The tools you need to increase your home's curb appeal this year

(BPT) - Can the look and condition of your roof affect the resale value and curb appeal of your home? What about your window frames, entry door or shutters? The answer is absolutely.

This year building product companies are urging homeowners to focus on improving their home's exterior. Investing in key products now can make your home more marketable in the future.

Sixty-one percent of homeowners say that when house hunting or designing their home, the most attention-grabbing exterior feature was the style of the home, according to the 2011 DaVinci Roofscapes Homeowners Exterior Preferences Study conducted by Harris Interactive. This was followed by how the house looked on the property (43 percent).

And, when it comes to adding curb appeal to a home, color counts. Fifty-nine percent of homeowners place a lot of emphasis on the role that color plays when they think about replacing major exterior home features.

"To enhance curb appeal it's all about creating 'top down' color by working from the roof down through the different elements of the exterior such as siding, windows, trim and doors," says Kate Smith, president of Sensational Color. "For example, a colonial style home with a warm Autumn Blend polymer shake roof could be ideally matched with a home exterior in a neutral stone color.

"Then, add pops of color for curb appeal, such as chocolate brown vinyl window frames, like those available from Simonton Windows. Shutters and trim around the home could use the same deep brown color. A stand-out color like pine green or marine blue would then be added to the entry door to add personality to the exterior."

Smith, who has authored the free online FRESH Home Exterior Colors and FRESH Color Schemes for Your Home Exterior guides, spends a good deal of her time advising homeowners, remodelers and builders on selecting the perfect colors for the exterior of the home.

"It's important to remember that it all starts on the roof," says Smith. "When you're working top down with unlimited color options from a company like DaVinci Roofscapes, a homeowner has an open palette for designing the perfect home exterior."

Smith recommends that other key factors to enhance curb appeal can be found by selecting products for the home that are easily painted and maintained. "For me, it's all about adding color to easy-care products," says Smith. "That's one reason why I like Fypon decorative millwork pieces so much. These smooth polyurethane pieces come primed and ready to paint. We're talking about shutters, louvers, door and window trim, balustrade systems and even brackets and mouldings to increase the exterior appeal of a home.

"And, of course, nothing pops with color like the front door. I recommend homeowners consider stylish and paintable fiberglass entry doors from Therma-Tru. This company invented fiberglass doors and they offer many options for adding warmth, color and elegance to the home exterior."

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The tools you need to increase your home's curb appeal this year