That is definitely a great post. One of the things you can do is find a newer development using vinyl siding(if one is close to you) and drive around to see what colors have been used. The post has great colors shown, I actually like the green. Color may depend too on your neighborhood. I'd think a darker color on an A Frame would be a good choice. But this depends upon your roof color too. Know this is an expensive and important decision for you. Hope you get some answers from us that will help.

Sorry Deb, I tried to reply last night, but windows shut down because of, as always, Adobe Flash 9 player. Seems so many of the ads use that now. Grrr! Anyway, what I was going to say was that with squirrel's virtual it looked fine, but the siding looked more grey so that could be why. Now that I see Awm's soft black shutters on the side of your own picture that maybe your brown isn't as brown as I've been envisioning it. So I'd say paint a couple shutters (or pieces of poster board would be easier) a soft black and attach them to your home, take pix and see what you think. I'm thinking you may even convince me. A die hard no black and brown together type person. ~Becky P.S. I saw your post here before I did on GI, so that's why I answered here. :^D

Would love to hear from anyone who used a white from the Hardie “dream collection”…I’m renovating a colonial and want a true white. The arctic white is very popular where I live and it definitely appears gray, especially next to white Azek trim and it’s not the e look I’m going for.

If your house is well insulated, the darker siding shouldn't affect internal temperature, as nsc6 said. The only way you can assure you won't tire of the house is to use something like HardiPlank that you can paint in 7 to 10 years if you tire of the color. It's quite a bit more expensive than vinyl though. Will you be living here full time or is this a vacation home? If it's a vacation home that you won't be driving up to every day, I think it would be a nice change to have something a bit different than you see driving down your street to your home every day. If it's a weekend and vacation getaway, it should feel special. Honestly, it should feel special even if it's going to be your everyday home. You could leave the brown window trim. It would work well with the cedar siding.