Hi emmarene- thank you for the ideas with pictures. Here are some closer up pictures of the brick. The style of brick is "Old Orleans" by Cherokee brick with mortar lightly rubbed over the surface. Best way to describe the color is pinkish/burgundy perhaps?

shameless bump... ;)

I like your idea of the french blue for shutters. It would be gorgeous with that brick. I might paint the area around the upper french doors and the garage door a color that is close to the brick color, maybe not as light as the mortar. I would match the FD to the front door, dark brown or black.

WHy not have the garage door done in a faux woodgrain? A mahogany or dark chestnut would be stunning.

Some commercial faux painters use paint to create the woodgrain then seal it with way better than yucky Minwax. Others use gel stain and then seal.

I think I'd like a deep brown on the shutters on the upper windows...to help balance the darker areas of the front door and the recessed porch.

I would go with deep brown too. You need something dark that will pop. (Is french blue kind of washed-out blue?)

Is this the look you have in mind? I think it would be lovely...

Wow - thank you all for the great suggestions and ideas. Yes, the washed out light blue was the original plan but the house seemed to get "darker" with the front door and the beams on the balcony will be the same color as the front door. Therefore we were second guessing the washed out blue color such as in the pictures above but it is still on the short list since we have always liked that provincial style look. We ordered about 5 pre-fab color samples for the shutters including browns/burgundy/blue but we can always have them painted if none of them look right.

Will post any updates as they come but thank you so much for each of the ideas.

This is long overdue but I wanted to show the "final product" on what we decided for the color scheme. We went with the French blue color shutter since ultimately that was the style/look we were going for. The garage door was tricky as we could have done the brown wood look but went with a color to match the stucco and brick mortar. We love how it all turned out and appreciate all the wonderful ideas and inspiration we gained from these forums! Hope all of your projects are going well!

Wow, that is gorgeous! thanks for the pics.

I would paint that garage door a darker color-as close to the brick color as possible. Now it is taking center stage.

What a beautiful house you have.

Olychick, Always1step - thank you! Powermuffin - We struggled on the garage door color and went back and forth between darker or lighter door but we were considering a wood color to match the front door and hadn't thought about a color to match the brick. Will put some thought into this and perhaps we'll change it up over time. Thank you for your feedback!

I don't mind the light garage door and think it kind of balances the light color on the bay window area. It really is a sweet looking house! I love that it doesn't look too large from the street. How many square feet is it (if you don't mind telling)? Is the area above the garage with the balcony the master?

If you ever want to share interior pics, I'm sure others besides me would like a peek!

Jdlarsen1, your house is gorgeous! I am building a similar style house, but still picking out our exterior colors. What color are your shutters?

Oly - Don't mind sharing at all... Its 3100 sq/ft, 4 br and 3.5 baths. The balcony area is off the bonus room and not the master. Here are some pictures from soon after we moved in so it looks a little bare but truth be told we are still trying to get the place properly decorated!

Maggie - thank you very much... I was just trying to find out what company did the shutters so I could find the exact color but wasn't able to get that info. It was one of the color options from the shutter manufacturer so we didn't pick out the paint at home depot or whatever. I'll dig around some more and hopefully get the color name to you. We were looking for that french blue look and think we found just that so we were very pleased.

Your shutters look great ... love your brick as well. Great job!!

Thanks for the additional pics. It really is pretty!!! I do like the "spareness" of the furnishings but know it will look great as you fill in, maybe with more art and other treasures, adding some color here and there.

The pool and patio area is lovely, too. Great home!

Hey sorry for the late post! I was wondering what color you painted your stucco and what color mortar was used with the old Orleans bricks?