If it helps, I drew out the layout from above and added measurements...

with current shrubs in place:

empty with measurements

This could be a really fun project for you, and a good introduction to gardening. Readers here will be able to assist you better if you would let us know where you live and what direction the pictures were taken from/what direction the house faces. Climate and shade levels will affect what you can grow successfully. Plants that grow well in Miami may fail in Alberta, and vice versa. Also, when you say "afternoon/evening sun," do you mean the area gets no sun until noon, or none until 3:00, or something else? That also need to be taken into account in your planting choices.

You have a lot of sheared shrubs. Is that something you are content with? Do you like gardening as far as you have practiced til now?

I'm in Knoxville, TN - zone 7. The area faces SSW, closer to west. The boxwood on the right and unidentified bush get sun from about 1-3 PM and the other two boxwoods (center and left in pic) get sun from 1-sunset.

I like the look of all of them when they are trimmed, but they have to be trimmed so often and make such a mess when trimmed that I could definitely live without them.

I enjoy gardening, but like something that doesn't take every day work.

To be completely honest, I don't think the shrubs or their arrangement are flattering for the house. I would do a complete redo from scratch. For example, the Jap maple is not finished growing and it's not exactly a shrub that looks great sheared. How will it be managed as it begins to block of the porch and window behind it? Seems like everything would be much better off if it were located elsewhere.

Yardvaark, do you have anything in mind that would help? I'm not in love with any of it, so I am certainly open to suggestions! I don't know what to do about the Japanese maple, but it seems to overtake the lower, small bushes if left on its own.

I like the azaleas and wish they could stay. I would plant a camellia in place of the Japanese maple. I think the plant that will not stop growing is basically raping your house. It should go.

To solve the sheared meatball problem, ask your local specialty nursery (not a big box) which plants will not exceed necessary size. The frequent shearing and resultant mess is due to planting elephants where you really want cats and dogs, if you understand the analogy. Find something that matures at a smaller size, and let it grow in a natural shape. Much less work, and much more beauty.

For me to give you ideas, you'll need to post better pictures. Stand in line with the Jap maple, far enough away from the house that you can capture same things you've captured in first pic above, but also including the roof of the house. (I want to see whole house and right and left of it.) Pan the scene taking slightly overlapping pictures, but don't assemble them into a computer generated panorama. Just post the individual pictures.

Here are some (hopefully) more helpful photos...

Here are a few from the side

Dwarf conifers grow very slowly and are low maintenance, but you would need to amend the soil if the clay is very heavy (they need good drainage). If you like the idea, see what types of dwarf Chamaecyparis are available in your area; they are more flexible about their light requirements than most conifers.

When making choices for the the area closest to the door, you should consider how much light you want to reach the door and windows next to it, and how open you'd like the area to appear as one approaches. If it were my house, I'd want something evergreen that would be stay around 3-4' tall and 4-5' wide, at the most, without pruning. That way there would be a clear view to the entrance, and a little room between the plants and the house for maintenance and air circulation for the plants. The maple or camellias will eventually become much wider and, in the case of the camellia, much taller than that. If, on the other hand, you want to shade those windows from the sun, something taller, but open, like nandinas or an evergreen vine on a free-standing trellis might work. If you keep the small azaleas, you might consider choosing something with a contrasting shape and texture to add visual interest, perhaps a fine-textured carex or a short evergreen, clumping grass if that area gets full sun, or larger-leaved hellebores (Anna's Red and Penny's Pink have particularly attractive foliage) or a dwarf rhododendron or a large fern or two (perhaps Polystichum neolobatum), if it doesn't. None of those choices would require more than an annual trim (plus the usual watering and weeding and perhaps a little fertilizer now and then).

You didn't indicate if you care about having flowers or if you love/hate any particular colors for flowers or foliage. Those preferences could help focus your choices.

Your pictures posted while I was typing, and are helpful. If you want something larger to visually break-up the brick wall behind the maple, an espaliered camellia planted against that wall would be a good choice (narrow, as high as you want it to go (eventually), evergreen, nice flowers) and it would still leave you room for something lower between it and the azaleas.

I have been very pleased with Abelias in my garden--they are evergreen and there are some that stay smaller. I have Hopley's, also sold as Twist of Lime. You could also look at Distyliums--there are 3 hybrid varieties recently released. Vintage Jade is the lowest--2-3 ' by 5' wide. One of these would eventually fill the area where the maple and azaleas are now. Blue cascade is the medium sized one 3-4' wide by 3 ft high. This could replace the boxwoods along the window area. I think you could keep the maple if, as Fernfarmer said, you want to screen the window. Japanese Maples can be pruned, you just don't want to shear them.

I love the idea of having something that gives color throughout the year - the other flowers in other places are red, pink, white, and purple, so sticking with something similar would probably be good. We get sun through that window, but I would love to get more if possible. I'm open to moving everything, but would like to just move the Japanese maple, though I'm not sure where we would put it. Almost everywhere else gets full or all day sun.

Corey what you see here is a demonstration of how avid gardeners love discussing plants. If you add the pictures as Yaardvark requested you could get an overall design for your house. You can't plan the right side of your house with no thought to what will be on the other side. Especially since I can see that plant bed and the going- up- stairs shearing are not really helping you. If you ever want to have a large specimen shrub it would have to go on that side of the house. One more thing I want to mention is that you have an unusual path to your door. I have never seen any like it before. If you had a landscape plan you would be better able to draw the attention back to the plants instead of the path.

Emmarene, thank you for pointing out the missing half of the house, I didn't realize it.

Here's the left side...

We planted a sonic bloom weigela at the very end of the bed, but mainly for the color and size. That sad tree is dead and has to go, but we aren't sure what to replace it with.

Emmarene - do you mean the entire pathway is unusual, or the ramp at the door? It's a wheelchair ramp, with two brick steps under it.

I just realized that I still left out photos.

From rom across the street:

I completely agree with Emmarene's thought that you should have a plan for the entire front of the house before you run out and start changing things willy nilly. I trust Emmarene would agree that more information about your goals and tastes is something we should have before we run in and start offering such plans willy nilly.

I would say that my goals are to have a landscape plan that doesn't look I went to Home Depot and picked the plants everyone picks. I want color, but also some green in there to even it out. I would prefer something in there that will last all year, giving at least a little color through winter. I'm willing to do some work, whether amending soil or whatever, but I would ideally like for it to need little pruning and other work once established - I'm ok with work here and there, but I don't want to have to be out every other day fixing something.

In real life everything wouldn't be blooming at once.

Yardvaark, that looks great. What did you have in mind for those plants?

Corey plant the Sonic Boom out of the bed. It needs to be at least four feet from the house. Maybe around the dead tree area.

Corey, I don't have specific plants in mind. It's a matter of thinking what they COULD be in the Knoxville area. I used a picture of a Deodar Cedar for the evergreen tree at the left. But I don't know that they grow there. It could just as well be a Nellie Stevens Holly or a number of other evergreens. I moved your Japanese maple between the Cedar and the house. In front of it is some grass. It could be fountain grass or Muhly or any other in the 4' range. You need a 3' height shrub below the window. Look around town and see what grows nicely to that size. Continuing rightward is annual color. Below each garage window is a low shrub. Or it could be a perennial. All of the rest is groundcover.

I would begin the process of removing lower limbs from the tree yesterday. It's overdue.