I have really been thinking about your house and what would give it more curb appeal, charm, or character. It is just a simple house and has lots of angles, squarish shapes but no curves, except for the wrought iron gate/door. The eye is drawn to the bay window and not to the door. So you would have to consider painting. You actually can paint the brick. And you might want to go with a light color. You can also paint the bay window. If you don't paint the brick, you can paint the bay window a darker color to compliment the brick. I would have a focal point outside the bay window and somewhere to draw the eye instead of the bay. I think all the plantings should be curvey. So maybe a bed coming out from the bottom of the driveway on the yard side and plants going up each side of the drive but flowing over the driveway a bit on each side. Also maybe a drake elm on the side of the house by the small window. That is a weeping tree, very nice form. I would try to save the evergreen, if possible. Maybe move it to other side of drive or nearer the street and to the side. You could have decorative pots or urns at either side of the top of the drive, maybe a curvey topiary form in each one. Or a small planter under each light fixture with a hanging vine planting, nothing angular. In the focal point out from the bay, nearer the street, could be a birdbath or bench or bird feeder. I thought about an iron fence along the drive and some iron planters or window boxes but I really think the place would look better a little bit lightened up and not heavy with iron. I would think about painting the iron door, or replacing with another (not sure the expense) that was lighter color (depending on if you paint brick or not) and maybe had a design in the center like a sun face or flower??? If you put a weeping or rounded form small tree on the side by the small window you could have a curvey, sweeping garden to incorporate the tree and come up to the house foundation planting. I hope this gives you some ideas. You could make a bunch of copies of your picture and draw in some of these ideas, copy it in black and white and try various color schemes.

Wow everyone, thanks for the input and the compliments, we are at that stage where we are just tired of remodeling, even though we are in the home stretch, so it's really nice to have positive feedback! Suero and Justgotabme, I really am liking the idea of the pergola it's something I hadn't really considered before. Thanks Suero for trying the cedar shakes on the gable ends, I'm sure it didn't do much since it just accentuates the low slung roofline and that's something we'd like to down play. Oceanna I completely understand what you are saying about painting. We do have a really good painter who has done work for us for years and is very reasonable so I could ask him what he would charge. Scoobyruby I hadn't thought about natural wood like cedar, I may have to think about that one, if we don't choose to paint the brick it could be really complimentary to the tones of the brick, but less cottage like I would guess. Socks and Megsy it's good to know that we don't *have* to paint the brick since it appears that people on here don't hate it, which is great. I do think better landscaping and shutters would go a long way in making things look better. I had to laugh at the white shutter/white sock analogy, we think they look like white socks too! :-) Kitchenkelly, I have long admired your kitchen and your photos of your backyard so your compliment really made me smile! One of the best parts of my job as a writer is that I've been privileged to write about some amazing homes, both large and small so I've been filing away ideas for a long time now. My husband loves my job and hates it all at the same time. I do a lot of designer and renovation homes so I come home and say things like "hey we can take that wall down!" When he gives me the "no we can't" look, I simply say, sure we can I've seen it done! I'm amazed each time I do a renovation story, I've found over the years that most of the time it's the homeowners with the vision. Few, if any, of the homes I've covered used high powered design or architectural firms to create their dream homes, most of them, like me, have just had a picture in their heads that they are lucky enough to make into a reality! I'm not knocking either designers or architects, if my MIL hadn't had either she would still be trying to make decisions and with their help she and my FIL have a lovely home! And like it has been said before, good architectural plans can often save you money and give you a more sound structure in the end. My husband has been playing around all day with Photoshop Elements to try and color the house, we just need to figure out how to import BM or SW paint colors, so far all he's been able to apply are crayola primary colors lol! Kat :)

Wendy, I am with you that the rock facing is quite unattractive, and IMO it can't be saved with paint or other camouflage such as plants. It is different from your inspiration photo in that the inspiration photo looks like stacked stone and is in the foundation area, not flat stones fastened on fairly randomly as siding, oriented like tile. If funding allows, remove it. If not, see if it can be covered up with stucco or siding without needing to then fix or replace windows. As a last resort, plan to plant at least some taller shrubs with flowers or other interest to distract from that stone once the hardscape issues are solved. Rethink the entry; remove some of the paving along the garage (or at the very least add some large planters there) and take out the brick wall to make it feel more welcoming. Pull out the skinny bed under the eaves across the front because it really isn't large enough for plants or proportional to the size of the house. Replace the bed with one that is at least 6' deep from the front of the house - that will give you at least a foot between the house and the ultimate size of the plantings (for maintenance) as well as room for more than a single straight line of plants.

Your home is beautiful. I think painting the brick will bring you far more headaches down the road. I’d try painting your front door a burgundy color to tie in the brick, and put money into a landscaper to make the plant design look on point.