Your question is too vague. What are your goals? What don't you like about how it looks now? Do you like to garden, or not? Do you want easy-care? Do you want flowers? Do you like to mow? Do you need a seating area? A play area for kids? A covered patio? A pool? What planting zone do you live in - it looks tropical - Florida? California? Costa Rica? Which direction does the house face? Do you have HOA restrictions?

If it's not a goal of yours for the landscaping to completely obscure the entrance so a visitor would not see where they will be arriving in order to enter, then I think you must remove some of the bushy obstructions. There doesn't seem to be a unified artistic theme working its way through the landscape. It is a bit junky/haphazard looking. No one will be able to give you a landscape plan per se. Instead you can get help that guides you into creating one. If you're interested in redoing foundation planting (which we can't see in the picture) you'd likely work on that first and the perimeter planting second. You'd need better pictures of the foundation planting area in order to start.

Basically, everything has been removed. It is a blank canvas except for the split leaf to the left and the Palm Trees. The grass is actually higher than the house, so a few stairs will have to be built into the entrance.

Advice is given for what you have ... not what you don't have. If it is all now different than the picture, you need to submit new pictures. Capture a complete scene from not too far away by pivoting the camera while staying at a stationary location, taking slightly overlapping pictures.

The Google street view doesn't show much of your actual house -- hard to make recommendations based on this rather poor photo. Had the camera clicked 10 feet either side of the central point shown, we might at least see the door to the house. Can you show more photos? Is this Southern California? (Those tall palms are a dead giveaway.) Is the flat-roof 2-story in the back part of your house? My first reaction to the colors is the roof and house are too similar in color, that pinky-beige. A darker color for the body of the house might give better contrast and better define the ranch look; maybe an adobe brown.

Home has an ocean view from the backyard in Cardiff By the Sea, CA

Yes, the addition you see in the back is part of the house. Flat roof

I would love to find pictures of similar houses renovated. The only colors the painter has suggested is different shades of gray, which I find a little depressing, but can get on board if that is the general opinion. If there is room for a rock stream in front that would be nice too.

Have you just driven around and looked at house colors? As with most things, the devil is in the details. There are hundreds of greys for houses. Some are drab and depressing. Others are charming as all get-out. Any grey can be taken in the direction of color with some tinting. Too strong of color usually ends up looking very unsophisticated. Much has to do with trim, as well. I find dark (darker than the body) trims generally unappealing, thinking they either look ghoulish or never as cheery as lighter trims. I can't see what greys your painter is showing you, but suspect he's on the right trail for achieving a pleasing look, if there are some warm greys in the mix. I would stay away from the cold or very dark greys. I would also stay away from any beiges, or that in combination with brown. It is a completely tired look. A full quarter of the houses in the US are painted beige because the color is picked out by someone who will not live in the house and who is afraid of making a mistake that would be considered too colorful by others. Ditto on beigey-brownish roofs. They look hillbilly.

Yes, I have driven around several times. I believe it is a neighborhood that is in transition, but not quite there yet. A Very desirable area with an ocean view that has not yet taken off with big money - and even though a lot of the neighbor's house are not very nice, it is a quaint community. Still would love to keep it beach / cottege style while still not looking tired and old. Most neighbors have gone with xeriscape (sic) or tropicals. I lean towards palms and tropicals myself but also love succulents. Can they be mixed aesthetically. Attached are the colors. Weakening towards the one to the right. Not a big fan of darker shutters as well or should we remove the shutters... Remove or paint over or new color of brick...??? Roof... we are stuck with the color ...

Cardiff, lucky you! Great spot on the coast for growing both tropicals and succulents. You can mix them if you put those that need less water in a zone together, and those that need more water in their own zone. (supposing water bills are not a problem for you)

I'm going through the agony of choosing house colors myself, and walked around my Point Loma neighborhood for 3 1/2 hours looking, looking, looking. Noting your flag out front reminds me of one house I saw that was a medium gray with cobalt blue shutters and I think the door was white, and they were flying a flag to match. I will find a photo and post it later, it might work for you.

And so true -- so many beige houses, every shade of beige. I got proposals from a color consultant at a paint store, but they aren't too exciting. When I first walked in she showed me 5 different shades of white. :-/

If you were going to go with the color zone that included "cocoa powder" or "reclaimed wood," you'd need to determine how light or dark to make it. I'm suspecting midway between the two in order to get a pleasing contrast between body and trim. In the direct sun, light colors bleach out. I think the best way is to select your best guess and get inexpensive samples and view them in direct sunlight, not on a computer screen or indoor samples. Also, possibly explore colors that start in this color zone but begin to have a greenish or teal cast to them. I don't know if anyone mentioned but some paint mfg. websites have online apps that allow you to change and view house paint color. You'ld need a good, clear picture of the house to upload.

In looking at potential house colors, I wouldn't limit to the neighborhood in question, but look at any upscale neighborhood.

It looks as if there was once a retaining wall at the front border of what was the lawn area. How do you intend to handle that?

People do combine tropicals and desert plants. You can get more information on that at the California Forum.

As to the house color, I would prefer a lighter color and have it used on the stucco as well as the board and batten.

emmarene - what program did you use to insert the color. I would love to experiment around with that some more.

I know Emmarene uses MS Paint as do I, for some altering of pictures. While it's easy to roughly make a door a different color, it's not very easy to "paint" a whole house with realism, due to all of the light and shading variations. For that, you pretty much need to go to the paint mfg. website and look for the apps that are expressly for that purpose. I would imagine by this time, all paint manufacturers have such an online app. Again, it DOES require a good picture to be uploaded as the one in which the color will be changed.

Sorry, forgot about posting this last night. This may or may not have appeal for you.

Another possibility, if you are going tropical with the landscape; a mango shade can really set off the greenery. However, I would remove shutters in that instance, and add new framing around the windows to give a more modern look to the house, and remove the brick as well, so that is a more complicated approach. This color works best with a densely planted garden. This photo doesn't convey a tropical look -- I hope you have a good imagination.

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A third idea, is a rich, dark mud brown, and off-black on the trim. Sounds a bit strange, I'm sure, but a very workable combination for a ranch, especially with lots of greenery out front. I've seen it done, and it can be striking. Google street view won't give me a photo of the house I have in mind, unfortunately.

I used MS Paint to wipe out the bricks. After that I went to the Benjamin Moore website and used the visualizer. I encourage you to give it a try. It is easy.

If your neighborhood is still up-and-coming, a good idea is to visit several upscale neighborhoods nearby and see what people have done--bigger budgets there and more motivation to upgrade or remodel. I'd get rid of the cheap trash palms. They get more and more expensive to trim every year, and trimming keeps the rat population in check (rats love nesting in them). San Diego County has outstanding designers and plant nurseries. There are all sorts of fun things you can do.