The garage doors could be painted a deeper tone, pick the darkest colour of your brick and paint both the garage doors and the trim surrounding the doors the same. If you leave the trim light like it is now, it will attract your eye. You want the focus to be your entry. You could keep your house door and trim a light color, it will advance and be seen first, the garage doors will recede with a deeper colour.

I would extend and widen the sidewalk, so if a visitor arrived, they are stepping onto the sidewalk. If you extended the garden you have all along the length beside the sidewalk and added a really tall ceramic urn, it would attract attention to your entry. Your plantings could be an easy ground cover and mulch, and 3 choices of plants, mass planted for impact, all lush green if you have shade. There is a bright green huge hosta, Sum and Substance, Japanese painted ferns, Japanese Forest grass along the edge.

Would you consider a pergola above the garage doors, you have lots of height room there.

Hemingway's Cottage · More Info

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Woodland garden 1 · More Info

If you find the driveway is too much concrete, I have seen paver edging added to the sides and across where the concrete cut seams are.

Hi,

First of all, your house is very pretty! We just can't see it. My advice is to remove the two trees that are covering it. One is a split tree (with 2 trunks and the other is a single trunk). If that is so drastic, cut the one with 2 trunks.

Other than that, you can deepen the color of your paint, paint your front door, add 3 substantial sized lights to the garage, fix the porch light by lowering it, put large pots with plants on each side of the garage door. Someone else mentioned that you could enlarge the porch. If you did that you would use the (width of) the leg of the column and that would be the guide for the width added to the sidewalk. You can also cut the driveway and add them into the existing concrete. Although your trees are very nice, they are covering the entire house...

Your trees have a nice high canopy and don't look dense, I think they are fine and really add to the landscaping. There are other things you can do to enhance your very nice home.

One thing that may help is some different plantings and curved flowerbeds to soften some of the edges. I agree with cathyjoco about removing those 2 trees. Plant something tall and conical, like a juniper, on the corner near the picture window. Trim down the shrubs below the window, or replace them with something low growing and soft. I would widen the whole bed out into the yard and curve it around to encompass the corner of the walkway to the driveway.

I also think you need a larger, lower and more prominent light in your entryway.

Even if you don't remove the trees, widen the bed and include them in it. You can buy landscaping marking spray to actually spray your
"imaginary" curves and edges onto the grass so you can see how it would flow.

Here are some ideas. I made the garage doors more muted, front door stronger and put different paving in front on the entrance. Also possibly some landscaping would be nice as previously suggested.

I love the trees

Oh My, I would not remove any trees - only remove the bushes in front of the window - it will make a difference, immediately.

OK, if you need to keep the trees, then the landscaping should go -out - and around the trees. By putting all the plants around the house you are emphasizing the narrowness of the house. The shrubs should be carried around behind the trees and some large (large) rocks should be added.

Replace garage doors with real wood ones. And staining the driveway is an easy fix.

"longbrooke no.1" · More Info

Here is an example of stained concrete. My hubby and I did our own with Mason Select Concrete stain. We mixed two shades to get the color we wanted. Huge difference!

Hathaway Residence · More Info

Thanks, I think I will try bringing the landscaping around the trees and removing those bushes by the window. I also like the idea of adding some flowers above the garage and painting it a softer color. Would adding shutters above be a good idea?

As in makeup, try to make the great points stand out and the not so great points receded. Remove trees and shrubs, as they are blocking the part of the house that you want to focus on. Paint snout a darker color to reduce its importance. Paint garage doors same color as snout. I wouldn't add shutters. That area is fine as it is.

No shutters.

Remove beautiful, mature trees that took many years to grow!!! NO!. A little bit of mystery is a good thing. I like to view a home thru a bit of foliage.

Plus I can see adding plantings under the trees or even a bench to attract the eye.

City: McDougald Residence · More Info

I definitely would not remove the trees - your house will look very box-like without them. And I wouldn't be too quick to get rid of the shrubs either. You need a wider bed in front of them and a variety of plants in front of them, then they won't look so solid. But I think they will make a nice backdrop to your larger planting bed. If they are yews (I think they are) then you can cut them down in height or shape them even if you cut into the woody stem part - they will come back.

Painting your garage doors darker should be your first step. I love the pergolas suggested above.

I don't understand the suggestion to beautify the garage when you are trying to make people look beyond the snout.

A picture from the street would be helpful showing the whole width of your property. Perhaps considering relocating your driveway entrance/curb cut to the left so that you could have a serpentine type of driveway where a portion is almost parallel to the street. Then plant some tall hedges to block out the view of garage door portion.

I think what you want here is not just a visual "fix" but a different, more welcoming, feeling as your guests walk up to your front door. Imagine 4 people parking in your driveway today, and walking up to your front door. They need to walk, single file, around your corner and along a bare brick wall. If there are children and adults, there's no room for the parents to hold their children's hands and walk side by side with them.

Now imagine a 5 foot+ wide walkway that starts at the driveway, and lets 2 people walk comfortably side by side without the right-side person running into the corner. Because there are a few big potted plants against the brick wall, your guests curve a bit to the left, then then back to the right to enter your door. That's a much more pleasant experience. Your objective is a sort of front yard patio, that your guests walk through and see a few interesting and pleasant things along the way. If you're not a big gardener, you don't need to add much in the way of flower beds but can concentrate on a few big pots, and a chair/bench for both function and interest. walkway

If you paint the doors to match the brick, I would add some decorative hardware to them to dress them up a bit.

The other option, is to make the doors the star, add beautiful wood ones.

Whichever way you go, a big improvement would be to change up the driveway some. Enlarge the path, round it up, stain or stamp concrete.

Traditional Exterior · More Info

There is no way to put this while mincing words. We are going to spruce it up. The white garage door needs to be toned down to a darker medium brown color. The front of the garage area needs to be Better Homes and Gardened (AKA add matching planters with matching flower arrangements on the ground with one on each side and one in the middle under the currently existing light; add flower boxes under the three windows (preferably ones that won’t rust - ergo aluminum or painted with Rustoleum); make the wall sconces symmetrical on the garage and better lit at night by adding two more wall sconces - one on each side - that match the current middle wall sconce). Then you can expand your driveway to be a three car driveway (yes, tell your husband it will increase your property value and resale value to have a three car driveway) and you’re going to extend it to be even with the edge of the brick arch of the front porch entry. Then under the oak trees you’re going to make an outdoor living room area with outdoor furniture and make it look like a Sun Room, for use in the spring, fall, and winter when the rest of the country has miserably cold temps but down South there are comfy temps. If you want to go big, above your outdoor living room add a white pergola with a climbing, flowering plant set by the columns (ergo climbing roses, bougainvillea, wisteria, etc) or planting columnar dwarf fruit trees (so while sitting on your outdoor couch you can grab some fresh fruit to eat while sipping your alcoholic beverage and tea with the girls while chatting and having a cheese tray and appetizers while watching the sun go down after work, while listening to some music on your outdoor waterproof speakers that are hooked up to your cell phone playlists via Bluetooth). Bonus points if you also have white drapes hung from the pergola by the columns. Shorten the boxwoods by the front window with a hedge trimmer, and then expand the flower bed further to include drought tolerant flowers. Pick your favorite colored flowers. The pop of color will bring the viewer’s eye to the front door and outdoor living room set.

Like this

It can be like a She Shed, but without the Shed - and it can make your front yard an outdoor room that’s inviting and relaxing.

Another option is adding climbing flowering plants along the garage face as well on the snout house. It’s like giving the snout a nose lift.

This dilemma is 7 years old!

It’s a beautiful house . There are always some people who are against taking out any kind of trees , no matter what ! In your case I agree with the suggestion to take those two trees out that are covering most of your beautiful house. Those trees make the front look like it needs work done when in essence you just need to take out those two trees . And of course you could add some plants on both sides of the drive way . It’s. Gorgeous house . Enjoy and think about the look without the trees covering up most of your house . Some houses need covering up , yours don’t !