Perhaps a symmetrical landscaping solution would be the right solution for your home.

Pe

Make two wide curving planting beds starting at the edge of the porch and moving out along the sidewalk ten or twenty feet. Plant with annuals this year, as you make plans for low shrubs such as azaleas, bulbs, and some perennials next year.

Love the house. Are the shutters black? If so, your brick with black and white is classic. The landscaping suggestions from Beverly and apple_pie are nice.

Widen the walkway, add a broad landing in front of the porch, and bring the plantings out farther from the house by creating deeper beds, front to back. Using a combination of flowering deciduous and evergreen shrubs rather than the current set of tightly pruned blobs would help soften the appearance. Underplant with flowering evergreen groundcover.

if they aren’t needed structurally, could you either remove the two inner porch posts entirely or move them to just outside of the current outer posts to have a paired appearance as in Beverly’s first photo?? Having the portico more open will help it look more welcoming, especially with some low flowers in the ground or short planters across the front, flanking the new wide landing. Currently the post placement emphasizes that the door is slightly off center in the portico unless that is just the camera angle.

Agree that your house is wonderful and classic! You just need to add the welcoming color plants and widen the walkway as described above.

Nice, Yardvaark!

Yardvaark that is amazing! Definitely love all the pops of color - it makes the house look a lot more like a home!

It sounds like you want a less formal landscape for your house. Is that right? For less formal I would limit the amount of sheared round shrubs. What was you last landscaping like? Do you enjoy doing garden work? I think you should look at a lot of pictures and decide what you like. To be less formal I would add more variety. It looks like the face of the house only has one species of shrub. I do like the taller plants to the left as I like some privacy on the drive.

I understand there is a lot to do inside the house. I have an idea that could improve the current look and give you more time to decide the style you want in a garden. You could remove every other shrub. Doing this would expose more of the brick, give a less stiff feeling and seem less formal. Trim the shrubs that remain.

If you like flowers then you can deepen the bed and leave room in front of the shrubs.

I like your house the way it is. I hope that changing the landscape will proved the look you are going for. I tried to change your gable and it is not that good as I am not an artist.

I would use dark blue for the shutter color. Green would be nice too. Also, the gray of the roof.

Emmarene9 - Yes exactly, it feels a little stiff southern formal right now. Wow! We did not even think about changing the gable! That is beautiful!! I like the idea of getting rid of every other shrub too to expose more of the brick. This will be our first home but we love gardening so I am looking forward to spending time outside sprucing the place up!

some ideas: