It's hard to visualize the setting without some pictures. Ideally, a full 360 view standing in one spot as you swivel the camera.

It's interesting that you have a goal of making one entrance more inviting than another, but have "solved" (in your plan) the problem by arranging the planting bed such as to visually create the opposite effect! At the main entrance, the planting bed shrouds, encloses and shields the walk. At the kitchen entrance, the bed recedes as if funneling people toward the entrance. If the beds were to be planted with low height plant material, the "hidden" message you'd be sending would be primarily visual. If they were planted with waist height or higher plant material, the message the beds would be sending would also be physical, and the bed near the front entrance would be enclosed by a profound obstruction.

The plan you've offered is help for seeing what you're thinking about doing. But it is not too much helpful in allowing us to see why you're doing it. For that, we need pictures that show the conditions on the site. We should see the house and its surroundings, preferably in a continuous scene. You'll need to take slightly overlapping pictures, all from a single camera viewpoint while pivoting the camera, that lets us see what you see. Find a spot where the camera can see the vast majority of the scene, including some surroundings, and try to capture a scene.

Thank you so much for the thoughtful replies. Here is a photo facing the front. Excuse the dreariness- it was drizzly!

Here is the view standing at the front door.

On the far right when facing the front of the house

To the left when facing the front of the house.

I hope these photos provide more context and help set the scene for where we are. Many of the trees (evergreens/oaks/maples/ash) around the house are mature and enormous. The house appears to be nestled in a tall forests :)

Yardvaark thank you for this thought-provoking reply! I see what you mean about the beds surrounding the front door actually 'hiding' it from sight. The planting scheme was laid out by the people who owned the house before us. They actually liked using the secondary door, which may be why they did it this way! Then again before we pulled out some of the shrubs, you couldn't really see much of the doors or windows.

I am more than happy to reshape the beds if another shape would be more attractive and effective for guiding people to it. I tried preserve the plantings that were in good shape, and fit the size of the house, but I would be delighted to improve the design/layout!

The picture of the whole house in one shot is good, but we need to see closer. The closer pictures you provided are from various angles looking in various directions so are not useful for me giving graphic information back to you. Go to where you took the first picture and stay lined up to the house just like that. From that point walk straight ahead so you are halfway to the house. At that halfway point, begin taking a series of slightly overlapping pictures panning from the left to right, include space at each end of the house so we can see how landscaping fits the surroundings or reacts to them. The camera must stay at the same place for all pictures, merely pivoting. Looking for 160* to 180* swath of scenery.

Any reason why the front walk continues straight past both doors? Does it lead somewhere?

NHBabs- thanks for pointing this out. I think it would be very difficult for us to widen the main walkway, BUT I could remove some of the flagstones that lead to the kitchen. This would make that section more like stepping stones with grass between.

The only people who use that entrance are my kids, but they use it frequently when they play in the yard.

Also I just realized a slight error in the drawing. The pathway to the kitchen is approx 2ft, while the step going to the door widens out to about 4ft. And yes it is a 2ft per square scale.

Thank you for this suggestion. I think it would be quite do-able to minimize the path to the kitchen door :)

Whitewatervol- yes. The path continues down and turns left. There it turns into stairs that go down to the back of the house to access the backyard (on a lower level).

I was going to make the same comment that the path coming from the parking area seems to be VERY narrow, especially for a house that looks so nice. The path to the front entrance seems wide enough. But the path to the kitchen door seems much too narrow, too. I would NOT make it more narrow or change to stepping stones. If anything, I'd widen it so that it was genuinely functional. Diminishing its quality -- which is already subpar -- is not the answer to getting people to ignore it. A simple gate would be a better solution than that. (I cannot tell you with this drawing what is a really good solution because that area does not show well enough.)

I don't hate your large, wild evergreens that flank the front door -- now -- but I'm sure I'd dislike them quite a bit in the future. They seem of the wrong character and size for that important spot. I'd ditch them in favor of some monster color flanking the steps and a couple of nice coach lamps flanking the door.

The small trees are made of large shrubs. Something with a major flower show would be good. All matched of course.

I would bring a semi-circle of turf in front of the main section of the house. The windows are so low there is not a need for shrubs per se. Instead, I'd use a solid, uniform groundcover to fill in all the planting bed space. It could be Liriope (a single variety) or something even a little lower.

Yardvaark, Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts and your expertise!

What large shrubs would you suggest that have the scale and the desired characteristics that you've noted above?

Also, you mentioned that the hedge may look bad in a few years...do you mean the privet hedge? Or the boxwoods on the far left?

Thanks again!

The hedge that surrounds the parking area.

You're asking about a large shrub that could become a multi-trunk tree form? Examples: Burford or dwarf Burford Holly, burning bush, PG Hydrangea, beauty bush, mock orange, crape myrtle (with high up beheading), some Viburnums, Lilac, etc. Each plant will have its own personality and quirks. Search Google for large shrubs for Pa. and explore the list. Some will be better suited than others.