You have a lovely home and the porch looks quite nice already. You could do just a few tiny projects to make it more complete. Paint the piece of trim below the front door white. Place a tall potted plant or screen in the front corner to camouflage utilities. Try the yellow pillows on the chairs and the blue on the swing for more contrast. I think a white railing would look nice if it's in the budget. http://houzz.com/photos/24186250
And perennial foundation plantings either way.
http://houzz.com/photos/1358389
http://houzz.com/photos/116582

When dealing with a small budget, you should take small bites. Do everything in phases.

Phase one:
1. Support your porch roof, take out the wrought iron supports and replace them with 6X6 posts one by one.

2. Finish them off by wrapping the 6X6 supports with one-by boards, and adding moulding top and bottom. Each column should be an 8X8 finished column now.

3. Paint the door red.

This part of the project is pretty inexpensive and could be done relatively quickly.

Phase two:
1. Widen the stairs and tie the new wooden railing to the posts.

2. Either get new windows for the front of the house or add muntins to the existing ones.

Again, relatively inexpensive and could be a weekend or two to complete this project.

Remove the wreath. Pull the blue chairs closer to the edge and set them at much less an angle to each other. Remove 3 of the planter boxes, you need just one on either side. Center the left one between the posts and put the right one where it won't be in the front of the chairs. Take the extra planter boxes to the sunny side of the house and plant a tomato in one and a pepper in another, etc.

Plant vines to climb your columns. Honeysuckle is pretty and smells nice and you can find native varieties. I'd get some low shrubs for in front of the porch. Buy them small, they'll grow.

brass spray paint on the hardware
lighter blue on the floor (or at least front edge)
navy on the stairs and posts
a rug runner from steps to door
an accent table between the chairs
brighter pillows
a couple of shrubs
:)

Just so you know, ourfarmhouse, you are my Photoshop idol. ;-) Fabulous job on the porch.

Ha! Thank you for the kind words, groveraxle.

I was going to say the same thing as Grover.
Kate, have you considered painting the ceiling of the porch a very pale sky blue? That is a pretty traditional treatment for a traditional porch.

I just did my porch over the weekend using houzz! I would kill to have a porch like yours! Don't expect to do everything all at once. I would separate the spaces. I've always wanted a dining table on my front porch. You could add one on the side behind where the swing is. What you've done so far looks nice. I would add throw pillows. Get rid of some of the planter boxes, but add flowers to some of them. Rugs are wonderful! Depending on the way your porch is during the rain you can use indoor rugs. Lamps add a homey feel too. I like to think of my porch as another room!

You still have time today to go out and paint the stair risers white like they showed in Photoshop photos. An immediate impact.

As Jimi Hendriks said, "Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."

cascio.offsite@gmail.com

Stain or paint porch floor. Paint the trim around windows, larger front door mat. When you can spend more money, replace post and widen front steps, landscape around porch too hide white brick foundation....

Our farmhouse nailed it.

I have 2 of those planters that were my mother-in-laws. I love them if you want to part with them you can contact me at 4orrs@comcast.net

ok, I have read everyones comments and there are some great ideas, inexpensive is a highly and difficult to determine term. What I have gleened from the comments on the hole is that you need some larger more substantial items involved, along with more color. You need some height added too, like the taller pots or ornamental trees, or even some vines. The posts are too light but having priced them recently even one can be costly, can we faux these Farmhouse? like keep the rod iron and build around it? Otherwise a darker paint and flowering vines might make them more substantial. Definitely cover the meter, taller plant or a plant stand? Something that widens the porch steps and makes them more substantial, darker paint helps. This may not be possible, but I saw someone take an indoor staircase and attach wider stair steps to what they had and it made a great difference, you could even make it get wider as it went, very dramatic I think. I would really love a larger wreath or something else large there, i actually have and love a metal envelope with floral stems at least a foot high, altogether it is at least 2 foot tall, and is totally different than all the other doors. i also vote strongly for new darker paint for the door.

Hope it goes well and let us all know!

On a small budget here's what I would so to begin. Remove all your planters and sell them. They make the space a bit cluttered and also take a lot of flowers to fill. Then I would buy 2 nice tall pots and add one on each side of the door filled with something flowing and dramatic. Put bright pillows on your chairs and add a cute lil table between them (use your imagination old crates, a barrel, or something else you already have.) A bigger rug and paint on your door would add a lot. You have a lovely porch.

If you do only two things replace wrought iron columns as described above into 8 x 8 ones painted white
But a new door that has 2 /3 glass n it. It will make your house look today.
Love the planters on the porch; unique!

Paint the front of the house too!

Depending on your budget I would paint the front door and those white planters a bright and cheerful color. Plant more color in the boxes with something that maybe will climb up the columns and add colorful pillows to the porch swing and the adirondack chairs. Add a potted plant to hide the light boxes by the chairs and clean up the threshold of the door and add a larger mat. I would also remove the wreath as it is blocking the window. Take a hint from the south and paint the porch ceiling a light blue and plant hedges in front of the foundation. When budget allows add shutters to the windows. Have fun!

Widen the stairs

switch out wrought iron columns for some 6 x 6 posts with proper base and cap. add an approximately 10" beam atop the posts, will make it look more solid, and will help give a slight differentiation between porch and outside.

I seriously like what ourfarmhouse has shared. Honeysuckle on your posts may look good but they are very hard to remove and may damage the wood. Your ferns are a little small for such a big space. Go to Lowes or walmart and buy 3 pots of various heights ....group them and just set the ferns in there. Get colorful plastic....instant vocal point!

when you take down the wrought iron you need to repurpose them i used identical ones and made a canopy bed in my teens room years ago .... and used two of the colunms to frame a dorway on a garden shed too ....looked really cute

Since you have a budget the wood columns should be your first project if you have money to spend. Right away you can paint the front door, add plants and pots. A parlor palm or 2 are only $14 at Lowes ....they would height and interest.

Thank you all so much for your ideas/suggestions! I can't wait to get started! I'll post some pics when completed. I am still in awe of the photoshop done by ourfarmhouse! Can't believe that is MY house! I've been wanting to get rid of those wrought iron columns since I moved in 8 years ago! We've completely renovated the inside from top to
Bottom so the outside of the house has been last on the list. We will not have the money to completely re side the house for some time but can certainly afford a facelift with the columns and stairs! Thanks again everyone! What would I do without houzz!

The photoshop series by ourfarmhouse is jaw dropping!