We planned to need a parking spot for a third car at times on my property in a few years so we used parking rated pavers directly next to our narrow driveway leading to our door. Our door is right by the drive side so it was a very simple design we did. We can park a car on The right side of the tar and on a few rows of the pavers without blocking the two cars at the back by our detached garage in when we need too.

You could do something much prettier with your door being a bit farther from the drive. Like these

I would do like roarah's second photo and make a pad right in front of the left side of the porch. No idea about the gate. Any pix of what you're considering for that?

I like roarah's last photo and the idea for the parking pad in front, making sure that is permitted of course. Where I ;live, vehicles must park 5 feet (1.5 m) from any driveway. Check your local bylaws.

Unless you have a large back yard, In lieu of a driveway beside the house all the way to the back yard, you might consider a way of putting two parking spaces in the front yard and only enough of a driveway beside the house to be used as a "turn around"-- pull up beside the house and back into one of two parking spaces in front -- a "T" shape with the (horizontal) top of the "T" at the road and beside the house and the two parking spaces meeting it at a right angle.

Hard to tell from a small, single picture but, two thoughts:

1) Keep a narrow, long drive to the back on the left side. Add a small, parking pad on the right. About where the bobcat sits.

2) Any possibility of alley access in the back?

Kudos for considering how to best keep the autos related to your house on your property. The thing I hate about rentals, and there are lots of them in two suburbs where I own houses is, they always seem to have seven to nine cars, they fill the garage with personal belongings so they can't use it for cars and they park all those cars all over the street.

Do you have enough width in front for a semi-circle that would connect with the straight driveway?

Would you have enough room for a semi-circular driveway? You could always pull in out safely and not have to widen the driveway next to the house, also you would still have some space for greenery in front of the house and near the sidewalk.

In regard to the challenges of entering/leaving your driveway..... It's really dangerous to back OUT of a driveway. Much safer to back IN. It all has to do with sight lines from the driver's seat. It will seem awkward at first, and then you'll get used to it and it will be a breeze to back in.

Thanks everyone! I would love a circular drive but the lot is only 45 feet wide and it's not allowed to have a circular drive. I've checked the historic district regulations and am following all of them. As for backing into the driveway, it's impossible because it's a one way street that is narrow. You could make a turn around for cars in front of the house, but it's very hard to pull out forward from the drive due to the angle of the lot. I'll upload a sketch of what I am thinking. I'm feeling pretty good about it but any ideas that I haven't thought of yet would be very helpful. In my sketch the front door walk way is off to the right. I wanted to keep one large piece of green in front of the house and make the left side wide enough for a car to scoot by another car to get to the back. I want to make sure I am making it as pretty as possible. I did go to architecture school and am really confident with the flow of the space, I just want to make sure it's aesthetically pleasing. Thanks everyone!!

Sorry to contradict you, but backing into your driveway is allowed on a one way street. For example: If a person is parallel parking on a one way, street, how do they usually achieve this? They back into the spot.

The other reason backing in and driving out is safer: When you arrive in front of your house, you have been able to see where you are going to back into and it's extremely unlikely, because it's your place, that anything new will appear on your driveway. As mentioned before, you can see a lot more going forward onto the street, where things can change in a split of a second..

I worked for our city in the Roads department and we were taught to always back into parking spaces for those reasons.

Another thought: If you do decide to build the driveway beside the house, consider actually building what appears at first glance to be two sidewalks instead two paved areas spaced for the wheels of your vehicles to travel on with grass in between and on each side of them. A lot of driveway on a small lot brings to mind the phrase, "pave paradise and put up a parking lot.

Another idea might be to create a two-car wide (or three car wide) driveway in the very center of your front yard with green space on each side that is deep enough to pull into or back into the driveway and be off the road right of way. These could be angled.

http://www.mikeontraffic.com/introduction-back-angle-parking/

You might take this idea to the local "powers that be" and see if this option is permitted -- and ask what other options are permitted. It may be that you need to expect to parallel park "on the street"- build the equivalent of a "turn" lane in front of your house for your parking spaces.

Growing up, old style single story government apartments throughout north Georgia had these two car driveways right beside the road between pairs of duplex units and some still exist:

https://www.google.com/search?q=government+apartment+cornelia+georgia+georgia&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwicpdmw9unsAhVDBN8KHcPJDOUQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=government+apartment+cornelia+georgia+georgia&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQA1CazgFYiOgBYNrpAWgAcAB4AIABZYgBtAuSAQQxNy4xmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=YCmjX5z1BMOI_AbDk7OoDg&bih=654&biw=1366&client=firefox-b-1-d#imgrc=VLcgFei8OISlmM

Here is a quick sketch of the preexisting driveway in relation to the street. I also included a metal catch basin on the edge of the street and a power pole that we don’t want to hit. I think backing in would be an amazing idea if we can change our curb (which I bet we can). So if we straighten up the driveway entrance it may be easier to maneuver in and out whether or not you pull in or back in. I’ll post my design idea next. Thanks everyone for your help!

What a lovely house. I love that you have a front porch. You can make that lovely with potted plants and it won’t matter door isn’t centered. Id place a concrete pad horizontal to your drive. Then you can pull 1/2 way in and back onto pad. Then pull out when time to leave. Put plants to line sidewalk like a border to the car. Sorry. Not great artist

It sounded to me like you inferred that making a parking space in front of your house, for whatever reason, was not in the cards. So, taking the suggestion of another reader, what about making your driveway out of two "sidewalks" (concrete/gravel/field stone...) with grass or even another ground cover in between? This would give you more "green" in front of your house. Of course, if you get snow like we do in Ottawa (Canada) that might be a little "messy."

Don't forget that you can now get concrete tinted/coloured all sorts of colours and or, have it "stamped," and/or tinted, to look like something other than concrete. Just throwing out ideas.

There are a lot of ideas on that well-known video site too!

Here is a quick sketch of what I think would work best flow wise for the needs of our family. We currently have two cars To park but will have 2 other drivers in a few years. Also we want our back house guests (my parents) to be able to park off street. Any design tips on how to make it more beautiful would be appreciated. I’m looking at using concrete for the drive lined with 8” flagstone and flagstone expansion joints. Subsurface drainage. A 5’ basic iron fence around the front of the house. A cedar fence for the rear of the house. Flagstone walkway and landing. A 16’ sliding gate for the driveway. I also have an original gas lantern from the property that I want to place up front. As well as the original tile street numbers. The layout here allows easy access for trash and recycling being put out on the curb. I also added some foundation plants on the left side of the house instead of paving to the house to hide the gas meter. I was going to just use large planters in that area but realized they it would cause run off when I water the plants. Note the assymetry of the front door with the porch and the stairs. I haven’t seen many walkways that aren’t centered with the front door but this layout allows for one large grassy area. I really didn’t like the looks of it cut up with a tiny slice to the right. I also saved a little space on the right for Carolina jasmine to grow up the fence. Thanks everyone!!!
-we are in the subtropics and I grow a lot of subtropical plants and want to incorporate them as ground cover. Pennyroyal and gotu kola have been doing great in the back. I love to garden and having green space is super important but I want the front to be elegant and simple and having a fenced in area is important for the safety of my family. We don’t live the safest city but it sure is lovely. Also I have kids who like to draw with chalk on the driveway and ride bikes. Yes we could go to the park but sometimes you just want to relax at home while the kids and dogs play safely in the yard. Thanks again!

Here’s what I decided to do! We park in the back. Still a work in progress. Thanks everyone for your advice!