Can you post a picture of the entire house? Easier to decide then what would look best.

Agree with the comment above re: the steps. They're too skimpy for your front porch. As for the walkway, something like bluestone or slate would be a good transition.

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Agree with above....widen stairs, add handrail and wide walkway with bluestone or pavers from driveway to stairs.

I had the same thought about the stairs - your house is very large and the stairs look tiny.

Bluestone would be great for a sidewalk. You’ve got the whole Gray Thing going on, so blend your walkway to it. Don’t use those red pavers.

Snow? Ice? Lava?

Common local hazards may make one material more desirable than another.

Several years ago we had our front walkway renovated with Techo-Bloc pavers,
"Victorien Shale Grey". We are still quite pleased with them. Our experienced landscaper/ excavator: Art Pierson, also chose these pavers for his home walkway. These pavers could be a consideration for you.

Some option

@nwheidi if you get ice or snow put radiant heating under whatever surface material you use. Imagine shoveling snow off pavers...no thanks. Consider stamped concrete in a paver pattern or a simple slate texture with a paver border. 

I agree with others that you will enjoy a wider set of stairs, all the way to the flanking columns. Put radiant heating in those too. Why fall? Why shovel? They are so inexpensive to install in a new build  and inexpensive to use.

https://www.warmzone.com/

Another vote for widening the steps. As they are, they cheapen the look of the home.

Wider entry steps would be better and if the top of the porch is more than 30" above grade then, by the International Residential Code, a railing would be required. I do like Celery's paving suggestion. IMO an ashlar pattern compliments the house better that rounded or irregular paving would.

Wider steps a arailing and I agree stamped concrete in a color that works with the driveway . I would not have done the driveway like that but I can't see the reason for that choice. Landscaping will be tricky but will make a huge difference for sure. The railing IMO is a must

Thanks for all the great suggestions, I never thought about making the stairs wider. We're having the back deck built this summer (same Trex), will have the contractor redo these steps and make them all the way across to the columns. He may be able to reuse these steps off the back deck. Will look at both stamped concrete and paver suggestions and heated. Driveway is semi-circle in front of the house allowing for ease of in/out and a lot of cars when big family visits. Height of deck is under 30" so no rail is required, wondered if it would detract from style of house. Again, thanks so much for the ideas.

Yes, wider steps would look better.

Hey, I remember this porch dilemma! In full agreement on other commenter's recommendations for color/style, and I stand by my recommendation months ago to widen the stair even before the deck was built.

I would not have 4 risers, but 3, so the edge of porch is your first nosing, not flushing the top tread. The new walk should be raised at the steps for a little sloped drainage onto the drive, and that will help if the 4 riser solution was because of math. In fact, the walk height should be determined and be static, then do the math for 3 equal riser heights, so you don't end up with a smaller bottom riser like you have now.

@3onthetree brings up a good point. I am so happy we replaced our 7" risers with 5" risers. More steps with lower risers is very much worth it. Also worth it is deeper wider steps. Ours are 3' deep and as wide as the entry (5'), so a person with a walker can fit on there. Boyscout philosophy. 😁 Plus, they look so inviting. Ours curve too. Yours could widen slightly at the base. Think about it. Try options on-screen. The front steps are so important to the entrance of any home.

Wider front steps and path will look wonderful. Consider having the contractor put a skirting around the porch to the right of the front steps to keep animals from nesting under there. 30” height front porch or new deck may not require steps or a railing by code but it’s easy for someone to fall off and perhaps get hurt. Consider regrading adjacent to the porch/deck to minimize the drop and avoid railings. Add some landscape beds to finish the look.

I like porch skirting. Is there a type that is more durable? Plastic or metal?

Agree, wider steps. i don’t know where you live, however, stamped concrete , at least the coated ones, doesn’t hold up well where i live, even in our mild weather ( So Cal coastal ). I would do pavers.

Live in eastern WA so we get a lot of snow. We will have skirting, bought genstone panels plus have matching post wraps. We'll also have landscaping beds in front of that. Trades are few and far between here, hard to even get a call back. Lucky to have the deck guy coming back for the back so he can redo the stairs he but doesn't give any design ideas only asks us what we want him to do and we don't have any design ability.

Even if code does not require it, add a handrail on both sides of the steps. It is both safer and more inviting.

I think with both concrete and pavers there are ranges of durability. My daughter's pavers flaked apart while my stamped concrete still looks good as new with a powerwahing once a year.

Steps need to have non-slip surface. 6” risers, 12” treads, no lip on treads. Steps like this on front of house are a lawsuit waiting to happen. Check code on handrails.

What a lovely, new home! And, how great of you to post it here for fresh ideas!

As someone who had those narrow little steps on her back porch before I had them fixed, I can say that you definitely need steps as wide as that entryway. It makes far more of a difference than you think as far as use goes. It will also look far better!

Taking a slightly different approach, after two failed, previous attempts at a walkway that was either unstable or too slick during bad weather, we settled on a flagstone pea gravel mix with an impervious base.

I hate having to skip like a little kid between large, unconnected stones....and pavers-terrible on a high heel! If you are in WA and get rain and snow, something flat is best. Best wishes to you in your journey! The house is really pretty!

Our previous house was in NH, where most newer houses in our town also had asphalt driveways. Not sure why, but thats what our builder installed in the whole six-house development. In our case, that included an asphalt sidewalk to the front door. Not glamorous landscaping but functional, and easy to deal with in winter. Asphalt does have the advantage of heating up and sometimes melting off faster than some other surfaces.

I suggest choosing something with ice and snow in mind. As much as I like flagstone etc., I’d save it for garden paths that aren’t used in winter.

When you widen the steps, you also need to decide if you will widen the walkway, because your handrails need to match the walkway. I’m a bit mobility impaired, and I need support even for one step these days. This was my solution for our new house, in Ohio. (This is a very new house, we’ve lived here about 2 months. Landscaping yet to come.)

Definitely wider stairs, and why not just extend the Trex out to the asphalt, like a boardwalk? You could landscape the sides to soften the edge.

I’m with you, @jholmesct, on the pavers-in-gravel thing. Been there, done that, and never again!

Definitely widen those steps, soften the rise and add handrails. I remember arriving at a consultants home for an appointment, unable to get up the stairs to her front door due to lack of handrails.

I agree with widening the steps and walkway, as well as adding handrails whether code requires them or not. When we built our house I didn't plan on handrails for our front steps because they weren't required by code - but just barely. Then I watched as my age 70-something in-laws, as well as other elderly visitors, struggled to climb the steps to the front door and my mind changed quickly.

I love your front door and would work off of that by taking the hanging plant off the door and use similar as the door windows and panels of flat stone for a pathway from bottom step to driveway. You could start out with a stone the width of the bottom step but closer to a square then lay a smaller (from top to bottom) stone so that you get the same general alternating pattern as you see on the door. To make the walk wider that the stairs, as wide as the porch, place wider stones and use the space on either side of the steps for two small flower beds or place a large planters on either side to add colorful seasonal flowers.

Take the steps even broader than the colums, play with width and length. I mean, use the whole 9' for the steps and make it part of THE entrance. You then walk through your frontyard instead of doing a staircase.

Use the same material as the steps and deck (if climate/weatherproof) and it all comes together

Per ADA, total of treads and risers should equal 18.
In other words, 6” riser + 12” tread= 18; 5” riser + 13” tread =18, etc.
Max. riser height = 7”.
Following code is necessary not only for adults, but also for children.

https://www.amstep.com/ada-stair-compliance/

Here are a few suggestions: