What is your zone?

Starting at the left, I would plant something tall and evergreen out from the corner of the house to frame it. Then nothing under the low window. The in the space between the two windows, a plant like a PG hydrangea. It grows tall and vase like. Under that a few small evergreens. Then off the corner of the main house, plant a tree like a Japanese Maple with plenty of space to grow. Then a curve bed at the corner of the walkway and a perennial garden under the window on the right. Plant a native hardwood out in the yard.

I agree that you need a tall, narrow shrub on the left corner to balance the vertically dominant center of the house. I would also place a shrub between the low windows on the left, and I would put more low shrubs in front of the windows immediately left of the entry. To the right of the entry I would want plants that mirrored the color of the shrub between the low windows on the left. It would need to be a low shrub to avoid shading out the low window there, so it would likely have to be a different plant. Between and surrounding all of these shrubs I would plant a ground cover. There should always be a plant that spans the entire front of a home and a ground cover seems the best choice to stay low in front of the lower level windows. The picture below shows several years of growth.

I suggest you visit local nurseries for suggestions on plants that provide the needed height, shape or spread. Take notes on the plants you like. Pay attention to their expected mature heights and spreads. The term "dwarf" only means smaller than the species, so dwarf shrubs can still get quite large. Remember that no matter what size pot you buy the initial plants are going to be small. Don't plant a shrub that will eventually be 5' across closer than 3' from a wall or pathway. While I don't show any herbaceous perennials, there is no reason you can't mix some in. The same goes for spring bulbs. Plant them in groups between perennials and ground covers that will hide their fading leaves. Just be sure to use them across the entire front of the house. You want color and form to repeat.

I would buy another tall container like the one at the left side of your portico, and put one of those containers on the cement where the walk, the lawn and the driveway meet, and put the other container on the other sharp corner of the walk. If you are going to have a vignette of garden ornaments at the right side of the portico, consider centering everything with a birdbath or other taller ornament, like a gazing ball on a pedastal or a vine-topiary. Consider defining the whole bed with a very low decorative fence, or with clumpy low flowers that make a clear border, so that the entire effect is that of a confined jewel box or little stage or interesting quilt.

For the left side of the house, presumably you are going to remedy the bare patches of lawn and after that I would dig into the lawn at some distance from house itself a trio of flowering fruit trees, dwarf variety, of whatever thrives in your neighborhood and doesn’t require a ton of pesticide. It might be you don’t get edible fruit from them, but a trio or quartet of old-fashioned trees graciously spaced would soften the new-build feel. Such a mini-orchard would complement the peaks of your roof. If you plant the trees so they aren’t crowding the house, but rather are floating on the lawn in their own space, it won’t interere with the light you get in the house.

Thank you all! I really appreciate the advice and actually have an idea now of how to approach the front when we finally take possession of the house! I'll probably be taking bits and pieces from everyone's comments.

I never thought about using a ground cover to tie in the full length of the front - that's brilliant! Perhaps a Wild Strawberry or Canada Anemone... hmmm so much research to do!

First, kudoes on including a real location in your post. Too few people think that location matters with plants.

Years ago, when the Landscape Design forum discussed landscape design, a word commonly used was 'perimeteritis'. The idea that you started planting around the house, then started planting around the lots borders, the driveway borders, and any sheds, usually using plants that were out of scale (too small) for the area. So while there should be something between the house and the lawn, I'd be thinking of a large group of large shrubbery somewhere in the very bottom left hand corner of the picture. Exactly where depends on the size of the front yard, and where the trees are planted. I'd also consider planting a few more trees, again depending on the size of the yard, where the trees are planted, and how big those trees are expected to get.

I’m a huge fan of catmint (nepeta) for bushy wildness. I’m in your zone over in Maine, and Canadian anemone is gorgeous — great leaves, great coverage as a ground cover, great long bloom — but it’s been keeerazy invasive for us everywhere we plunked it in, so do make sure to give it some boundaries. :)

Another good performer for me has been Amsonia ( blue star) that I have outside the front basement windows, much like yours. It looks like a big fern with starry blue flowers in the spring and turns lovely oranges in the fall, then dies back completely for winter solar gain through those windows.

Wishing you joy in your new house!

I too have windows at grade where my carriage house is a few feet below ground, so I have given much thought to planting there. To preserve light and view from inside, I have found that the airiest plants - like verbena - are the most successful. I do have both amsonia and nepeta, which work if I keep them well away from the window. They get bigger and denser over the season.

Yeah, my amsonia are about 5’ away from the windows so I still have some room in between them where we have a river rock foundation path.

Much also depends on the orientation of the house. OP, what direction is your front facade facing?

Good to know about the Canadian Anemone being rather, uh, sprightly. I didn't realize it was that invasive.

And the front facade faces northwest.

It’s not easy to find nicer-looking plants that are fairly invasive up here in ME, so it has surprised me, too (I’ve had a dreaded trumpet vine for 10 years that has no apparent desire to spread anywhere, for instance). Could be our soil? What isn’t clay is beach sand, lol. We inherited some of the Canadian anemone from a previous owner and now use them for places like the front city sidewalk strip where they are forced by paving to stay in bounds. They’re very useful if you have the right spot.