The Exterior Trends That Add The Most Value To Your Home

From a beautifully paved driveway right through to a perfectly maintained front lawn, how your home looks from the outside can make all the difference to passers-by. Beyond just looking more visibly appealing, exterior trends can also improve your home’s kerb appeal which could increase the value of your home.

We’ve looked across Google searches, social media hashtags and Toolstation’s customer site search data to identify the most popular exterior home trends.  We’ve also spoken to property experts Jonathan Rolande and Liam Ryan to confirm which of these trends could add the most value to your home. 

Sunflowers top the list as the most sought after trend with over one million searches. Next on the list is Wisteria, with 620,700 searches. Both flowers can add a touch of colour to any garden and benefit from being relatively easy to grow, even for beginner gardeners.

Shutters come in as the sixth most popular trend. Often considered a more traditional country home feature, these charming window additions aren’t going anywhere as they racked up over 338k searches. 

It seems homeowners are moving away from grey home exteriors and looking to add a bit of colour to their homes with indigo, khaki, beige and violet masonry paints seeing the most increases year-on-year. While searches for grey fence paint went down by 81%, grey front doors by 51%, and grey masonry paint by 77%.  

According to Jonathan Rolande, property expert at House Buy Fast, a well-maintained garden could add up to £16,000 to the value of a property (based on a house valued at £350,000). 

“These could include other improvements such as modern fencing, durable non-white window frames, a Mediterranean garden or stylish water feature.

“Although you should look at what your neighbours are doing with their houses in the area. You need to go for the right look for your house, as a rustic seaside cottage may look out of place in a city centre. You could also speak with local estate agents - they are usually ahead of the curve on what buyers are asking for in your area. Pinterest is also a great place for inspiration.”

Liam Ryan, the co-founder of Assets for Life, agreed with Jonathan Rolande. He advised homeowners to style the garden appropriately to the surrounding areas.

“It is important that the design of the property fits in with the immediate surrounding area. 

To increase property value, focus on enhancing kerb appeal by maintaining the landscaping, creating an inviting entrance, and freshening up the paint. Energy-efficient features like solar panels or double-glazed windows are also attractive. Outdoor living spaces such as patios or decking add value too.”

A driveway is one of the first things people notice about a home. There are a wide variety of styles and materials to choose from for your driveway, each with its own look and feel. 

A tarmac driveway was found to be the most popular choice, with 123,200 searches on Google. Not only is tarmac low maintenance, but it’s also highly weather resistant and better suited for larger or heavier vehicles like vans. 

Gravel driveways were also popular with over 114,000 Google searches for the natural-looking driveway option  in the last year. Over on TikTok, there have been over 21 million TikTok views of #graveldriveway.

This was followed by a block paved driveway with 90,000 Google searches. Block paving can be more durable than tarmac or gravel and can be customised to match the style of home. Another stylish alternative for driveways are Porcelain pavers, which have been growing in popularity with over 40,000 google searches – an increase of 89% since 2020. Although be sure to check whether the porcelain paving is suitable for driveway before purchasing.

Installing interior or exterior shutters is the most popular window trend on Google with 338,300 searches. When it comes to colour, olive shutters increased by 100% in search volume, while blue and beige increased by 49% and 36% respectively. 

Aluminium windows are also becoming more popular with a total of 110,500 searches. Not only do they look more modern but they’re often on the cheaper side, too. 

Casement windows have also seen a significant increase in popularity over the past year, being easy to clean and more resistant to adverse weather conditions. Customer searches for casement windows at Toolstation have increased by 35% in the past year. 

Other modern-looking styles like tilt-and-turn (43,600) and floor-to-ceiling windows (20,600) are also on the rise. However, classic window styles like Georgian windows, Victorian windows and heritage windows are still popular and make the top ten, so it’s clear both modern and traditional British styles are here to stay this year.

Exterior walls are one of the most important factors that contribute to a home's kerb appeal. The colour, style, and condition of a home's exterior walls can make a big difference in how it looks to potential buyers or renters.

It seems that many homeowners are considering repainting their walls, with yearly searches for masonry paint reaching an all-time high last year with 316,800 searches. But what colours are they interested in? 

According to Google search data, the most popular colours for masonry paint are grey, white, black, and green. While grey is currently the second most searched for masonry paint, the popularity of grey walls may be waning. Grey masonry paint experienced the biggest drop in year-on-year searches, with a 74% decline in searches since 2020.

Toolstation’s site search data also indicate that neutral shades such as white, black, and grey have been the most searched for masonry paint choices for the past couple of years. However, the most significant increases also suggest that customers are searching for masonry paints in a variety of colours, with blue masonry paint seeing a 560% increase on Toolstation’s site in the past year alone.

Pebble dashing is a trend that’s been around since the early 20th century. It is currently the fifth most searched wall trend in our study - but it may be declining in popularity. Like grey masonry paint, there may be less consumer appetite for pebble dashed walls, with a decline in yearly search volumes and a 14% decrease in searches between 2021 and 2022. 

The colour of your front door can set the tone for the entire home, so it’s important to choose a colour which makes a good impression. At the top of the list is a grey front door with 74,100 searches in 2022. However, while searches are still high, they’re 51% lower than they were in 2020. 

A black front door is the second most popular choice with 68,600 searches while white comes in fifth with 19,800 searches. 

However, people may be opting for different colours with beige (+28%), orange (+13%), khaki (+8%), crimson (+5%), and salmon front doors (+5%) showing the largest increases in searches year on year from 2020 to 2022. 

Search volume (in 2022):

Grey remains the most popular colour choice for fences and side gates with a total of 169,900 searches in 2022. Despite grey coming top of the list, searches for grey fence paint have decreased by an average of 55% since 2020 and 81% from 2021-22. 

Much like front doors, black and green are the paint colours that complete the top three most popular. Also appearing in the top 10 are the slightly bolder choices of pink, red and purple fence paint. 

On the up for fence paint colours are violet (increasing by 45%), khaki (43%), and purple paint (30%) from 2021 to 2022.

Toolstation’s site search data correlated with wider search trends, suggesting that grey fence paint was still the most searched for paint colour in the past year. However black and brown fence paint proportionally saw more growth, seeing increases of 25% and 50%, respectively.

Whether you view the front of your home as a front garden or just somewhere to park your car, flowers can be a great addition to attract passers-by and even potential buyers. Sunflowers come in as the most popular choice with 1.1 million total searches in 2022. 

Also, in the top 10 is Ivy, which is often a popular and charming choice to run around front doors and climb across the brickwork of homes. In fact, Ivy is the only plant to have increased in search volume year-on-year with a 7% increase since 2020. Popularity of the climbing plant also carries over to social media with close to 18,600 mentions of #ivywalls hashtags on instagram and 318,500 TikTok views. 

Garden Benches tops the list as the most popular trend in the miscellaneous category with 673,700 Google searches. Although there has been a sharp decline in the search data with a 76.5% decrease from 2021, compared to a 3% decrease from the year before.

The trend for DIY wheelie bin storage is growing in popularity on social media with 42,700 TikTok views of the hashtag and makes it into the top 10 searched for miscellaneous trends too. 

When it comes to the trends that made the biggest jump in searches, it’s largely around painting the whole home. Searches for ‘Khaki house’ increased by 120% since 2020, ‘beige house’ by 27% and PIR Sensor Lights by 25.3% 

There was a surge of demand for security light products over the past twelve months at Toolstation. Customer site searches for security light products saw an increase of more than 1000% over the past year. Security lights benefit homeowners by deterring crime, improve safety, and even improve the overall appearance of your property.

Another notable increase in customer site searches was the 513% increase in the number of customers searching for bark chippings over the past year. Bark chippings are a versatile material that can be used to suppress weed growth, help soil retain moisture all while bringing a natural look to your garden.