I think that some fairly inexpensive things could make a dramatic difference. First I would replace the iron columns with some more substantial 6x6 supports (with some moldings perhaps) and add some railings. Also, I would not paint the porch, but stain it. I think taking out the concrete porch would be a very big project. I would also add railings and wider wooden steps to the front door. Paint or replace the front door for pop and in your individual taste. The shutters look out of place and out of scale for the picture window. Shutters should look as if they would actually work, these do not. Once this is done the right of your house would be heavy and you would need to balance this out with a nice curved bed on the left with a fairly large tree to add balance. Zone 5 maybe a nice magnolia. Fill in the large bed around the tree with some nice plantings. Towards the road cries out for a small fence with a gate or maybe some hedges with more beds. A flagstone path up to the front steps. A small tree (maybe a Japanese maple) on the right and curved beds along the walkway and driveway. I think this would take your home from plain to fantastic with the least cost and with things that you can probably do on your own. I am sure you can. I do like the idea of shutters, but think you should look at different sizes and styles. I don't like being critical, however I think that by asking for help you are probably looking for honest evaluation.

>I'm thinking of adding a decorative railing to tie the look together. This can be accessed by a door from the upstairs master suite to a private deck. While a railing is a good idea, if only for safety, I'd be VERY careful about making it too "decorative". The style of the house is charmingly plain and straightforward, you should try to keep to that spirit in anything you add. I'm speaking from hard experience, having added a railing to the front porch of my simple cape, with a curvy victorian post and balusters - totally out of keeping with my home's plain style. Now I'm waiting for the chance to rip it out and rebuild it with simple square parts. Where's the driveway in relation to the front door? Although you don't use this entrance routinely, you might want to make it LOOK like the main entrance, as that will make the whole house look more inviting. So, that means a nice wide path to the door. If it needs to curve to the side to reach the parking area, you might consider siting it away from the house at a distance approximatly equal to the height of the front wall. That'd give you a nice wide planting area in front of the house and help tie it all together by setting some obvious relationships in the scale. THere are as many ways to start this project as there are members of garden web - I'm sure you'll get lots of great ideas here. This looks like it will be lots of fun!

You can also print out house photos and do some doodling on them with sharpie markers to work out ideas. You will want to make a to scale plan view where you actually lay out measured beds with circles that represent the growth of shrubs at 10 years and the ultimate expected canopy of trees at maturity before you start purchasing or get out the shovel. The placement of your sugar maple isn't ideal since it blocks sight lines to your front entry to some extent. I am not at all suggesting removal, but you do want to limb it up to at least the roof line of the house so that only the trunk is in front of the door and not branches as well. Do your best to avoid the root zone of this tree if you reroute the path, both for the longterm well-being of the tree and the path (be sure to make it at least 4' wide) as they are shallow rooted. Don't plan on doing extensive plantings under the maple since the maple will win over most new plantings with its extensive shallow root system. Mulch and a tough groundcover such as the perennial Geranium 'Biokivo' may be the answer there to fill the space. Comments about using color to reduce the impact of the garage doors is spot on and I totally agree with the need for better landscaping. I don't know where your septic is if you have one, but you want to avoid planting woody plants such as shrubs and trees on top of or close to the septic. Having a tree to the side off the front corner on either side of the house can give it a frame that grounds it and also ties it into the woods in the back visually.

Brettfelouzis, then the size of the light should be between 20” and 24” long. You could get away with 20” I think. Here’s what I did:: took some painter’s tape and marked out the lengths of the lights I considered by the door. Then I knew which way I was leaning. The “heaviness” of the light plays a role I think, as well. The more metal there is, the more presence it has and thus is visually heavier and in such a case, I would likely choose a 20” option. This is an example from my garage (my front door has a pendant, otherwise I would show it), these are 20” long. I would have gone longer but we couldn’t find any we liked. In the end, you just have to try the light out and if you don’t like it, return it.