4 Ways to Make Your Driveway More Welcoming in Cortlandt Manor and Somers NY Areas

If your driveway is long, it is often the first glimpse that visitors get of your home. If your driveway is short, it should beautifully complement your home as part of its curb appeal. Either way, it should be welcoming. You can achieve this with these four ways to make your driveway more welcoming in Cortlandt Manor and Somers, NY, areas.

A Complete Do-Over

One of the most wonderful ways to make a driveway stand out from the crowd of boring asphalt or poured concrete driveways - and to significantly enhance your home’s welcoming vibe - is to upgrade to a paver driveway. Depending on the length and width of your driveway, this can be a significant upfront cost. However, you will be rewarded with a far longer-lasting surface that will never crack like asphalt or concrete, and will never need patching (which also looks terrible). If an individual paver should break, it can be replaced easily without ugly patches and without needing to replace the whole driveway.

To reduce your winter workload - because time is money - paver driveways are compatible with driveway heating systems which virtually eliminate the need for plowing or shoveling. And what’s more welcoming in winter than a driveway that’s perfectly clear of ice and snow?

You can also opt for permeable pavers to reduce your eco-footprint while enhancing your home’s curb appeal. Permeable pavers feature slightly larger joints and a special substrate that allows water to seep into the ground rather than running off into the landscape or into the municipal storm drain system. Permeable pavers will also help keep your driveway drier in heavy rains or when the snow is melting.

All in all, upgrading to a paver driveway gives you a gorgeous driveway surface that complements your home’s architectural style and gives your visitors the feeling that they’ve arrived.

Good Lighting

Ensuring a solid welcome means adequate lighting to illuminate the beginning of the driveway (so people know where to turn in), as well as the arrival point. But the most welcoming effect comes from softly illuminating the entire length of the driveway. Low-lying landscape lighting could be embedded into the ground or in surrounding landscaping to clearly illuminate the driveway, yet with a sense of romance.

For an even more dramatic effect, a low retaining wall running the length of the driveway is another opportunity to install unobtrusive landscape lighting that is invisible during the day, yet offers a warm welcome at night.

Partial Driveway Renovations

Partially enhancing your asphalt or poured concrete driveway with pavers is another way to achieve a more attractive and welcoming driveway. You could slightly expand the width of the driveway with a paver border, which will give it an instant upgrade in looks. As well, a paver apron where the driveway meets the road will extend a warm welcome to your guests.

Both of these artistic touches will dress up an asphalt or concrete driveway without the need to replace the whole thing. Fair warning, though: you might love the look of pavers so much that when it’s time to redo the surface, you might want to do the whole driveway in pavers.

A Welcoming Entry

Some homes will benefit from a “gated estate” look. Elegant masonry pillars or a sweeping masonry wall can beautifully complement a larger home, whether you install a functioning gate or leave the pillars as stand-alone features.

For a smaller home, you could achieve the same effect with smaller pillars topped with attractive landscape lighting fixtures.