Remove the meatballs and amateur garden center retaining walls in favor of one single low horizontal retaining wall. Pick a material that relates to the exterior choices. Matching brick if you could. Cot-ten steel possibly. The wall should have a decent horizontal space between it and the street where some larger scaled pots and concrete jigsaw puzzle blocking “garden” with some heavy “sculptures” can shine. Look at the standard blockade pot planting’s meant to keep vehicles from ramming public buildings. You will need an expert to design this, and implement it. Maybe Phase 1 is Design, and Phase 2 is Implement. The smaller space between the top of the wall and building can be actual planting’s, but mostly drought resistant grasses and maybe some very low growing junipers. The building is a STAR, and needs to be more revealed than hidden by landscaping. Also think about a rooftop terrace and garden if it’s flat. Would be cool to see a hint of green in the sky peeking over like a secret paradise.

If the goal is to upgrade the curb appeal, I would look to landscaping because your house colours are mostly working as is. That said, you're showing the Gentek samples which I'm assuming are for the soffit. The soffit doesn't actually show so I'm not sure why you're starting there. They help bounce light into your windows, so going with the lightest colour that goes with your lightest bricks (NOT white) would be a direction for the soffits. The door and siding are an entirely different matter. The brown that you have now on the siding goes perfectly with the darkest brown bricks. Just refresh it. The thing that looks out of place is the overly white vinyl windows and door. I'm guessing the windows can not be painted so that leaves the door . (If the windows could be painted, a beige colour that tied back into the brick would be the idea. ) The front door could/should be a different colour than the siding. The natural wood tone suggested by Freedomplace1 would work with your brick if you changed the door, but probably not as a paint colour. What were you thinking for the door?

You might spray paint those lanterns black for some contrast. You really need to focus on the landscaping. All those clumpy shrubs are not helping the look. When/if budget allows, I would want the turned posts changed for square ones that look beefy enough to hold up the long expanse of roof. You're right; no need for shutters. Have you thought of hanging baskets between the posts and furnishing it to be a comfy sitting spot?

Don't be hasty to paint the brick. A white elephant is still an elephant -- you need to address a few more important issues or it will still look "off." See ital mover's advice above: adding a front portico and 'breaking' the landscaping symmetry is a good idea. Question -- why all the symmetry, if this isn't a duplex? It appears a previous owner did something major with the entrance along with the windows, possibly inside as well as outside -- it looks odd because the front door appears to be on a different level than the first story windows, as if you'd open the door and see half-stairs up, half-stairs down. And the two wings appear a half-level off from the main house, too. (The floorplan might work just fine inside, but the outside looks odd.) Fix that before painting brick.