(HIT) — The importance of curb appeal can never be underrated when you own a home. Whether it’s pride of ownership, fitting in with the neighborhood (or standing out!), the exterior of your home reflects your personality and can create positive impressions. And, if you’re selling your house, the importance of curb appeal jumps ten-fold as you try to position your home for an “instant connection” with potential buyers.

Many of these enhancements can be achieved with lightweight yet durable Fypon products. These low-maintenance pieces resist insect infestations, rot, decay and moisture. Try any of the following fast and easy installations to transform the look of your home:

1. Trim out exterior windows. Use crossheads for over a window and top with a solid, decorative or recessed panel keystone accent piece. On the sides and below the window, use moulding pieces with plinth blocks in the corners to eliminate miter cuts.

2. Make your entryway more welcoming with an elegant door surround. Start with fluted pilasters on either side of the door and then top the door with a decorative pediment — try a rams head, sunburst, acorn or peaked cap style.

3. Accent a bay window by adding window panels below the opening.

4. Add classic crown or fascia dentil moulding beneath gutters and eaves to heighten the appearance of your home.

5. Replace a rotting wooden porch system with a new structural balustrade system which includes porch posts, top and bottom rails, balusters and all the other pieces essential to create a great, weather-resistant porch.

6. Interlock and install pieces of PVC Beaded Board on the ceiling of a porch or sunroom and then use the same low-maintenance materials for a wainscot treatment on the walls.

7. If you have a ceiling fan on a front porch, add a two-piece ceiling medallion around the fan’s base to add style to your entire porch.

8. Replace older, rotting wooden louvers with low-maintenance polyurethane louvers. Functional louvers have a noncorrosive fiberglass screen backing to keep insects out while allowing maximum airflow and ventilation to enter the attic.

9. Upgrade the look of your entryway by adding a new brass kickplate and polishing your door hardware.

10. Flank your windows with easy-care polyurethane shutters. Choose from a selection of white louvered solid panel and louvered slatted panels shutters or woodgrain plank panel shutters in two-plank, three-plank and diagonal V-styles. Paint or stain the pre-primed shutters to complement any home exterior.

11. Add sparkle to your yard with a decorative lamp post that can help light up the night.

12. Give your house style by adding brackets under roof eaves and on porches.

13. Accent a front porch or portico area with an oval ceiling dome made of weather-resistant polyurethane. If you have lighting elements or ceiling fans in the area, select a ceiling dome with a center hole to make it easier for wiring to come through the dome.

14. If your home has a Victorian style, use spires to accent exterior areas, fencing and gated areas of the home.

15. Don’t forget the garage. Install a set of pilasters on either side of the garage door and a long door crosshead over the top.

16. Accent your exterior with a new, colorful welcome mat, decorative flags, planter boxes and baskets of flowers.

17. Add dimension to porch ceilings with faux beams. Arrange lengthwise or in a criss-cross pattern to make the ceiling of your sunroom or porch stand out.

18. Add decorative columns to the exterior of your home or yard. Polyurethane columns come in fluted square, serpentine, flat square and plain panel square styles and are weather resistant.

19. Clean any exterior lighting fixtures so your house shines during both day and evening hours.

20. Use crosshatch or square decorative panels made out of lightweight polyurethane to serve as see-through “gates” to keep pets and children separated from prized flowers and bushes.

21. Since the pineapple is the universal sign of hospitality, add a decorative half-round or full round pineapple accent piece in the entryway to your home.

22. Add a trellis system to top off a garage door or side entry door.

23. Spend an hour with a door surround kit (available in Empire, Colonial, Craftsman and Stone styles) to create a fast enhancement to a single entry door.

24. Add brackets and corbels to side entry areas of the home to bring attention to this area of the house. Select from hundreds of Craftsman, Victorian, Arch, Tulip, Recessed and Carved Spiral styles.

25. Cover up unsightly wooden posts with a PVC Column Wrap. The semi-assembled, two-piece wrap classic style wrap installs quickly.

For additional information, call 800-446-3040 or visit www.fypon.com.

Courtesy: Home Improvement News and Information Center

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