Your style of house does not really suit a faux stone facade. If you were to go ahead and apply it, it should run around the entire home to mimic a stone foundation.

Do you any recommendations on deisgn? We want to increase the curb appeal while making it unique and not cookie cutter like all the houses around us. We cannot afford the stone to wrap around the house, but I agree.

Nothing wrong with cookie cutter if the cookies are good ; ) You have a lovely home that would benefit by being painted a colour that doesn't make the white window colour stand out in such sharp contrast to the siding. Also, bring your front door out of the shadows by painting that a more noticeable colour.

@mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY), let me clear up your confusion. You need to find something else to do with your time instead of giving non-constructive commentary.

^Agree!^

No fake stone. It doesn't suit the house style. But I would add another porch pillar to make a symmetrical pair framing the door. Improving the garden could make it unique.

The house is basically fine. What will make a huge difference is an improved path and great landscaping.

Your house is cute and has tons of potential. Tacking on stone will not be an upgrade.

Beef up your porch posts and get a new front door. Take out the concrete path and replace it will a wider one of stone or brick.

And as mentioned, redo the landscaping.

It is a cute house. Don’t muck it up with bits and bobbles that do not belong on it. Pick a a color for the main body of the house house, colorful front door and new landscaping and have the roof cleaned.

We are replacing the siding due to aging, upgrading to vinyl. Also adding some insulation to help in the winter months. Landscaping is actually really pretty, it was just winter when this photo was taken. looking for a light color. Chatgpt gave me the idea of faux stone, when i asked for character and contrast. Do you have a color rec?

Have you picked a siding brand? That should help narrow down your color choices. And the site might have a visualizer tool so you can see how the different colors will look on your house.

Fake stone doesn't give character. It just looks like fake stone. The house is nice as it is imo. A better garden and maybe porch railings would help. There seems to be quite a big drop off the end.

Seeing your example has provided more visual context. I’d worry that the stone might make the right side feel too heavy. Consistent landscaping across the front, bumping up the entrance to give more weight/interest and ensuring a smooth transition color wise will help overall.

Actually suggest the shingles/brick/cedar all connect.

Instead of vinyl an upgrade would be Hardie cement board. Use that in the softer color of your inspiration picture. That's a big improvement. I'd also evaluate your windows for more efficient larger versions in fiberglass. Some can be fixed. They can be full view without mullions.

Do explore pics of four square houses before committing to any fake stone skirting!
Please keep the current solid looking structure ,following recommendations of previous advisors.
Some landscape tweaking will definitely up the appeal.

Ditto on the Hardie board instead of vinyl. Might cut your insurance cost as well.

I love the rendering with the grayish siding. I agree no faux stone and use fiber cement siding instead of vinyl. I wish that had been available when we did ours many years ago.

No faux stone. When your house siding job is done, go to a garden center and get a landscape plan to the height you thought the stone would be.

It is a waste of money and time and will not add to your house’s appeal. Less is often more in design.

Do you have a picture of the house with the landscaping in bloom?

First before choosing colors for the siding, I would have the roof washed. You need to see its true color.

AI is still a work in progress, as far as I am concerned. Notice the changes it made to the proportions of your house:

But disregarding that, I do like many of its choices. Here are the same choices hand-applied (not AI, so imperfectly executed!) to your actual photo:

I'm fine with the stone on the base of the sunroom as long as it stops at logical places on both sides. It needs to extend around both corners to meet the back wall of the porch on the left, and on the right to meet either (ideally) an existing jog in the wall where the sunroom meets the house, or at least a cornerboard trim piece as thick as the stone.

Note some of the details of the AI design: siding the basic color of the stone so they relate to each other, cornerboards on all corners, windows with no storms and with muntin detailing in the upper sashes, a hefty trim piece capping the stone, tapered columns that continue the horizontal line of that trim above substantial square bases, trim color cream instead of white. These details are all important to the success of the design.

Note also what the AI design did to the walk/stairs/porch/door. It moved the door to the left to center it on a rebuilt walk and narrower stairs. If you keep the existing walk and stairs, the door will remain off-center to them. A substantial light fixture and mailbox and a colorful planter (maybe other pots stepping down the stairs as well) could create a more balanced feel.

It looks like the AI design also raised the porch floor, reducing what looks like a step up into the house, improving the porch's proportions, and creating a nice shadow line under the new floor's overhang. I liked those changes, so did them in my edit as well. I would also face the porch wall left of the stairs with the stone veneer, again turning the left corner to a wall jog or to the house's cornerboard trim. (Can't tell from the photo whether that is possible.)

It's a big project, but it will look really nice when done well

Simply natural, I love your detailed response.

Personally, I'd rather see the stone as a walkway rather than on the front of the house. The house is charming, I really don't think it needs stone tacked on it.

@simplynatural Do you have any recommendations on a color to match the faux stone? If you’re familair with Monogram that would be super helpful. I need to give them an answer by tomorrow and with a new baby I’m just so overwhelmed.

I'm not a pro, so have no personal experience to offer, but here are four of the Monogram colors with the stone, and with a cream representing the trim and an off-black representing shutters. These are just photos from the web, though, so the colors might not be accurate (dependent as they are on lighting when the photos were taken, camera settings, and your screen's color settings). You really need to see actual samples side by side in both sun and shade. But based on this image:

I think Graystone is too light, and Driftwood Blend leans too purple. For me, it's between Castle Stone and Granite Gray. Do you have (or can the salesperson show you) samples of those?

Thank you everyone for your input.

I am absolutely enamored with your blue house. It already is unique and I would hate to see it go. I get that you need new siding, so why not blue again? The shingles idea is a good one.