I would want any outside access other than the front door to be into the back yard. Don't forget to consider flipping rooms to get the desired flow you need.

Your home has nice bones. I agree with deco that I wouldn’t be interested in adding a casual sitting area on the front of the house. Unless you have NO backyard or side yard at all.

Plus, a west-facing home in the Midwest will get some powerful hot sun which will not be solved by a pergola. If you plan to sit outside, you’ll definitely prefer the east shady side in the evening. My last house had a lovely screened in porch on the west side. Brutally hot in June July and August between 5 pm and sundown.

My inclination would be to paint the trim something other than white rather than whitewash the brick. Seems more suitable to a midwestern prairie style. I also envision prairie landscaping. Sweeps of grasses. Have you visited any of the frank Lloyd Wright houses? You have a handsome house and blank slate for landscaping. Worth taking your time to nail it!

Clover is pretty but also is attractive to bees. Are children going to be playing in the front yard? It is something to consider.

I have recently read a couple of good articles on landscaping a ranch--look around the web, I bet you can find some nice photos for ideas. I agree that adding additional doors to the front facade can cause confusion. We have a bedroom that used to be a breezeway and people are always knocking on that door instead of the front door, even thought we built an obvious porch complete with columns to make the front door more obvious.

Gee, I'm sorry to hear about the shutters. Wish you'd come here first.

How French!

Paint the downspouts the color of the brick, paint the gutters the color of the roof. Extend the porch and steps across the front. You could put a pergola over the porch if you like. You'll need a walkway but I didn't know where to put it, so I didn't.

Thank you for all of the suggestions and comments. I have been scrolling around the internet for the past month or so looking for landscaping ideas. While we have a nice courtyard on the back of the house, it isn’t ideal for a number of reasons. So, we are looking to adding a courtyard, patio, porch something to the front. It would be used various times of the day and year for reading, working, and general hanging out. Even if we don’t use the space a lot, we are going to need some serious landscape work. I have thought about prairie grass along the left side, and would want to add some flowering plants as well. We are not worried about bees; the kids are past playing in the yard. We are still thinking about what to do with the yard and how to move away from so much grass. I like the idea of adding ornamental grasses. We had them at our last home, and I really miss having them.

The previous owners added the shutters and painted them and the doors black. The mullions are white as you see. I am not sure that I like having all of the black. I have been thinking about painting the doors blue or a purple. Groveraxle, I really like the idea of painting the gutters and down spouts to blend in. Thanks for the suggestions!

Please do not paint or stain or whitewash the brick.

Was this picture taken at the front edge of the yard?

Before doing any landscaping or creating a patio, you need to know what, if anything, is buried beneath your front yard (septic tank or utility lines or pipes) and you need to know what is permitted and prohibited by local codes -- including where your lot ends and the road right of way begins so you can plant a green hedge just inside your property line for that privacy you will want for your new front yard patio. Were it my very bare yard, that hedge would be my first priority.

You're not going to be able to plant or build anything permanent on a road right of way -- especially if there are utilities buried alongside the road. You might, however, be able to set in place a row of pavers easily removed as needed by utility company workers as a makeshift sidewalk.

Talk with a local landscaper or at least a local garden supply store about your potential choices for your privacy hedge along your front property line AFTER you decide how much time and effort and energy and money you're willing to put into your landscaping on an ongoing basis -- it matters. If you want low maintenance, specify that to your pro. Do some on-line research so you can pick a shrub for your privacy hedge that will thrive where you live and stay looking good year round. Begin keeping it simple -- don't add everything at once.

With the front of the home facing west and no shade trees, your home will be getting a lot of sun. Budget permitting, consider adding a front porch roof between the two "wings" -- even if it's just a flat roof.

If you add a pergola or gazebo to your front yard, it will likely raise your property taxes more than a front porch that doesn't extend beyond you home's current foot print. Instead of adding a structure to your front yard, consider adding trees.

Decide the size of and where you want your front yard patio before deciding where to plant anything more than your front privacy hedge.

If you can plant one or two or even three trees about halfway between house and road so that, as they mature, you will have some shade during the heat of summer and yet let the warmth of the sun thru in the cold of winter, do that.

With all that sun, you might consider solar lights for your front yard. You could invest in some 4"x4"6' square treated posts (emphasis on square rather than two rounded sided landscaping posts) for portable solar lighting for your driveway and sidewalk and patio and, with brackets, can be used with hanging brackets for hanging basket planters and/or wind chimes and/or bird feeders and/or holiday decorations. (The weight will need to be balanced -- easier with a 6' post than an 8' post.). Having the posts and lights portable will be useful while you create your landscaping.

One kind of stand for the post is to use oversized Christmas tree stands with drainage holes drilled in the bottom around a plastic jar cap set in the stand beneath the post to keep the post above the bottom so it will not stand in water.

Another kind of stand would be to cut four 16" lengths of treated 2"x4" board and nail one to each flat side so you have a short board extending in every direction.

In Georgia, Planting Zone 7, I planted liriope alongside my front sidewalk. If my driveway were paved, I'd have planted it alongside the driveway as well. Ask your landscaping pro what options are available that would thrive in your area. If your driveway is not paved, you might consider outlining the driveway and a double back-up-and-turn-around parking slots with pavers and/or some plants suited for that purpose.

I like both clover and moss for the yard -- but my yard is mostly shady in summer. You could at least try planting it around your privacy hedge. Save the bees.

Consider adding a plain concrete bird bath to your yard and be rewarded with birds entertaining you year round. I also have a pair of feeders ( that I put on my own portable treated posts) that i fill with black oil sunflower seeds beginning after the first hard freeze until spring.

Choose a birdbath with the bowl narrower at the bottom so that in winter when the water freezes the ice can expand without breaking the bowl of the birdbath.

In winter, I pour boiling water directly atop the center of the ice cube that forms in mine during freezing weather until I can lift out the ice cube and refill the birdbath.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Athena-Garden-Cast-Stone-Small-Fancy-Column-Bird-Bath/118215659?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1172&adid=22222222227266754755&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=317959412558&wl4=aud-566049426705:pla-587870802455&wl5=9011028&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8453398&wl11=online&wl12=118215659&veh=sem&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIt7m3npyJ5QIVi7bICh175wDwEAQYAiABEgKu8_D_BwE

In summer, I use a stiff brush with a bit of no splash bleach to clean the birdbath about once a month.

Choose bird feeders that protect against squirrels. Mine are a round/tube version of these that I've hung on the longest brackets I could find -- more of a stretch for the squirrel from bird to post.:

https://www.chewy.com/perky-pet-squirrel-be-gone-wild-bird/dp/134049?utm_source=google-product&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=hg&utm_content=Perky-Pet&utm_term=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1s6os5yJ5QIVkI3ICh2-Lg4iEAQYBCABEgLPqfD_BwE

https://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Panacea-85221-Contemporary-Hanging-Plant-Bracket-12-Black/25533918/product.html

The single picture does not convey the surroundings. For better pictures, move to 15' or so feet closer to the house, in line with its center. Take a series of slightly overlapping pictures that pan from far left (looking toward the neighboring house) to far right, again, looking toward the other neighboring house.

Is it the case that you're looking for some privacy at the new front patio? If you were going to create a second door at the front, you'd need to conceal it from the approach, or it would create a lot of confusion for any first-time guests.

I am having trouble responding and uploading photos. I wrote a long response it disappeared in the process of uploading. And the second try wouldn’t load either. I am going to upload just one photo and see if that works.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and mindful warnings. The front yard does indeed have an old septic tank and a recently capped off well. We aren’t interested in doing much other than changing grass to clover and adding birdbaths and feeders. [Thanks to suzebelll for the suggestions on this!]

I took out my compass to get a better, more exact understanding of how the house sits on the property. It is more north/northwest than true west. [In my defense, the house sits on a bend that sort of impairs my sense of direction.]

Are people really opposed to whitewashing? The whole house, front, back, sides, is this red orange brick. It is in really great shape, so I wouldn’t want to paint over it. But I had thought about a light whitewashing.

The flippers took out all of the old shrubbery as well as the front, blue slate patio. I am trying to upload a few photos that might give a better sense of the area Under consideration. It is definitely large enough to have something substantial. It is just noon here, and the whole area is in the shade. So while I worry about the summer sun, I also have a backyard courtyard that is almost always filtered sun. You can see our gravel driveway. It needs to be better defined and we do hope to make changes so that we can allow for more parking when we have people over. On the other side is a strip of grass and sadly, a dying pine tree. We will eventually take all of the grass out and just plant native plants, etc.

A view from the front steps with our two sweet gum trees.

This photo is from now, a little after noon, and from the single window (dining room) on the front of the house. This is where we would put in the French doors.

The area under question:

You should paint the gutter downspouts to match the brick. With white window trim, it seems unnecessary to paint the white fascia and white horizontal gutter.

If the well and septic tank are NOT being used, they'll only be a potential impediment to your digging not a prohibition of it. If you run into an unused well or septic tank pipe, you can simply cut through it. Electrical wires would be a different issue.

Rather than a "patio" against the house, you might well be better served to create a front porch all across that "area under question" between the two front wings of the home -- a porch that you can use by exiting via the front door rather than adding a new forward facing door. Even if you stay with the patio idea rather than creating a wide front porch, resist the temptation to add a second forward facing front door to your home.

If you create a patio beside your front porch, make it larger than the "area" of loose dirt and don't limit it to a rectangle against the home.

A larger window in the dining room might, however, be worthwhile -- perhaps even a different kind of window if you want to create a pass thru to your porch or patio.

Remove the loose soil -- what appears to be rich planting soil -- from that "area" (to be repurposed for either filling in a low place or to be used in a raised flower bed elsewhere). You want to have hard ground and stable rock beneath your new porch or patio.

For a porch, if you choose a treated deck board floor, you'll need to have the ground beneath it sloped away from the house.

If you choose a concrete porch floor -- which which will last longer, be easier to maintain (and, therefore, be more economical long term -- that removed soil will most likely be replaced with gravel before any concrete floor is poured (rather than pouring a thicker slab of concrete).

A concrete floor porch will require a footing and foundation across the front and, if it extends beyond the two wings of the house, on the sides as well. Any removed loose topsoil will likely be replaced with gravel before the concrete is (rather than pouring an unnecessarily thicker concrete pad).

You'll want any porch or deck or patio to be not less than six feet deep. That depth surface will enable you to set chairs on it and still walk by them the full length of it.

For a porch roof, you could raise the front half of your roof between the two front wings of the home to cover the area of the new porch.

https://rgbconstructionservices.com/hip-roof-vs-gable-roof-best-home/ 

Another option would be to create a concrete porch floor between the two front wings of the home that extends to a point even with the front edge of the front wall of the home -- but ONE step down from your existing stoop floor -- to use as a part of an uncovered patio now but that might be covered for use as a porch later.

You could then create a third patio level with a sidewalk (that is at or closer to existing sidewalk level) to be used as your permanent patio, with that sidewalk leading lead away from the front entrance toward the left side of the yard (away from the driveway side of the yard).

You could face the front edge and sides of both the existing front stoop and the new future front porch with stone (or brick)

https://www.google.com/search?q=Front+yard+patio+by+porch&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjkkPaJkovlAhVBSN8KHeQNAQwQ_AUIESgB&biw=1328&bih=617#imgrc=EZ5cIofdfse1pM:&spf=1570485418994

and then use that same material to begin to create your actual FRONT YARD patio.

https://www.houselogic.com/photos/yard-patio/front-yard-patio-ideas/slide/patio-as-focal-point/

Pergola and clover:

Dig Doug has skills. Like what he did.

Like the clover, groveraxle -- the pergola ... not so much.

Groveraxle and Dig Dug, wow! Thank you both for the suggestions. I am loving the clover, and my husband really likes the pergola. I really love the landscaping ideas shared by Dig Dug. We definitely want to find ways to break up the expanse of yard, and would like to add access to the front door from the curb area. I also took up kitasei and went back to look at prairie style landscape and found a new appreciation for the style. Thanks again to all!

Would prefer a porch roof to a pergola. Wouldn't want a porch or pergola post in front of the bay window.

I'd also "T" the sidewalk and turn one side toward the driveway and the other side toward that front yard patio, if there is to be one, rather than straight toward the road/mailbox.

I found this post in a search and thank you suezbell your replies helped us a ton.:)