The most aesthetically appealing version is photo #3. And it has the advantage of a walkway accessing both the sidewalk AND the driveway.

As an aside, the large rectangular pavers surrounded by rock lend themselves far more to a straight or angular pathway rather than a curved one. Your curved version actually looks a little hokey, sorry :-))

I also like option #3.

We had a similar walkway (concrete pads surrounded by loose rock) at a former home. It was a NIGHTMARE to keep tidy with kids and a big dog. I found little rocks in the grass, in the planting beds, on the roof and in the gutters, in the bathtub and washing machine, in the toybox in the playroom, etc etc. Plus it was impossible to scoop snow from and if you weren’t watching where you were going on the walkway you could easily slip a foot off the edge of a pad into the gravel, turning an ankle.

Our kids are grown and gone (taking the dog), but I still will never again have loose rock of any kind on my property.

I came here for the same comment as above. The rocks migrate. A lot. Get stuck in shoes. Still grow weeds. It’s not the easy care that it might appear unless you glue them in place (which is an option)

Have you thought about more of a front courtyard where the new parking space is parallel to the front of the house vs parallel to the driveway?

I do not like curved walkways with the style of house you are planning, I have no idea why you think turf is more expensive than gravel this is IMO a kind of interesting plan with a bit of both and simple too . There is product to get to keep the stones for migrating it works pretty well .IMO you need to decide what style the house will be the top pick is very differnt fromt the 3 choices you show

Good advice already - just another vote for #3 - you could add curved bads with landscaping if you wanted (steel edging makes it eay)

It looks like the proximity from the sidewalk to your front door calls for a straight path, but you could do a curved path from your driveway to the house, with strategic landscaping.

We have both: a straight path with large rectangular bluestone and a curved path with natural shaped bluestone pea gravel leading from our breezeway to our driveway and to our side yard. The stones frequently have the pea gravel on them (mostly from our 60lb dog kicking them up). We have used the product (several times) to keep the stones from migrating and it works for about the first week and then it starts to lose its adhesive. When the stones are free from pea gravel I love the look, but I am frequently sweeping because it is our main point of entry. Happy to post photos if you think it would be helpful.

Whichever one you choose make certain stepping stones are large enough for a very big foot to step on with extending beyond the stone surface and close enough so smaller people don’t have to leap to the next stone. Rocks will drive you crazy, Even a narrow strip of turf for the time being is better

We have a walkway like that in our backyard and that look does lend itself to a straight path. Although we originally put down river rock around it which looked great it contrasted with the crushed stone in the rest of the yard like your first pic so we replaced it with the same crushed stone.

The curved front walkway is done with pavers which really lend themselves to that if you don't want a straight path. So far as stone migration since the dogs are kept in the back there are no problems in the front and two minutes work to sweep the large pavers in back is no big deal.

Some option

You can do staggered pavers to avoid the straight lines. While a slightly curved path might look good, I suspect by the time you're done enlarging your driveway, the result will be too much hardscape and the path with merge with the driveway.

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We have what closely resembles your first & third pics. We have 3/4” or so river rocks between the large poured in place pads. We have had absolutely no issues with the rocks migrating or with weeds. Our home is in an area ( beach So Cal ) where everything grows year around. Occasionally we get a weed easily pulled out. Our driveway has the same.