I am on this forum seeking help, so will not be the greatest decorator opinion you receive, but to me, i think your house looks pretty nice already. I think which color scheme you choose is more a matter of what you like taste-wise and what complements your brick the best. But in general, I would go with more contrast in colors to look fresh -- paint the shutters light, and go a medium dark on the siding and go with a darker color garage and front door. i think it would look more defined that way since your roof color is fairly light. kinda like this, maybe? Though maybe with your brick, shades of browns might look good.

Nantucket Style Exterior · More Info

As is, the house looks nice and prim. I think a more relaxed look would be welcome though. The shutters don't work for any of the windows, so I'd remove them and instead beef up the window trim to give the windows more presence. I'd also beef up the trim under the eave of the porch roof so it looks like the columns have a place to support. I don't think I'd add the column as it will block the front door.

Question...is there railing behind all the shrubbery? If not, I'd consider removing the shrubbery and adding a railing. I'd like to see a more relaxed line to the edge of the landscaping by the house and definitely more variation in height...maybe some narrow trees to help define the corners....a small tree out front like a lace leaf maple.

For color, I'm not sure what direction you want to go in, but I think the gray is not doing you any favors. I'd go with something warmer beige tone that is derived from the brick, and then use a deeper color from the brick as the trim accent.

Michou, thank you. We do like the general look of the house. And thanks for the picture, that's pretty much the scheme I'm considering, though with my brick. I love the cream shutters on the pale green, looks so springtime!

Annie, I've been considering removing all the shutters, too, and beefing up the trim. With the doubled windows, though, how beefy would the trim have to be? The expanse of siding between windows would be pretty long without shutters.

The plantings in front of the porch are evergreen bushes at the back, with a season-long progression of pink: irises, peonies, echinacea, and sedum autumn joy in front (and Black-eyed Susans for color). When the summer plants get cut back, though, the bushes look like Dr Seuss trees, all trunk with just the green on top. And since the house faces north, those plants don't emerge until a good month after the south-side plants do. This is a discussion in our house, whether to take them out or not.

If we take the bushes out, I would want to do a railing. Maybe a criss-cross to complement a diamond- pane service door that you can just glimpse behind the tree. We need to either raise or replace the porch (damn chipmunks) and replacing would surely kill the bushes anyway.

That's a pretty house, bpathome. Whatever you decide to do, it will come out well because the house has good bones, basically. I like the idea of lighter shutters to stand out against a medium siding color. That would add the appearance of depth, which would give your house some visual oomph. Keep the shutters for depth & accent color except the ones by the triple window in the lower right: it doesn't need shutters and you would expose more of the pretty brick for textural interest.

Awm, thank you. I do plan to remove those shutter on the lower right and see the brick. But they are nailed/screwed in? How to deal with the holes left behind?

My dream is new windows. When I win that $32k wedge on Wheel of Fortune. For now, paint and a new garage door.

The first thing that struck me is the hedge in front of the porch and the porch columns. I would remove the hedge, beef up the columns and add a railing. I'd also remove the bushes under the big window on the right.

The shutters don't bother me so I think you can go either way..keep them, or remove and trim out the windows.

I think you could do sage with cream trim or you could pull colors from the brick. I think a wood look garage and front door would also look nice.

Here is the house with a wood garage door (too red, isn't it?) and a wood door. I took out the shutters on the first floor, and the bushes in front of the door. I did a railing, I would put it only between the two posts, don't you think? Or does that part look too 1960's? And is there anything I can do about the overhanging gable?

Ignore the overhanging gable. Trying to fix it visually creates more problems.

I don't think you need a railing, either. Too fussy and detracts from the door (your focal point.). Just clear out the hedges and add pretty porch furniture.

Would you consider a dark blue for the siding? Dark blue siding is popping up around my neck of the woods and looks fresh.

Ooh, pretty! Funny, but at one time (a previous owner) the shutters were about that shade of blue.

There is, actually, furniture behind the bushes. I don't know how pretty it is, but it was my grandparents' log chairs. The neighbor's cat likes it for peering in our kitchen window :-)

Shutters black? Or a darker blue?

Your house is very nice. I would remove all of the lower shutters (and perhaps even the upper shutters) and paint the garage door the same color as the current siding. Trim up your hedges and do not add any railing. Definitely would not paint the dark blue - too faddy.

Walnut creek, what you can't see is the blacktop driveway. The siding-colored garage door is stark against it, accentuating the garage, and I just don't like it. I think a wood door would carry the brick colors and variations through. My garage door man also has a nice solid color, that picks up a lighter color in the brick. The sample looks good.

And the other thing you can't see is that behind the echinacea, below the green top of the hedge is...a thicket of 50-year-old shrub trunks. If we trim the tops, there's nothing left! (I'm slowly convincing DH they need to be replaced...hoping the porch repairs will force the issue lol!)

I am not one of the color experts that visit the Home Decorating room. I also do not know how to mock up but I made an image on the SW site. Could you live with a color like this?

If those shrubs are boxwood you can cut them down to a stub and let them start over.

Not that I am advocating for them, in fact I did an amateurish bit with MS paint of some options.

Whatever paint you choose for the siding, use the same color for the garage. IMO garage doors should be painted to match the body of the house, not the trim.

What struck me first were the posts. Definitely beef them up a bit.

I really like the way the blue paint above contrasts with the brick. Not a fan of the black shutters there, though. Like others have said...maybe lose the shutters? Maybe someone can PS a no-shutter version of that pic!

I like your house and think you won't need to do much to make freshen it up. Are you in upstate NY? The area looks very much like where my parents live.

I agree with Sue about the posts. I also think the hedges don't really add anything and the front of your house would look more fresh and neat without them. Are you thinking about doing anything with your front walk? A nice curved walk and a larger curved bed in front of the triple window would be a nice change.

A new. more substantial front door and light fixture? New, more substantial lantern light posts?

Emmarene, that's pretty. It's a subtle difference, but it does make a difference. That's where I have trouble with color: a little difference makes a big difference! The last time we painted, I was going for a certain subtle contrast between trim and siding and failed miserably, as you can see in the pic at the top of the thread. And the shrubs are evergreens, with the pine-like needles. They don't grow back.

sueb20, I agree that the garage door should not be the color of the trim. But should it be the color of the cedar siding it is NOT next to, or the brick siding that it IS next to? I'm leaning toward stained wood to camouflage with the brick. The wood door 4 pictures up is too orangey, a more medium oak is what I'm liking.

Dee, I'm in the Great Lakes region, and I bet your parents house was probably built about the same time, 1960s. I always thought of it as somehow Pennsylvania-looking, and when the original owner stopped by not long ago, she said the developer's name for this model was "Pennsylvania Farmhouse". So there! (Developers do have to take some liberties with their names, right?)

The front walk does serpentine in front of the plantings over to the driveway. The bushes in front of the triple window are fronted by a curved bed of pachysandra (did I mention it's shady?) but something more interesting would be nice. We lost a flowering crab at that right-hand corner, it was so pretty.

Regarding the lighting, the original brass fixtures by the doors are really pitted now, and I want to replace them with something smaller, and put flat, flush lighting in the porch ceiling for a "downward glow" instead of "light in your face". (I had a short thread about that some months back)

I have a guy coming by this week to help determine what the posts are (do they encase a metal post?), how they are installed, whether they are holding up the porch roof, etc, so we can figure out whether to raise or replace the concrete floor.

I have a closer-up shot of the house I've been playing with in Paint, I'll upload it later when I get to that computer. It shows everything better but the garage is cut off.

Anyone know of a subtle, pale (but not pastel-y) sage green that might look nice on the siding?