For American homes with front facing garages, the driveway serves as the entrance to your property. While many people view it from a purely functional standpoint, the driveway is also a key piece of your home’s first impression. Front-side driveways take up a prominent portion of your landscaping.

Despite this, many people leave their driveways looking like a plain, grey slab of concrete.

With a little extra effort and some intentional design, however, your driveway can help transform the curb appeal of your entire home. We’ve worked on countless driveways across the Miami Valley area, and we thought we’d share some of the smaller things we’ve seen that have a surprising impact on a home’s aesthetic.

You don’t have to put up brick columns or a gated entrance with your initials on it (though you can if you wish). Instead, try some of these things.

Fix/Resurface

First and foremost, the driveway itself should be looking good. While a little cracking here and there are normal for concrete, excess cracks, crevices, and broken up portions are no good. The good news is, you might not have to replace your entire driveway. Depending on the level of damage, you can either have the concrete repaired or resurfaced.

Concrete repair works great for small cracks and simple patches. For a more extreme makeover, concrete resurfacing is the way to go. Resurfacing using a special compound designed to adhere to pre-existing concrete. When it dries, it looks indistinguishable from normal concrete, leaving you with a like-new finish.

Put Up a Border

Having distinct lines where your driveway ends and your lawn begins is a good start to keeping your yard look nice. But why not take things a little further and add a buffer between your driveway and lawn? Afterall, grass around the edges of driveways tends to become damaged as tires accidentally roll across it.

There are a number of ways you can border your driveway. Some use brick, blocks, or stone to add a small lip that helps you know you’re on the edge of your driveway. Others place some decorative gravel or woodchips around the edges of their driveway.

Any of these options can help protect your lawn and make your driveway look better.

Add Some Lighting

Another thing that can help keep cars off your lawn is some better lighting. Bordering your driveway with lights serves both a functional and stylistic purpose. Just make sure they aren’t going to be crushed by vehicles. Inground lights can provide some great illumination while staying safe from car tires.

Driveway lights are fairly cheap, and they’re typically solar powered, so you don’t have to worry about batteries or running powerlines.

Stain and Stamping

If you don’t want your driveway looking like a large grey slab, then concrete staining is the way to go. With some concrete staining and sealing, your driveway can be given unique colors, patterns, and more. It can also be better protected against the elements, which means it will last longer.

To really upgrade your driveway’s appearance, you can take things even further and add in stamped concrete. Stamped concrete provides further texture, shapes, and designs, letting you design your driveway to look however you want it. Whether you want to mimic stone or brick, or you’d prefer to create something more unique, stamped concrete can accomplish the job for a surprisingly affordable price.

With stamped concrete and concrete stain, there are endless ways to stylize your driveway.

And don’t worry, you won’t have to rip up your driveway so that stamped concrete can be laid. Instead, concrete resurfacer can be utilized, providing a brand new, texturized layer on top of your driveway. Just make sure you use an experienced professional. Otherwise, you can end up with quite a mess on your hands.

For concrete repair, concrete sealing, and stamped concrete in Ohio, contact Select Flooring Systems today!