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I'd paint the garage doors darker and I'd also paint the upper part of the house to match. Maybe a gray from the mortar. I'd take out the bushes blocking the view of the door (I'm not even sure where it is) and paint the door a brighter, welcoming color. I think your idea of moving the landscape out a bit from the front of the house it good. I probably would not do a portico and put the $ into the landscaping. Not sure a portico would go with the style of your house.

I'd paint the garage door the same as the upper color here:

I had a terrible time trying to find nice examples of your age split level house landscaping. Not sure why that is! Hopefully. others will have great ideas for you. eta: this isn't bad if you add some nice hardscape to provide a walkway to the front door from the driveway:

Thank you for your efforts! We have a bid for a paver walkway from the garage to the front door. The distance is very short but I hope to make it curvy/meandering and arch out as much as possible without being obnoxious. Everything is in the same plane (door and garage) so we can arch a bit but not make people walk too far into the lawn before going to the door.

I’m a little disappointed that the landscape design from the company made me an elbow design for the walkway.

If you want to emphasize the house, you first must bring it out of hiding. Desperately in need of massive pruning and/or complete removal of the shubbery. I wouldn’t hesitate on complete removal, personally. It’s way overgrown.

Nice grass, by the way.

Here are some suggestions:

From easy/affordable to pricey:

--Remove shrubs entirely and drastically prune tree. Create a deep round bed below the tree.

--Paint the garage doors gray to match shutters. Charcoal gray or black would be best for garage doors and the shutters--sharp visual contrast. Paint front door to match or paint it a deep red pulled from the brick.

Traditional Landscape Renovation - Whitefish Bay, WI · More Info

--Install a curved brick walkway/patio pruned. This idea only in varieted brick.

Patios · More Info

Note the large round garden bed around this tree. Do that, and plant with beautiful shade perennials.

Evanston Residence - Eclectic Colonial · More Info

Dig Doug's design is great! I'd go a little wider just because it's nice to have a little seating in front now to creat a front porch feeling where you can wave to neighbors, go through the mail, watch kids kick a ball on the big lawn, etc.

Your door is hidden by shrubs. I'd trim them or move them, put a path from the door and paint the door a brighter color. I'd paint the garage doors a darker color.

I note that DigDoug has replaced your large green tree with an almost as large red one in pretty much the same place. He moved 2 windows so his tree isn't blocking the second window, unlike the existing tree. It would be quite expensive to buy a large tree and in a few years, it would look the same as the green one. He's also added two skinny evergreens flanking the door, another example of plants that are going to be overgrown and overwhelming your doorway in 5 or so years. He replaced your cement driveway with pavers, which I suspect is a very expensive change. He's given you a second floor over the garage. Really tough to figure out the cost of all those changes, but I'd bet it's way out of your budget.

Porticos on houses with the first floor slightly recessed often don't look good. Get an architect to design it or find examples you like on houses with a similar arrangement of windows and a recessed first floor. That said, I think the advice others have given, (Paint garage doors, trim/move the shrubs blocking the door, add a path) will make a huge difference.

Curves in paths can be tricky, depending on the materials. If you use a fairly large block (bluestone or composites designed to look the same) then the installer has to cut a curve in the stone, which is hard to get right and risks splitting the stone. Equally, pouring concrete in curves is far harder than in straight lines.

Sorry I didn't focus on the home exterior itself as I was exploring new landscaping options (my design software is modifying the home exterior so please excuse it for doing so).

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However, a few different landscaping ideas for the front yard. 1. Drought Resistant Garden, 2. Mediterranean Garden 3. Japanese Zen Garden, 4. Rock Garden. Hope you like these ideas.

Others' ideas above, illustrated: