I'd start with fabric. And not navy. There is now an astounding choice of outdoor pillows, rugs, curtains, umbrellas and who knows what else. Look in some catalogs or online. Start with pillows and find something that includes your taupey cushion cover color.

How about a blue back door, a strong blue with some green undertones? I even like the yellow. Don't get too dark of an umbrella since the sun will fade the color. A colorful maybe even striped umbrella would be fun! This is a sunbrella fabric umbrella. It puts blue, the brown of the staircase, and the yellow of the door together. Add blue, brown, yellow pillows. Blue and green ceramic planters with yellow flowers.

I'd plant stuff in the ground only because pots need constant watering and feeding to keep the plants growing.

Yeah, after looking at these pics, I wasn't loving these pots. I was going to do a flower bed along the shorter end of the patio - maybe a nice place to do annuals and add some color.

After messing up with picking the yellow door color and the above comment strongly suggesting NOT navy, I went with what they had in their store - a neutral umbrella that matches the cushions.

Now if only I could figure out the door color/steps stain color and pillows to add some color!

Pier One has lots of colorful, inexpensive outdoor pillows and cushions. For pots on our covered porch and patio, I bought big concrete pots with classical details (lions heads, fleur de lis, etc) and then spray painted them! The color I chose is a flat matte dark brown which matches the color of our shutters and garage doors very well (SW Bkack Fox.) Our house is a whitish painted brick (SW Eider White) so somewhat similar to your white stucco. BTW...I didn't mention it in my post on your fence, but I love your house! It is really charming, I love older homes!

Again, start with the pillows. It's fun to shop. There is an amazing variety available now.

Don't just do a mincy little annual border all in a line, either. Do curved planting beds, add some shrubbery (flowering shrubs would be nice) and perennials, and fill in with annuals as needed.

marcolo - do you have any pics of what you suggest? (curved bed along side of patio that has lawn on opposite side)

I think a low boxwood hedge would look nice around your patio.
It would frame it in and create a garden room of sorts. It will also give you year round greenery with low maintenance. We did that around our terrace and it looks nice. I don't know what variety we used but it's a low growing one that we keep around 24". You mentioned that you had small children in your fence post, and a hedge would keep them from running through a garden bed - shortest distance between 2 points being a straight line and all. If you went with boxwood, just be sure to plant to allow for growth so it doesn't grow to cover your bricks. It looks like your soil needs some amending with a good bedding mix before you plant anything there.

Here is a link that might be useful: [boxwood hedge[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/artificial-boxwood-hedge-ideas-phbr0lbl-bl~l_70670)

Ha; yes, our lawn is a mess - we have to till and sod still so with that, we wanted to figure out garden beds obviously first.