Dear Homework,
Our home is 34 years old. Most of the landscaping is original, and we would love to update it for easier maintenance. We have three dogwoods and one Japanese maple that I would like to keep. Thank you for any help you can offer.
Sincerely,
—Troubled Tudor
Dear Troubled Tudor,
You have asked me to do two simple things, and I respectfully decline to do either. Almost all of your landscaping must go … and the new landscaping will probably require more upkeep than the existing scheme. Let me explain why.
I have mentioned many times that the most important, prominent area of a home’s façade should be the front door. In this situation, we can’t even see the front door. Not only that, but much of the existing landscaping hides other important parts of the façade’s composition, making the house look far less handsome than it could.
I want to remove all the existing landscape, except two dogwood trees. As you can see from the sketch, I have widened the circle drive at the front door and accentuated this with a hedge of evergreens, finished with pyramidal evergreens. This is done to make the entry more important. You also will see that the front door now has an arched transom, new coach lamps and a widened stoop that further upgrades the prominence of the entry.
Additional landscape changes show new continuous foundation plantings to hide the exposed concrete and an additional dogwood to hide the driveway turnaround and the basketball backstop. Finally, I show a color change to the existing cream-colored stucco. The goal here is to blend all the elements together so that the entire façade works together as one. The new, darker windows and diamond-pane grills look more authentic.
While I am suggesting concepts that are beyond the scope of your original request, I hope you can see a much more unified and stately property that would be worth a little time spent trimming the hedges.
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.
