Thank you for your comments! I agree about those meatball shrubs. The people we bought the home from had a son with a landscape company, and we have these over-shaped round balls of shrub all over the place. I will start a post in the landscape section. That's a great idea. I appreciate your help.

I think nicholsworth55 nailed it.

A little landscaping would be nice.

I tried to position a dormer or two in my mind, and there is no way I can see that they would appear "real." (Also, I think your home looks fine - just need some landscaping to include adding a little color.)

Thanks, SaltiDawg. I've started a post in the landscape section, so hopefully that will generate some good ideas. I appreciate your help.

The inappropriately sized "shutters" left of the door should be removed or doubled to look real. Please, no fake dormers!

Cast stone or cut limestone window surrounds, headers and sills and further detailing could make the facade more interesting. But that's a big expenditure after the fact and probably not worth it.

Professional landscape design would do wonders!

"inappropriately sized shutters" are windows.

Worthy, I hadn't really paid attention to the weird shutters. I think taking them down altogether is probably the best bet. Thanks! There are some little brick features over the windows, but adding stone might be prohibitively expensive for the impact. I'm attaching two photos of the back of the house, where there are two real dormers, though off-centered on the exterior (which is why I thought of them for the front). The back of the house is well landscaped, but the front seems very dated compared with it.

I think maybe Worthy was referring to the faux shutters on the large window to the left of the door (the dining room inside), where the "shutters" are obviously not large enough to serve to cover all of those windows.

They're likely upside down also... that said, IMHO they look fine.

I think they're right side up, since there's an arch at the top, but they do seem undersized. I hadn't really thought about them before. I also don't like the color of the shutters. I'm guessing there was a black shingled roof at the outset, and then it was replaced with brown, but the shutters were left black. I'm thinking of using a taupe color that might bring together the brown roof tones and the grayish tones within the brick to paint the shutters, triangle over the porch, and front door. And I wonder if removing these undersized shutters on that big bank of windows would be better than leaving these tiny ones there. I think what makes me feel the house looks dated is that I'm not a huge fan of the orangy brick color with the grays breaking it up so much. I feel like it has a brown roof, orange bricks with gray throughout, black shutters, and white trim, and it doesn't come together well. I wish I were better at envisioning what needs to be done to bring it all together.

I am not an exterior design specialist, but I'm just going to throw this out there: what is so bad about painting brick? How much maintenance could it possibly need after that? painting every 10 years? (At least where I live in So Cal, houses don't need to be painted more than every 10-15 years, with good quality exterior paint).

Mrs. S, From what I've read, the minute you finish painting the house is the first minute the paint starts degrading. Right now, it's pretty much zero maintenance, other than doing visual inspections periodically to make sure the mortar is still solid. But when you paint brick, it inhibits its ability to "breathe", can trap moisture in the brick, and will need to be repainted periodically. Here in Georgia, we have terrible heat and humidity, and we personally don't have much shade on the house, so it's sitting there baking in the heat for several months. We also get very wet, damp winters, so more moisture. I've just read that unless you have to, you shouldn't paint brick here because you can never go back to the low maintenance of the natural brick. The house is a four-sides brick ranch with a pretty big footprint, so that's a lot of paint and work if we had to paint and re-paint. I'd just rather not introduce a big maintenance job and additional work for just appearances if I can find other ways to update its look.

They are, in fact, upside down - ask any New Englander that has functioning shutters. lol

That said, the manufacturer makes them with the decorative arch tha way so you have them installed properly.

To understand what I'm saying, imagine you could swing the shutters into the storm position - covering half the window. You'll notice that the slats would now be pointed toward the windows and storm rain would go right thru to the windows. A true function shutter has the slats opposite to what the "fake" wood and plastic or fiberglass ones have.

I should never have brought it up. lol

PS My shutters are similar to yours - with the slats the "wrong" way.

Oh, my gosh! That makes perfect sense. I am not a fan of faux anything anyway, so now I'll cringe every time I look at them. I guess I'll probably live with them, but I may take those too-small ones down in the middle. I did a little mock-up on the photo, and I think it looks better without the tiny ones (photo below). Thanks for the heads-up about the fake shutters. I appreciate your help. My neighbor has some board and batten wood shutters that are real shutters (though not slatted) on hinges that can close. Those might be an upgrade idea from what we have here.

This is not going to be as helpful as it is informative. That is not a ranch style house from the 50s and 60s. That is a contemporary style house. Ranch houses are shaped like a one-story shoe box with a low pitch roof with one roof ridge. Attached garages are usually prominent at one end of the house.

Here are two painted brick houses from my old neighborhood.

Thanks for the info. I guess I was saying it was a ranch house because it's primarily one level, which makes it a more sprawling footprint and adds to the cost of exterior painting, roof materials, etc. I get your meaning, though, that it's not really a true ranch in the spirit of Texas ranches. I love the look of painted houses like the ones you've shared. They look so crisp and clean, and the options are limitless regarding the look you can achieve when you can change the colors like that! But it would be a big commitment of money and ongoing maintenance concerns that I think we'd rather work around if possible. Thanks for your info and help.

I wouldn't worry about the "upside down" shutters. Typically the faux slats are so small that one can't tell from 25 feet away - I'm surprised, but I agree with the suggion about possibly losing the shutters aside the double window. Make sure you don't leave signs of a mortar patch where the holes are for the current fasteners.

Pam B, here is a link about shutters that I read years ago (here on Houzz) and it has stuck with me every day since! Once you learn what proper shutters look like, you just don't want to see the fake ones. It seems as if you have begun to appreciate design, so here is the link that I think you will enjoy and remember: http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/residential-architecture-101-shutters/

Once you learn what a real shutter looks like, you know instantly the difference between real and fake.

Denita, thanks for that! I had been looking at information earlier on shutters, once my shutter education was begun by Saltidawg, and I think I saw some of the same photos in your article. I think hubby and I are going to have to have a chat about shutters later tonight. We need to either replace the ones we have with appropriately sized functioning ones, or we need to leave them off and do something else to beef up the window trim or decoration around them. I even did a mock-up of my photo, removing all of the shutters.

I should also say that per the suggestion above, I started a thread in the landscape section, and I got some good feedback there as well, including this sketch of ideas to help the house feel more protected and balanced.

I think will look strange with authentic shutters. IMHO they are appropriate on Victorian and older homes of a "New England" style and also in an area of the country where they may actually be needed to protect the windows and interio when extremely high winds may be encountered.

Clearly it is your choice, and not mine, but to attempt to replicate shutters that are period to hundreds of years ago on a new home is mistaken IMHO. lol

YMMV

Saltidawg, so would you suggest beefing up the wood trim rather than shutters? A quick search turned up these two ideas, but they're just the first two things I found ...

I don't see much of anything dated about your house at all. Sure, the shutters could go, and I like the beefy trim idea. But no fake dormers, please. Don't clutter it up. Your home is very nice. You just need new landscaping.

"Saltidawg, so would you suggest beefing up the wood trim rather than shutters?"

No. Were the house mine, I'd keep the shutters/windows as they are except remove the shutters on either side of the double windows to the left of the door.

Fix the landscape as you are planning.

As is you have a lovely home with lots of curb appeal to my eyes.

In what part of the country is your home located?

Littlebug, thanks for the kind words. We definitely need to focus on the landscape! SaltiDawg, we live near Atlanta, about 45 minutes north of the city. Oddly enough, I showed my husband a photo mock-up with the shutters removed completely, and he was surprised to admit he liked it better, too. The black shutters seem to add some conflict and clutter that we don't like. The roof is fairly brown when the sun is out (it's cloudy today, so the photos are darker), and the brick is orangy, and the trim is white, and the brick has gray streaking throughout. It just feels like too many competing colors. Without the shutters, it's got cleaner lines and the colors seem not to be fighting with each other. We'll see, though. He's going to take them down so we can see what it really looks like, and if they need to go back up, we'll probably paint them a different color that works better with the roof. Thanks again for your help and insights!

An alternative to painting, colored mortar, is called German Smear. No maintenance. Fixer Upper used it on a remodel, "Old-World Charm For Newlyweds".

I'd consider even a bit darker color.

Dan, I saw that episode, with Chip calling it German Schmear the whole time! That's definitely something to consider. I had read an article a while back that pointed out that when the brick got wet after the German Smear treatment, and up until it dried again, it would revert to its old color. I would have to read more to see if there's a way to avoid that. Wouldn't want the magical changing house color going on in wet weather. ; ) But using the tinted mortar would get rid of the issues with a painted finish. Thanks for the idea. I had forgotten about that episode.

Possibly something like this waterproofing admixture would help with that. Waterproofing admixture

That might work. I'd have to do some research and talk to a masonry contractor about it. Thanks for the suggestion!

This whole discussion has been a real eye opener. While driving around today, I took in all of the hideous improperly sized and used shutters. Why did I never notice that mess before?!? You know when you look at a house and feel like there's something wrong, but you can't put your finger on it? I think the shutters play a role in that sensation. I looked closely at my neighbors' houses (our neighborhood has all different home styles and materials), and there are only one or two that have the fake decorative shutters. Many have no shutters, some have functional ones. And only one house (other than our dining room window bank) has utterly improperly sized shutters. So, thank you for the shutter education, everyone! Oh, and I've also noticed that on the houses that don't have shutters, they really only look like they're missing something if their landscape is also messed up. So, I think our plan is to remove the shutters altogether and fix our messed up landscaping to work with the house rather than against it. Thank you all so much for your help! I appreciate your time, opinions, and expertise.

I think you are on the right track. I also believe that if you could find another trim color and an accent color for the front door, you wouldn't have to do anything to the brick. The white or off white trim does nothing for that color brick. Trees in the front yard will make a huge difference. I love my willow oak we planted in 2001 to replace a sycamore that died.

Sherry, I think you're right. We're toying with the idea of having the trim painted. There's not much of it in the front of the house, but the back would be a huge job. I'll put a photo of the back below. I'll also put one that I found of a trim color that looks pretty good with this orangy kind of brick. It's a little tricky because the roof is brown, so many of the orangy houses with black roofs have different trim colors that look great but wouldn't work for us.

Back of house:

Yes! That is exactly the trim color. It works with the brick and roof instead of fighting it. I'm like you the whole purpose of a brick house is not having to paint!

Thanks! I like it, too. It pulls in the gray shades that are throughout the brick and brings in the brown from the roof. And I would probably do the front door in the same family but darker. I appreciate all of the help I got on this here. Such a great group of people willing to share their insights and ideas. We were at a loss about what to do, and now I feel like we have a good idea of what needs to happen. Thank you.

Hi Pam

we have a different style of housing here in Australia (so not sure if my suggestion works for you) but looking at the house it strikes me that simply cladding the brickwork ABOVE the gutter line in the gables in a light colour would break up the expanse of brown...

cheers

That might be a good idea, too. Below is a photo of my neighbor across the street's home. They have that brick section, with a shaker shingle kind of treatment on the gable above. They do have more of a mixture of materials, though, with the siding on the other half of their home, but this might be something that could add a contrast and interest on our home, I would need to put something in that open gable on the one side of our house to offset the window that's on the other side. So many things to consider! Thanks for the idea.

Hi Pam

That's exactly what I meant. You could simply use a James Hardie cladding like this.

and then around the windows install corbels (concrete or timber window trims) as you had in the pic below but painted white to match the windows.

That might work. I've pulled off the shutters, which was disappointingly easy to do, as they were all being held on by only a fraction of their anchors. We're going to get a landscape designer to make some recommendations and go from there. It looks a little wonky without the shutters right now, but I think that may be more of a landscape issue, since none of the shrubs seem to line up with anything or each other, and none of them seems to fit with anything related to the architecture. It's almost like the landscaping was planted before the house was built, as little relation as they have to each other. Thanks again for the ideas.

I had asked for help with this back in March, and wanted to come back and post a follow-up. My husband took out the round pillars and built square columns. We also took down the shutters and had the exterior trim repainted to a taupe-type of color that seems to do a better job of bringing the orangey brick and it's smattering of grays together with the brown roof. We're so much happier with the way it looks now! And in the fall when it gets cooler, we're going to tackle the landscaping! So .. progress! Woohoo!! Thanks again for all of your input and suggestions. :)

Here's the before photo for reference ...

I like the new look!!..cleaner..less fussy..prettier paint..nice weather coming so time to work on the landscaping!!..walk around your neighborhood and see what's attractive..then make a list..buy it..and plant until you're exhausted haha..

nicholsworth, thanks! Wish I had your yard already. We have a friend with his own landscape company who is going to help us, so I think we'll be able to make a lot of improvements. :) Looking forward to cooler weather. Summer is not really my thing.

Wow! It looks great. Thank you for posting an update. I love the new color and the new posts.

Thanks, Sherry! We like it a lot better.

Pam..keep posting pics of your progress..they're fun!

It's hard to get a good "after" of the backyard due to the vegetation. But I think it looks a lot better too.

Looks great. I am so glad that you didn't paint the brick. It is amazing what the correct color paint can do for a house. The brick doesn't even look the same color.

Sherry, I know! the brick no longer looks orange and weird to me. We didn't even consider painting the brick. We bought a four-sides brick house so it would be lower maintenance. The trim painting really did the trick as far as making the brick, porch, and roof all blend together better. It really is surprising how just changing that one color seemed to change all of the different colors.

Wow! What a difference already!