Your home is beautiful! I would paint the siding and trim the color of the mortar. I would not add shutters. Then the door could be dark red ( maroon) or sage green.

Lori's a rock star! Great advice.

What Lori said.

Thanks! Curious why everyone is down on shutters? Literally every house on our street but ours has shutters, and our houses are virtually identical save the color palettes and additions here and there. So feels like we're the weird ones without shutters. So you're thinking that if I say choose Revere Pewter, that I do that as the trim everywhere - so even the little front entryway cover would be that color? Briarwood looks pretty dark - so people agree that wouldn't be too dark on a relatively small colonial? Thanks!

Some people can see moments of pink/blush/peach overtones with Revere Pewter exterior. While many others see it as a nice warm gray. So, test carefully.

RP has an LRV of 55%. Briarwood is 31%. So, yes, Briarwood is darker and with the pops of black in the brick, I think a darker color will even out the overall color palette.

No shutters because I don't think there is physically room for correct proportionately sized shutters - for example, where is the shutter going to go on the window closest to the downspout and front porch? And, altho shutters are classic, I think a more modern aesthetic is no shutters. JMHO.

so even the little front entryway cover would be that color?

Yes. Looks like the windows are white; white casing and grids. So you have the windows, hand rails and fence white. Trim around the windows and everything else, can be the same color as the body.

However, I will say one advantage of doing a white for your trim, is it does make the windows/trim look nice and beefy. If you change the color of the trim around the window from white to the body color that's going to change the illusion of luxurious trim around those windows.

Beware of the following:

1. If you go darker than an LRV of 55% make sure all the elements on your house can withstand being painted a darker color. If they're wood, no worries. If they're plastic/resin of some sort you gotta find out from the manufacturer if they can be painted darker than they are. If you don't know or can't find out, do not choose a darker paint color.

2. "Taupe" can get you in to trouble. Just be careful the colors you pull that you think are a "neutral taupe" don't shift purple on you in the sunlight.

3. Crowd sourcing an exterior color palette at the 11th hour is risky. :D Don't let the painters rush you.

Huge help, thank you! One last question - I am interested in potentially staining my brick to more of a white shade but that's at least a year off. Is there a shade of white (e.g., White Dove, Swiss Coffee) that would work now for siding/trim and later for brick? If I did that, presumably I'd need to redo the trim regardless because it could get messy in the process and I could go darker at that point for contrast. Let's take the relative merits of staining brick out of it - is there a color combo that could save me the trouble of painting the siding twice? This is the inspiration I had in mind for that https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-rustic-renovation-traditional-exterior-birmingham-phvw-vp~40953459 

I post this link all the time because I think it's a great solution to paint brick. Romabio BioDomus. Just talked to one of the owners on the phone last Friday. Their color "Avorio" is an excellent color match (from a spectral data POV) to BenM's White Dove. Altho they color match to BenM and SW all the time.

So you could do White Dove everywhere now and when it's time to do the brick in White Dove, assess what you want to do about trim - or leave it all white and call it done.

The paint color on the exterior in the inspiration picture is Oyster White SW 7637 by Sherwin-Williams

Oh my gosh, please don't touch your brick. It's got beautiful variations in it and is a lovely sight compared to the usual monotone maroon brick we see all over. If you have to lighten it up, go with a light German smear technique so that variation in the brick shows through.

I like the second square from the bottom. You may also want to try BM's Shaker Beige. Nice depth and warmth and very versatile.

Click on the link. They're all interior shots of Shaker Beige but it might give you an idea. https://www.houzz.com/photos/query/shaker-beige-swatch/nqrwns

BTW, when we hit about 50 years old, our eyes begin seeing more yellow in colors. I don't know how old you are but I thought I'd pass that along.

A vote for Briarwood! It relates nicely to both the red and black of the brick in a way the others dont. I think a color needs to have a certain amount of "oomph" to it to stand up natural materials like brick, stone, wood.]

I was going to say what looks dark in a small paint chip will look lighter on exterior of house (or than it would on interior wall).... your pic illustrates that I think.

Pls dont touch the brick - as someone above pointed out it has wonderful variations in it. FYI - the whitewashed joanna gaines thing is very close to jumping the shark You know when cheap whitewashed pseudo- shiplap wall paneling shows up in Menards its all but got the fork stuck in. However, if you just HAVE to do it then it makes no sense to paint the siding now or choose colors based on an unknown possible future color of the brick.

OK I'm all over the place on this, but now thinking maybe I plan ahead for using romabio down the line, so the question now would be what white to pick that we'll have romabio match to later for the masonry component. I tested chantilly lacy, white dove and swiss coffee. Pic below in brighter 11 am light. Swiss Coffee on left is creamier. White Dove on right more "white" looking. Neither actually matches the grout right now but both are in line with what the neighborhood looks like. Anyone have a preference between those for looking good now with the brick and later over the whole house?

Swiss Coffee

White Dove

If you're planning ahead, then the white needs to work with the window casings and grids because those aren't goin' anywhere and can't be painted.

Agreed. I found this house. It's swiss coffee but the trim is pure white so indicates that it can in theory work with a pure white color like what's on my windows. I have samples up but at some point this is a leap of faith because I can't really tell how it's all going to look from just samples, but it's hard to take that leap!

Atlanta, GA - New Neoclassical Home · More Info

Totally can do a clean, pure white with a creamier body. Greek Villa SW 7551 and Chantilly Lace, for example.