How To Modernize Your Home Exterior
- Sep 13, 2025
- 7 min read
How To Modernize Your Home Exterior: Inspiring Exterior Facelift Ideas for Your Home
You likely think about the exterior of your house as a peek or preview into your personal style. But the aesthetics and trends that we bring to our living spaces change and evolve.
So whether your home's exterior has started to show signs of wear, you're looking for a fresh take, or you just want to go for a whole new style, a modern home exterior could be the answer.
In this article, we’ll explore how to modernize the exterior of your home, from subtle tweaks that can breathe new life into classic architecture to total transformations that may reinvent the exterior of your home.
Read on for 10+ ways to give your home a more modern curb appeal and where to begin.
Table of Contents
How To Know if Your Home Is in Need of an Exterior Upgrade
13 Ways To Modernize Your Home Exterior
Lifetime Remodelling Systems: Modernizing Home Exteriors in Portland, OR, Since 1997
How To Know if Your Home Is in Need of an Exterior Upgrade
As homeowners, it's easy to become accustomed to the appearance of our homes, often overlooking signs that our exteriors may require an upgrade. Luckily, several key indicators can help you determine whether your home could benefit from an exterior upgrade.
Here's how to recognize if your home’s exterior may be in need of a refresh;
Visible wear and tear: This may include peeling paint, faded siding, cracked stucco, or rotted wood. These visible signs of deterioration can greatly impact your home's overall curb appeal.
Outdated aesthetics: If the exterior of your home feels outdated or no longer reflects your personal style, it might be time to modernize.
Lack of maintenance: Regular maintenance tasks like cleaning, power washing, and gutter cleaning can help extend the life of your home’s materials and mitigate the look of a worn-out exterior.
Energy efficiency concerns: Upgrading windows, doors, and insulation to energy-efficient materials can both improve your home's exterior and reduce utility bills.
Frequent repairs: Constantly repairing the same areas of your home's exterior? It could be more cost-effective to invest in an exterior upgrade that addresses the underlying issues, like a leaky roof or inefficient windows.
Inadequate functionality: An exterior upgrade can also help enhance the functionality of your home. Maybe you’ve outgrown your outdoor space, lack proper storage solutions, or need better access points. A modern upgrade can help make your home live in a way that works for you and your family.
Neighborhood transformation: If new construction or home renovations have taken over your neighborhood, there’s a chance your home's appearance might appear dated in comparison. A well-maintained exterior can help your home stand out for the right reasons.
The desire for personalization: As we mentioned earlier, your home is a reflection of your personality. If you don’t look at your home and see yourself or your family in it, an exterior upgrade could provide the opportunity to personalize the appearance and make it as unique as you and yours.
Resale value: For 47% of recent buyers, the first step that they took in the home-buying process was to look online at properties for sale. If a move is at all a possibility in your near future, an exterior upgrade can significantly boost its resale value since curb appeal plays a significant role in your home’s overall value. A well-maintained and modern exterior is often a major selling point for potential buyers.
13 Ways To Modernize Your Home Exterior
#1: Install James Hardie Siding
Installing fiber cement siding is a popular choice for modernizing your home's exterior, due to its versatility and range of benefits that can enhance both the appearance and functionality of your residence.
Fiber cement siding is available in a variety of finishes, textures, and colors, allowing you to achieve a sleek and contemporary look that aligns with modern design trends.
Some benefits of fiber cement siding like Hardieplank include:
Versatility
Durability
Weather resistance
Low maintenance
Energy efficiency; and
Design flexibility
Plus, Hardieplank is less expensive when compared to other premium siding types, like cedar, but offers the same look.
To achieve a modern look, you’ll want to stay away from wood grain patterns and opt for a smoother surface and a smaller reveal. For example, mid-century modern siding has a 6-8 inch reveal, whereas more traditional siding has a larger reveal.
If you’re looking for modern siding options, the 6-inch smooth Hardieplank would make an excellent design choice.
Lifetime Remodeling Systems boasts over 25+ years of experience designing and managing exterior home remodeling projects, including dozens of Hardieplank siding installations.
On top of being a James Hardie Elite Preferred Contractor, we’re also considered the top exterior remodeler and siding contractor in Portland, Or.
#2: Add an Accent Wall
Can your home accommodate an accent wall? If so, that wall will draw guests in toward the entry door.
Stain-grade cedar or hardwood is great for entry areas as it can really warm the space up, but also produce an impactful effect when combined with the modern siding look.
The combination will really pop, especially on ranch homes.
#3: Update Your Paint Color
Paint color is a simple, yet powerful, factor that can help modernize your home’s exterior.
The right choice of paint color can instantly transform the look of your home, making it feel fresh, contemporary, and aligned with current design trends.
Gray shades, along with gray-blues, blacks, and whites, are more modern options, especially when paired with a stained accent wall or a porch ceiling.
Paint is a personal, low-cost, and immediate way to modernize home exteriors.
#4: Square Off Any Arches
Removing arches and squaring off any windows, garages, brick arches, etc. can quickly work to modernize a home.
Modern architecture often embraces clean lines, simplicity, and minimalism. The intricate curves and details of arches can sometimes clash with the minimalist aesthetic, and work against a modern facade.
#5: Darken and Enlarge the Windows
Replacing your windows with the addition of dark-colored windows is a great way to modernize a home.
This upgrade can work to transform the overall look of your home while enhancing its:
Natural light
Spatial dynamics; and
Aesthetic curb appeal
#6: Reduce Your Trim Size
Modern exteriors are all about sleek silhouettes. A 3-inch trim size gives a smaller, cleaner look compared to a standard 4-inch or a 6-inch often seen on a craftsman home.
The color scheme is important here as well, and a monochromatic look — where the window trim and corners are the same color as the siding — will help achieve a modern aesthetic and help dark windows have more of a pop.
#7: Replace Your Garage Doors
Garage doors are often a last thought and many homeowners resort to traditional or dated options. This detail may be the “weakest link” when it comes to your home’s exterior.
By replacing your garage doors with more modern options, you can up your curb appeal and your home’s value.
Consider:
Wood garage doors
Flush panel garage doors
Glass garage doors
Bi-fold garage doors
#8: Update Your Fixtures
Fixtures, i.e. porch or garage lights, house numbers, door hardware, mailboxes, and walkway lights, can all be updated in an attempt to modernize your home.
Be mindful of font styles, color, and shape to really give the finishing touch and complete your modern theme.
When selecting modern fixtures for your home's exterior, opt for simplicity and functionality. Choosing a cohesive design and a consistent selection of fixtures can enhance your home's curb appeal and convey a contemporary aesthetic.
#9: Focus on Clean Lines
Sleek and clean lines are hallmark characteristics of homes with a modern style. This type of design focuses on simplicity, minimalism, and a sense of open space.
When looking at the exterior of your home, you may focus on adding clean lines:
Along the roofline
In your landscaping
To your built-in features
In your hardware
All of these seemingly small details can have a big impact when you take a step back.
#10: Redesign Your Landscaping
Landscaping is a powerful element when you look at how to modernize your home’s exterior.
You could consider adding some strategic shrubs or plants up against your home or creating those telltale clean lines with flower beds or walkways leading up to the home.
Just be sure to avoid blocking any windows or added lighting features and keep the layout as clean as possible.
#11: Update Your Roof
Luckily, there are many ways to modernize your home by updating your roof with more modern materials and colors.
Opt for roofing materials that align with modern aesthetics, including:
Standing seam metal
Dark shingles
Synthetic slate; or
Concrete tiles
Materials with sleek and clean lines will add to the modern look you're after, while neutral shades like gray, black, white, or muted, earthy tones can give your home a fresh and contemporary curb appeal.
#12: Build an Attractive Entryway
For many homes, the entryway is the architectural focal point of the home.
Enlarging the entry and adding a porch or enclosure that accents the rest of the home can be very impactful, and is a great option for modernizing a home that’s not symmetrical or has an entryway that otherwise goes unnoticed.
#13: Replace Your Driveway and Walkways
Dated asphalt or gravel can drag down the appearance of a home.
Modernize your home by replacing any pathways to the home with:
Concrete
Interlocking brick
Flagstone
Exposed aggregate
Pavers; or
Tiles
Organizing your driveway and/or walkways in straight lines, grids, or simple repeating designs can help you achieve a more modern look.
Lifetime Remodeling Systems: Modernizing Home Exteriors in Portland For 25 Years
From meeting to providing estimates to designing, building, and closing out a project, Lifetime Remodeling Systems ensures you’re completely satisfied with the entire experience, which is why our work and our products are backed by our Lifetime Warranty.
We strive to be your contractor for life, and our team is dedicated to providing professional estimates and unbeatable customer service while delivering the modernized exterior you’re dreaming of.
Modernized Home Exterior Before and After
Our customers have complete control, and we’re here to help guide any decisions if needed, over any and all aesthetic choices made, all of which can be seen before work begins thanks to our HOVER technology.
Below, you’ll see a home that could use some modernization as it has outdated arches, old wood windows, dated garage doors etc...
HOVER Redesign
-Remove arches
-Replace wood windows with black Marvin Elevate fiberglass windows
-Reduce trim size
-Replace garage doors with modern styled garage doors
-Redesign the exterior color scheme to introduce more modern tones, accent walls
-Replace the roof with GAF Timberline HDZ charcoal shingles
