Congratulations, this is a cute house. I agree that painting the brick is not a great idea. And besides, the brick is nice.

Shutters would not work on the wide windows. I like the clean look of the front.

I wouldn't do black for the door - go with charcoal or a brownish grey. As for red, I think that would bring out the orange more.

You could also look at sagey green or even blue for the door...

Congratulations on the new home! I also wouldn't paint the brick because I think it suits the house, and painting adds ongoing maintenance to what is currently low-maintenance. Don't be in a rush to make changes. Live with the landscaping for a year to see what is there and how it grows. There may be some things that you want to keep such as bulbs that currently aren't visible or a shrub that currently looks boring but that has beautiful flowers or stunning autumn color. Take some closer photos of plants and get them IDed on the Name that Plant forum to see what you have and then look them up to decide what is worth keeping. You may be able to move some rather than disposing of them which will give you larger plants and help out with the budget.

That said, some things to think about. I would in the long run get rid of the moustache hedges. Widen the front walk so that it doesn't look so cramped. An inexpensive way to do this is to add a course of brick or other masonry on either side of the walkway, but be sure to look up how to install a walkway properly to do this. No need for plantings to be symmetrical since the house isn't. Plan to make the beds deeper (front to back) so they don't look squeezed up against the house. It's good to leave at least a foot of space between the building and the ultimate width of whatever you plant so that you can get in to do any painting, window cleaning, etc. You may want to add a multistemmed small tree diagonally off the right corner of the house if there is room to help frame the house.

I would love seeing photos taken from the same spot, but swung right and left so we can see the entire width of the property. There's obviously a tree to the left, but landscaping involves the entire property and can sometimes borrow from neighbors' properties or may want to disguise or distract from unwanted views.

The current door color fades into the background, so I agree that you want something with contrast, but I am not sure that black or red would be best since they don't reference anything else on the property. Perhaps a black door when you next reroof, so choose a different color for now. There are paint company sites that let you upload a photo and try out different colors.

We have a very similar color brick house but there is a lot of wood also. It's also an 80's house. We had a similar beige roof and then if we had frost, our lawn was also beige--very boring! When we needed a new roof a few years ago, we went with a dark charcoal color which helped a lot. Also the trim (the area between the roof and the facia) is black. It doesn't sound like much but it also added a lot. I would agree with increasing the bed sizes (but put down the best landscape fabric you can (I double or triple it). Ours are curvy which adds some dimension.

We painted our front door red and I think it looks good. Are your windows white or beige/yellow? Ours are beige/yellow which really restricts us on colors for our wood.

I would take out the accent tree by your middle window and put one between your left and middle window--but don't put it close to the house and make sure it's not going to grow too tall. Amazing what 20+ years does to landscaping!

I would't paint the brick. There's probably many homes in your area with a similar type of brick and you want it to "fit in" with the vibe of the rest of the area.

For some fresh and sophisticated color, try Dunn Edwards' color of the year, The Green Hour (DET544) or similar. It is complementary to your red/orange pastel brick colors. (I have no connection to Dunn Edwards.)

Dunn Edwards color of the year 2018

What you need is contrast. So trim, soffit, roof, and front doors would be best in darker color. Here are some inspirations.

Curved beds will also help your overall look. I would take a look at SW French Roast 6069. It is deeper than the above color and would combine well with your brick.

I am going to respectfully disagree with Debbie on the landscape fabric. A good layer of shredded mulch and a 15 minutes of weeding a month will take care of weeds as long as the bed is edged. Landscape fabric doesn't prevent weeds as seed blow in and will sprout and root into the fabric, making removing the weeds more difficult. Additionally, landscape fabric interferes with movement of water, nutrients, and oxygen, so it isn't good for the plants over time. The plants themselves often root into the fabric making it difficult to remove down the road when you realize what a PIA it is. A few layers of newspaper under mulch will keep weeds from sprouting as the mulch settles without the other issues. There are lots of threads in the garden web portion of this site on landscape fabric. Here is a sampling from the perennials forum: https://www.gardenweb.com/gardenweb/query/%22Landscape-Fabric%22/topic=peren

I don't think it needs a lot, it is a nice house. I notice a window on the left does not seem to have the same trim as other windows, I would correct that.

I don't like the bulky post near to door so I would make that more modest.

Add a color for the door.

Deepen the planting beds and pull plants forward if possible.

When roof needs replacement a bit of a darker color would provide more contrast.

love DigDougs idea. you barely have to touch the house if you concentrate on the landscaping. I like the dark gray trim idea, and doing the front door in an apricot or yam color. looks good w/gray and w/your bricks. pick foliage that have Autumn colors, and the house will look great.

Wow! Thanks so much for the great ideas! I never thought about using such bright colors like that DE green hour or blue for the door. I would have never thought of it myself...and I really like it! I love pops of color but i’m always scared to take the leap! Not sure why. Lol I guess it’s cause it’s our first place and it feels risky, but in the end I really should just think of it as paint. I can always change it up! Thanks for paint color suggestions as well, sometimes it’s overwhelming to see so many colors. It’s nice to know what has worked for others who’s homes have the same color palette!

I really love the dark trim ideas (for now, our windows have a light color screen over them, but the window itself is actually a dark brown/bronze) and landscaping ideas- I never thought something as simple as deepening flower beds would have such a dramatic effect! Thanks Dig Doug! Our flower beds are pretty shallow and rectangular, the curved beds are a fabulous idea! NHbabs and debbie1000 I totally agree about the tree between the windows and the narrow walkway (its mix matched half with river rock half smooth concrete), they are definitely on the ‘to do’ list.

emmarie- I love your idea of the trim on the left window, I agree it needs some bulking up to match the others. I really like your post idea, and i know it’s hard to see from my photo, but it’s acually a brick wall. Right now removing is probably more than we’d like to do, but it would definitely give it a more open feeling. Love your rendering makes my house look cute! Definitely has me thinking about that blue door color!

I’m not able to upload more pictures of the house since I’m currently on a trip, but when I get back I’ll upload more, but I can’t say THANK YOU enough. The pictures you all posted definitely have my creative wheels turning! I feel like I now have some direction in looking up design ideas.

We’re not in a huge rush to redo our home, but i’ll definitely keep everyone posted with picture updates as we make changes here and there so you can see how we implemented your ideas and suggestions. Thank you again for taking the time to help us out! I really didn’t think i’d have this many people respond in just one day. You guys are AMAZING!!

Let us know what you do : -)

I agree with everything NHBabs said in both of her posts.

There's nothing wrong with the brick color. Find a house that color that looks classy and see how they coordinated trim and other things to make the brick look its best.

Not a fan of the dark trim. I suppose it is great every Halloween. There is enough contrast between the brick and white, so white.

I'm not a fan of the snappy front door colors. It seems like a fad that will run its course over a few more years and then look so "teens." There is better taste than that.

If you get well proportioned shutters I think you could do. To answer questions like that to your own satisfaction, create tests of cardboard taped up and appraise from a distance.

Without question, you need a completely new landscape foundation planting. Read NHBabs again. I would avoid schemes that make your house look engulfed by shrubs, such as too much hedging. there needs to be a balance with shrubs that are coordinated with architecture, smaller plants, small trees & some groundcover. Don't swamp the walk with these things either.

We have that exact brick color. Our siding is mushroom or a warm light tone and the trim is dark chocolate brown. For flowering landscape plants, yellows, oranges and scarlet reds look great with this brick as well as cobalt blue blooms. We want to paint our front door scarlet red. Our neighbor with the same brick did that and it's really striking.