Adding new Front Porch, need opinions

MeraleeCrowl

I own a small 960 square foot house from the 50s. One of my next projects, and the one with the most visual impact will be removing the tiny front porch and putting a new one all across the front of the house about 8 feet deep.

You can see my house and my ideas here:
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...eeCrowl/House/

My problem is what to do with the front side of the porch. It will be built mainly out of concrete (brother owns a concrete company). I'm concerned that my house will look like it just has this giant concrete block out in front of it, but I'm not sure if I can afford the brickwork that I'd ideally like to do. I'm worried my house will look like this one: http://davidwjohnson.net/DCP_2371.JPG

I really like the look of this porch: http://www.kentdevelopment.com/wp-co...2167-large.JPG
It is close to the look I'm wanting too, but I'm not sure how well those types of blocks will go with the brick and siding already on the house.

Any ideas? I don't want to do something that's going to look bad!

MeraleeCrowl

Okay, I think I found my solution.

Before, I was planning on going with red paint on the brick and I didn't think the red on the front of the concrete porch would look good, but after playing around on the computer and talking to about every person I came across, I think I've got my solution.

I like the idea of going with a dark grey on the brick to match the new roof and staying with white for the siding and trim. With a roughed up texture on the front of the concrete porch, I think the dark grey paint will look good.

Take a look to see what I've come up with. The only thing missing from the picture is the porch cover and rails http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...seexterior.jpg