I agree. Beautiful house. Congrats. So what bugs you? You haven't said anything specific, so are you thinking of taping into its potential. It has bags of it.

I showed it to my hubby and he said, "where's the front door?"

If it were my house I would extend the blue colour (I love blue for beach houses) to the non wood areas so it looks to belong to the same house. It currently matches your driveway. This will declutter and make the building look unified and bigger. I like the eye grabbing awning but it and the hedge make the window (the eye of the house) look squinty and dinky. Does it need to be there? It looks like a shady area in the pic. If it is a necessity for function it should definitely stay. It is pretty cute. Also you could put something above it to draw the eye more upwards and make the window look bigger. Are you renovating inside? If the ceiling is cathedral you could put in a much taller window. Maybe two.

If you like the hedge you could extend it (or other planting) uniformly across the whole front of the house. Buy artificial if there is an area of concert footing. The eye will now read your house from left to right across the garage and to the little blue door, extending your footprint. I would also put in a beachie water feature by the lamp post leading to the entrance. More on this later. I would also line the left side of the whole or possibly a good portion of the drive with a mini boxwood hedge. Curve that corner and go right up to behind your water feature. It will act as a good backdrop, something that all water features should have. A dwarf boxwood hedge is low maintenance and is easy to buzz cut twice a year with a lightweight, battery charged hedge clipper. If you are a gardener and want something with interest, the world is your oyster.

So now you have a unifying colour and baseline. Looking again at those vertical upright sections now painted the same blue (remember they will appear darker because of the recessed area), as alcoves in a living room. A perfect place to put something interesting. Remember we are now attempting to draw the eye upwards. Something like a tall upright twisted piece of driftwood installed in the ground if you want no maintenance. If you want colour and variety of texture, a trellis with your favourite rose or clematis. And light it up! get some solar spots on it. That will instantly and inexpensively move the eye right up. But wait until you have something there for the eye to look at. Otherwise, pointless. And I'd also do a smaller version of the same theme in the other alcove. People will be very close to this one so make it touchable or scented if it's a feature plant.

Sorry but your light post is dated. But bonus, it has electricity! Put in a driftwood and large pebble bubbling, refreshing water feature to welcome your guests. Remember the hedge goes behind so it is a welcoming surprise for your visitors when they turn right. There are so many options in post lighting now that you should be able to replace it with one to tie into your theme and cast light in a direction and the way you want. I'll get some pics to you.

So, from the street you see a curved hedge directing you to the front door and as you approach the entrance there is a welcoming oasis of bubbling water. ahhh. Or if you want easy peasy, take out all the hedge and edge the whole footprint as a modern Beach with tall grasses (water tolerant) large river pebbles, interesting shells, driftwood, glass bobbles etc.

What do you think? Did I get you thinking? As I said, bags of potential.

Change out the wood, the garage door, the lighting, and the front window. The front end of the house is so narrow, that it won’t cost much to completely redo that side. Also, change out the landscaping and themailbox at the street. You might consider doing something different (like stone) in place of the stucco.

Here’s a photo from Houzz.com for inspiration. If you click on it, it should take you to related photos.

Laguna Beach 1 · More Info

Could be just me.. but too much blue going on. I do agree with removing the awning and hedge outside the window.

Board and batten is dated. Consider James Hardie siding panels or Nichiha.