The stars of Curb Appeal Xtreme give expert advice for updating your home’s exterior spaces. John Gidding chats with host Marianne Canada about his architectural approach to transforming homes and the exterior home colors he loves. He shares some approachable weekend projects for this fall and why you should prioritize creating an outdoor living space. John talks about his favorite budget-friendly and investment-worthy curb appeal projects and why he wants to make trees the next big landscaping trend before a curb appeal rapid fire round. Carpenter Rachel Taylor then gives her top tips for building and properly storing outdoor furniture and her favorite low-cost, high-impact outdoor living space updates. Rachel also reveals her favorite ways to disguise unsightly home elements.
The stars of Curb Appeal Xtreme give expert advice for updating your home’s exterior spaces. John Gidding chats with host Marianne Canada about his architectural approach to transforming homes and the exterior home colors he loves. He shares some approachable weekend projects for this fall and why you should prioritize creating an outdoor living space. John talks about his favorite budget-friendly and investment-worthy curb appeal projects and why he wants to make trees the next big landscaping trend before a curb appeal rapid fire round. Carpenter Rachel Taylor then gives her top tips for building and properly storing outdoor furniture and her favorite low-cost, high-impact outdoor living space updates. Rachel also reveals her favorite ways to disguise unsightly home elements.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: Hello, and welcome to HGTV Obsessed, the podcast where we dive into all things HGTV. I'm your host Marianne Canada and today we are talking all about Curb Appeal. We have experts, John Gidding and Rachel Taylor from the new HGTV show Curb Appeal Xtreme to give us their top tips to elevate your exterior spaces that will have your neighbors hitting the brakes but that won't break the bank.
First up, we have John Gidding who uses his experience in commercial, residential, and landscape architecture to transform lackluster home exteriors into genuine showstoppers. Here is my chat with John.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Well hi, John Gidding. Welcome to the podcast.
JOHN GIDDING: Hi, Marianne, I'm excited to be here.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, I'm so excited to be talking to you today because you are such a familiar face on HGTV and you hosted, among many things, the original show Curb Appeal, and now you're hosting Curb Appeal Xtreme. Can you tell us a little bit about the show and how it takes these transformations up to that level?
JOHN GIDDING: Yeah. I mean, it's actually a completely different show from before. Of course, there's similar elements but the ways in which it's different are one, now, the homeowners really have a lot of say. I would say, that's one of the biggest differences. In the earlier versions of the show, I would show up as a kind of dictator and I would dictate what I thought the architecture called for.
I thought it was a good way to just bring Curb Appeal back down to basics because people have this tendency to see something in a magazine and say, let me just slap that onto my house because it looked good on this house, it'll probably look good online. And that's, actually, not the right approach.
So back then, I thought, no, I got to show these homeowners another approach, which is to say, the architecture itself is asking for a certain kind of renovation and we need to be attuned to what the house is asking for. This time, especially now that viewers have become so well educated in architectural styles and stylistic choices, now that we've got Pinterest boards and Instagrams and we're really suffuse, we're filled with this kind of knowledge, homeowners come to the table with very specific and appropriate requests.
Requests that not only incorporate what the architecture is asking for, but what they as homeowners have identified as their needs for their house to meet. The homeowner interview is one of the most important features of Curb Appeal Xtreme because they tell us how it is they need their house to work for them and we respond to that. So that's one of the biggest differences.
The other big difference, of course, is we're doing a 360-degree approach to the house fronts backsides. Wherever we can address any kind of problem or create some kind of great space for interactions, homeowner requests, we'll do it.
MARIANNE CANADA: I love that. I feel like instead of armchair experts, we have a bunch of armchair architects now. Everybody.
JOHN GIDDING: Yes.
MARIANNE CANADA: Everybody has their opinion.
JOHN GIDDING: Which is great too in a way because you no longer have to take people through the first steps of identifying their own architectural style and recognizing that by embracing that style rather than foisting a different style on top of it, you can just build on top of what you already got rather than trying to start from scratch.
MARIANNE CANADA: It is fall. I feel like Curb Appeal in the fall. Like people really-- they're ready to get back outside, they're ready to work on their yards and their homes, they want to get it looking good. So I'd love to know, what exterior design trends are you seeing that really elevate Curb Appeal?
JOHN GIDDING: Curb Appeal is sometimes trend resistant because architecture-- right? This is a big investment. We can't just be going out and popping colors on our facade just because that's the hot color of that summer. Facade colors impact not only us and our home, but the entire neighborhood.
So with that said, there are some trends. I would say that the white-- off-white, warm white trend is big. This is a trend that keeps coming back just like charcoal and black keeps coming back. But I'm seeing it a lot this year. We were doing our show in Tennessee in Nashville and there's so many different architectural styles there and yet many of them were pulling off the all-white look really well.
And I would say, a key component of the all-white look is to bring in natural wood tones. So whether in the front door, or the shutters, or a pergola, or trellis somewhere, the all-white on natural wood tone look is in this year. That's for sure. I'm seeing it everywhere. And what I think people like about it is that it's serene and calm. It's universally appealing. Everyone's drawn to the white house. You just need to make sure that you pick the right color white.
Sometimes, whites can be a little too bleak, a little too cold. That's why, I think, warm whites are more popular. But you also don't want to skew to yellow. It usually also really matters what you're painting on. A lot of people are painting on brick this year. This is another trend that keeps coming back.
You've got to make sure that you do all the prep work before you paint the brick and make sure that you're painting on a clean surface. But assuming you're doing everything right, I would say the wider whites are going on the bricks, the more warm whites are going on siding, it has to do with the scale of a house as well. So here I am saying, go for a white house because that's in trend, but you've got to pick the right white for your house.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, and I know that this is a loaded question. Do you have a favorite exterior white?
JOHN GIDDING: Depends on the house. I think I used Shoji white twice. So that, probably, says I love it.
MARIANNE CANADA: I'm feeling very vindicated because I moved two years ago and my old house was painted black and I moved into this house and it's painted white. We painted it Swiss Coffee and it's painted brick. So I'm right there.
JOHN GIDDING: Yes, you're right on trend. And natural wood tones, do you have any?
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes, we've got hickory, accents, and black trim, and a sage green metal roof.
JOHN GIDDING: Is it a standing seam metal roof?
MARIANNE CANADA: It is.
JOHN GIDDING: I love that look. That's a great look.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah. It is. It's very relaxing in a rainstorm.
JOHN GIDDING: Tippity-tap, both durable and beautiful.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes. So not everyone is lucky enough to have the Curb Appeal Xtreme team on hand to do a full scale exterior renovation. So I'd love to hear some of your budget-friendly, maybe, weekend projects that we should consider tackling to spruce up our homes' exterior for fall because it's been a long hot summer.
JOHN GIDDING: Outdoor living spaces have become such a hot commodity that if there's any way anybody out there can add to their home by adding an outdoor living space, it would be well recommended. It could just be two little chairs somewhere. Two Adirondack sitting in a corner that allows you and a neighbor to have a conversation without necessarily inviting them into your home.
This has become the new hot thing, partially because of the pandemic but partially because it's always made sense. Curb Appeal is about you and the neighborhood. And allowing you and a friend to have a seat in front of the house, not just in the back, has always made so much sense to me.
So I would say one of the most budget-friendly, easy upgrades that you can do for yourself is find a corner where you can create an outdoor living space to entertain, to welcome a neighbor for a chat. Bring in furniture that, normally, would keep inside amenities are great. This is a bigger move, I would say, than the budget-friendly fall makeover.
For budget-friendly fall makeovers, it always comes down to adding seasonal color. I love it when people collect fall leaves, for example, and create a decorative item with that. Whether it's filling in pots with them or creating a wreath on your own. These are easy fun projects you can do as a family that bring in the seasonal color and that are inexpensive.
If you want to take it one step further, shabby-chic outdoor renovations are so in. Partially because they're inexpensive. You go to a flea market, you go to a secondhand store, or garage sale and find that one super inexpensive outdoor friendly piece of furniture and then you decorate around it with the same kinds of inexpensive accessories like burlap and gourds and corn and the things that screen fall and suddenly, you've got a sort of storybook corner of your own.
Fall, of course, means we are going to get less and less daylight. And that to me says, lighting upgrades are, probably, another area that are ripe for opportunity. For example, there's always solar-powered lights you can install which are both budget-friendly and effective, especially, when clustered.
I think one of the problems with solar-powered light is that they just don't give off that much light, although they've gotten a lot better lately. But if you want to cluster them around pots or container plantings, they effectively double triple their effect and really draw the eye to them. You can do the same with twinkle lights in a cluster somewhere to really draw the eye.
MARIANNE CANADA: That's our budget-friendly small projects. But now, of course, I want to throw the budget out the window. I want to know, in your opinion, what are some exterior updates that are worth the extra time in investment?
JOHN GIDDING: Well, this was what Curb Appeal Xtreme was all about. All of the big budget items that all homeowners crave. In fact, we were joking at one point-- Rachel, Jamie, and I that we were going to call it, instead of Curb Appeal Xtreme, Curb Appeal Fire Pits.
[LAUGHTER]
We had installed so many fire pits because they're great, they're super desirable, everyone loves collecting around a fire pit. You need the space for it, you needs to be both safe and warm and welcoming. So as long as you've got a little bit of room to work with, this is a high-priced item that yields a lot of bang for the buck. Less sort of fancified things are like upgrading your garage doors, especially, if they're super visible. This is a worthwhile investment.
Especially, because if you ever do end up selling the house, you'll make every bit of that investment back. But garage door replacements are super hot, especially, if you've got an old garage door that's aluminum and not saying the right thing about your house. Switch it out, there are beautiful actual real wood garage doors, they require a little bit more maintenance and prep work to make sure that they're weather durable, but they, definitely, signal a high-end home.
Landscaping, of course, we really tackle landscaping from every perspective. The front yard landscaping and the backyard landscaping, typically, are two completely separate stories. The front yard has to do with presenting the house to the neighborhood, the backyard has to do with how you use your space.
But a proper landscape upgrade is an investment. It usually involves irrigation as well as lighting. It usually involves some trees. I'm trying to make trees the next big trend in landscaping. We usually put one or two trees and call it a day, but trees are our lifeline for many populations of wildlife that are now clinging to our suburbs as their final refuge.
So if you've got the space for a tree, know that you have a friend in me when you decide to put one in because it helps so many little creatures and critters that we rely on and should know how to live amongst. So if you've got space for one or two trees, why not put one or two trees. If you've got space for more, pop them in. They're great on so many levels too because they cool down the neighborhood.
It feels great to be within a crown of Nestlé trees. I feel like in every way, adding more trees is both a worthwhile investment and a beautiful one.
MARIANNE CANADA: I just feel like so many, especially new build neighborhoods, like they really sacrifice the trees and it takes time. An old growth tree does not happen overnight but it's such a worthwhile investment.
JOHN GIDDING: And you hit the nail on the head. The way developments are created these days is they erase everything, they rip everything away, build what they need to build, and then pop in one or two small caliper trees knowing that in 30 years, they might grow. But in 30 years, it's the homes that have carefully thought out their response to global warming that are going to have the higher ticket items.
They're going to be costing more because the homes that no longer need to be irrigated because they planted with native plants and put up a whole bunch of trees that keep the temperature of that area little bit cooler, those are the houses that will sell first instead of the ones that insisted on putting in more and more lawns and hoped that the lawn look would remain popular for decades to come because it's simply, it's going to go away.
MARIANNE CANADA: And then you have to water it. I mean, it's just a whole-- like, I'm very anti huge lawns personally. There's so much work.
JOHN GIDDING: Oh, you and me both. So much work, so much poison into our water systems and clippings too. Poison clippings. Now, we're throwing that away. It's just one big waste after another. Yes, it looks good and yes, there's something calming about the community all taking care of a similar plot of grass and therefore we're all one.
But I think a similar effect is gained by picking ground covers that are native to your area, not necessarily fescue grass. And you'll see that your HOA is going to be just fine with that as well. It's a very similar look.
MARIANNE CANADA: Now, I interrupted you earlier and you're about to talk about outdoor kitchens which I know is a big thing that our audience is always interested in. I feel like fire pits and outdoor kitchens, like everybody has that at the top of their list.
JOHN GIDDING: Yes. And the good news about outdoor kitchens is it sounds like a big deal but almost any countertop with a grill attached to it feels like an outdoor kitchen. You don't necessarily need plumbing, you don't necessarily need to draw a gas line out there. The level of investment that you're going to put into your outdoor kitchen can really vary.
But yes, it can be one of a higher ticket items and it's so worth it because it suddenly extends your living space outside to such a degree. And grilling, by the way, such a healthy alternative to frying foods and the kinds of foods we make in our pans. Grilling is clean, efficient, it's fast, it's healthy good food. So by creating outdoor kitchen as part of your world view for your landscape, you add to the square footage that your house affords you.
MARIANNE CANADA: Fantastic. It's making me want to go fire the grill up right now. John, you talked a little bit about the current trend to warm white houses, a little bit about black houses I feel like are still going strong. What about on the horizon? Do you see any home exterior color trends on the horizon?
JOHN GIDDING: I feel like a broken record whenever I mention color trends on facades because it's always the same ones that come back like the mossy green, for example, that's back. I think it's back because it looks so good with the neutrals that most people are drawn towards. But also like the classic navy, we did one house in the classic navy color on Curb Appeal Xtreme. It's coming up and it just looks so sharp.
Something to do with how saturated that blue is and how well it contrasts against the bright white and then between those two, you can then accessorize with almost any color in the rainbow. Classic strong navy is a powerful enough color to work on almost any house style. It just needs a strong contrasting light.
MARIANNE CANADA: I love a good blue. I mean, I'm in a dark navy blue room, I love a good navy blue moment. And I have to say, even though I do live in a white house, there's something so delightful about driving around the neighborhood and coming across a house that has chosen a really bold color. It just feels so refreshing. So I like seeing people take those risks.
JOHN GIDDING: I think the first consideration has to be your own house, the architectural style, when picking a color, I mean. And the second consideration has to be the neighborhood. While there's perfect value in sticking out a little bit and being the very bold color in your area, there's also great value in picking a color that complements all the other houses that are in your neighborhood and makes the community fabric work.
I think a lot of neighborhoods gain from that approach because when prospective buyers come into that neighborhood looking at a house that's for sale and the whole area seems to work harmoniously together, that increases everyone's property values.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes, so you can just picture yourself living there. Well John, before we let you go, we thought it would be fun to do a little Curb Appeal rapid fire round where we give you some design elements and you have to choose your favorite.
JOHN GIDDING: All right. And I'm up for it. Here we go.
MARIANNE CANADA: Pea gravel paths or stepping stones?
JOHN GIDDING: Stepping stones. Although I've used both to great effect.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes, I do like the combination of the two. Adirondack chairs or sleek loungers?
JOHN GIDDING: Huh, do you know the way you phrased the question, you would think I'd say sleek loungers, but I love an Adirondack chair. And I found that they come in so many different style shifts. Some of them have a super deep seat, some of them are a little wider, you can almost have them custom made. So yeah, Adirondack chairs all the way. Painted a bold color.
MARIANNE CANADA: All right. Pergola or gazebo?
JOHN GIDDING: Pergola. Why? Because gazebos only make sense in the middle of a park with like a barbershop quartet.
MARIANNE CANADA: All right. Wraparound porch or backyard deck?
JOHN GIDDING: I would love a house with a wraparound porch. What a joy that is, right? To have a deck that faces out in all directions. One of the questions I sometimes get is, what are projects that are money sinks? And a big deck, sometimes, can be a money sink because that can be a personal thing. Some people love to have an enormous overwrought deck with multiple levels and very special details, some people never use it.
That's one thing. If you're going to end up spending a lot of money, make sure that it make sense for the kind of architecture you have to have a large deck because those can be very expensive and you may not get that money back.
MARIANNE CANADA: There you go. All right. Plunge pool or fire pit?
JOHN GIDDING: A fire pit all the way. A fire pit is just an elemental connection to who we are as humans. We're drawn to the flame like moths. The conversations around a fire pit are unparalleled.
MARIANNE CANADA: All right. And last rapid fire. Outdoor kitchen or outdoor living room?
JOHN GIDDING: As a first step, I would say outdoor living room. If you've got neither, go for the outdoor living room first. You'll just use it more organically and it'll draw you out into the space more. And then the next upgrade after that would be the outdoor kitchen for me. Because you've already got a kitchen, but you need to spend some time outdoors.
MARIANNE CANADA: That was a very sneaky way to say both but I will accept it. Well, John it was so delightful to talk to you. And I'm so excited about the new show. I can't wait for everyone to check it out. It gave me a lot of inspiration when I watched it. The only problem is, you're going to start looking around your own home exterior and making a very long list. So we hope you'll come back again sometime and talk to us--
JOHN GIDDING: I'd love to.
MARIANNE CANADA: --about your next project.
JOHN GIDDING: Any time.
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MARIANNE CANADA: I have and love a pool but I think an outdoor kitchen might be the next thing on my exterior wish list. Well, we're diving even deeper into our Curb Appeal conversation with another expert and fresh face on HGTV, Carpenter and Furniture Designer Rachael Taylor. Here's our chat.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Rachel, welcome. I have to say, you're new to the network. So for starters, welcome to the HGTV family.
RACHEL TAYLOR: Thank you so incredibly much. I'm so excited to be a part of the family and it is just a surreal moment, I have to tell you.
MARIANNE CANADA: And what a show to get your feet wet on the network because these makeovers on Curb Appeal Xtreme are so incredible. So I just want to hear from you. How was your experience filming the show?
RACHEL TAYLOR: Oh, it was the most epic 10 weeks. I had no life and I had a full life all at the same time. We were completely immersed in the experience, that is, a full house renovation. Going to six different properties at the same time with weather that was winter at 10:00 AM and the hottest of summer by 2 PM. It was an incredible journey and I can't wait to do it again.
MARIANNE CANADA: That sounds like a Tennessee weather situation for sure. Was there any particular project or episode that stood out as your favorite?
RACHEL TAYLOR: Oh, absolutely. I wouldn't say I'd pick favorites in terms of the homeowners because I have gotten to know all of them and they are all the most lovely people. I would say, though, that episode 2 has to be my favorite and that is the mid-century modern makeover that we did.
It was just falling apart. It was a mid-century that was on a hillside, sort of enveloped in all of this beautiful nature but never really attended to. There was a small renovation that they did in the 1990s and that was the last time they touched it. And the transformation, I can't believe what we did. It was incredible. It was awe inspiring.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, now, I can't wait to see. I've seen the premiere episode. I got a little sneak peek, but now, I can't wait to watch that one.
RACHEL TAYLOR: Yeah. There were so many parts and pieces to that project that really made it the thing to watch because we did fencing, we did an outdoor structure, we did landscaping on a hillside, we did a brand new deck that was multi-tiered, we did a water feature in outdoor fire pit, a gas grill, landscaping, hard scraping. I mean, we did it all in that episode.
MARIANNE CANADA: Rachel, your role on the show, you're a carpenter and an incredible woodworker. And you were often in there rolling up your sleeves, physically building outdoor furniture for these homeowners. So I was hoping you could school us on Outdoor Furniture 101 and answer a few questions for us.
RACHEL TAYLOR: That's exactly right. The furniture build outs actually, sometimes, happened right there on the construction site. Sometimes we were lucky enough to get into the shop to do some of it but it was on the fly. In a moment's notice, if something didn't work in real life, we had to fix it. And that's what I did.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes. With guns blazing. I mean, we're going to need to have a separate podcast where you give us your arm workout routine because you did some-- when I say heavy lifting, I mean it. She did some serious heavy lifting.
RACHEL TAYLOR: Oh, I will say that the heaviest thing that I picked up during that entire show was a concrete hose. So these hoses are so long and they're filled with concrete and it's heavy. And I'm on screen and I pick it up and it wasn't-- everything is on the fly, none of this is scripted. And so I pick it up thinking, oh, I can do this, this is no big deal. Let me tell you, it was a big deal. And at the end of that shot, I was sweating. it was leg day and arm day, I could barely handle it. It was unbelievable.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh, man. It's like Curb Appeal Xtreme crossfit.
RACHEL TAYLOR: 100%. I'm thinking of putting together a workout. It includes a sander, a track saw, and a drill.
MARIANNE CANADA: Amazing. All right. So back to our Outdoor Furniture 101. People, more than ever, are prioritizing outdoor entertaining. What are some ways that we can maximize our outdoor spaces for gathering and extend the season?
RACHEL TAYLOR: The most important thing and this is our process, is clearing everything out first. It's really difficult to remodel a space or revamp a look when you're keeping anything that's on your hardscape or your landscape. I like to do a total clear out. Any plantings that I feel are seasonal, they go.
I think the most important thing to do, though, is to create a covering for the space. So a pergola or even a pop up tent is just a really great way to create an outdoor room that's dedicated to a certain activity. So I can do a pop up tent with beautiful lights, put a table under it, toss a little fire, or a little outdoor heat source like a heat lamp. And I've got a way to entertain outside, even if it's your dining room table from inside of your home.
As long as there's coverage, you've got a really elegant quick and easy way to create an outdoor gathering space for your family.
MARIANNE CANADA: The tip to bring in your outdoor furniture as long as it's protected as a good one, but I know a lot of people get it in their head that they can build their own outdoor furniture. And there are a lot of great simple plans out there. But I know that you have a lot more experience than, probably, a lot of people who are getting started in these kinds of projects themselves.
So what are some of your tips for building your own outdoor furniture? Are there materials and hardware that are better than others?
RACHEL TAYLOR: Yes, there really are. There's-- no two pieces of hardware are made alike. I would say, anything that's powder-coated is the way to go. And there are decks grooves, I think it's called prodeck. Those self-tapping screws are amazing because they're coated, which means that when they go in, they slide in very nicely. And they have a self-tapping head so that you don't have to countersink the head. That means that it is flush with the wood even without pre-drilling.
And it also keeps the wood together in a way where it's not going to rust out. As far as the wood is concerned, I'm really all about maximizing your dollars in any space. And so you can get regular 2 by 4 lumber that is a treated lumber from your home store and you cannot believe what you can do with just 2 by 4s. You can make fine furniture out of 2 by 4s if you know what you're doing.
It basically comes down to planing down the edges of a 2 by 4. So those rounded corners disappear and you have nice, clean edges at 90 degrees. And then sanding it down with 180 grit paper is the way to go. And then doing a light stain and a polyurethane coat will keep that looking good as long as it's protected from the elements.
Thompson's WaterSeal is an amazing water sealer that allows furniture to extend its lifetime. And then if you really want to get bougie with it, there's Osmo oil which is incredible. It is a all-natural oil that can be used on the exterior and it has an amazing sheen and it's a matte finish. It's my absolute favorite.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh, those are great tips and the tip to plain the wood, I feel like that is the thing that really will elevate. Getting those nice, flat surfaces and sharp corners just takes it up a notch.
RACHEL TAYLOR: That's exactly what we did throughout the entire season of Curb Appeal Xtreme. In fact, the very first episode, we did an entire outdoor space. I won't give too many details about it. But you can see exactly what we've done based on what I just described for outdoor furniture.
MARIANNE CANADA: That first episode is a can't miss experience. Well, you talked a little bit about extending the life of your outdoor furniture and protecting it from the elements. Do you have any tips for storing it in the off-season? Because I feel like that is a challenge for people. Finding the space, doing it properly, and you really want to protect your investment.
RACHEL TAYLOR: Absolutely. So outdoor furniture that has an upholstery on it, it is absolutely worth its weight in gold to have a product that is meant for outdoors. You can leave an outdoor textile in the sun, in the rain, in the snow, and it will fare very well. But it's really simple just to get a couple, honestly, construction trash bags, seal them up with tape, and store all of your upholstered goods.
You can, actually, extend the life of an outdoor upholstered couch for 10 to 15 years if you're storing the cushions in the wintertime. As far as the hard-type stuff, your tables chairs. A lot of people don't bring them inside because they're so bulky. So what I recommend is save the hardware, save the Allen key that you use to put it together, and just take it apart in the wintertime and store it.
So if you're in a climate and in a zone that does a lot of rain and a lot of snow, that's the key. You can own a table, again, an outdoor park bench table that was $250. You can have that for 10 years as long as you are willing to break it down and store it in the wintertime.
Now, for people who, actually, live outdoors in the winter, maybe California, we're never going to take patio furniture down because it's going to be 80 degrees on Christmas weekend. So in that case, it's really keeping it clean, scrubbing it with just soap and water and then, again, when it's dry, take the opportunity to reseal it. And if you don't have a polyurethane, even if you just seal it with oil, it might not be the best thing for it. But any time wood can be moisturized, at least at the surface. It's going to give back to you.
MARIANNE CANADA: Outdoor furniture, that's the fun stuff. But there are some outdoor items that are just very utilitarian. They're maybe not the most attractive to look at. Do you have any tips to creatively camouflage or upgrade these things? I've actually got a list. So we're going to go through a little rapid fire round here, OK?
RACHEL TAYLOR: Yeah.
MARIANNE CANADA: Garbage and recycling bins.
RACHEL TAYLOR: I would hose them down and you'd be surprised with a little Armor All, how beautiful those things can look. But if you want to lately conceal, the can itself. Hiding them behind laurels, just going to the home store and grabbing a couple of vertical plants and just wrapping the whole space with plants is the easiest way to go.
Any time you can add more green into your yard is a plus for me. But fencing-- the cedar fencing pickets, there are $3.24 at your home store, ask me how I know. It's a really easy way to put together a quick little fence that is going to be rot and rodent resistant because of the cedar.
It's resistant to termites and insects and with a little bit of a sealer coat, a cedar fence picket can last a really long time. And it's very forgiving to cut. It's very easy to go to your home store and have the dimensions cut down by the people that do the milling at the store. And you can create a barrier, a visual barrier, a trellis, if you will, out of picket fencing.
MARIANNE CANADA: Love that. What about air conditioner units? And I think the particular challenge are window units. Do you have any tips on how to cover up that eyesore?
RACHEL TAYLOR: So you're talking about swamp coolers and in Los Angeles, we are the land of the 1940s construction bungalows. So I have one. And I look at it every single day. Now, mind you, a carpenter's home is always unfinished. But the swamp cooler is one of them. And I did think of a really great idea, I haven't done it yet. But I have a piece of caning which is a textile that you mostly see on furniture like chairs like a Breuer chair.
That caning can be placed into just a regular poplar wood frame and then that can go over the swamp cooler to conceal it while allowing for airflow.
MARIANNE CANADA: What about meter boxes? These outdoor utility boxes that you have to be able to access them but they aren't pretty.
RACHEL TAYLOR: They are not. And sometimes, they aren't lucky enough to be hidden behind a bush. I love building outdoor planters. It's like some people collect little things like salt and pepper shakers. Me, I love planters. And so I built a couple a few years ago that turned out really great. Outdoor grade plywood skimmed with a Venetian plaster that was rated for outdoors. You can do it also with a concrete skim coat.
Sanded it down with my sander, and I had a 12-inch wide by 3 and 1/2-foot tall planter and I popped a couple of plants inside of that. So the planters were just tall enough to cover over the meter and then the plants on top of that just made, probably, an eight-foot tall visual barrier. So it softened the siding of the house, which was horrible stucco painted in an awful color of putty sad beige. And everything was hidden. It was just a beautiful look.
MARIANNE CANADA: That sounds beautiful. Well, Rachel before we let you go, this is our Curb Appeal episode. All about ways that we can freshen up our home for the fall. So if you could pick only one thing to upgrade the exterior of a home, what would it be?
RACHEL TAYLOR: Your front porch. Absolutely hands down. It's the first thing that you see when you come home, it's the first thing that your guest see, it's the thing that your neighbors see when they walk by with their dogs. And it just is an energy builder. When you come home and you see leaves and cobwebs and a sad light bulb that's a little too yellow that you got for free from the power company, it's really easy to do those upgrades.
And by easy, I say that most of the accessories for a front porch are really affordable. So just a small upgrade on your light fixture could be less than $50, especially, when you're hitting a really great sale. A light fixture for your front porch makes all the difference in the world. And that mood, the light that you see in the evening, is what we call a dusk shot on camera. And we, absolutely, love those dusk shots.
Layering your front porch, even if you have a concrete front entry, you can power hose it down and paint that thing and make it look like a million bucks. I've even done so much as painted a faux runner up the front of the stairs so that it looked like a little carpeted area. And it was just beautiful. A couple of plants and some planters, a little bit of, maybe, pebble rocks just to keep everything looking tidy around the steps, and Bob's your uncle.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, Rachel, I'm so inspired to tackle my own home exterior this fall. Congratulations on the show. Everyone, it's so great. I can't wait to watch more episodes, and I hope we can talk again soon.
RACHEL TAYLOR: Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.
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MARIANNE CANADA: That is a wrap on our Curb Appeal episode and I don't know about you, but I have a to do-list a mile long now. We hope you're inspired to give your exterior a little glow up this fall. Special thanks to the stars of Curb Appeal Xtreme, John Gidding and Rachel Taylor, for their tips and advice. You can catch them both on the new season of Curb Appeal Xtreme Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM on HGTV and new episodes will also be available to stream on Discovery Plus on Wednesdays.
You can learn more about all of our guests by checking out our show notes at hgtv.com/podcast. And as usual, if you love today's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to rate and review HGTV Obsessed. Maybe tell me what's on your fall to-do list this year. Don't forget to follow HGTV Obsessed wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode and I'll see you next Thursday.
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