Your daughter is the captain of the high school softball team. Your son the All-American running back in football. Your pride runneth over — but at the same time, you don’t want your entire life completely overrun with tacky or tasteless signs or memorabilia. Instead, try these school spirit ideas to tastefully decorate your home.

Leave Your Pride at the Curb

When someone is finding their way to your home for the first time, what are they looking for? That’s right — your house number. And many homes in the DFW area have house numbers painted on the front curb, near a driveway entrance. And that’s the perfect spot to begin showing your school pride: with a custom-painted curbside address. You can choose between a DIY curb painting solution or hire a crew — you might find them roaming through your neighborhood several times a year already. You can combine school colors and a mascot in your curb design. Have kids at two different schools? That’s easy: Simply add more than one curb painting, or surround your house number with multiple mascots or logos.

Give Us a Sign

Chances are that the school offers an array of school spirit ideas, from sedate signs to boistrous car window clings. But if none of these ready-made solutions don’t appeal to you, it’s quite alright. Create your own tasteful sign to show pride without letting it become the focal point of your home’s curb appeal. Before you head off to a craft store for supplies, stop and think about how technology can help. By using readily available mascot and logo images from your favorite schools, you can design an understated sign that blends tastefully with your home’s style.

Depending on how understated you want this design to be, you may choose a custom-engraved metal sign or custom-branded wooden sign over more common plastic or cardboard yard signs. You’re only limited by your own imagination in choosing a great sign for your yard. Another consideration to keep in mind is sign placement. Consider placing your sign to the side of your garage entrance, or close to — but not blocking — your front entrance.

Light It Up

One of the simplest school spirit ideas is to change your yard lighting to reflect the colors of the schools you support. From front porch lighting to the lighting that illuminates your landscaping to perimeter flood lights that keep your property bright, you have so many options for displaying school colors on your yard in a subtle but definitely noticeable way. And the great news is that with this idea, you can change colors as your children pass through various levels of schooling or as the season changes and new colors are needed. If you prefer high-tech solutions, consider lighting that is timer based, and use this method to wash differing colors across your yard in a choreographed design.

A Little Dab’ll Do Ya

At the end of the day, remember that your goal is to tastefully decorate your home and yard. Pick and choose from these school spirit ideas to find those that best fit your home and you’ll soon be sharing your pride with the neighborhood in ways that are attractive and elegantly executed.

Image Source: Flickr/Jim Larrison

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