After three decades of designing homes, I’ve learnt that a great outdoor space has very little to do with how big it is. This property in Toowoomba is a lovely example. The family had plenty of room outside. What they didn’t have was somewhere that felt like a place to escape to.
✨ Designed by The Facade Design Co ✨
One Big Patio Doing Every Job
When I first saw the outdoor area, it was generous and well built. A large tiled patio ran straight off the kitchen, with views over the lawn, pool and tennis court.
The trouble was that it was one space trying to do everything. Meals, lounging, entertaining and the kids catching up with their friends all happened in the same spot. Sitting out there felt a lot like sitting just outside the kitchen, because that’s exactly what it was.
The family’s brief was clear. They wanted separate spaces, so the kids could hang out on their own while the adults enjoyed a quieter corner of the yard. They wanted it to feel relaxed and inviting. And they wanted it to feel special, the kind of place you look forward to stepping into at the end of the day.
The Design Decisions Behind the Retreat
Water as a Gentle Divider
The water feature is the heart of this design. A shallow reflection pond wraps around the lounge zone, so it reads as its own little island.
Water separates spaces without closing them off. You can see across it, hear it and enjoy the light bouncing off its surface, but it still tells you clearly that you’ve moved from one area into another. It also brings an instant sense of calm, which is a big part of why resort spaces feel the way they do.
To cross the water, I used oversized travertine stepping stones. Moving between zones becomes a small, enjoyable experience rather than just walking from one paved area to the next.
Travertine to Tie Everything Together
With several distinct zones, I needed something to hold the whole area together. Travertine did that job beautifully.
Its soft, warm tone sits comfortably against the greenery, and its natural variation stops a large paved area from feeling flat. I carried it through the dining zone, the steps down to the water, the stepping stones and around the pool, so every space feels part of the same story.
Timber Underfoot in the Lounge
For the lounge zone, I wanted a change of texture. A rich timber deck gives it a warmer, more casual feel than the stone, which helps it feel like a separate room.
That contrast between stone and timber is subtle, but it’s one of the reasons each zone feels like its own destination.
An Outdoor Kitchen With Its Own Place
The outdoor kitchen sits on the deck against a dark backdrop, so it feels considered and tucked in rather than plonked on the edge of the patio. Whoever is cooking stays part of the conversation without the BBQ taking over the lounge or the dining table.
The Pool, Close but Contained
The pool sits just beyond the water feature. I used frameless glass fencing on the side facing the living zones, so the pool stays in full view and parents can keep an eye on the kids without hovering.
Black vertical battens finish the pool edge and add a crisp, architectural line. They give a sense of privacy and enclosure, and the dark colour lets the water, stone and planting take centre stage.
Planting and Lighting for Atmosphere
Lush, layered planting softens every hard edge. Large tropical foliage, low grasses along the water and greenery framing each zone make the space feel enveloping rather than exposed.
Lighting was just as important. Soft, warm light across each zone means the spaces glow after dark, and the reflection pond picks up that light beautifully. A well-lit outdoor area gets used for hours longer every evening, and this is often the detail people underestimate most.
How It Feels Now
The finished spaces feel calm, layered and quietly luxurious. You can sit on the deck lounge with water all around you and feel miles away, even though the dining area is only a few steps across the stones.
The kids have somewhere to gather that’s theirs. The adults have a quieter spot to unwind. And when everyone wants to come together, the zones connect easily.
What I love most is that nothing here relies on a trend. Natural stone, timber, water and planting have a timeless quality, and they’ll still feel right in many years’ time. It feels a little like being on holiday, without packing a bag.
Before You Pick a Single Tile
If you’re planning to upgrade your outdoor area, here are a few things I’d encourage you to think about first:
- Start with how you want to feel. Relaxed, social, private or playful. Your answer shapes everything that follows.
- Plan zones around how your household actually lives. Separate spaces for different ages and activities make an area far more usable.
- Separate without closing off. Water, level changes, planting and changes in flooring material can define zones while keeping sightlines open.
- Limit your material palette. Two or three natural materials, used consistently, create a calm and cohesive space.
- Plan your lighting early. It’s much easier to build in lighting from the start than to add it later.
Good outdoor living design is as much about getting the order right as it is about style, so resist the urge to choose finishes before the layout is resolved. When I prepare an Outdoor Design Plan, the zones, flow and connections all come first. That clarity helps homeowners make confident decisions before construction begins, and it gives the builder and trades a clear vision to work from.
Thinking About Your Own Outdoor Space?
If your outdoor area is spacious but doesn’t quite feel like somewhere you want to escape to, I’d be glad to help you work out what’s possible. You’re welcome to book a complimentary consultation, and we can talk through your space, how your family uses it and the feeling you’d love to come home to.
Jane
https://hotspaceconsultants.com/preliminary-enquiry/
📧 jane@hotspaceconsultants.com
“How much should we spend on the outside?” It’s one of the questions I’m asked most often. Most homeowners have no real sense of what to allow, which is completely understandable. Exterior upgrade costs for a renovation or a new build isn’t something you can look up on a price list, because the range is enormous.
At one end, you could spend a thousand dollars on a DIY paint job and a new letterbox. At the other end, you could spend hundreds of thousands, or more than a million on a substantial home. The right figure for your house sits somewhere in between, and over the years I’ve found a few reliable ways to work out where.
Start With What You’ve Already Spent Inside
Many of the homeowners who come to me have already renovated the inside of their home. Not everyone, but a lot of them. New kitchen, new bathrooms, custom joinery, beautiful lighting. Then they stand on the footpath, look back at the house, and realise the outside no longer matches the home they live in.
This is one of the most useful places to start. The exterior is the first thing you see every time you come home, and the first thing everyone else sees too. If the interior has had a considered, high-quality renovation and the exterior hasn’t, pulling into your driveway becomes a bit of a letdown.
What you spent inside tells you the standard you’ve already set. The outside should meet it.
Let Your Property’s Value Guide Your Exterior Upgrade Cost
The second piece of the puzzle is what the property is worth. A $500,000 home and a $10 million home call for very different levels of investment.
That doesn’t mean a $500,000 home can’t have something really special. Good design isn’t reserved for expensive houses. But you probably wouldn’t put $200,000 into the façade of a $500,000 property. On a home worth $3M, $4M or $5M or more, spending $150,000 to $200,000 or more is far more realistic. It depends on where the house is starting from, of course.
As a rough guide, I suggest allowing a minimum of 5% of the property’s value. Most of the projects I work on have a budget of at least $100,000 – $150,000 – and often that’s for the façade alone.
The key is not to scrimp on a valuable property. An exterior that falls short of the home’s quality can pull its value down, and it’s the kind of decision people come to regret.
Why Every Last Detail Matters
Most people can choose the big things. The colours, the cladding profile, perhaps a new front door. Those choices matter, but they aren’t what separates a quick, inexpensive renovation from one that looks exceptional.
The difference is in every last detail:
- The depth of the bulkhead over the entry, which decides whether it reads as solid architecture or a thin afterthought
- The height and placement of wall lights, set in proportion to the doors, windows and walls around them
- The joint where two surfaces meet, detailed so it looks intentional rather than stuck on
- The scale of the stone in relation to the scale of the house
- The balance between texture and simpler surfaces, so there’s enough interest while the house still has room to breathe
- How the details of the front fence pick up the lines and materials of the house, so the two read as one design
- Practical elements like capping and waterproofing, designed to protect surfaces while still looking considered
Each of these seems small on its own. Together, they decide whether a home looks resolved or simply updated. This applies to new builds as much as renovations. When you don’t work in this field every day, it’s hard to know these details exist, let alone resolve them. Yet they’re what give a home real presence on the street.
This is also where I see money go astray. Some people save on design advice and gather ideas online instead, or ask AI for suggestions. That can be a useful starting point, but an image can’t tell you how it will be built, how long it will last, or what it will cost. The result is often spending too much in the wrong places, or too little on the things that would have made the biggest difference.
Exterior Upgrade Cost for Renovations and New Builds
When I think about exterior upgrade cost for renovations and new builds, I see it in layers.
At one level, you might paint the house, replace some cladding, update the lighting and add new landscaping. That’s a legitimate refresh. On a lower-value home, or one you plan to sell in the next year or two, it can be exactly the right call.
The deeper level looks at the house as a whole: its form, its scale and proportion, and how it will look in 10, 15 or 20 years. That approach costs more upfront. Over the life of the home, it usually costs less, because the work doesn’t need to be redone a few years later.
There’s an old saying that the poor man pays twice. I see it play out more often than you’d think. A cheaper fix now can lead to a second renovation much sooner than expected.
Thinking 20 Years Ahead
On a valuable property, an exterior upgrade shouldn’t be a quick flip. Done well, it’ll add value and longevity, so that in 15 or 20 years the house still looks right and doesn’t need updating again.
Then there’s the budget itself. Figures from early research are often optimistic, and the real exterior upgrade costs only become clear once everything is specified. Having someone with a realistic sense of what things cost by the end of the project can save a lot of stress.
Before You Settle on a Number
If you’re working out a budget for your own home, these are the things I’d keep in mind:
- Let your interior renovation set the standard for the exterior.
- Treat 5% of your property’s value as a starting point, not a ceiling.
- Put money into detailing and construction quality, not only colours and cladding.
- Plan for how the house will look in 20 years, not just next year.
If your property is worth more than about $2 million, I really encourage you to take your time and bring in someone who works in this field, whether that’s me or another experienced professional. You want advice on how it will look, how it will last and what it will realistically cost.
If you’re still weighing up how much to spend on a façade renovation and would like a clear, experienced opinion before you commit, I’d be glad to help. You’re welcome to book a complimentary consultation, and we can talk through your home, your plans and what a sensible investment looks like for your property.
Jane
A lot of conversations with homeowners start with a material. Someone has fallen for a particular stone, a cladding profile or a beautiful timber door, and they want to know where it should go. It’s a good instinct, and materials matter. But on this canal-front home on the Sunshine Coast, the real issue wasn’t a lack of nice finishes. It was a flat facade, and no single product was ever going to fix that on its own.
This project is a good example of why I think about depth first and materials second.
✨ Designed by The Facade Design Co ✨
Three Gables and Still No Depth
On paper, this house had a lot going for it. It’s a solid two-storey home with a tiled roof in good condition, and three gables step down towards the street. A roofline like that should give a front plenty of character.
But from the street, it didn’t.
Every surface was rendered the same bright white, including the walls, all three gables and the areas between them. The gables had thin dark trim lines run inside them, which were clearly meant to add interest. In practice, they read more like outlines drawn onto a flat surface than real architectural detail.
The charcoal garage door was the biggest dark shape on the whole front, so that’s where your eye went first. The front door, the part of the house that should welcome you, was tucked off to the side with almost no presence.
Canal homes often put most of their energy into the water side, and that makes sense, because that’s where the living happens. The street side can be left saying very little.
The owners were keen to keep the existing roof tiles and work within the current footprint. So any change had to come from the walls, the gables, the entry and the front boundary.
Why a Flat Facade Can’t Be Fixed With Finishes Alone
This is where I see people go wrong, and it’s completely understandable.
When a house looks plain, the natural response is to add something better: stone, cladding or a premium render. But if you wrap an entire front in the same beautiful material, you still end up with one surface. It might look more expensive. It will still look flat.
Depth on a facade comes from a handful of things working together:
- planes that step forward and back
- a clear hierarchy of light and dark tones
- shadow lines that change through the day
- materials placed where they have a reason to be
On this home, I couldn’t change the roofline or push walls forward, apart from at the entry. So the question became how to make three gables that already step down actually read as three separate layers. Each one needed its own job, and getting the scale and proportion of those layers right mattered more than any individual finish.
The entry was the one place I could create genuine forward projection. That made it the most valuable opportunity on the whole front.
Deciding What Comes Forward and What Steps Back
Before choosing a single product, I worked out which parts of the house should come forward visually, which should recede, and where the eye should land. The materials followed from that.
The gables
I treated the three gables as a tonal sequence rather than three matching triangles.
The upper gable is clad in light vertical board-and-batten. It keeps that highest part of the house light, so it sits quietly at the back of the composition. The vertical battens also add fine shadow lines, giving the surface texture without making it busy.
The middle gable goes dark in vertical cladding. It reads as a band sitting behind the lowest gable, which immediately separates the two.
The lowest gable is the darkest and most recessed. Dark battened infill sits back within the frame, and a timber lining under the eave catches the light. Dark recesses read as deeper than they really are, so this gable now feels like it has real volume.
The old trim outlines are gone. They aren’t needed once each gable has its own tone and texture. I’ve written before about using more than one tone of cladding, and this is a clear case of that approach doing the heavy lifting.
The entry
The new flat-roofed portico projects forward from the house and finally gives the front door the presence it was missing. Its horizontal form also contrasts with all the pitched gables, which keeps the front from feeling repetitive.
A stone column anchors one side. A downlight sits in the soffit, and a timber front door brings warmth at eye level, right where visitors will notice it.
The stone
I used natural stone as piers either side of the garage, on the portico column and on a section of the front fence. These are all places where you’d expect something solid to be carrying weight.
That’s deliberate. Stone looks right when it appears to be doing a structural job. Spread across a whole wall, it would have competed with everything else. In these few spots, it grounds the house and links the home to the boundary.
Colour and the garage door
The walls have changed colour only slightly. The garage door changed from charcoal to white. That might seem like a small decision, but it’s one of the most important on the front. Dark colours pull the eye. On the original house, all that attention went to the garage. Now the door blends into the wall, and the dark tones have moved up into the gables, where they create depth instead of drawing focus to the least interesting part of the house.
The gate and front fence
The new driveway gate uses simple vertical slats without the diagonal brace, so it reads as calm and lets the house be seen through it. The rendered fence, stone section, pedestrian gate and clean letterbox with its house number tie the boundary back to the architecture.
All of this was resolved in a comprehensive facade design plan which I prepared for my client, before work began on site. That means the builder and trades can get on with doing what they do well, without anyone having to make design calls on the fly.
How It Reads From the Street Now
The front now has layers. Your eye moves from the stone piers to the dark lower gable, back through the middle gable, and up to the light board-and-batten at the top. The entry steps forward and tells you exactly where to go. The garage, which used to dominate, now sits back where it belongs.
None of this relies on anything dramatic. The roof tiles are the same. The footprint is the same. What’s changed is how each surface relates to the ones around it, and that’s what gives a design staying power. If you’d like to see more, here are some of the other homes I’ve redesigned using the same thinking.
What I’d Want You to Take From This
If your home feels flat, it’s worth stepping back before you start choosing finishes. A few things I’d suggest:
- Take a photo of your facade and turn it black and white. If everything is one shade of grey, tone is your first problem, not materials.
- Decide what should come forward and what should recede before you pick a single product.
- Put your darkest colours where you want depth, not on your largest flat surface.
- Use feature materials like stone where they’d logically carry weight.
- Don’t assume you need to change the roof or footprint. Often the existing bones are better than they look.
Good materials make a well-planned facade look even better. They just can’t do the planning for you.
If you’re about to renovate or build and something about your front isn’t sitting right, Iget in touch to see if I can help. You can book a complimentary consultation, and we’ll look at where your home’s depth is hiding before any decisions are locked in.
Jane
I’m going to make a call that may not be popular. Of all the exterior design trends I’ve watched arrive over the past few years, there are three I believe will date homes much faster than people expect.
I’ve been designing façades for a long time – long enough to see plenty of ideas arrive with great enthusiasm and then quietly disappear. And the ones that age badly usually have something in common. They were chosen because they were everywhere at the time, rather than because they suited the house. So here are my three, along with what I’d lean towards if you’re building or renovating now.
But first…
Why some exterior design trends age faster than others
A trend isn’t a problem in itself. Every era has its look, and some of Australia’s most loved homes carry clear signs of when they were built.
The trouble starts when a feature is added as decoration instead of growing out of the architecture.
When a detail has a reason to be there, it tends to hold up. It might frame a view, shade a window or soften a hard corner. When it’s there because it photographs well this year, it becomes a date stamp.
That’s the lens I’ve used for all three of the trends below.
1. Decorative arches
Arches are everywhere at the moment. Arched front doors, arched windows, arched openings cut into fence walls and porticos. I understand the appeal. After years of hard-edged boxes, a curve feels soft and welcoming.
But I think the decorative arch will become one of the clearest timestamps of the mid-2020s. In ten years, I suspect people will look at a row of arched windows on a new build and know almost exactly when it went up.
Curves versus arches
There’s a distinction worth making here. Soft architectural curves are a different thing altogether.
A rounded corner on a rendered wall, a gently curved balustrade or a sweep of front steps can feel calm and enduring, because the curve belongs to the form of the building.
The arches I’d be cautious about are the ones that sit on the surface. Arched recesses with nothing behind them. Arch-shaped timber panels. The same arch repeated across every opening on the façade. When one shape is used that many times, it stops being a feature and starts being a theme.
If you love the softness an arch brings, I’d usually suggest one considered moment, such as a single arched opening into a courtyard, rather than making it the language of the whole house.
2. Pale, whitewashed timber
I still love pale timber indoors. Light oak floors, limed joinery and soft blonde tones create a lovely, airy interior, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Outside is a different story.
Pale, whitewashed timber has been used so heavily on façades here in Australia, that it’s starting to feel like the default. Pale battens at the front door, a blonde garage door, light timber-look screening wrapped around the upper level. Paired with white render, it all blends into one soft, washed-out palette.
There’s also the question of how it sits in our light. Australian sun is strong, and very pale timber against pale render can flatten a façade. There’s little to tell the eye where one material stops and the next begins, so the detailing gets lost from the street.
What I’d lean towards
I’d rather see richer timber tones used with stronger contrast. Warm mid-browns, the depth of spotted gum, or walnut-toned finishes.
A darker timber against light render, or a warm timber beside charcoal, gives a façade definition. It reads clearly from the kerb and it ages with far more grace.
Contrast doesn’t have to mean drama. It simply gives each material room to be seen.
3. Desert-style landscaping
Desert-style front gardens, with large cacti, agaves, golden barrels and expanses of gravel or river stone, have become a popular answer to the question of how to make a front yard easy. It’s true that these gardens need very little water or attention. But they can look incredibly stark, particularly against a white or cream house. Rather than softening the architecture, they tend to sharpen it.
It reminds me of the yucca craze years ago, when spiky yuccas seemed to appear in every second front yard. They felt modern at the time. Before long, they were the first thing new owners wanted removed.
Layered planting lasts
What I’d much rather see is layered planting. A mix of ornamental grasses, soft-leaved shrubs, groundcovers and a feature tree or two creates depth and movement. It changes with the seasons, it grounds the house, and it makes a home feel lived in.
You can still choose hardy, drought-tolerant plants. Many native grasses and silvery shrubs suit our climate beautifully and ask for very little. The difference is in the arrangement. Height, texture and softness matter far more than any single statement plant.
Landscaping is often the last thing considered on a build, yet it’s the frame for the entire façade. It deserves the same thought as the render colour or the front door.
What tends to stand the test of time
After three decades of looking closely at houses, I’ve noticed the façades that age well share a few qualities:
- proportions that feel balanced from the street
- a restrained palette of three to four materials, with clear contrast between them
- details that do a job, rather than simply decorate
- planting that softens the architecture instead of competing with it
None of these belong to a particular year, and that’s exactly why they work.
It’s also why I put so much care into a full façade design plan for my clients who are building new or renovating, before anything is built. When colours, materials, proportions and landscaping are worked through together on paper, it’s much easier to see whether a feature genuinely suits the house or is simply of the moment. That plan sits alongside the work of your architect and builder, so everyone has a clear picture of the finished exterior before construction begins.
Changing a drawing is easy. Changing a finished façade is not.
Before you commit to a look
Exterior design trends can be fun to borrow from. The trick is knowing where to use them. If you’re planning a new build or renovation and want to feel confident your home’s exterior will still look right long after these trends have passed, I’d love to help. You’re welcome to book a complimentary consultation, and we can talk through your home, what you love about it and what’s most likely to last.
Jane
This beachside home in Curl Curl, NSW was one of those houses that wore their decade like a name badge, but its 90s house facade makeover is a good example of how much can change without touching the roofline. Three storeys of orange face brick, ornate metal balustrades and pale cream window frames.
It’s something I see a lot of. Many dated homes don’t need major structural work. They need someone to pinpoint the details tying them to their era, then replace those details with choices that will still feel right in twenty years.
✨ Designed by The Facade Design Co ✨
Inside This 90s House Facade Makeover
The owners wanted a modern look, and they wanted to add an ensuite by enclosing part of the lower balcony. The roofline and structure would stay as they were, with the new room built within the existing footprint.
My biggest challenge was the height of the building. With brick running from the garage to the eaves, the house read as one tall wall. I broke it into three clear layers, with a charcoal frame around the top level and soft white render wrapping the floors below. That single move gave the house proportion and depth.
The ensuite needed careful thought too. Bathroom windows facing the street are never ideal, so I placed a timber-look battened screen across the enclosed section which gives the owners privacy and filters the light, and from the street it reads as a design feature rather than an addition.
Because the owners were working within an existing structure, everything was resolved in a detailed Facade Design Plan before work began. They and their builder knew exactly what was being built, which takes a great deal of stress out of a renovation.
The result feels calm, settled and right for its coastal setting. For me, that’s what a good 90s house facade makeover should do. You’ll find more before and after projects in my portfolio.
Signs Your Facade Is Stuck in the 90s (and What to Do Instead)
Most homes from this decade share a handful of tell-tale details. Here are the ones I see most often, and what I’d do about each.
Pale aluminium windows with colonial bars
Cream frames tend to look chalky now, and lots of little glazing bars make windows feel busy. If you’re replacing windows, choose a darker frame in black, charcoal or white with uninterrupted glass. If they’re staying, check whether the bars are clip-in and can be removed and/or have them sprayed in a modern colour.
Face brick from top to bottom
Red, orange, salmon or mottled brown brick, often with contrasting mortar that highlights every joint. Render will give brick a fresh start. You don’t always need to cover every wall with render, though. Add in cladding, timber look battens or feature stone for extra interest.
Orange terracotta or brown concrete roof tiles
The roof is often the largest surface you see from the street. Tiles can usually be restored and recoated in a deeper neutral, and if replacement is due, Colorbond in a considered colour opens up a more contemporary look.
Federation revival details
Decorative gables, finials, turned posts, fretwork and bullnose verandahs in heritage green, cream or burgundy. I mean revival details on newer homes here, not genuine Federation houses, which deserve to be restored. Remove the ornamental add-ons, swap turned posts for square ones and replace curved verandah roofs with a simple skillion or flat awning.
Heritage trim colours
Deep green, burgundy, cream, dusty blue and heritage red outlining every edge. A tonal palette works far better today, with trims that match the walls or quietly recede. Let materials carry the interest instead. I’ve written more about choosing exterior colours if you’d like a starting point.
Stained timber doors with leadlight
Moulded panels and leadlight date a home almost instantly. A simpler door makes a much stronger statement, whether that’s flush timber, vertical grooves, slim glass strips or a solid colour. If there’s room, go wider or taller.
Lattice, roller doors and coach lights
Three small details that add up quickly. Replace lattice with horizontal or vertical battens, swap roller garage doors for a sectional door in a timber look or the wall colour, and trade lantern-style coach lights for slim wall lights and soffit downlights.
Patterned concrete, paling fences and curved garden beds
The garden and boundary matter as much as the house. Exposed aggregate or honed concrete suits a modern home far better than stencilled patterns. Treat the fence as part of the facade, and replace curved, brick-edged beds of palms and yuccas with straight rendered planters and fewer plant varieties repeated in groups. It’s all part of the whole street view.
Before You Change Anything
A dated facade is rarely one big problem. It’s usually a collection of small details pointing back to the same decade. The homeowners who get the best results:
- look at the whole house before changing any one element
- remove era-specific details before adding new ones
- repeat a few materials rather than introducing many
- plan everything before the first trade arrives
That last point matters most. Decisions made on site, one at a time, rarely add up to a cohesive result.
If Your Home Feels Stuck in Another Decade
If a few of these signs sound familiar and you’re not sure where to begin, I’d love to help. You can book a complimentary consultation with me here at The Façade Design Co. (formerly Hotspace Consultants – currently rebranding so forgive some inconsistencies as we roll out the new look!), and together we’ll work out which changes will make the biggest difference to your home before you commit to anything.
Jane
By the time most people building a new home get to the exterior, they’re pretty much running on fumes. The floor plan has been through countless revisions, the kitchen has been debated for weeks, and the façade gets whatever energy is left.
I’ve spent 30 years in the design world and close to a decade designing nothing but façades, and I see the same five things squeezed out of new builds again and again. They’re the ones I’d hold onto in any project, because they decide whether a house feels thoughtfully put together or just finished.
✨ Designed by The Facade Design Co ✨
Why these details slip through
The architects and building designers I work alongside carry an enormous load. Planning, structure, orientation, council requirements and the way a family will live inside the home all sit on their desk, and that’s a lot to get right.
The finer exterior decisions often land in the space between their drawings and the builder’s schedule. Which stone, exactly where. Which lights, at what size. How the fence relates to the cladding. Nobody has dropped the ball. These details simply belong to a different stage of thinking, and that’s usually where I come in.
1. Stone cladding, used with restraint
Natural stone brings something no other material can. It has weight, texture and a variation in colour that changes through the day. Used well, it makes a house feel grounded and permanent. If it’s used too generously, though, it does the opposite. I’ve seen beautiful stone spread across so many surfaces that it loses all its impact and the house starts to feel heavy.
For me, placement matters far more than the product. I’ll usually give stone one clear job. That might be a single feature wall framing the entrance, a strong vertical element that breaks up a long frontage, or a low base that anchors the house to the ground.
I also look closely at how the stone relates to everything around it. The roof colour, the render, the window frames and any secondary cladding all need to sit comfortably beside it. When I’m combining cladding tones with intention, stone is often the element I build the rest of the palette around.
Enough to add interest and texture, but never so much that it competes with itself.
2. Lighting chosen like jewellery
Exterior lighting is one of the most underrated parts of new home exterior design. It’s often decided late, picked from a standard list and installed wherever the electrician finds convenient.
I treat light fixtures the way I’d treat jewellery on an outfit. During the day they add style, finish and personality to the façade. At night they create mood and make the house feel welcoming from the street.
The layers I think about on almost every home are:
- Wall lights that frame the front door or garage and are scaled to be read from the street
- Eave lights that wash gently down the walls or garage door and show off texture like stone or battens
- A pendant at the entrance, which instantly signals where you’re meant to go
- Garden lights that pick out trees, plants and the path without flooding the yard
One observation I’d share with anyone building: exterior wall lights almost always need to be larger than people expect. A fixture that looks generous in a showroom can look like a postage stamp on a two-storey wall.
And like good jewellery, less is usually more. A few well-chosen pieces placed with purpose will always look more refined than a scattering of lights everywhere.
3. A front entrance that’s clearly the hero
Your front door should never have to compete for attention. On a lot of new builds it does, usually with a double garage that takes up a huge share of the frontage.
When I design a façade, I decide early that the entrance will lead. From there, everything else is arranged to support it. Wall forms, material changes, the line of the path and the placement of lighting all gently direct the eye towards the door.
There are many ways to give an entrance that presence. A taller or wider door, a recessed porch, a change in material, a lined ceiling overhead or a feature pendant can each do the job. Often it’s a combination, carefully balanced. Getting the door size right is a big part of getting scale and proportion right across the whole façade.
The garage matters here too. I’ll sometimes design the garage door to blend into the surrounding cladding or colour so it recedes, leaving the entrance free to stand out.
I also think about how people actually reach the door. Wide, comfortable paths and well-placed steps are part of designing an entrance that works for every stage of life, and they make the front of the house feel generous rather than squeezed.
4. Fences and a front yard that belong to the house
So many front fences are chosen after handover, when the rest of the money and attention has already gone elsewhere. The result is a fence that has nothing to do with the house behind it.
I much prefer to design the fence, front yard and façade together. That way they read as one considered composition from the street.
Often this means repeating something from the house. A stone pier that echoes a stone feature wall, battens that match the cladding direction, or a colour borrowed from the window frames. These small links tie everything together without anyone quite noticing why it looks right.
I also think about height and openness. A fence that’s too solid can hide the very façade you’ve invested in. One that’s slightly open lets the house be seen while still giving privacy.
Landscaping finishes the picture. Planting softens hard edges, frames the entrance and helps the house settle into its block. It’s worth checking your council’s front fence requirements early too, so the design you love is one you’re allowed to build.
5. A design that’s entirely yours
This is the one I feel most strongly about.
It’s tempting to find a façade you love online, or admire a house down the street, and ask for the same thing. I understand why. But a house that works beautifully on someone else’s block, facing a different direction, under different light and on a different street rarely translates when copied.
If this is your long-term home, it deserves to be designed around you. Your block, your orientation, your climate, your street and the way you live all shape what will work. So do the materials and colours you’re drawn to, not just the ones that happen to be popular this year.
Inspiration is a wonderful starting point. I’d never discourage anyone from collecting images they love. The skill lies in understanding why you love them and translating that into something that suits your own home.
That’s what a complete façade design plan does. It turns the ideas you’ve gathered into clear, buildable decisions made specifically for your house, before construction begins, so nothing is left to guesswork on site.
What I’d take away from all this
If you’re about to build, a few principles will serve you well:
- Make exterior decisions alongside the floor plan rather than after it
- Choose one clear focal point and let everything else support it
- Get your lighting into the electrical plan early, with fixture sizes confirmed
- Design the fence and front yard at the same time as the façade
None of these ideas are dramatic. They’re about care, restraint and making sure every part of the exterior is working towards the same goal. In my experience, that’s what gives a house lasting street appeal. It still looks right ten or twenty years on, long after the latest trends have moved past it.
Thinking about your own build?
If you’re in the planning stages and want a second set of eyes on the exterior before anything is locked in, I’d love to help. You’re welcome to book a complimentary consultation, and we can talk through what your home needs to feel considered and completely your own.
Jane
