Given the size of the house I think a two foot tall urn would look tiny and out of proportion. However, there doesn’t seem to be much space at the top of the steps to accommodate a large urn with generous planting. If you can somehow overcome those issues I would imagine that in your climate ceramic or cast stone would be ok. Natural material and cheaper than real stone. I don’t see any reason that the decoration would chip off unless bashed by passers by. Which brings us back to the lack of space on the top landing ...

On another point, if those were my steps I’d be concerned that there are no bannisters. Brick can become very slippery in a rainy climate.

And from what we can see, the landscaping is wholly inadequate. I think if you focused on establishing really god landscaping, you wouldn't need urns.

There was another thread where the landscaping was discussed. To me, the style of the house would dictate a simpler style than the one in the link. There used to be a couple of places a reasonable distance from me where they sold a lot of concrete yard ornaments, including a selection of urns. Maybe there is one near you? Agree about the lack of space and railing issue, though.

With the urns, I’d go big and put them at the bottom of the stairs, or skip them altogether. If you want some color up there, a couple of large pots with annuals would work, IMO, but I wouldn’t try to make them a feature. They wouldn’t stand up to the door and size of the house.

Floral,

You may be right about the way the specified urn size would come across in pictures...but I feel it could look fine in reality.

I have seen urn sizes like this in the neighborhood in front of similar houses and I don't think they look out of proportion.

But you might be right. I certainly wish I could add a larger, high-impact urn but there is no space at the top of the stairs - and neither is it at the bottom, on the foundation flower bed.

The shrub to the right is quite large and there's hardly any space left there to set a large urn. There's actually more at the top.

You said I could still have two planers at the top just not make them a "feature".

Well...wouldn't they be a feature automatically if I place them there? Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by "not making them a feature"?

The banisters - oh, I know.

They are in the plan to fix sometimes in Fall 2019 or Spring 2020; but as I mentioned in the other thread related to this topic, we cannot do anything about it right now.

laceyvail,

When you say "landscaping is inadequate" - what specific changes would you see necessary? We plan on removing some of the old shrubs/bushes in the flower bed (remove old azaleas, replace with new Encores and move the tea olive) and also add a few shorter perennials to fill the gaps. We also need to sod.

All of this is also in the plan - but not right now.

However, even after we do all that in a year or two, I would still like some urns with high-impact annuals. I really like them.

There is more space at the top of the stairs than at the bottom, because we don't plan to remove the bushes immediately left and right of the stairs. They are doing just fine and I wouldn't want to replace them all for a complete make-over of the flower bed from scratch.

It takes time for plants to grow to maturity and we might not be in this house for a very long time; so for now - I feel that if "they ain't broke...".

Saypoint,

Are you saying the urn I posted as an example (the Bunny Vista) would not match the style of the house?

I had a hunch this would be the case. I think this particular one might be a tad too frilly for the traditional, sober style of the house - so I kind of agree with this, if this is what you meant.

How about something like this instead:

Better fit for style?...

Thank you all so much for your views - I am learning what will fly and what will not :-).

One more question:

do you think it might be an option to NOT do the matchy-matchy symmetrical thing and only include one larger urn in the flower bed to the left, in front of the camellia, where there is space?

But even there, the urn couldn't be very large. 20-25" diameter/W at the most.

Or should I remove the camellia altogether and add a large urn in its place?

Many would probably suggest to re-do the bed altogether and remove large bush to the right too (hollies, everything); but I am trying to think of an acceptable option SHORT of doing that. Something a bit less radical that could somehow include my urn with poppy, red annuals for impact.

I just need my big red. :-)

PS: Speaking of the inadequate flower bed, in the spring at least I will have red tulips all along the edges there but that's a few weeks tops which doesn't say much. As you can see, I have a "red" issue going on. :-)

Put the urns on plinths/pavers on the grass. See if you can find something wider than it is tall.

I refuse to comment on whether or not the Victorian style meshes with the house since one of my goals in life is to acquire a pair of large, stone lions for my 1960's colonial.

It wasn’t me that said to not make them a feature, it was Saypoint.

Yes, re: the urns in the first link are a bit ornate for the style of the house. Simpler is better IMO.

https://www.garden-fountains.com/collections/williamsburg-collection-planters

Mad_gallica,

I hear you about the Victorian style. Sometimes the heart wants what the heart wants. :)

But I think I can be fine with something simple too, as long as it looks classic/traditional.

Put the urns on the grass...outside/in front of the flower bed?...

Hmm....Are you sure? :-) I'll take a look tomorrow...

If so, what dimensions (H and D/W) do you think might work there?

People say larger than what I had in mind for the top-of-stairs - but how much larger?

The house is pastiche Georgian rather than Victorian so something more classical might be better. Something we do when making this kind of decision is to make cardboard cut outs or models and see how they look. If you get a large box you can cut out a silhouette urn and try it in different positions.

Begonia. These are on sale, size about right, classic style and reviews good even after a year with snow.

You can put rocks in bottom for in pot drainage if needed. Asparagus fern works well to drape over edges and bright color with a variety of colorful annuals.

Two placement ideas with those planters. If i had a better photo of front of house from directly facing porch i could do better mock up. I actually think lower pots might look better. You just don’t have a wide enough porch.

I would remove the two tall hollys(?) either side of porch. Sadly they are way overgrown and visually further narrow your porch look. I would do a wide brick landing zone to visually give the porch more presence with black railings.

Something like this.

Trying to show you improvements with removing those two shrubs and adding larger black lights along with red geraniums or you choice of annuals in pots.

If i were you, i would get those shrubs out now, and replace porch lights with good sized black lantern style lights. Best use of your dollars short term. Big shrubs that close to foundation can cause damage due to large roots.

With black planter pots. Lol

Having fun Begonia! I tried showing adding black iron railings. I know you can’t tackle all this but i thought having a big picture vision would be helpful! This would be money well spent because it would greatly improve your home’s curb appeal.

Dear Flo,

Thank you SO much for the great advice.

First of all, I have it on my "to do" list to write you so we can catch up. :-)

I have not found the time yet with my crazy schedule but I do hope this week-end will be a good time.

What can I say...as usual, you are amazing.

This is obviously not something we can do right now - but we HAVE been talking lately about possibly doing some improvements to the front of the house and yard, sometimes within the next two years.

The house was built in the early 80's and although I do love the Georgian style, it feels a bit outdated, uneventful and in need of revival. Basically, it needs a whole lot more curb appeal.

Now if only I wasn't so cheap and could plunk up the courage to do the kind of expense that such larger projects require. Generally speaking, unless I can be convinced that a large expense is an actual investment and not something for personal consumption and enjoyment only, then I am afraid to shell out the money. :-)) I feel better buying smaller, uglier houses to rent out (which is something we recently did) or just place the money in the stock market - than spending on "pretty" for ourselves.

That being said, curb appeal is supposed to add value to the house, but they also say there is a limit to it. From an investment perspective, you don't want to end up being the prettiest /most manicured house in the neighborhood because you risk not getting your money back upon sale.

Our house is also rather unique in this neighborhood in that pretty much all others are a bit larger, with an additional unit attached to the main house which typically includes a garage and an extra room at the top. We have the garage underneath the house. So the house is smaller than most others, with only 4 bedrooms - whereas all others have 5 BR-s. In this neighborhood, people prefer 5 BR-s to 4, especially that the non-master BR-s are quite small by today's standards (80's style). So I am not sure who would want one of the prettiest but smallest houses in the neighborhood. ...

Here is the best picture I could take with my cell phone of the entire front of the house.

And here's the long-term deal:

1. Stairs and possibly the platform at the top too - need redoing.

2. Rails need to be added

3. Path to entry needs redoing; the plaques settled and one is higher than another, with risk of tripping.

3. Foundation bed needs redoing.

4. Lawn must be sodded (now we have clover and all sorts of other random grass...which surprisingly enough make for a very lush lawn in the summer :-)))).

5. Driveway (to the left, not seen in this picture) needs redoing too.

The trouble is when the house was built back in the 80's, the construction team apparently buried a lot of material in front of the house and just added soil on top.

Since then the house has done quite a bit of settling to the point where the steps are no longer perfectly parallel to the upper platform. In fact I think this is visible in this picture.

We've also had some shallow sink holes in the lawn and the driveway is also cracked because of all this long-term settling. This means that ideally, the stairs would have to be redone altogether as opposed to just adding a landing zone at the bottom.

The landing zone you showed brought it all home though. I've always thought there was something clumsy about the way our stairs look. And last night it dawned on me: it's the square, straight look without any step flaring.

Elegant, graceful stairs typically flare a bit...with increasingly wider/narrower steps.

Steps of the same width all the way up appear clumsy and less elegant to me. I just hadn't realized that before.

So I wonder if we could do such flaring stairs by redoing the whole thing (which is now not parallel to the ground and the platform from the house settling);

and then we would not need to add a landing zone further on the path.

Would that be a good idea?

As for the hollies...well...there you go. You, guys, convinced me. I guess they will come off when we redo the bed.

Finally...since we digressed severely from the planters...for now, I definitely think squattier and wider planters would look a whole lot better in front of the foundation bed, left and right of the path.

Even if we eventually do all these improvements, I am pretty sure I can still use my planters somewhere at the entrance. :-)

Great details. Yes i see the sinking that means they are probably not tied into upper porch section. I think the steps are a monolithic block and could possibly be lifted and backfilled to level. They do this on streets to resolve low spots so i know it can be done. Enhancing the steps and adding new lighting are definitely an investment for future sale. Removing those overgrown ones is relatively easy DIY project. Having smaller house among larger is a benefit. A couple who likes the neighborhood but doesn’t want too big a house will love your house. Grass wouldn’t be a priority. Just keep adding some Bermuda grass seed and it will choke out everything over time. Sorry for dragging you off to bigger plan but it’s all for the greater good!

Oh...if there is a way to get away without sodding, I am all for it.

If I place the planters on the grass, in front of the foundation bed - about what planter diameter would you recommend for that spot - for good scale/proportion with the house?

In other words, how large is large enough?

Would 25" be large enough?

How wide are the steps?

Stairs are 61 inches wide.

Ok then i would keep pots around 12-14” wide. That leaves 3-4’ walkway space.

These might work.

Those are from Ballard Designs.

Flo,

But the idea was to place some larger but squattier urns on the grass, right in front of the foundation bed or on it, to the left and right of the stairs/path, exactly so there will be more space to fit in a larger, more impactful urn.

12-14" wide sounds very small, no?

These urns would not sit anywhere on the stairs or on the platform at the top.

A poster on a different but related thread suggested a look like this - but this would clearly require urns with at least a 20" diameter.

They said any urn with dimensions around 10-17" diameter would look too off-scale relative to the size of the house.

If you look closely at the front house pictures, you will see a white pot with a spiky plant i now have right in front of the door, to the left. That is a 10" diameter pot. But as you can see, it is barely visible and hardly has any impact.

It doesn't really allow for any significant color planting.

What do you think?....

I am thinking about

This...

or

This ?

Until we redo flowerbeds, would it be possible to place them on the grass, right in front of the beds and left/right of path - not ON the beds?

Definitely nothing would fit on the actual steps.

Initially I thought about placing regular urns (not squatty) on the edge of the platform, which is wider than the steps. But in this case the urns cannot have a larger than 15 max diameter- which led some posters to say that those would look off-scale relative to the house (too small).

So that's what got us on the grass, in front of the stairs, left and right.

Not on the platform, not on steps and not even on the flower bed now - but on the grass IN FRONT of flower bed. Squatty but wide in diameter.

I am trying to decide whether that would look fine because this seems the only place available for a larger diameter. I will definitely try stacking up some smaller pots there.

Otherwise, I need to content myself with taller but smaller-diameter urns, up on the edge of the platform - whether on-scale or not.

If you constructed a good level base you could and a larger pot would be great.

One thing I learned: objects appear infinitely smaller in pictures than in reality.

I placed a pumpkin on the platform for a drop of Halloween decoration and I thought it was huge. Then I looked at the picture and it looks like this tiny orange pitiful dot on the backdrop of a huge house. (Altnhough our house is not huge).

I also removed that white little "Boo Ghost" after I saw how ridiculously tiny it looked in that flower bed - at least in the picture.

It's as if you need to fill in any space to the brim either with a mass of smaller objects or with one

ginormous thing.

It's the same with fcovering walls. You place a frame on a wall and you thing you got it - then you take a picture and you see this tiny frame in the middle of a huge, almost empty wall.

In reality things don't look like this. Or maybe they do and my sense of scale is off... :-)

" If you constructed a good level base you could and a larger pot would be great. "

How do I do that, Flo? ...

I like the urns at the bottom of the stairs. To me, if the sidelight panel is blocked by an object it makes the door look crowded.

I've run across some amazing Vietnamese ceramic pots. A rich black patina would work here with a very tall upright planters in a round tapered shape.

Owen,

These look nice. But where would these tall planters sit?

Every body seemed to suggest my best bet would be a planter with a larger diameter but squatty (lower height), on the grass, in front of flower bed, left and right of path.

To answer your question earlier, the biggest problem with pots on grassy area or in bed, is keeping the pot level. You need to remove grass or mulch and place a block slightly larger than your pot base. Larger is better because it stays level better. If possible, lay a bed of about 4” of stone like crushed granite in hole under where slab will sit. (12x12x2” cement garden stone will work. Lowes carries them). Then settle the cement block pushing it down on crushed granite. Check and make sure it is level. Since your property slopes, check to make sure both sides are at same height and level. Then you put the pot on that level block. Enjoy. If you don’t create a solid, level surface, it will start leaning over and not look good.

You know nothing is easy. Lol!!

Hmmm...it looks like I will have some extra work to do. :-)

Thank you again, Flo!