Is that a driveway right up to the front door? And obviously there’s more concrete off the right edge of the picture as that looks like a garage at the far right.

All the concrete is a detriment to the home, pulling its curb appeal way down IMO.

It is ! and on the right is a parking spot. Need ideas to soften that area agreed!

In an ideal world, I’d remove 80% of the concrete, leaving only what is necessary to get the car in the garage. Unless there’s a compelling reason to always be able to drop someone off right at the door.

I understand that this might be pricey and a mess for a while until the front yard can become grass.

Not meaning to be snarky but all that concrete in front of house must make area very hot in summer and nice front porch unusable

littlebug, di you really think the front area needs grass?

i think it needs trees for shade, heat reductionand to soften the appearance of the house and bring it into scale. lots of trees in a mulched bed so the lawmower and weedwacker dont girdle the trees

No worries! We are in frigid western North Dakota.. barely 6 months of 80 degrees. I know they won’t take out the concrete so let’s shoot from there ..

If removing the concrete is not happening, then I think pots are the way to go. It could be taller pots along the porch at the posts, one or maybe 2 each side with a mixed of planting for colour and something to drape down the pot. Or it could be a series of hanging pots from the porch. The remaining half circle, look into more substantial options - shrubs or trees. If thinking tree, something that will grow with minimal spread. Local nurseries will be a good resource.

Landscaping idea

I like Celery’s ideas and I think changing the color of the house will be a big improvement. Black and white does work nicely with red brick, some greens look wonderful and so do some grays.

I would go contemporary: remove the shutters and window boxes, emphasize the horizontal lines by adding a low brick planter at the front of the under-windows porch section and, If possible, giving the porch overhead a bit of pitch (match the other roof pitches). This rendering removes the low brick wall left of the door and shows posts framing the door on both sides; it looks like that would require extending the roof over the door to the right just a bit so the right-side post (existing) can meet the over-door roof. I would neutralize the yellow siding some but stay in the warm cream/beige range to relate to the orange-toned brick, and paint the garage door a color similar to the brick (for balance) but darker and less saturated. Landscaping is simple: a line of shrubs under the brick wall, three columnar trees (Amelanchier 'Standing Ovation' with lower branches removed?) with a ground cover beneath in the now-grassed area, something foolproof (catmint?) in the added planter. Large house numbers on the brick wall finish it off.