I think it's lovely!....I can tell you what they were thinking with the tile....making the front accessable without spending a bundle!! Either go white....or tile.....would be wonderful with white stone.
The box wood hedge across the front is great!! may need a small tree to break up the expanse....but it's a lovely formal touch....and seems to be healthy and well trimmed. The shrubs on either side of the door need neatening up.....and the roof over the front bays seems to be a copper wannabe....might help to paint it the color of patinated copper....a deep verdigris.
Pretty house....enjoy it in good health!
Linda C

I find the panelled columns odd paired with the quoins, too.

I would redo the steps and landing with flagstone.

In the long run, Id replace the windows too. Maybe it's just me but I always think a house in this style needs muntins.

Great potential.

The boxwood hedge is great---it provides a nice separation from the street oe drive. But you definitely need to consult with a landscaper to liven up the yard.

Your house looks very formal to me, there is really no way to make it a provincial mas :) it is lovely and has very nice proportions. Agree that some sort of stone would be nice for your steps, which do look odd in their present state. I think they would look good also (and less expensively) in poured concrete with the rounded edges the painted parts already have. The single, centered handrail looks strangely institutional, but I have no idea what you'd replace it with--- if anything. I would look at books and websites for photos of homes like yours to get a better idea of what others have done and how it appeals to you.

I would not use a faux copper/verdigris paint on the standing seam metal roofs on the bay windows. If the metal can be painted you could do a brown or black, depending upon the overall color scheme you choose. I might also consider putting a similarly styled roof on the portico, which looks to have an almost flat roof. It would benefit IMO with a small pitch, not anywhere near as pronounced as the bays, but also in the same metal.

Finally, I think the white trim doesn't do the house any favors. The colors depend upon your preferences and the area of the country /climate you live in, but as soon as I saw your pictures I thought of a darker taupe color with a complementary beige trim (not too light) with deep chocolate brown for the metal roofs. If you redo the steps in concrete, they can be colored at the time of the pour with a light color that will go with whatever you choose for the rest of the house.

It is really beautiful, and I look forward to seeing pictures of the exterior facelift, as well as interior shots!

What a beautiful home with sooo much potential! I think it looks odd to have a handrail going straight up the center of the steps. As part of redoing the steps, I'd want to put handrails on either side of the center area where people would be walking up.

Congratulations and enjoy your home!

It's a beautiful house!

The handrail might have been installed as an inexpensive way to comply with zoning rules. We had a similar issue at a past house... the PO's had put in a cheap handrail to pass inspection.

So, before you make any plans for removing or replacing, the handrail, check your zoning requirements.

Also, while you're at it, you might want to have your stucco inspected. Unless you've already done that... but I do see some cracks, and that can prove a problem in the future.

But... a gorgeous house!

If it were me and the law allowed, I'd rip out the front hedge and maybe the tree and put in a driveway. And yeah, I would also do something about the handrail, stairs and muntins.

Beautiful bones!

Don't take out the hedge until you live there a while. There may be traffic patterns that make it valuable.

Plus it's kinda awesome.

Thank you for the responses. We are enjoying reading them, and have learned a few new words for some of the architectural features.

To respond to some comments:
We have had the stucco inspected. It is the real stuff.

One of the first things we did was to have everything inspected in this house to avoid surprises.

The roofs above the bays are actually copper that we just haven't gotten around to cleaning yet.

I have thought about doing a fountain in the center and trying to relocate our boxwoods to form a sort of maze around it. I have also suggested a circular drive around the tree but it is not centered and we have a very, very long driveway already.

I would replace the front door and sidelights with something much more grand in solid mahogany or oak. Perhaps a double door, but at least a much wider single door (you might need to have it custom made, but that is not always that much more expensive).

The plain glass bay windows look out of place to me. I'd replace those with something with muntins. I'd put plantation shutters in all the other windows to add detail.

Beautiful house. I'd love to see pictures of the inside!

It is a pretty house. A circular drive would be nice even if it means relocating the tree and hedge (I also like that hedge-very French). Could you take a picture from across the street since it is hard to picture how the drive you have relates to the house? The steps seem to have nowhere to go, so are they for looks only? Do people use your front door?

I wouldn't dare take out those hedges! lol. I think they add charm to the house. Keep them trimmed though, Boxwoods grow like weeds eventually.

I actually like the porch too. I could see replacing the windows but the cost would be enormous.

Beautiful home. I'd love to see the inside!

Those hedges are perfect! They BELONG on a house of that nature. Of course the steps need attention, perhaps the windows. But the hedge belongs.

I think you need a break in the hedges in front of the front door. They close off the house. A pathway leading through the hedges to the front door would give it an inviting look. My husband just did that with the front of our house but it was a stone wall instead of hedges. It was back=-breaking labor but looks so much better from the street!

I'm thinking that the stairs are awfully wide and imposing. Perhaps split them, with two traffic patterns and place a fountain in the middle. Continue the two traffic patterns down through two openings in the hedge to the street. That will make it more welcoming, but not really open it it up wide open to passers by. My mind is drawing a blank on the Southern home style that this is common to.

Sorta like this, but with a fountain in the middle.

I keep getting search hits on double stair interiors and this is gonna drive me crazy until I remember what that home style is called. I believe it's common in Louisiana, but I could be wrong on that.

A quick and easy fix that I haven't seen mentioned yet would be new, larger light fixtures.

You could make your door appear more prominent by painting the areas around your sidelights the same color as your front door. Much cheaper than putting in a double door.

I kind of like the color of the tile - maybe you could pour new steps in that color. It would coordinate with your copper trim.

The handrail has got to go.

Also, I think the portico looks odd without supporting posts. You could create some grand-looking posts to further accent your entrance.

Congrats! What a pretty house.

One caveat ... I would not add a fountain or circular drive. The house has an imposing scale but kind of small frontage (distance from the front of the house to the street). In a perfect world a house of this size should set back further. Of course, you arent going to do that. But keep the front simple so that it's scale seems in proportion to the house.

It's so pretty! Enjoy!

GreenDesign, I think the term you are looking for is "raised Louisiana cottage."

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Images of Raised Louisiana Cottages

You have a beautiful home!

Here are my ideas...

Keep the boxwoods, they provide a nice separation between the house and street yet still allow you to see out. They fit the home well also.

I would agree that adding the same color to the areas around the sidelights as the door would give you a grander entrance with little expense, certainly much less than replacing. I prefer sidelights myself anyway.. they add character. I like to add a punch of color in this area to add some personality. As is it looks very formal. Just depends what you like.

I also agree that the architectural blocks on the edging, forgive me I don't know what they're called, would look nice a few shades darker than the house to give them a little more attention. They almost get lost the way they are.

The idea about adding posts to the front would be a nice addition as well, but I don't think you'd need to go far with it.. maybe out to the first of the steps. It would make a nicer size front porch seating area if you added that feature.

I think with the steps I would first give them a good cleaning and pressure washing to see what kind of condition they are really in. If they are in decent repair... it's hard to tell from the pics if the paint is peeling or if there is damage to the steps themselves, I think I would see about staining them a light color similar to what's on the house and allow the center to be a darker color to accent the entrance.

I would change the railing if you could get it done without damage to the steps where it currently is. I think it would look better with 2 railings to either side of the center of the steps. At first I thought the railing in the first picture was another tree.

Would you put shutters on the home? Thinking a brown with the wrought iron trim on them.

I would like to paint the home a deeper tan and use brown as a trim.

Window boxes? Any decorative wrought iron? Thanks for the input!

Unless you are considering removing or changing the moulding around the windows you really cannot actually install shutters---- they would not attach properly and you'd have to just nail them to the sides of the windows where it would be obvious they weren't operable. I have seen shutters on a French home similar to yours in Louisiana but only on the lower rectangular windows, not on the upper dormers that extend into the eaves. Your lower windows are bays which don't take shutters, and those plaster ornaments above the upper windows give the house a more formal formal feel for which shutters would usually be considered unsuitable. Window boxes are also more of a cottage style.

I could easily see rounded Juliet balcony-type railings around the lower part of the upper windows---- either on both the side windows (and not the center one) or just on the center one. Then you could add a complementary wrought iron railing on the steps (both sides, curving gracefully down).

You have a LOT to think about :) I would be overwhelmed! With such a big job ahead you may want to at least consult with an architect, design/build firm, or interior designer familiar with this style.