Toronto is warmer than Montreal and boxwoods barely survive here. After a cold winter, or in an exposed location, you see a lot of dead ones. I don't think dogwoods are safe for Montreal.

The yews we have now have done well in the winter. I like the way they provide colour in the winter and I'm told told they don't mind shade. If we rearrange things a little, we could add a row along the foundation. How many plants would I need to run a length of 21 feet?

https://www.houzz.com/photos/60s-ranch-remodel-traditional-exterior-oklahoma-city-phvw-vp~1177888

Here's how our garden is arranged now. (This was taken the day we planted it.) It's filled in a bit since then,except the yews! They are slooooow growing! If I add the back row of yews and move the other plants forward a bit, will I have enough room for a Japanese maple?

Pat, we have talked about adding a bed in front of the walkway. And yes boxwoods do grow in our area. We have a few on our property. We cover them in winter to protect them a bit. So far, they've survived.
Flopsycat, the more I imagine the brick painted SW Urbane Bronze, the more I like the idea. It would also be a stunning background for a red Japanese maple! Now.. If I could only convince the husband to paint..

There are different kinds of yews. Some grow tall and narrow, others grow wide and stay low. It's all on the tags when you buy them. Yews can be clipped to pretty well any shape, but it's much easier to buy a variety whose size is already suitable for your space. Yews are not fast growing so you may want to splurge a bit on larger plants. They all grow well in shade. Or, depending on how any hours of direct sun you get, junipers would also be suitable. Check it on a sunny day.

Thanks Patim. How far apart should I plant them? Every two or three feet?

The tags will tell you how wide they grow. That's the distance apart that you will plant them, measured from the center of one plant to the center of the next. For example, I just looked up a Hick's Yew that says it grows 3-4 ft wide. If you want a solid hedge, plant them with the centers 3 ft apart or even 2.5 ft. If you want them to be separate plants, plant them 4 feet apart.

Hey WickedWhite!

The hardscaping is nice! I love the idea of tall planters below the stairs, that will add to entry way. Bright white flowers in the black planter is what I would do!

As for the plantings, I think adding an evergreen hedge will really organize the space better and make all of the other plantings pop. You can add it at the edge of the walkway and have plantings and trees behind, or have your trees then the hedge, then your plantings.

Filling in the bed a little more will make it look better. Plants like sedum, blue fescue, feather reed grass, daylily, etc. are all great plants!

The idea of the Japanese maple is nice too, but I would also consider a taller columnar tree such as columnar oak, or aspen. Since there isn't a ton of space, you can get some height without sacrificing the width space. You could even do both. The maple in between the 2 windows, and the columnar tree beside the garage.

I would even consider adding the black railing to the other side of the stairs to make it look more finished and symmetrical.

:) - LandKind - Landscape Design & Edible Gardens

Do be aware of the final size of plants. It will be on the tags. A mature columnar oak is about 50 ft high and 15 feet wide.

Yes, but if it is placed a certain distance from the house, the roots should not be a problem and it will work. And that size mentioned above, will take about 25-30 years.

The Houzz app is limited with plants, but is this similar to what people had in mind? Evergreens along the foundation and columnar ones to frame the house? I may try the Japanese people elsewhere. The boxwood seem to be thriving better than the Taxus in this garden. Not sure whether the Taxus need more light or water?

Yes, this looks good. The columnars frame the house, and the hedge gives it a nice starting edge. Now you can plant your smaller plants along the inside and border of your plant bed.

We consulted a landscape designer and ordered a few plants, including a full moon Japanese maple to centre under the window on the right side. We also extended the garden on the left side and ordered a few cultivated cedars to camouflage the corner of the house a bit. Busy planting wknd ahead!

All this has me thinking about the mishmash of colours this house is. Natural stone is a tan, peach combo. Brick is red. Roof is a purplish brown. Nuts! As much as I like SW Urbane Bronze, I'm worried it doesn't do much to tie in the roof and that the green undertone might actually accentuate the pink in the roof. Thoughts?
I stumbled across FB Brindjal. Not the quite the look I was going for, but maybe it ties in better to the house? Purple brick might be weird? Thoughts? Could do the front door, but doesn't eliminate any colours in this mismatched palette !

Here again is urbane bronze.

wickedwhite - my goodness you are a busy person with your house. Projects inside and out! Very nice property.

I think you've hit the nail on the head in your last comment. No amount of landscaping is going to change the very thing that you dislike most about the curb appeal - the variety of colours, materials etc. on the front of the house. With the stone on one side only, the house is cut into two distinct halves with nothing connecting them.

Look at all the features that are competing - stone; brick; grey front door, pillar and a painted sub section; black rail; white window trims, roof colour, concrete lintels etc. A lot going on here. You know how we talk about inside rooms and how important it is for the "eye to rest" and to get a sense of calm and serenity, the same applies to the outside. At the moment it is very busy and a little disjointed and there is no where for the eye to rest. Outside your eye should take in the big picture first & then slowly be drawn towards the path & entry. With your house at the moment your eye darts from one side to the other trying to work out if there's been an extension or is it two houses or why there are two distinct materials with almost a vertical line drawn between the two. So the eye keeps going backwards and forwards trying to answer these questions and it doesn't rest. I can see you've tried to use grey to connect it all but we're not quite making a true connection yet between the two sides.

I understand why your husband is reluctant to paint the brickwork - once you do it you can just add another major chore (and expensive one) to your ongoing maintenance. So we have to find a simple, inexpensive way to connect and simplify it all. Planters etc. at the front door will help but they won't change the core issue.

Looking at the side photo the stone looks like a stone cladding that's been added at some point is that correct? Did you add it? Do you know when it was added? Do you like it? If you could wave a magic wand would you prefer stone, brick or a combination of the two?

Your answers to these questions will give some guidance on how we might move forward to fix the core issue as easily as possible. Fix this and the garden becomes easier as well as it only has to blend with a couple of colours or textures. By the way gardens are never finished! Nice lawn too. Hopefully this all makes sense to you.

PS what are your neighbours' houses like? Can you take a couple of pics so we get a feel for the streetscape?

I'm behind on the thread. What are you painting, the front door?

Have fun with your gardening weekend.

Your brick and stone are warm tones, and your roof is cool. A more orangey brown roof would have been a better color. But it really doesn't look bad. The landscaping will improve your curb appeal.

Don't paint your brick. It won't look better.

ww - when buying new plants remember that the best looking gardens have swathes of the same plants not one of this and one of that. Great gardens repeat, repeat, repeat. So for example, if you want a weeping japanese maple don't just put one in, put three in. A border of some description will look good. Remember also layers - small to high and again repeat, repeat, repeat. Mock up below - ignore actual plants but you will see that having 3 Japanese maples, a continuous border of whatever plant both sides and repeating the next layer of plants gives a uniformity & serenity.

Hi Alanna, nice mockup! I agree that repetition is important. The only new plant varieties the plan calls for to the front gardens is the maple and a Japanese grass border. We are adding a third yew and a couple more boxwood.
The front of the house faces north and is very shady. On a sunny day, it appears very dark and the plants are lost. We have been told the lime green tree and border will help brighten the scene. I hope the border will also help unify the two sides.

The stone is not an add-on. Many homes in the area were built with the same strange juxtaposition of materials. Our home was built in 1957. I don't mind the combo of stone and brick. It's the colours I dislike. As you know by now, I like streamlined on the inside of my house. Much more challenging goal on the outside! My husband is warming to the idea of painting the brick. He likes urbane bronze quite a bit. But the maintenance will be annoying. And I know I will be itching to redo the roof once the brick is painted. More $$! But that will have to wait. The roof was put on just before we bought the house four years ago. I'll post photos of the neighbours this afternoon.

That stone is quite pink. Can you please also take a close up of the brick?

Question - is your roof cement tiled or what material is it?

Please look into staining your brick. It's the same concept as staining concrete and there will not be the same maintenance issues as with painting it.

ww - I have been wondering how do we get away from painting the brick? As I mentioned previously we need to minimise the number of colours etc. to bring a greater cohesiveness to the front.

I found this pic of a house with stone & red brick.

Now imagine if the roof was a different colour, the shingles were white & the garage door another colour again - it would start to look like your place. Yet in this pic everything ties together beautifully because they essentially only have three colours - 1) red brick 2)dark shutters & front door & 3) the roof, shingles, stone & garage door are all of the same colour tone. Even the window frames are a softer version of the same colour. See how it very cleverly ties everything together as the stone & brick now look cohesive

So I started thinking that maybe you are thinking about painting the wrong thing i.e. the brick. Now I don't know if you can paint your roof as I don't know what it is made of - cement tiles are easy. Even if you can't, I think we could change the look outside significantly by just painting out the white window frames, guttering & underside of the eaves all to one colour that toned with the stone work. For example, I just used the colour of the column on the porch & transposed it (albeit very roughly) onto the window frames and guttering etc. In my opinion it made a big difference - a lot calmer, cleaner lines, less disjointed etc. Now the colour of the porch column may not be the right colour, I just used it for convenience. Getting it down to three colours would help. The major paint companies can consult if you can't decide on colours.

I think just the right greige with a smidge of purple in it will look pretty for brick and concrete. Check out SW Elephant Ear.

Here's a closeup of the brick. Sorry for the mess! This was taken when we rebuilt the porch.
Allana, I'm not entirely sure we can paint the gutters and windows. The gutters are some type of plastic I think and some parts of the windows include vinyl.
Deco.. I will check out elephant ear.
I like your plant selection Alanna. Although, after a wknd of rearranging the front garden, I think my hubby might kill me if I suggest more changes! Not to mention the expense of my full moon maple and grass border!
The roof colour is definitely a problem,but I'm afraid we're stuck with those shingles for another 15 years or so.. :-)

Here's the photo.
Btw.. We are planning to replace the railing. Just haven't figured out what exactly to do yet.

wicked, was thinking, what about putting in a whole bunch of blue hydrangea and some red bushes to sort of just tie in colors and to distract. Like these:

ww - didn't realise your roof was shingles or that your other features were vinyl therefore your painting options are limited. As DH suggested staining your brick would be a better option than painting it imo. However the other alternative is to "run with the purple of the roof". Japanese grass looks stunning with purple plants. Add in an eggplant front door as someone suggested and you will start to tie in all the different colours. Planters at the front door with lime green grass plant & hot pink flowers would just set it all off.

Japanese grass with Heuchera

Japanese grass with purple flowers

Hi Wickedwhite,

Looking at your house, I like the ideas you have been given. For your railing, it would look nice, if you have any way to buy more of the stone, to add another column at the bottom of your steps and do a wooden handrail to match the post at the top. It would be very pretty like that.

Wicked, I would also suggest that if you decide to paint the brick, I would paint it the same color as your stone or as close to one of the colors in it as possible. Then go with a contrasting door, that would compliment the roof. That would eliminate so many colors on the house, especially if you can't paint the windows or gutters. Something like this, the door could be painted something like the brick is now, to tie into your roof and the pinkish color in your stone.

ww - If sometime in the future you decide to change the colour of the brick, I would definitely explore brick staining as well as painting. Great idea DH.

FYI - Video on brick staining

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcjbVOHoe5Y

Before and after. Brick staining allows you to keep the variations of natural brick & get perfect colour match & it doesn't lock the moisture in like paint so doesn't peel over time - no maintenance. Agree with Tammy whatever you do I'd be aiming for a close match with the stone's primary colour.

Thank you, allanaspree. I've been a quick study here on Houzz. I learned about staining bricks in other threads—just wanted to pass it on. : )

If you were at all interested in working with the brick and the stone as is (at least for now) I actually had a very similar thought to Tammy Lawhorn with a slight twist. I noticed that since there is a light terracotta color in some of the stonework, and the brick is more on the orange side of red, perhaps if the door was painted in a dark earthy red, it might act as a bridge and unite the two halves of the house.

I used the color palette Tammy posted as a starting point, but darkened the red a little bit to more of a mahogany. Not sure if you'll like it or not, but wanted to offer this up as another possibility.

Love the advice that's been posted about using landscaping to balance things out too. I'm a huge fan of the dark purple heucheras with the Japanese grass. I've used that color combo in my own garden.

That's what I was talking about DH. Something to tie the brick into the stone.. thanks for the visual.

Looks good. I like the idea of tall planters. The color of your front door makes it disappear rather than be a focal point. Pick a color other than gray.
Will the evergreens on either side of the porch get very big? If so, they may outgrow that space in a few years. Better to move them now.
There seems to be formal planting mixed in with less structured plants. I vote for bushes that don't need pruning. Choose ones that will grow to a size that hides most of the foundation.
A cascading plant over the edge of the retaining wall to the left of the garage door would soften the edge of the wall.
The scattered stones look like an after thought. Remove them for now until you have a better plan to use them.
I think that a railing on both sides of the porch would give a sense of balance and structure to the porch.
Looks like you need to add outdoor lighting to the area to define the walkway and porch.
I have not suggested any plants, because I live in zone 8 and have no idea what would survive your winters.
You have done the really hard work. Now to add the finishing touches. Good luck.






The retaining wall would look great with a cascading plant draping over the edge.

I see that you have been busy. I like the changes you are making. I should have read more comments before posting.
Can't wait to see your final results.

DH.. Thank you for the mockup the colour you chose appears similar to SW Rookwood Dark Red..? Could you paint the door from further back? Maybe so we can see the full house including the roof?
Alanna.. I love the purple flowers with the Japanese grass, but I'm wondering if that would mean adding yet another colour?
I am open to staining the brick, but I can't seem to find anyone locally who does it. I'm also open to experimenting with painting the windows and trim. Looks like I have few paths forward... Just unsure which one will have the biggest impact.

Sure. Here are a couple of mock-ups from further back. I used the SW Rookwood Dark Red for these first two:

In these next two, I used a color that you had posted earlier, FB Brindjal, which has more of a purple tone to it.

I personally like the FB Brindjal a little bit better, I think it works a little better with your roof, and I think it allows you to bring some dark purples into your landscaping, which looks great with the burgandy and bright green that you are already using.

Try contacting this company - they paint vinyl & also do brick staining. Based in Montreal. Take a look at their before/after gallery - lots of ideas

https://www.spray-net.com

Also Permatint is the company that supplies all the brick tints to painters/contractors. They are based in Ontario. A call to them would also give you the names of some other local painting/staining contractors

http://permatint.com/

wicked - opened our local property magazine on the weekend & I immediately thought of you & your love of clean, simple, elegant & uncluttered spaces. Had to share this photo with you. Guess these people are not worried about curb appeal? And who needs art on the walls? This house is in South Africa.

Allana, that's lovely! Especially the view, but a bit too modern and minimalist for my taste and for our neighbourhood. Here's my immediate neighbours house, which underwent a huge Reno last year. Still appropriate for the area though.

What a beautiful leafy neighbourhood that you live in wicked - very serene & peaceful.

Alanna, I have booked a consult with the company you found above. Thanks for your help! They are fully booked until October so hope I can get the work done before it gets too cold. Check out these transformations!

Glad I could help in some small way. Really like the second one.

Me too. The dark windows are nice. Looks like they stained the stone as well as the brick.

It looks like they can stain the brick, stone and foundation any one of these colours. https://www.spray-net.com/our-exterior-paint-colours/

Any advice on which to choose? (I assume I should pick the same colour.) I would like it to work with the brown roof (which has red/purple undertones) and the new walkway and steps, which is a cool grey.
I haven't decided whether to paint the trim and windows yet, which is a very cool white at the moment. Thanks.

Mist grey and brownstone are my favorites.

Your current landscaping is young, so it is still low. It will grow, but not rapidly. You need some height to balance and add interest to the facade.
Depending upon your location, select a tree which will add color or an interesting shape. Japanese maples offer a variety of fall color, crabapple or dogwood offer flowers and color. Many nurseries will offer to deliver and plant your tree for you, for a fee which is well worth it. You do need to know where your water supply, utility supply and sewer line are if they are underground in your front yard. The gas company in most places will come out and flag the location of their line. A plumbing specialist will locate your sewer line, if you don't know it's location already.

Wicked - very important to see the colours in the actual sunlight before you decide. Will depend on which direction your house faces etc. I am sure that they will bring colour charts & maybe even software to your consult in October.