Dear Homework,
We just purchased this early ’60s ranch on a nicely treed lot in Frontenac. It sits on a quiet cul-de-sac across from the neighborhood’s first tear-down/French country extravagance. What can you suggest to give our fairly simple house a big dose of curb appeal and a fighting chance against the other tear-downs to come?
Sincerely,
—Get Me Into Fighting Shape
Your plight is a common one in the great school district areas that feature once up-market ranch homes on huge lots with mature trees. Your design
problem is a difficult, but not hopeless one.
My basic advice would be to make your ranch house ‘the best it can be.’ Frankly, yours starts off with many pluses. Its handsome brick façade has a nice composition and is well-framed by mature trees. I would like to play up its ‘ranchness’ by accentuating the horizontality.
You will observe that I show planting several beds of low-growing hedges to extend the lines of the house into the landscape. These are lightly accented with ornamental grasses and clump birch trees for vertical counter-points. A low brick garden wall and new bluestone walkway work together with the new parking area to create a more impactful entry sequence. I also show painting the existing brick a more fashionable green/gray with black accents, and I would like to turn the roof gable into a louvered vent to give it more detail.
These changes give the property a new Mad Men vibe that is way (way) cooler than what is usually re-built in neighborhoods like yours. Let the fighting commence.
—Homework
[Homework is penned by Paul Doerner, Founding Partner of the Lawrence Group. If you would like your home critiqued, contact us at homework@townandstyle.com.]