It’s easy to express your personality through your interior decoration and design, but what about the outside? How can you make the outside of your home your own unique style? There are several ways you can personalize your home’s exterior through architectural details, color schemes, landscaping, and more.

First, the obvious. Your home’s exterior paint color speaks volumes about your personality in and of itself. Do you want an understated hue that dresses your home in elegance and grace, or a fun, brighter hue that projects energy and friendliness? A note about exterior colors: they’re only as smart and stately as their accent colors. The trim areas (around the windows and doors, the doors themselves, under the gutters, etc.) add much to the overall feel of an outdoor color scheme, if matched right.

After the paint color come the small architectural details of your home. The window and door trim are great complimentary pieces, but you don’t have to stop there when designing an exterior decoration scheme. Consider things like exterior molding, arbors, pergolas, shutters, columns, balustrades, crossheads, and other accents your canvas to create your own feel and look.

Before you go crazy adding accents like this, walk around the outside of your home a few times. Do it at different times of day to get a sense of how it looks in different light. Consider updating or upgrading the architectural accents you already have before you go buy brand-new ones. Most importantly, get a read on what your home is communicating to passersby as it is. You can try to build on that impression or refute it from there.

Ask yourself what adding any architectural elements would do functionally. What purpose would they serve? What architectural style (eg. Tudor, colonial, etc.) do they serve? How will they work in concert with what you already have on your exterior? The main danger here is trying to make your house into something it’s not designed for or simply something it’s not.

Next, consider the landscaping. You can do many things with a front and back yard. Ask yourself what would make being outdoors more fun, or what would go with your home’s exterior. Sometimes, all it takes is a few rose bushes and a commitment to water your lawn more. Sometimes, you can envision a bar-be-que pit in the backyard. You can be extremely clever and creative in landscaping. Usually, in this aspect, the only limit is your imagination and your budget.

Landscaping is part of your exterior’s personality. Do you want a functional space or a decorative space, or both? If you’re adding any color to your outdoor areas, with flowers or outdoor structures, consider how they fit with your exterior paint job. Make your outside area complement your interior and the color scheme your friends and neighbors see on a regular basis.

Make sure before you start to make any decisions about the exterior of your home that you consider all angles and looks.