscaping—Yardzen. Recently, we sat down with landscape expert and CEO of Yardzen, Allison Messner, for her top advice on how to transform outdoor spaces and add curb appeal to your home.
Let’s start with lighting: What are the key points to consider when choosing outdoor lighting?
Form and function are equally important when choosing outdoor lighting for the front of your home. For a timeless look, we recommend a fixture that highlights your favorite elements of the exterior of your home, like the architectural style, paint color, or landscaping.
It’s also important to focus on the function. Are the fixtures being used to illuminate a walkway or a lounge area in your front yard? Determining how you will use the lights will help you decide how many you will need, their size, and shape. At my home, we used lighting to transform our front porch into our favorite evening hangout spot. Yardzen’s exterior design packages include a night view with lighting options. Which is a fantastic way to visualize what your favorite Rejuvenation fixtures will look like on your home’s exterior—from day to night.
High quality outdoor hardware can really increase your curb appeal. Our offerings ranges from door sets and door knockers to house numbers and mailboxes—what are your tips for putting all these pieces together?
When it comes to outdoor hardware, our team recommends choosing pieces that echo your home’s unique architecture. Rejuvenation’s outdoor hardware collections work so well with Yardzen designs because they come in wide range of styles, from traditional to modern. This makes it easier for our clients to pick and choose the right designs for their homes.
What are your top styling tips for an inviting front of home?
When styling the front of your home, it’s important to think about the space comprehensively and focus on the permanent fixtures that create year-round curb appeal. Well-considered landscaping, exterior paint, updated doors and windows, and beautifully crafted outdoor lighting and house numbers—all included in Yardzen’s Curb Appeal package—will make your house stand out year round. We also encourage our clients to consider including a gathering space, what we call a “social front yard,” to add character and additional living space to this often-overlooked portion of their property.
What do you recommend for putting together a comfortable outdoor lounge space?
Choose comfortable, durable, well-made outdoor furniture that you love and that will last. Not only does this prevent single-season furniture from ending up in landfills, but this will also ensure that you love the feeling of being in your outdoor space.
Creating a connection to nature in outdoor spaces feels like a good way to balance well-being. What are the best ways to create a sustainable, habitat-supporting yard?
Through Yardzen’s American Rewilding Project (ARP), we’re on a mission to help homeowners throughout the country design and build sustainable, habitat-supporting outdoor spaces. As part of ARP, we commit to planting a minimum of four native and climate-adapted plants in every Yardzen yard, which supports local pollinators and creates wildlife corridors in neighborhoods. We’re also very focused on protecting our natural resources, like water, soil, and tree canopy, by always opting for drought-tolerant groundcover, planting erosion-controlling species, and adding trees wherever we can.
How can you make sure your outdoor spaces are prepped and ready for cooler seasons?
Here at Yardzen, we believe strongly that outdoor spaces can be a year-round extension of your home, regardless of your climate. When planning your year-round yard, we recommend focusing on three things: light, warmth, and protection from the elements. When adding light, we recommend a mix of exterior fixtures, including overhead string lights, which add ambiance to a cold fall night. There are several ways to add warmth, from adding cozy blankets and heaters to our most-requested design feature: fire pits. And one of our go-to recommendations for protection from the elements, is to include a pergola in your Yardzen design. Pergolas are a fantastic way to define an outdoor room and make the most out of your outdoor space, regardless of the season.
Finally, what are some of your favorite finishing touches to wrap up outdoor spaces?
Once all the major pieces are in place, we love adding large planters and organic, festive elements, like garlands, wreaths, and arrangements of branches, to make a yard come alive, especially during the cooler seasons when many plants and trees are bare.