Tarrytown is a relatively small village roughly 25 miles from the Big Apple. Many Tarrytown homes were built in the early to mid-1900s, though some new construction has emerged. Whether old or new, your home should offer strong curb appeal to impress your neighbors and maintain a substantial market value.
The Tarrytown real estate market is competitive and encompasses many historic homes and apartments. We’ll offer a handful of tricks to improve your curb appeal to get the most out of your home when the time comes.
1. Add greenery
Adding flowers, shrubs, or trees can be one simple and effective way of improving your home’s curb appeal. But, gardening and landscaping take time and research to ensure your plants look nice and organized.
If you’re new to gardening or the New York area, you might want to stick with plants that are native to New York and aren’t invasive. There are a few perennial plants that could be a strong addition to your landscape and require little upkeep year-to-year.
Besides plants, you’ll want to ensure your hardscapes are neat and clean. This means you’ll want to have defined edges with stones, bricks, or something else to clearly mark the outline of your landscape. Tarrytown offers many classical and historic homes. A presentable landscape will add curb appeal that reinforces those themes.
2. Update your door
One of the first things visitors and neighbors will see on your house is your front door. The last thing you want is a busted old screen door flaunting itself in front of your home. Even the most elegant homes lose significant curb appeal with outdated doors.
Some say that a front door says a lot about a person’s home. A front door should be vibrant and inviting from the inside and outside. Choose a colorful yet modest door that still allows light into your entryway.
Don’t forget that the doorway does not necessarily have to be the source of light to your entryway. Some doors offer customized glass panels directly, while you can complement others with customized sidelights. The option is yours, depending on the size of your doorway.
Not sure where to start? Benjamin Moore offers some ideas for front doors of various styles and sizes.
3. Add a water fountain
Tarrytown real estate is full of large and historic homes. Tarrytown is rich with war-based history, developed thanks mainly to those from “Millionaire’s Colony.” Needless to say, some luxury Tarrytown homes are worth quite a bit of money.
Whether you have a million-dollar home or a typical single-family home, you’ll want to be sure your house matches some of the surrounding Tarrytown homes, which typically have more traditional architecture with brick or stone features.
While your landscaping can already be a nice amenity outside your home, a brick or stone water fountain can be another aesthetic addition to offer a rich and elegant appearance to the front of your home. You can find easy-to-install fountains that match this description on Wayfair or at traditional home improvement stores.
4. Upgrade your lighting
Many people don’t realize how quickly their lighting can become faded or outdated. Even if they do, they might not realize how a little extra light can help brighten their home when it’s dark outside. There are a few different lighting options to improve your overall curb appeal.
First, check your mounted lights to ensure they are up-to-date, functional, and matching. Changing the bulbs to provide more light or a new color could be a nice upgrade. Of course, you’ll also want to rid your light fixtures of any cobwebs or residue every now and then.
Your mounted light fixtures are certainly important, but landscape lighting can be another simple and affordable change to your home to improve curb appeal. Walkway lighting and well lights can help spotlight your home as the sun goes down. Again, this brings a positive aura to your home that requires little time or money.
5. Include porch or courtyard seating
Outdoor seating is always a welcomed luxury that could be an easy way to improve your home’s outdoor aesthetic. Of course, the placement and type of seating will largely depend on the style of your home. Many of the Tarrytown homes have plenty of space for a decorative courtyard for people to admire, while the rest typically have a small porch. You’d be lucky to find a wrap-around porch in the area.
Like the door and entryway, visible seating can be an inviting amenity, whether placed in a courtyard or on a front porch. You may consider decorative rocking chairs for a smaller front porch or an entire patio set if you have space for a courtyard.
6. Upgrade shutters
Since a large percentage of the Tarrytown real estate is older, there’s a good chance the shutters have become worn or outdated. In addition, many of the shutters designed in the 90s were made with flimsy metal prone to denting and bending.
If you can’t clean and repair your shutters, upgrading to decorative shutters could be a great project to add curb appeal to your Tarrytown home. Nowadays, you can even order customized decorative shutters made of wood, vinyl, aluminum, or composite material.
You’ll have an assortment of options for your shutters, depending on the style and age of your home. And there’s a good chance that one of your neighbors will have upgraded shutters if you’re looking for some ideas.
Buying and selling Tarrytown real estate
Tarrytown is a unique New York village that values its historical appearance. Are you interested in exploring Tarrytown homes? Call The Riolo Team to learn more about Tarrytown and the current housing market.