I don't know about the technical aspects of properly wrapping a porch column, or whether to use treated wood. However, before wrapping a porch column with real wood, I would be thinking about how to put a durable finish on the wood. My neighbor spent a small fortune having a custom wood garage door made. The door looked gorgeous for about a year, and then the finish began to fail. After three years, the garage door looked like crap (faded & peeling). Also, I would consider a vinyl or PVC wrap, if I could find one in a wood-look material that looks good. Some manufacturers (e.g. Georgia Pacific & CertainTeed) make nice synthetic wood-look sidings, but I don't know whether they make similar wood-look materials for wrapping columns. This post was edited by GypsyWaterfowl on Sat, Jul 27, 13 at 22:55

hmmm i agree on the idea of using what you have with those diagonal posts. one thing i think we all need to see is how the house would look like without the landscape covering up the front as it is hard to tell when we only have the 1 photo , if you do decide to remove the landscape it would give us all a better picture of how the facade would look and what may compliment it.

I have a similar front porch roof - mine has four columns, two on each side of the entryway. Each column is made of four 1"X10". Each column internally has three or four "stiffeners" inside made of crossed 2"X4"s. Each column is approximately twenty feet tall. My purpose in sharing this ? My columns are non load bearing! The porch roof is cantilevered out from the truss system in my attic. So my four columns are hanging from the roof structure and are in need of having plinths to attach the columns to the concrete porch that prevent the wind or a solid push from moving the column. Check in your attic and determine how your porch roof is supported!

Hi Folks - thank you for all of the great ideas. I always knew that step was undersized (we built the house 20 yrs ago and money was tight) but had somehow not Given it a second thought. I can totally see how it would transform the entrance to widen it and build a more gracious walkway. As to can see, we need much more than a paint job. We need an entire new landscape design. a couple of specific responses + yes those brackets are there to hold large, abundant hanging baskets which I usually purchase around Mother’s Day. They do give the front some interest in the summer. yes those “grey things” are planters, which I plant with greenery in the summer. I should have moved them after i Removed everything last fall but I was in a pandemic funk and didn’t get around to it. *shrug* I do plan to replace the coach lights when we paint with something more lantern-like. the house numbers are on the mailbox, which will also be painted. the columns are indeed just lumber nailed together to form a very crude style. No dimensional pieces with architectural flair - just boards. Good suggestion to see what’s underneath. Might be a quick fix to re-skin them. as for the Cracker Barrel color scheme - this made me laugh out loud. Glad I didn't know before now this is the association one makes when one sees our house. At least it will only haunt me until the painters come in a month or so. It’ll be a much more neutral palette with taupe grey, snowbound white trim and probably a navy door. Still working on that. thanks for the Izzy love. She’s a sweetheart. She’s a Coton de Tulear - which is in the Bichon family. Best dogs ever! thanks for your help. Definitely got the ideas flowing...and the budget - much to my husband’s dismay. Cheers to Spring!