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Hi,
As a previous poster mentioned, Exterior Shutters will make a huge difference!
Almost like the picture frame around a picture.
I might not treat the large right area but definitely treat the left side with either white, black, or match the door color.
Please check out ShutterShack.com for ideas, or please feel free to call or email.

You can create a connection from the front door area to the rest of your house by re-facing it with a stone veneer along with the bottom half.

The moulding assembly around the door needs to be modernized. It's far too ornate for the style of your home. A straight linear moulding will do the job well.

i think that replacing the siding should be on the top of your priority list. a dark color on the base and a light color on the top would bring the eye up while also making the house feel grounded. replacing the brick with stone seems very expansive, not worth it to me

Agree with several that note house style is NOT colonial, only the door framing is. Need to make all elements co-ordinate, so no Colonial trim, (on what in Alberta is called a Bilevel), flower boxes, shutters, cobblestone drives, etc. And while painting gets suggested often, re-doing new vinyl siding can negate manufacturer's warranty, and never lasts as long as original paint finish, same with vinyl finish on garage doors. Red brick does seem to jar, however, painting this also not as easy nor always recommended by manufacturers.

Hanging Garden Trellises from grownsolutions.com can be hung in front of windows, for a natural air conditioning privacy screen effect, or in front of bare walls as a lovely focal point for otherwise difficult areas. They are also portable so you can move them out of harms way during inclement weather.

paint the siding darker so it is not such a stark contrast. also richer looking. http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-ca/paint-color/sparrow or http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-ca/paint-color/oldsalemgray. do not try to match the brick. stick to a warm greige. lots of greenery like hostas. oodles of colourful annuals in pots on the steps and veranda. a bright red door. go from there...

1)Do you prefer modern or contemporary, metal or white, if metal what kind. Do you like mosaic tile?
2)What is your favorite color? If you are not sure check your clothes and the furnishings you purchased.
3)Do you prefer rounded edges or angled square edges?
I like your idea of extending the brick it brings continuity, bring it all the way down.
Remove the Federal molding around your front door and choose a less embellished one. If you can, replace your front door with one that has light panels on both sides. Your stairs are wide and this would complement it. Consider painting your front door your favorite color. I painted mine red, not only because it is my favorite color but in Fung Shui it is a preferred color that will bring you prosperity. Trim your windows to match your front door molding to bring continuity. Plant flowers to match or accent your front door. If you choose not to widen your front door paint the pillars the same color as the siding so you do not accentuate the size differences. Consider putting a small bench (color it to match your answer to question #1) on the front porch to place your bag on while you find your keys.
Change your front porch to a peaked roof.
Put a faux balcony in front of your living room windows consider your answer to question #1.
Change your railing per question #1.
Stain your front stairs or tile them with travertine or mosaic. If cost is a consideration just do the riser.
Plant flowers, choosing a color(s) to compliment your front door color. If you want privacy consider bushes in front of your lower windows, for security consider something like the thorny Holly bush, or plant a flower bed making it curved or straight to match your pillars. Line your stairs with the same flower color choice. Take a picture of your house when you go to the garden shop and ask them what will thrive in your area.
Good luck.

I agree with one of the first posts. I like the idea of lowering the portico (i wouldn't remove it completely) so it's not part of the roof. I also like the idea of painting the door and replacing the columns with something more substantial although they still should be simple. Then plants of course. A small tree at the corner that is just out of view along with a mixture of evergreen and deciduous shrubs and perennials along the front of the house. I don't have a problem with the functionality of the walk. If visitors are parking in the driveway, the walkway should remain where it is. If most visitors park in the street, run the walkway in both directions with a generous entrance at the street.

My thoughts on your lovely home! ..square out the columns, no need to take them down, build over them. Add, large white facia to the roof, wide window trim. Keep with square mill work on the face of the house as the front door has square work. Do not add shutters! Add paneled wood or metal painted garage doors, and do whatever you can to replace the top half of the siding with vertical siding even if it's only the front half at first and paint a nice deep heratige gray with green undertones with white trim, stay with black door. Add brick to the lower half. Work towards replaceing the two bedroom windows with bigger, slightly longer windows to match the living room window style and increase the basement window size. (Expensive changes can wait but it's important to keep them in mind while making the other changes..) if the siding can't be changed right away, grow an ivy vine to cover it after you paint and brick the bottom half. Most important, keep the style consitant. I happen to like the front entrance, it just needs some consistency. It's a lovely home! Gardening and pathway to the front, needs to follow the style of what you do with the house.

Okay, so it's a little "boxy" and top-heavy. I would like to see the garage extended forward, and a singular archway using the same brick under a small lip of similar material to accentuate over both garages to maintain continuity, which would solve the problem of to much 2nd floor vacant exterior wall on the left, compared with the nice elongated windows on the right side. Also, bring the stair railings forward and curve them around to meet with the driveway for ease of access with a hint of drama for visitors. On the right of the stairs, place a stair step of flora, that being: a straight row of matching shrubbery beneath the windows with higher shrubs to the right of the windows to the corner of the house, and another straight row of lower flowering shrubs, to add continuity and blend with the rise of the stairway without competing with them; a fountain lend further attraction. I don't see the columns so much of a problem as the light fixture - a chandelier may be in order to create an inviting entrance along with ground lights along steps and walkways (attractive and safe). A row of flowers along the driveway curb leading up entrance drive from the street to warm things up. The exterior of this house is a potential architectural suburban canvas.

I'll agree with others that the center section looks like it was photoshopped onto an 80's contemporary. I also agree that can be fixed by replacing the door trim with something simple and square, squaring up the columns, painting the brick a dark grey (assuming your roof is grey - hard to tell) and modernizing light fixtures. I would paint the trim (columns, door and window trim) something other than bright white - maybe a lighter shade of grey.

Great house with loads of potential. The casing and heading over the door are too large. I feel the door surround suggested by Mouldex is actually too small. It fights with the over all look of the windows. I also am against shudders. You have a great contemporary house, move away from anything that is colonial. Whatever you do with the sidewalk, you need to bring the ground level with the pad that leads to the driveway steps. It makes the eye stop there rather than continuing to the welcoming area of your house. I like the directional siding and agree with you that the squares that are part of the original garage door would look really good. Go slowly on introducing new colors until you know what colors you want to play the staring roles in your flowers and bushes. Good luck!

@paradesigns larger trim isn't always better even if the space is there to acommodate.

We like the idea of having ample room to add more elements like wall lights on the left and right side of the door or planters underneath.

The door trim size would be nice to see at 8" with window trim at 6".

Do NOT add shutters!!! Shutters would just be wrong on this house. Beef up the the trim around the windows, because it looks non-existent. Change the colonial trim around the door for something less traditional. You've mentioned adding stone several times, so it seems that's something you want to do. I think a stone veneer over the brick and on the lower half of the house would look good. I'd like to see a large long piece of trim at the bottom of the diagonal siding, it just doesn't look finished to me. I also like the suggestion someone made of extending your steps; their picture fit with your contemporary preference.

Everyone always suggests green to go with yellow houses. Green is again a very traditional look, and you want contemporary. I think a dark gray would look wonderful on your house for the trim and then go with natural wood doors to keep it from feeling cold.

That's it for the hardscapes... Now for the softscapes. You took out some shrubs, but you still need plants around your house to give it curb appeal. Bring in some color with your plants I don't know how much you like to work in the garden, but depending on how much work you want to do, go with some great perennials and some leafy bushes.

This is a contemporary house but has several traditional elements that need replacing...namely the round columns, the trim around the door, and the brick. Could you paint the brick to lesson it's presence ? Can you visually bring down the height of that overhang by installing some arched supports over square columns ? This will give it a meatier look.

I think window boxes would add interest and some boxwood curved to add a less square look along with taller plants behind the boxwood.

I'm firmly in the 'no shutters' camp here. They not only don't match the style of the house, especially the style you prefer, and will make the modern vs. colonial issue more confusing, but they will exacerbate the difference in size between the small windows on the left and the larger ones on the right. We've removed shutters from 2 houses for just that reason, and they have always looked better without them.

With any design, you want to draw the eye toward the things that you like and make the eye skim over things you like less. If you lean more towards the contemporary, then your design should highlight the contemporary elements and downplay the more traditional or colonial that don't dovetail as well with your preference. The suggestions made by kuzzwhy and the picture show a great suggestion for doing that, and can be done without huge expense.

Here's why I think these are great suggestions:
The darker painted garage doors give the house some visual 'weight' without making them a focal point. If the house feels too top heavy or 'light-weight', it feels less substantial and comfortable to the eye.

Typically, you want your eye drawn toward the entrance, because that's the destination for any visitor. A brightly colored door easily makes the entrance a focal point, and once we're looking at the door, the details around it are more important. An interesting light fixture above the door is a great way to show your style without committing to anything too permanent or expensive, since a light fixture is not that hard to change. If you like contemporary style, find something bold and contemporary.

A lot of suggestions have glossed over the walkway, but I think the picture offered by kuzzwhy shows why it's important. It's just as much visual as functional. If you want focus to come to the front entrance, a walkway from the street literally shows the way visually and functionally. A diagonal or random-ish pattern with concrete pavers add dimension and interest, as well as bringing in more contemporary style.

For plantings, I would suggest collecting photos of gardens you really like and taking some time to plan it. Curved edges in the garden beds will soften the strict lines of the house and add, you guessed it, visual interest ;)

Best of luck to you; a new home is such an exciting project! I hope you post 'after' pictures so we can see how it turns out!

Posting updated pictures.
Added some landscaping and In the process of sanding and painting the original garage doors.
Hoping to avoid having to buy new garage doors or some time, as we would have a few other projects in mind for radiant heat in the lower floor, convert from oil to gas heat, as well as install bluestone steps and veneer the lower half the house.

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Some updates of construction in process. As suggested from the comments, I installed bigger Windows above the garage and installing stone on lower half of the front house.

Doing the work myself.

Wow, doing a great job! I really like your landscaping and the siding gone. Looking forward to more pictures as you progress.

Scratch coat up, almost ready to start putting up Eldarado stone. Doing a lot of what was suggested from you all, painted garage doors, bigger Windows, removed diagonal siding. Plan on making walkway up from street straight to front stairs. Look out for more posts as I finish more work.

Your house is going to look very good!!

Sloe and steady, still doing the work myself on many suggestions from this original post.

Marvelous job! Still looking for the columns to square up!

All I can say is..simply gorgeous! You are doing such a great DIY job! Try to make the sidewalk to the street not too straight, break it up a bit, or curve it. There is a nice idea a number of comments up with offset squares. Agree with squaring up those columns. I noticed the siding detail when I stretched the picture bigger, very nice!

Thanks everyone, heat input that I took into consideration along the way.
Here the last update with photo. More
Stone to go up and need to decide on new columns.
Any input on doing square columns or tapered square coolumns ? Paneling or recessed panel Columns

You have done a very nice job! My thoughts on the columns are to keep them simple but substantial (larger, not skinny). Put a nice base on the bottom and take a look at what a base on top may look like, draw it out. Square of course, and if you can use an app to check color, try the siding color rather than white just to see if they blend nicely, if not then the trim color. You really have done a marvelous job!

Thanks. Could you recommend an app to see different columns on this picture of my house. Curious to see how the white vs another color may look. I wasn't thinking anything but white before

I think Benjamin Moore has an app, or general Paint..but I usually print the picture and draw on it. You could print it and use color crayons or poster paint to get a good idea. I do think White would be likely be best, but good to check out the siding color.

Installed new door today.

Looks great.

Not sure why you installed a Craftsman door in your contemporary home. Really throws off the vibe you had going! Such a shame. Who advised that anyway? Hope it wasn't a Houzzer!

I feel like I went more rustic craftsman style on the entire house as opposed to contemporary. The stone work, the rustic light I will add to the porch and eventually going craftsman style on garage doors. The house is fenced in with cedar picket fence

So, I bet this is your inspiration pic. I thought the door was the last step in your reno, so it threw me. Proceed!

Appreciate the feedback and critic

Yes still deciding on craftsman tapered columns with a stoned base or doing wood type braces that go from ceiling of portico to the side of house as opposed to stoop. Trying for rustic craftsman entrance

Hard to believe this is even the same house. You've done great work!

Keep garage doors white or same color as front door?
Looking to change our garage doors for someone more insulated and with windows

Following, love the changes you have made so far

You have done such a great job! I'm thinking white, you could go gray with side board if you want but white is nice and clean. Actually, either would be nice..sorry, not much help, gray or white..

Great job! So glad you didn't get sucked in to the shutter issue and that you replaced that horrible diagonal siding. I would paint the garage doors a dark color, but don't match it to the front door unless all are stained wood. Something between the roof and siding color, or a gray tone from the stone work would be best, IMO. Not sure about leaving the trim white. It may be better painted to match the doors, but you can post here after painting them and ask the forum what they think about the trim around them. I just don't want them to pop or outweigh your entrance. Of course, the columns may assure that anyway.

Everything is really looking sharp. I am leaning towards white garage doors. Take your picture you have of the house and darken the doors. It changes the way you look at the entrance, and you have done such a good job making it an eye pleasing entrance.

Just about finished with front of house. Just need to figure out garage doors.
Onto the backyard, updated deck

Love watching what you’re doing with your house. You do such a nice job! And..I do think the garage doors will be better white. They look good that color now.

Following, beautiful craftsmanship and transformation !!

Rough sketch of deck idea.

Added a deck to the back of house

Beautiful transformation from beginning to end :)