Start with going across the street and taking a photo of the whole front of the home and property. Also, measure the flower beds so we know length and width since what you can plant there depends on space available. What direction does this area face? I would plan on doing prep and planning this summer and actually doing the new planting in the early fall, in September. With that amount of concrete, the area will be stressful for new plants in the heat of summer. What are your goals? Curb appeal? Enjoyment of sights and scents as you sit on the front stoop? Creating separation or privacy between the walk and the house? How wide is the concrete porch? Wide enough to be useful for sitting? If not, is it a necessary part of the foundation or house? If it isn't useful and necessary, you might want to remove it. If you will be keeping it, I would add a railing for safety and to make it look more finished. I would also create a holding bed behind your house to plant any plants that you might want to keep unless you want to just leave things are for most of the summer. You can always dispose of plants later if you decide you don't want them, but if you get rid of them now, you won't have that choice later. (The exception would be the obedient plant, which I would just get rid of as it won't stay under control.) That will allow you to work on improving the soil before your fall planting. I agree with you that right now the spirea is poorly placed. It looks crowded against the house and is poorly pruned right now. I would dig it up, prune it back hard, and plant it in your holding bed. It will regrow. What will be going on in that space between the houses? Is it yours? Do you want to plant it as a shade garden or be able to walk between the houses or hide that space (for instance if you store trash cans there)? Do you need it to get materials into your back yard?

White

what do people think of something like this (but not quite as heavy/large in appearance) across the top of the windows on the side of the house...either in white or stained wood to give that side some dimension. Also considering hiding the trash cans under the front deck in an accessible area where a door can be made and they can be slid out. Would like to bump out that deck a ways and expand it, maybe have a couple chairs and a small table sitting to the right of the door with some black metal art above it in that empty space by the front door.

@Anna & @NHBabs- I was trying to say add an above window pergola...not add a window =) We definitely don't have the room for that inside. I think with Dougs design a pergola would be too much though. We can definitely do a smaller, more affordable version of that gorgeous front deck. We are experienced DIYers and can do much or all of the work ourselves and with a few changes its completely affordable. I actually have more of the pavers from our walkway that can be added to the front area to widen that landing out some, though we won't go as wide on the left side as is shown because our yard gets narrower there against the neighbors yard. We can do stone that matches our existing stone out back on the steps and instead of stone columns we can do thick wood posts with black metal caps, and the affordable black aluminum railings that we had planned anyway, which would match our new back deck perfectly. We have considered stone in the chimney at some point in the future, though it won't be next year. It won't be quite as grand as Dougs design but gives a very similar look for alot less $$. I think to the left of the door we can add a long, covered, decorative bench box for wood storage in that space. That way we have wood for a week in the winter without trudging to the fire wood shelters out back every day or so. (We have 2 wood stoves that get used alot in the winters here.) We never use our entrance unless we are going out the front door for mail, and all our friends use the back entrance as there is ample parking out there. I can see us sitting out there on the deck with a glass of wine in the shade though. Since the only visitors we get out front are deliveries and people selling stuff, we probably don't need to add anything for sheltering them lol. Still struggling with house color. Currently its a pale yellowish color my husband hates (ditto for me) and it clashes with our new stone. We were thinking maybe something more earthy in a brown/gray...meaning not just brown or gray, something with a mix of both. Or maybe a darker beige. We'd like to darken it up a bit. The shingles are a dark gray but do have a little brown/tan in them along with the black and gray. Its called Canadian Driftwood.