It is a cute house! But your new steps are crying out for a new, wider walkway. I wouldn't just add a new walkway to the driveway without addressing the main walkway.

In addition to widening the main path and adding one from the driveway, I would bring the new steps to at least the width of the top step so that they don't look chopped off. If you don't like the stone, why not remove it and extend the siding into that area for a uniform look. I don't think the front door color complements the house. I'd change it.

Yes, why are the steps chopped off? Is that a pipe or sewer clean-out you need access to? If so, I think you'll need to extend the planting bed straight out to the steps and plant a low evergreen to screen the hole created by the step design.

Your foundation plants need to be taller to hide the foundation, which means redesigning that bed. So you need a plan that takes all this into account.

I am planning to make a planter box to fill in the void of the steps and incorporate some type of railing.
That is a poorly placed gutter coming out from under the porch - I am hoping to move and bury it.

Any insight on how to design a more appealing walkway? I see something curved in my head but can’t quite figure it out.

Paint the house?

You only really need large pavers set into the grass to go the short distance from driveway to porch. The front walkway needs to be double the width. You'll want to add foundation shrubs in front of the stone half.

The stone cuts the house in half. Painted, it still cuts the house in half. I would remove it and have siding installed. The aqua door would look so much better with an all-cream house.

Some idea with landscape.

I understand you plan to keep the brown paint but I think the white door trim suggests white window trim to unify the cottage look. A cottage style house number by front door? I have a 1936 cottage that had exterior lead paint requiring removal. We did Hardy board siding which changed the look. We planted a maple tree in front yard. You have a cute house with lots of potential for you to figure out your taste.

The door trim is so wide. I wonder if it might look interesting to accentuate the entryway by painting the frame a lighter shade of the door color. I'm envisioning a darker door than what you have now with a lighter frame. It could be any color, though I do like blue-green with cream, which is really just a very pale yellow. This assumes you remove the stone.

With cottage style, you can have more fun with paint colors. This photo illustrates how lovely two shades of blue-green are together. The door would be the color of the island.

Eileen, thank you for all your input! My head gets swirling with ideas and I end up struggling to come up with a cohesive plan.
I love the door& trim suggestion. And the idea to just let it be a little cream house.

Thank you Celery! How do you do that with the walkway and landscape?? It looks great!

Laurie Gould thanks for your input!

Using ideas suggested above plus painted siding a gray/greige from the roof. Colors are for concept only...exact shade tbd.

Bluer door:

Any other combinations for you? I think I like the fourth...aqua door with brown trim and greige siding.

I think if you keep the white door trim, you need to paint the brown white. The brown only makes sense if you keep the stone. I don't know if the brown is MCM but white or a color would be more suited for cottage style.

Trace Floyd thanks! I like that one too!

Eileen I am drawing some inspiration from the following pics…

I’m thinking of a nice off white with the brown looks good- paint ( or lime wash) the stone to match unless it’s cheaper to take it off and replace with siding. I just still remain last with the door trim but I did like trace Floyd’s pic matching the door trim to the porch color

I’ll make one with brown door trim to see

I like #4 the least. It's very dull for cottage and MCM vibes.

Tracefloyd, can you do an all cream house with the two tone blue-green door and trim?

General thoughts: If you keep the stone, paint it the same color as the siding. Don't use white around the door if it's going to be the only white trim.

What do you think of this… ?

I love all the help!! Thank you so all much!

Okay, but the architecture and especially the vaulted windows are very MCM. I just don't see cottage and those inspo houses look nothing like yours.

You could keep the brown by softening it to a milk chocolate and the door to a less intense shade.

Cottage slash MCM? Stain the brick...not paint. Door is bluer.

Subtle blue siding....Sherwin Williams North Star.

North Star from the SW site:

The inspiration houses are more about the brown and white color pallet than the house style.
I’ve never come across a pic of a house that looks like mine!

Cool I get that but style dictates color and I can't picture your house white, sorry. Have a great Memorial Day Holiday!

I’d love to know which colors you picked in this rendition.

To answer your question, I used my color select tool on the roof color for the siding and opacity and adjusted it till it looked the right shade. I did same trick for the brown and clicked on the brick or the window trim. Blues are the same with the door..

Okay what about just adding wood over the brick and keep the siding as is? Add a rustic vibe? Do it right and take down the stone and new wood siding...I've seen it done and so nice.

blue and white house?

I like the wood!
I really struggle with the yellow tone in my siding.

Blue and a lighter wood. I like the blue with the gray roof.

Is it a big expense to limewash the stone? If not, go ahead and do that and then see how you feel about the trim and door color.

Home Depot has a product for DIY homeowners made just for this purpose. So easy, user friendly, cheap.

If you like that blue look at Krypton. On the same paint strip.

Wow!! Thank you simplynatural!! A brand new take on it that I hadn’t even considered!! I really like that!!

Simplynatural - I keep going back and looking at your rendition! Really what a bang up job!! I LOVE the idea of making the brown look more purposeful!! This is what I am going to try to pull off. Thanks so much.

So glad you like it!

I like it too. I was wondering if you were going to let some of the stone color show through when you limewash. I think it would help make the brown trim work. If you're going to extend the brown, you're going to have to paint the trim so it all matches, which opens up the possibility for a lighter brown or something else all together--whatever looks best with the limewash. I also like that this option downplays the cream siding you don't like.

What I don't like:

Your bright turquoise door isn't working with this color palette--or the current one for that matter. It's almost neon!

You need evergreen foundation shrubs unless you want a bare foundation in the winter and early spring.

It’s too busy. You have so much going on with those materials, and nothing connects (in my opinion). It all looks disconnected.

You need a wider path, to make a big impact at the front, to draw your eye there.

Sorry, but i don’t like the steps. The shape is awkward, and the material you used makes it busy. i would have had them as front facing steps, so the wider path leads you to those steps. Dramatic.

I would put a handrail on the steps on both sides (for symmetry) to frame the steps and make the front more inviting.

With the different steps that I mentioned, I would then make that existing flower bed a bit narrower and put a matching one on the other side of the door. The existing one I would extend it so it wraps down the side of the house. Plant some hydrangea bushes that you can keep trimmed below the windows. They will add some curb appeal and soften the look of the house.

If you’re keeping the stone on one side, I would paint the siding a different color. Maybe a medium/dark grey. very striking if you’re planting flowering hedges.

The other option is to build a front porch, and have those front facing steps onto it. I’ve attached your house below so you can compare it to the example picture, to show how it would be doable. By the way, on this home they installed cedar shakes and painted them. Expensive option, but you can buy siding in this shake style, which would look really nice to install it on the entire house. The grey roof makes it pop…

I tend to agree with you, @Eileen, about the door. Other options:

Blue toned down a little?

Or a lot?

Or even more?

Maybe brown/bronze/wood?

Or pick up the grays/taupes of the path?

Or???

I remember when robin's egg blue and chocolate brown were a popular combination.

I think you don't want to go too grayed down or muddy with brown.

The house I lived in as a little boy was light blue and brown two tone. I like it.