I’ve struggled with my front yard landscaping, we do not have a historic home with lots of architectural charm, we built in 2012 and this has been a from scratch work in progress.

I live in St. George Utah which means most of the homes are done in stucco for a low maintenance exterior, so all that wood charm you get from vintage wood built homes is lost and hard to duplicate.

I knew landscaping would play a big part and have struggled being from lush Beautiful British Columbia as the plants I love just do not grow here.

I feel like I’ve finally gotten a handle on my curb appeal after 4 years of trial and error and I really don’t feel like it was complete until I put in this square step stone walk way. Adding a walk way for people to easily get from the street to your front door is key and provides a sight light and focal point to your front yard. It was super easy, just cut out your squares of grass, frame them up, and pour the concrete. After the concrete dries take the framing blocks out and voila!

Another one of my favorite and easy ways to add a little “home” to your front porch is succulents. I went to a friends house and they had the most beautiful potted succulents, it made me remember their front porch so I added a couple of my own. Water once a week only so even I can’t kill these :)

The next thing I’ve added was a custom sign with our families name. I got this idea of course off of Pinterest. Found an old piece of barn wood and simply painted our name on it. Adds a little bit of a personal touch.

I’ve really struggled with my planters, I keep changing out the flowers year after year because each year I don’t love the overall look. I think I’ve finally come across a good mix but it will take them a year to fill in and bloom nicely. I try to stick with flowers that come back year after year so I don’t have to keep re planting them. I added a custom painted trellis for our vines, a couple welcome signs, a hummingbird feeder, some rocking chairs and a painted bell that my girls LOVE to ring, I’m hoping it will be pretty easy to keep up.

I still have to replace my welcome mat, having a hard time finding one I love but other than that our front yard is becoming a lot more welcoming, our trees and plants are growing and its finally starting to look like a home…. which is really hard to do with a new build.