The Front Yard Layout That Will Boost Your Home's Curb Appeal

From elevating the look of your siding and shutters with a coat of paint to keeping your lawn lush and well-manicured, a little time, money, and effort can significantly improve your home's curb appeal. This not only helps you get the best price possible when selling your home, but it also greets you and your visitors with a more pleasant experience. Aside from a well-manicured lawn and a polished-looking exterior paint job, there is a front yard feature that's sometimes overlooked when it comes to home improvement — the walkway. Having a walkway that looks good can boost the curb appeal of your home, while also helping you and your guests feel like you're walking into a place that's truly cared for. And there is no better or easier way to elevate the look of your walkway than by using a plant mirroring technique.

Plant mirroring is the practice of installing plants symmetrically in a yard. It's an easy yet effective way to boost curb appeal on a budget. When creating your planting plan, imagine a center line cutting the walkway and yard in half. What goes on one side of the imaginary line should go on the other to make the plantings symmetrical. 

To implement this curb appeal-boosting hack along your walkway, when you plant something on one side of your walkway, plant the same type of greenery directly across from it. You can still alternate plants along the pathway as long as you are mirroring the pattern on the other side. Not only is mirroring plants great for along your walkway, but the concept can be used elsewhere in your yard, as well.

The reason this curb-appeal-boosting landscaping technique is so effective is that humans are hardwired to be drawn to symmetry. This is, at least in part, because asymmetry can warn us of danger, so we prefer safer symmetry, which is often found in nature. Of course, we know that just because a house has mismatched bushes on either side of the yard, it doesn't mean it's dangerous. Scientific experiments, though, have suggested that humans have an inherent predisposition to avoid things in nature that are asymmetrical.

Plant mirroring along walkways elevates the look of your yard, but there are other ways to increase symmetry in your front yard. Incorporating outdoor walkway lighting ideas symmetrically along the path is a great idea, as well. For walkways that curve from the front door to the driveway, you can apply the plant mirroring idea along the walkway, while also creating symmetry for your home's front view. This can be done by installing a focal point, like a small seating area, fountain, or decorative garden gate, and flanking it with symmetrical landscaping features like trees, shrubs, and hedges.

If you are having difficulty visualizing how to create a center line in your yard for a plant mirroring project, you can implement the concept in small ways around multiple exterior features. For example, you can plant matching shrubs on both sides of your front door. On either side of your mailbox, you can install mirroring flower bushes. Plant mirroring can be done in both sweeping or slight ways to fit into your home's exterior naturally.