The Details Nobody Asks For (Until They're Missing)

Nobody has ever put "reflection in the window" on a brief. Nobody asks for a young tree by the fence, a slightly uneven hedge or a few leaves blown across the drive either. But I put them in every time, because without them a CGI starts to feel like a model on a shelf rather than a street you could actually walk down.

This house is a good example.

Brick, render and where they meet

The front mixes red brick with white render, and the places where the two meet matter more than you'd think. A darker band of brick runs along the base of the walls, the arches over the windows use grey brick with pale mortar, and the little porch canopy has white timber brackets holding it up. Each one is a small detail. Together they give the house its character.

A closer look at the glass

Look at the windows in the last image and you'll see they aren't a flat grey. Real glass shows whatever is in front of it, including the street. Putting that in takes a bit longer, but it's the difference between a window and a hole with a frame around it.

The garden does half the work

Lavender and low planting run along the front, a clipped hedge sits beside the drive, and a young tree stands in front of a closeboard fence. None of it is perfectly tidy. The hedge isn't quite level, the tree throws a patchy shadow over the fence boards, and a few leaves have landed on the block paving. That untidiness is what makes it believable.

Why it matters

When you buy off plan, you're being asked to picture a home that isn't there yet. The more a picture feels like real life, the easier that gets. People can imagine the car on the drive, the lavender brushing past on the way to the front door, the sun on the fence in the afternoon.

Your turn: what's the first thing you'd add to this front garden?