I surely strayed OT when gabbing on about a swimming pool, but I was looking at the examples and photos as issues that include both true access (to the front of the home or the main entry or the heart of the home, or all 3) in terms of physical layout, proximity, obstacles, versus how to achieve "welcome to my entry" or welcome to my garage or to my driveway. So one part of the original discussion was that we should strive have both (good access and good identification/welcome), and part of the discussion was about how we do various other things or remedial things to mitigate either poor planning or site limitations. Very often, color is an easy way to link or separate or highlight, or to creat drama, and the properties of color and hue make big differences. So I am interested in how perhaps the exact same design, executed in different colors and materials, might create different effects. That is one of the fun things about seeing some of the photoshopping of paint and siding colors on previous posts relating to balancing garages with the houses, or front doors, or whatever. From a design observation, I think the blue driveway color has an impact of de-emphasizing the front door and kind of "popping" (yes, I used that awful word) right at the street edge and flowing away from the house rather than drawing you in. But, for others, it may create an opposite response and seem to flow toward the house and entry and pull you in from the street.

Thing is, the garage is a part of the whole house and landscape -- you can't really make decisions about it in a vacuum. You need to consider the space you have available (and that's more than square footage -- it also includes slope, approach, corner vs. plain rectangle, and more). Where you place your garage will impact the location of your kitchen, laundry room, pantry, and more; for example, note that changing the garage in your own example greatly affected your back deck. Your neighbors may share the same view, same orientation, same climate, but none of them share the same lot; two lots may sit side-by-side and have different details that push them towards different garage choices. Think about this too: Your garage and driveway will probably require more space than your house. These aren't small decisions. First thing to consider: I see that you're only considering all-the-way-in-front-of-the-house garages ... or completely-behind-the-house garages. Yet you say you have a lot that's not particularly large, but is certainly large enough to consider other garages. Consider the range of options: You're already considering a side-entry garage in front of the house, which is called a Courtyard Drive: Pros and cons: - If you approach this house from the left, you see the attractive front door; but if you approach from the right, you'll be faced with a big, flat expanse of garage, and the door'll be hidden. Also imagine driving up to this house from the right -- imagine turning into the driveway; it'd be a difficult turn. - Note that this garage and driveway dominate the front of the house. You'll have little space for landscaping. Since it is so prominent, you might consider making the driveway something special -- stamped concrete, cobblestones, brick. - The driveway is short, which would be less expensive. The downside of a short drive is that you can't handle many guests. And if you do have guests, their cars are literally in your front yard. - This could be good for elderly or infirm people; everything's very compact. - If you're on a corner, you could have a drive-through garage with doors on both sides. - Lots of people don't like this out-front garage. It does shove the least attractive part of the house to the front, and on many houses it looks like an afterthought. - I personally like these Courtyard Drives only if the house is placed on a very small lot. In situations like that, the size of the yard clearly makes this a practical choice ... but when you have plenty of space and lawn all around, it looks weird to squish the garage in so closely. Garage to the back, either attached or detached: - You'll need a longer drive, which costs more money. You'll also need a "back up pad" near the garage; that is, unless you are willing to back the car alll the way down a long drive. - In the particular house you showed, it means that your kitchen window view will be ... a driveway. - If you're in a snowy climate, you'll have much more to shovel. - You lose your side yard to the driveway; this means less space for landscaping. No trees to provide privacy between you and the neighbor. - This garage eats into your back yard space. Less space for kids to play, less space for a pool or whatever you might want -- and most of us value our back yards more highly than our front yards. - With this type of garage, you'd probably go with a single-wide drive that widens as you reach the garage. - This drive could be straight (like this picture) or could make a 90 degree turn into a behind-the-house garage. Such turns aren't always easy, and they do require significant space. - I think the biggest issue with this drive is that it's confusing to your guests. Do you expect them to pull all the way forward? Stop halfway? Once they leave their cars, they don't have a view of the front door, which is uncomfortable for them. If I had this type of driveway, I'd ALSO want a half-circle drive (or something else) that was meant for guests -- but that eats up the front yard and costs more money. You didn't mention side garages: - A side garage is a halfway point between the two extremes you mentioned -- but you need a lot that's wide enough to handle the extra width. On a one-acre lot, a house with a side garage may appear more "balanced" or "better proportioned" than a more narrow house with a front or back garage. -This type of garage could have a front-facing door or a side-loading door. As I said above, if you want to make a 90 degree turn into the garage, you need plenty of space to make that turn. - The above example shows a garage that's essentially "even" with the house, but you could set the garage forward or back 10-20 feet or so, if your lot or other needs dictates that it's better. Something like this: Some garages are integrated into the footprint of the house: - These garages add to the footprint of the main house, often pushing the master bedroom upstairs -- something you may or may not like. - The doors could face forward or could face the side -- with the same pros and cons mentioned above. - One problem with such a garage is that it's tough to keep the rooms above the garage warm (with all that cold air underneath), and the rooms above the garage will hear the door opening/closing. Finally, don't forget that if you have a sloped lot, you can have a basement garage: - The big negative here, of course, is that you have to walk upstairs with groceries, or just to reach the front door, making it a less-than-ideal option for elderly or infirm people. So, no "vote" for one or the other. You can't say that one's better or worse; rather, the garage has to be developed as a part of the lot and house plan -- but do consider all your options, not just the total-front or total-back options. I suggest you spend some time reading /studying pictures online of different driveway and garage configurations. Consider how they'll appear from the road, and consider how they'll impact your family entering from the garage and your guests entering from the driveway. Moving down the thread, I see that you're considering this house plan: Note that with this plan, you can keep the doors as they're shown, or you can go to a front-facing garage, but a Courtyard Drive as you've suggested won't work. Why? The porch is in the way and the garage is "recessed" about 8-10' into the bulk of the house. No space for a driveway. Also note that if you're talking about enlarging to a three-car garage (Why? A yard building is cheaper storage), that'll change the whole equation. I was driving DS to a friend's house. We drove up the street, and by the time we saw the house number on the house, we had passed the driveway. The approach is northbound, the garage faced south and stuck out in front of the house. Big, handsome house, and you couldn't see it AT ALL because of the garage. All you saw was garage door and asphalt. Seemed like a waste. If the garage faced the other way, it would have created almost a courtyard with the front door, but with plenty of room (big lot), and the back of the garage could be landscaped. Now, the driveway did "branch off": go straight and then turn left into the garage, or split off left to go in front of the house. all that to say, there's a lot to think about with garages! That is soooo common! And it comes from making decisions in a vacuum without considering the lot!

I think if you leave the angled ceiling white, painting the walls darker won't matter as much. You could also add a piece of vertical trim somewhere to the left of the hanging textile and stop the new paint there. Maybe at the bottom of the stairs that continue to the left? Hard to say without seeing it. What about something like this for lighting? I was looking for something with 3 bulbs and a clear shade. These are both Kichler: I think they now make LED Edison bulbs, too.

Thanks @calidesign, your recommendations align well with @Sabrina Alfin Interiors :-) The timing is really unfortunate -- I actually had a mason at the house this morning to repair some brickwork at the rear of my house. Had I known about the light positioning, I could have had him do the brick work required to move the electrical boxes to be more centred in the pillars :-( I checked inside my garage, and I think there's room within the studs to centre the boxes on the pillars (since my uninsulated garage wall enables me to see where the electrical wire is going to the existing boxes). The mason did a great job in the rear yard, so I might have him come back to install a nicer address wall stone and reposition the sconce lights sometime. In that case, I would go for something larger/longer. The painters tape idea is very smart :-) As for the edison bulbs, is it the incandescent Edisons that fail quickly, or the LED "Edison-Style" bulbs as well? And I thought that any fixture was capable of accepting an LED bulb (since the wattage of an LED is less than an incandescent)? Thanks!