I'd look for images of colonial revival houses from the first part of the 20th century (or I suppose the real thing) for inspiration. Your house is sort of a take on colonial, just with less symmetry. You'd have to do something like putting columns that match the things flanking the door out a few feet and tack on a roof...something like this, but take it down a few notches. This is a little grandiose. Here is a link that might be useful:

Hi Jenny, I'm from Georgia too (Villa Rica)...west of Atlanta. Your house is lovely, congratulations on being a one year homeowner! What town/city are you in? The mock up pictures are great, esp. shows what landscaping can do for a home. I love the lamp posts and plan on doing this when we move to our retirement home. The only thing I see wrong with your porch is the posts are really too small. I would budget money in the future to get those replaced. Our builder tried to do this same thing to us and we just happened to be at the house and said he could use the smaller ones on the back porch. We wanted bigger posts for the front porch....a huge difference! I don't know anything about spirea bushes. All I have to say about bushes/hedges, you don't want anything you have to trim all the time (speaking from experience here....and you can tell from the overgrown hedges in my picture below, LOL.) I would wait until next spring and plant azaleas between the bushes. The azaleas will grow and mix into the bushes. You can mix pinks and whites but I planted some of the red azaleas and they aren't near as pretty as the pinks. Also, when you buy azaleas, get the ones with the longer slimmer leaves. They always have a lot more blooms. As for the railing, I like it both ways, but I prefer railings because it's where I put my tea glass and my coffee cup when I'm swinging, LOL. About five years ago, I felt the same way you do...something was missing, so I got landscaping bricks at Home Depot, curved them and made a perennial bed on the right side of my steps. Next spring you could plant a perennial garden and they come back every year. I just love it! Put down landscaping fabric before you plant the flowers and you'll have less weeding. About those hostas in the sun, they would bake here in Georgia with our heat and humidity, LOL. We do have a lot of hostas at the side of the house and one huge one to the left of the steps. I do love the hanging baskets and the idea of one added lamp post, the one closer to your steps, is a fantastic idea! After 14 years here, things are still missing from my front porch, LOL! I need planters also on both sides of my front door. I'm finally getting three rocking chairs for the front porch this week. Good luck! Dee Here is a link that might be useful: My Home

DK, I’m glad you mentioned that having the back of the home facing south would mean the master suite would be warmer as well. I don’t think that would be optimal in the Deep South - it’s just sweltering, and I cannot tolerate being hot in our bedroom. Is it crazy that I may now try to position our new home to AVOID the hot afternoon sun??!! I like light and all, but since it was mentioned that it won’t be a dungeon, I think I’m good with just some light trickling in the living room. Hubs is very sensitive to light and would be as happy in a cave... so he’s not too concerned about a lot of natural light coming in. We are doing lots of recessed lights throughout the home, and almost all will have dimmers, as I enjoy them in our current home and like the ability to have something in between dark and “in your face bright” on occasion. :) Funny you mention landscaping, as my husband owns a landscape company! I know nothing about any of it, but I’ve heard him mention things like this several times when a client wants ABC plants for a certain location, but only XYZ plants will thrive there. After speaking with my husband about the whole skylight/sun tube issue, he was not a fan - and for the exact same reasons given here (additional heat, “putting holes in the roof”/compromising structural integrity, additional cost, cost of potential repairs, etc... so it sounds like that’s out. He did say he might consider a couple of skylights in the roof on the covered porch only, but feels like that defeats the purpose of a COVERED porch. I mean, he’s not wrong there. LOL All that said, there has been a ton of good information given, and I appreciate all of it! I welcome and appreciate any and all suggestions and opinions - I’ve learned so much from y’all! Keep ‘em coming!

Thanks all. I meant to say in my first post I want to redecorate my front porch (and I dk how to edit this post). Here are more pictures so you can see how big it is. I can’t do a swing cause I need easy access to my side yard (in case someone were to suggest that). The chairs I wanted are sold out but I found these below. They don’t go with the colors inside my home but they are on sale at 70% off, sooo comfy and if they aren’t too large (I have to measure) I might just purchase them. Not crazy about the green stripe but I could get them recovered down the road?? Alright, please let me know if you think these might work or if you have other suggestions. Thank you soo much for all your replies!