Take a look at my album and perhaps you'll will find something of interest. Thanks, The Porch Guy My Album

I missed KentC's post, but agree with it, too. Samarnn, it is taking my drawing too literally as it's not a suggestion of color or texture. It is predominantly a scheme of arranging, and to some degree size, although that comes with some pretty broad leeway. Color, texture, plant personality & other details are characteristics that will be products of whatever plants the owner chooses. I'm just trying to get them in the ball park. (... A ball park that is different than the de facto standard skinny evergreens at house corners connected by a hedge across the front.) I think you bring up a good point, though .... that having everything be fine textured is NOT an ideal. Some boldness & courseness as part of the scheme is a good thing and adds interest.

Azan, no offense to others expressing their opinions, this is where you really do need the service of a competent designer, who truly understands what constitutes good design which you will NOT get from the contractor who's giving you a quote that covers design, materials & labor, or friends, family or neighbors. Speaking of which, do you live in an HOA? If you do, get a copy of the design standards or architectural guidelines and find out what you have to do to get your proposed alteration through the review committee. You may well be stuck. You currently have a modern builder's silly notion of what constitutes a "colonial". I am so sorry to say, again no offense to others who think it's a beautiful colonial house, it isn't. And there are probably another 20 down the street from you, with minor variations, all designs that would have given colonial era master builders (where design and construction are combined) a convulsion. There are all kinds of things wrong with the facade composition, like 3 different window proportions and shapes, which no amount of landscaping will solve and you are absolutely right that the porch is a problem, but it's not about brick vs stone. Changing a consistent material on a house is the last thing you should do to "improve" the look. When I was in graduate school, a one-off course was offered on "facade composition" one summer. Finally, a professor teaching us aspiring architects how to design a facade, rather than all that nonsense about "form-making"! I stayed just to benefit from his wisdom. Guess what, there were 30 plus grad students taking this course, and the historic preservation expert told us, we will team up in pairs, analyze historic facades, and we'll talk about it. Really, that's the class? Yes indeed, it's called a graduate seminar. Imagine that happening in med or law school! (Hey, I may be the professor but I am not a practitioner, why don't we just get together and learn from one another?) He didn't teach us the principles and theories of facade composition, though here and there he offered some useful observations. Undergrad & grad arch'l school, not one professor taught us anything about facade composition. Not one. Imagine! So I went to the library, dug up old architectural magazines, from the early 1900s, and taught myself, by analyzing facade compositions I admire. You can do the same. Get a couple books on historic colonial architecture, or better yet on your next getaway, go visit historic places filled with colonial architecture, like Colonial Williamburg, Annapolis or Alexadria (if you live in VA). Not everyone can design well or cook well, but everyone can learn to appreciate good design or good cooking.

It's a beautiful setting. I hope you plan on being on your porch and enjoying it and won't care if you need an extra light bulb here or there inside. It looks like your inspiration porch is very open--I like the open gable here. I don't think lighting will be affected much. Might reduce your air conditioning bill in the summer though. I have 3 porches on my house (of course we are in CA so they are patios :P ) and there are posts in front of windows. As long as there is space between the house and the post to do whatever you need to do, so that it is an actual space, it's fine. It's like adding on a room where the walls are the posts. They can be there!