Dear Becky, your home is absolutely stunning! With such a large property, you might want to break the landscaping into phases and work towards an overall plan in manageable steps. Natural stepping stones are entirely appropriate but it seems that most folks will enter from the side porch, even if going to front door. Perhaps you could install the walk between the drive and side porch with complimentary landscaping as an initial phase. For the front, you could seed with native meadow plants and simply mow a path through. Look in past articles on Houzz for how to create a meadow garden. Wish I could “porch” with ya. I bet you get a lot of wildlife too!

I like the appearance.

Will you need to shovel snow? For me, that would be a big “no”. The most used entrance to our house was a stone terrace and it was difficult in ice and snow. It was hard to shovel and confusing under several inches of snow.

@Stacey Collins, thank you! I do plan on breaking the landscaping into phases. I hoped to have my front yard finished by now, but this pandemic threw a wrinkle into my plans. You are correct; most folks currently enter on the side porch (that is where my temp stepping stone walk is), but I want to prevent that. I have double doors off my dining room on that side of my porch & everyone knocks on that door. I knew this would happen, but it still drives me crazy especially since that room has been my husband’s makeshift office during the stay at home orders. I plan on planting a flower & herb garden between the side porch and driveway and install a proper walkway to the front door to help direct folks there. Thanks for the tip regarding meadow garden. I’ll research that.

@BeverlyFLADeziner, thanks for sharing the photos!

@remodeling1840, you bring up a good point. I don’t anticipate much need for snow removal. We get snow, but not that much. We typically park in the garage and enter the house through the mud room. I don’t typically get visitors during snowfalls, or if I do, it is family that I don’t mind using the garage. .

Maybe that Jetson’s look? Large aggregate circles stepped.

Love the look of the stepping stone path in your inspiration picture. However, are you ready to pay big bucks for slabs of stone that span 5' across? You need a wide walk (I call 4' a minimum and 5' better). Not every landscape construction outfit could obtain stone like that or necessarily have the ability to install it. I've never seen a front walk made of average size flagstones that I cared for. To me, they look impractical and like something done on the cheap. They are not dressy like most people want the front of their houses to be. I'm generally kind of sour on the segmented walks, too. They can be a pain to walk on unless they exactly fit a person's gate. They can be impractical for maintenance, especially when there's snow involved. There are lots of nice walks, all varieties, made of brick, stone or concrete. There are a number of decorative techniques that can be applied to concrete. I would urge you to pick something more practical. Will cost matter? If it will, that could limit your choices immediately.

As others mentioned, stepping stone paths are gorgeous but I would not want one in a climate with snow. The only other concern I would have is the possibly of weeds between the stones / pavers / blocks. Hopefully with sufficient gravel or mulch between it wouldn't be an issue, but it's something I have struggled with in gravel or mulch areas before.

I have a stone path and patio that I love. I think it would look beautiful with your home. Shoveling snow has never been a particular problem, and we get a lot of it every winter. The stones were laid flush to the ground.

@Yardvaark, you bring up some good points. We‘ve left several messages with the local stone yard to check availability, prices and weight of such large stones, but haven’t heard back yet. I was hoping the weight would be light enough that we could move them with our tractor and do a DIY install. I realize that might be wishful thinking. Do you have an idea what a stone that size might weigh? It wasn’t until I really got ready to start planning this project, that I realized most of my inspiration photos of stone pathways were of side/rear yard applications that might not be prominent enough for the front yard. I don’t want to invest time and money into something that will leave me underwhelmed. I‘ve also considered brick, but figured if I need a concrete base, I might as well do a concrete walkway. I might go with concrete, but I’ve dreamed of the large stepping stones for soooo long that I need to look at all options before I give up on the dream. :)

@pricklypearcactus, I had planned on planting grass between the stones, so it would blend with the yard.

@User, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that. Do you have any pictures of the circles?

I realize I'm a little late to the discussion, but you can absolutely do large concrete stepping stones and make them yourself. I did this for my home, though mine may be a little smaller than what you're looking for. My largest is 3 x 2 1/4", but you can make them bigger. Just be sure to lay them properly with leveling sand. I wrote up a DIY concrete stepping stone tutorial for how to do this, and have a video with it.

Love the OP's house, it's similar to the one we built 30 years ago. Can't beat a deep, wrap around porch. Oh, and I wonder how the walkway is proceeding.

ellemc2, I'm bookmarking your page -- it might work for something I've had in mind :-)

They were a bit of work -but would have been a ton easier with a wheelbarrow. I'm so glad I made them because previously it was 5" or gravel, with no sand underneath and was like walking in quicksand. We always had to use the garage door to go inside.