If your home has a painted exterior, it won’t stay looking good forever because, inevitably, the elements will take their toll.

The easiest way to give it a new look is to paint it a different colour – make sure you use a high-quality masonry paint, such as those by Dulux or Sandtex – but even if you’re happy with the existing colour, repainting it can work wonders.

Discoloured, peeling and patchy paint isn’t pretty or practical and could lead to damage that’s expensive to repair.

While you can rarely be as adventurous with the colours you use on the outside of your home as the inside, you don’t have to restrict yourself to just white, cream or magnolia (see my product of the week).

However, you do need to consider what will go with your neighbours’ houses, if there any restrictions (imposed by your local council) on the colours you can use and what suits the style and period of the building.

For some homes, though, a lick of paint won’t go far enough – only a radical makeover will do.

Sadly, the latter decades of the 20th century weren’t our finest in terms of architecture, and some homes from the 1950s onwards leave a lot to be desired in terms of beauty.

If your home is among those that aesthetics forgot, an architect or specialist company will be able to help you transform the exterior.

They should come up with a solution tailored to your home (detached houses are the best candidates because you don’t have an adjoining reminder of the old look), but one idea that works well is rendering and/or cladding (with wood or faux-wood panelling) all or some of the exterior.

This can make a massive difference, as can things like replacing the windows and doors, adding balconies and extensions, and retiling the roof.

Adding dormer windows and replacing unattractive concrete roof tiles with slate ones can go a long way to giving your home character and kerb appeal.

In fact, exteriors can be transformed beyond recognition and while this type of work often isn’t cheap, it will certainly add value and make your home more attractive and sellable.

Research by Sandtex found that homebuyers are impressed by smartly painted walls and a well-kept front door.

Before you start changing the exterior, check with your local council whether planning permission is required and whether building regulations apply.

The area in which you live, as well as the type of building (listed buildings often cannot be altered without listed building consent from the council), can affect your plans.

The rules are stricter for ‘designated land’, which includes conservation areas, so you may not be able to do what you want with your home’s exterior – the council will be able to tell you.

Occasionally, you may need a party wall agreement with your neighbours for exterior work, if it involves a shared boundary.

And if your home’s leasehold, you’ll probably need the permission of the freeholder, even if you’re only changing the appearance of your part of the building.

The problem with altering the outside of your home, especially the front, is that any changes you make will be obvious for all to see, so don’t do anything you shouldn’t because you could get into trouble.

Product of the week

Painting your home’s exterior isn’t something you want to do too often.

One of the good things about Sandtex Ultra Smooth Masonry Paint is that it provides 15 years of protection – guaranteed – so you won’t have to worry about redoing the job any time soon.

It’s also dirt resistant, breathable, flexible and waterproof. Two great new colours are available – Umberstone and Plymouth Grey, both £27.98 for 5ltr, BQ.

The latter is a lovely taupey grey that’s a cut above run-of-the-mill masonry-paint colours. It covers between eight and 12 sq m per litre on smooth rendering and while coverage is much less on rough surfaces like pebbledash, it’s so thick and creamy that you should only need to do one coat (providing you apply it thickly), which is brilliant because pebbledash isn’t fun to paint.

As well as pebbledash/roughcast and rendering, it’s suitable for concrete, building blocks, facing bricks and emulsion or masonry-painted surfaces.

If you’re looking for a really good masonry paint in an on-trend colour, this is it. Team it with Sandtex Ultra Smooth Masonry Paint in Pure Brilliant White, £25.98 for 5ltr, BQ, for the parts of the exterior you don’t want in the main colour.

How-to tip

When painting the outside of your home, start at the top and work down, painting in sections from left to right or right to left.

Try to ensure that you always have a ‘wet edge’ to your paintwork, so you don’t end up with stripes or blocks where the paint has dried unevenly.

Follow the sun, as this will ensure that the walls are free from dew, and don’t paint in direct sunlight on hot days because this can lead to blistering when the paint dries.

The temperature outside should be above 8C for the paint to dry effectively. See www.sandtex.co.uk for more tips.