We've changed the light fixtures to these:

Bump

Looking at your home, I see you have a wonderful home with modern lines. To do the home's architecture justice, it would benefit you greatly to get an architect that is familiar with modern design to bring out all of your homes features. I don't think it would take an expert long to do the right changes to your home to make it have tons of curb appeal. After all, your home already is lovely.

The front entry area should be emphasized with either a different color or a different material, something like the inspiration pic below (not necessarily red, but a contracting color) Hover over photos to expand.


Here is one where the contrast is achieved through materials

Changing out your front door and your garage door to a modern style in line with your modern house will increase the curb appeal.

How about a front door like this? either in wood or a bright color

and a similar garage door?

Crestview.com shows modern door profiles - they might be pricey depending on where you are but your local store should be able to match something they have that you like for a decent sum.

The current charcoal, cedar/brick and the stucco wall tones with the roof are great, I might just shift the lightest color on the stucco down to a light warm gray. That is where you could play with the planes on your home a bit more - use two tones two shades of the same warm gray - to complement the charcoal tones and bring out the bones of the modern lines. Here's two to try - look at bm graystone for most of the body and bm chelsea gray or dolphin for just a few accent areas. I would use the darker tone in two specific locations: above the brick side on the right on the "beam" over that window - a deeper tone there will emphasize the plane together. The other place I would use it is on the bump out for the front door front and sides. This will emphasize the boxes that make modern architecture really fun / work.

Then, concentrate on two things to bring out the best (neat contemporary house!). Stairs and landscape.

Add a modern horizontal trellis screen (leave the support beams charcoal but do the screen to match your stair runners cedar finish) to give a "visual base" to the "porch/deck/landing" - I like how the brick tones match the cedar and read through to make the modern lines of the house come through so I'm posting one that is pretty open rather than a thick horizontal fence screen. The first post aboves shows that kind of heavier screen so you can see how to use the horizontal lines to emphasize contemporary lines. Either approach will look great - but just do the square under the deck - leave the stair run floating.[houzz=]

Perhaps gather the boulders on the entry side under the stair into two groupings - one here together between the screen/ columns and the walk - plant larger native evergreen shrubs behind that do well with shade against the screen foundation - and flowering natives/+ succulents modern looking smaller just in front of the boulders. Add round black river rock pebbles in the bed over a weedcloth. Make a similar screen box enclosure at the mailbox or as an address number sign in front of the walk - just 30" high and perpendicular to the road road with two of the remaining boulders and another modern planting group that matches near the drive. Where your boulders make a nice border on the other side, add graduating native shrubs - tallest ones against the screen under the deck and smaller to not block light to the lower windows. Some evergreen, concentrate on different greens in the foliage and massing - you could use masses of needlegrass over there to fill the middle . . .

Wow! Thank you, thank you, thank you for the amazing and perfect ideas! Denita, I love the doors! They are exactly what I had in mind.
I love the idea of adding some dimension to the geometric lines of the house by using different colors! I'm so excited, these are great things to think about.
Libradesigneye- Thank you for such a wonderfully detailed description of your ideas. That's exactly what I was looking for and love every suggestion.

I think we will be getting rid of the boulders, they just aren't our thing and I don't think they go with the look we're seeking.

I think adding a front sculptural tree the the corner of your yard with the big boulders then up lighting it would really help the space.

This may throw a bit of a monkey wrench into the mix, but here goes. My suggestions will not be inexpensive to implement, but I just can't get around a flight of uncovered stairs to get into the front door. Would it be possible to lower the point of entry into the house, reduce the amount of stairs on the outside, and create a balance of int/ext stairs? Depending on how the floor plans interface witth the interior stairs, if it were possible to enter into the home at grade level (?), and go up a flight of stairs within the house, although not perfect, it would be better than what I see, necessitating that entire flight of stairs on the outside. By doing this, it would be possible to create a better sense of entry and some proportion that is better in keeping with the style of the home. The exterior entry stair, no matter how well they are constructed, is a functional and maintenance issue in perpetuity. It would then be possible, depending on your budget to revisit the cladding, and by removing or changing out certain parts, a base that is better scaled to the form of the building is possible. For example, the stone? facade that is thin in width, along side of the windows, should be removed. The base should extend around the the sides at least to the the forward edge of the basement windows. The eyebrow roof should extend to the entry wall, when the stone? is removed. It is likely that the stair carriages and supports can be repurposed as pergolas, if the bldg dept allows them in the area of the front facade. Once the entry is dealt with, the landscaping, stones et al, can be adjusted to compliment the entry. Happy Houzzing.

Being a Provia door distributor I have learned that front doors can change the entire look of a house. If you go to our website: http://mycoastalwindows.com/doors/ you will find information about the Provia & Preservations doors we supply and information about our Limited Lifetime, Transferable Door Warranty. A house like yours might be better off with a half glass door with designer glass in it.

Some landscape ideas, don't know your zone so plants may not apply but just some food for thought.

Lighten up the color to a light gray .

You should definitely follow DMH comments. The house looks a little off with the entry steps so high.

Thanks again for all the great ideas and draw ups! Unfortunately changing the stairs is not an option. We would have to remodel the entire downstairs to do that. To be honest, the flight of stairs doesn't bother me, and when you see the view of the Wasatch Valley from the top of them, it's all worth it.
Quick question regarding the boulders and selling them. Any ideas on a price I could list them for on Craigslist?

$375 for a ton plus delivery if you take them to the buyer .