Does the house face north?

Any chance you could remove the stones at the base of the posts rather than whitewash them?

Emmarene9, I think it faces west, the sun is quite bright at the front of the house late in the day. Do you think it would look better to remove the stones around the pillars? I originally thought that, but was outvoted by my both my contractor & husband, so I dropped it. But was thrilled when I found someone to Lyme wash all the stones for $2000. Including the long retaining wall on the other side of our driveway. (Excuse the dumpster, still have construction going on)

And another pic, from before we painted the house & added a garage.

I'd do thriller-spiller-filler pots with plants that thrive in your area. I prefer your orange stones as they are rather than whitewashed which will make the drive look worse, even if you pressure wash it. Save the $2,000 to make your beds look as stunning as that area above the wall!

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You live in a dry climate and have two narrow beds under the eaves of the house which makes for even more dry. Italian Cypress won't work there period. Topiaries, as in sheared balls and spires will have to be done with dwarf hollies or similar. I see quite drought tolerant rosemary in there now. Those can be sheared into topiaries.

Lime washing the stone walls is a mistake in my opinion. All that white is going to be bland and blinding under the Texas Death Star.

I'm not sure what your landscape vision is with "very neat and somewhat symmetrical", but it sounds rather suburban and pedestrian. I would just caution that you will not be successful working against your climate.

The planting on the slope above the wall opposite the house looks very climate appropriate and well done. Some judicious editing to make it tidier is about all it needs. That is an Austin, Texas landscape.

I live in the southwest (SoCal) and, I think I know what you're going after. It's becoming VERY popular around here: "mediterranean" landscaping. Leaning towards clipped, neat hedges, rounded balls of Lil Ollies or other shape-able plants, iceberg roses in copious amounts, and dotted around with ital cypress. We redid our front yard in this fashion, so I've looked at photos quite a bit, and put a lot of thought into it. Ended up hiring a landscape designer who was fantastic (btw, less $$ than what you're planning to spend on painting alone).

In the end, here are the things that I felt made a difference to getting the "look" and feel you might be going for:

limited palette (in our case, mostly greyed-down greens/whites/few pastel pinks/violet)

some symmetry (I bet you're going for more symmetry than what we did, fyi we put dwarf ital cypress in pots, surrounded by palest pink geraniums, in full sun)

drought tolerant plants, like the above mentioned, plus lantana, lots of rosemary (so many different types), lavender and more.

Here are some inspiration photos (not my house) to help you:

Mrs S,
Yes!!! Exactly what I was envisioning!!! However, I understand that Texas climate is quite different than California climate. But wow, I love every pic you just shared. Beautiful!!!

Decoenthusiaste, you aren’t the first person that has said they like the stones the way they are, but I reallyyyyyyy dislike them. Hopefully all the white will end up being ok. And the driveway will need some work. It’s on the list for later, but I see what you mean.
Thanks!

Christopher,
Another vote against the lime washing. Now I’ll be even more nervous when I have it done. I appreciate the reminder of the importance of working with my climate. I’ll definitely start looking for recommendations. What is the correct term for a person in that field? Landscape designer?
This is our forever house. I’m hoping to find a way to get the look I’m wanting, that will work with our climate.
Thank you!

Here's what our landscape designer did:

1. She had an employee come and do very accurate measurements to create a 2D color representation (3'X4' approximately) of all the plantings, so you can see everything, where she envisioned pots, trellises, trees, individual plants etc, with a key, so you can see how many and what type (had to have that for our HOA anyway).

2. She has a license to use a local plant wholesaler's app, so I could see, online, an interactive website, customized for our project, with beautiful color pictures of each plant type she selected, with a description of the growing habits and care of each plant. I could easily see a couple I didn't care for, and it was easy to add in a few that I really wanted.

3. She told me that my trees were great, and saved me money since I would've taken them out as I wanted a blank slate, but she had a lot of reasons why leaving them was a better idea and they just needed cleaning up.

4. She liked all our existing hardscape, and our house has recently been painted, but typically she advises about all those items, too.

5. She educated me a LOT about the plants she recommended. For example, we needed a hedge that will grow with full sun and on one side of the house is much shadier, and she recommended raphiolepis umbellata minor. I love that it has white flowers, and a year later, it is growing great and quite uniformly well even given the differening sun aspects in those areas.

I just wouldn't recommend doing a full re-landscape without expert help.

All of this was under $2K, and I'm in a HCOLA area. It was the best investment, and I know it saved us money in the end.

MrsS, thank you for explaining the process. It sounds well worth enlisting an expert. I think I’ll post on neighborhood site to get recommendations for landscape designers. Thank you!!! I’m sure your yard is beautiful!

We have no backyard, but instead large decks on both levels overlooking the lake. It just occurred to me that a designer could also help with appropriate potted plants on the decks...that will hopefully survive my lack of a green thumb. Thank you!!

I do believe Mrs. S has steered you in the right direction.

The reason I suggested removing stones from the posts is simple. I do not like mixing stones and it seems your mind is made up about the face of the porch. If the stone does not match one needs to go.