Do not paint the shutters red! It would give you too much of a red checker-board look or the old rural farm house look where every roof and piece of trim is painted red. I don't mean that in a bad way, because I love that look - sometimes - in the right setting. Your house has an older, established country estate look with the beautiful grounds and surroundings. I like the darker look of the shutters, but on my monitor, I can't tell what color they are - are they black, brown, charcoal, the color of the roof??? If the red door works for you, I would add lots of red in your landscaping. I can pots of red geraniums on your steps and big colorful pots of flowers flanking the doors. You have a beautiful home.

annz--thanks for the advice! You are right that I like contempory more than craftsman, but I like craftsman too as long it has light wood. I do like our current sofa and chair(even though they're really not my style-it's a long story how we ended up with them) but need to replace them because the fabric is defective and the detached back cushions roll into a big lump everytime we sit on the sofa. The manufacturer did send us new covers for the custions so the sofa and chair look better now than they did for a while, but all the cording around the base of the sofa and chair is raveling and looks bad and I can't think of a way to save the sofa, specially when you add the problem with the back cushions. I am working on the accessories. The pictures in the link are old, so it looks better now than in the pictures but I still have a long way to go. We have also added cushions on the window seats which soften the room a lot. We will be adding more wood to the room though in that we are going to do a built-in in the recess where the TV is to clean up that area a little bit and we are adding more wood to the fireplace, but not a lot more--just getting rid of the white spaces and making the mantle deeper so that I can set things on it. As you can guess, my DH loves wood. At least this house has less wood than our old house--our old house had wood ceilings in the living room and foyer and wood walls in the bathrooms which was just too dark for me. Thanks again for the help!

It's hard to tell from the picture, but I'm guessing that the painted shutters you have are vinyl shutters? It will not be possible to achieve the stained finish you have posted with vinyl or even composite wood shutters. However, you could paint those shutters to match a similar color. I did a similar job in Chicago with Western Red Cedar wood shutters, we put a dark stain on them and then mounted them on functional hinges with the little s-hooks, or shutter dogs as I guess they call them. It really adds to the authenticity of them. If your looking for something maintenance free... go with a composite wood shutter and then paint it a similar color to your stain. It won't have a wood grain :( In my opinion the shutters should be wider. Most shutters are vinyl, and vinyl shutters are only available up to about 18 inches wide. However, wood shutters can be made into any width. Especially because you have a lot of space open around the window. It also appears you have some color fading on the brick, which you'll be sure to cover up with wider shutters. We got the cedar shutters for the job in Chicago from www.Exteriorsolutions.com. The quality was VERY good and the price was better than anywhere. They offered to prime and paint....but we were staining. They custom built the shutters so it took a few weeks, but I got them when they said I would which isn't always the case with a lot of companys... So I appreciated that. I have a lot of shutter experience! Post any questions! Also, you will have to post some after pictures! I'm dying to see it finished. Here is a link that might be useful: Exterior Shutters

The garage is not inconvenient at all. We knocked out the wall and joined all three bays together, and there is a door that opens into the house, near the kitchen and pantry. I just drive in and close the door behind me. Here’s the table naked. It’s made by Hickory White from the Old Savannah collection. We lived right next to High Point, NC for several years and I bought a fair amount of furniture while we were there. I bought these about 25 years ago, and the chair seats are definitely due for new covers. The table is tiger maple with nice reeded legs. It doesn’t look this orange in natural light. The chair legs are square and straight, no cabriole or foot. There is a spider under it, hence the mesmerized dog. I usually keep it covered because our most frequent guests are the kids and grandkids, and none of them have any table manners. Tablecloth goes in the washer and dryer. 😋 The wainscoting is random width boards, and is used in several rooms. The last photo you posted is one that is already in my inspiration album. Gorgeous. Several rooms in the house have painted trim and white walls, done by a PO. Thanks for the photos and the sources for lighting, will check them out.