"All the trim in the house is a dark stain. I want to paint it all white because that will definitely brighten things." Paint colors don't exist in a vacuum, it's always about how they look next to another color, and bounce back light from windows and bulbs. Bright white woodwork and doors will make the Kilim Beige walls look dingy and dull by contrast unless you have bright white and Kilim Beige in upholstery and drapes too. Don't mix "muted/dirty/greyed" shades with clear and bright shades unless you have a lot of experience. Stick to one or the other. Maria Killiam has a knack of explaining clean/dirty, undertones and the rest. http://www.mariakillam.com/clean-vs-dirty-colours/ ******************** AS you can see the family room is wayyyy too dark Paint can't fix a dark room ... you need light bulbs or higher wattage for that. A better picture of that, taken in daylight or with lamps from another room will get you better advice. ************** "I was going to paint the main living room cool tones, gray, light blue, white etc. but after reading, I'm worried the room will look washed out because of the bow window that allows for so much indirect daylight. So I am leaning more towards warm tones on that side of the home" Warm tones look warm only because they bounce back warm tones from the incoming light. When the incoming light is already "cool" because it's north light, it gets really hard to see the "warm" and undertones are going to be driving you nuts. I had a warm yellow in the kitchen, and the light coming through leaves and bounding off the grass turned it a gaudy green every morning ... ******************** I would immediately paint that fake wood wainscoting Kilim Beige to make it vanish. Remove it later, but right now it's just plain ugly. What I see are the DARK, light-blocking valances in the kitchen, pale mauve (?) drapes in the living room, and the almost exclusively beige and tans in your furniture, and no color in the artwork or accessories. No rugs? That's a far larger influence on the "blah" feeling than the dark woodwork and beige walls. Save your money by keeping the doors until you have drapes and rugs that add color and interest. Paint should be the last decor thing you pick, AFTER furnishings and drapes, because there are thousands of colors of paint. Trying to find a rug to go with the paint is far harder than finding paint to go with the rug.

My first suggestions will apply no matter what color combinations you choose. Put shutters only on the brick. Those are the only windows where shutters will fit appropriately. And, whatever the front door color, paint the storm the same. Gray: you need a green undertone to compliment the dark brick. Siding: Horizon Gray Shutters…do in a semi-gloss finish: Desert Twilight Front door and storm: Spice Gold Lovely and different with your brick color.

The architectural tweaking recommendations that I so far disagree with is the shutter removal. There is a shutter-removal movement underway that is based solely on the idea that if shutters are neither functional (could be closed and locked over the window) or APPEAR as if they could be functional, then they have no value and need to be removed. I reject this argument entirely because shutters have an additional purpose of adding decorative trim to a house. Most of us are interested in presenting an improved face to the street, thus the concept: street/curb appeal. Shutters become part of the "stage make-up" and don't need to have any purpose beyond that. In many places in times past, so-called "shutters" have amounted to nothing more than a couple of decorative wooden pickets that still served the function of added trim which is additional interest. As remarked, I, too, find houses where shutters have been removed to be suddenly 'plain-Jane'-looking. Moving into the realm of outdoor hardscape, your house has one period feature that I don't care for and that is the stone wall, at the left side of the entrance walk, that confines the space quite profoundly. It would have been acceptable to me if the wall were two feet farther left so as to give greater clearance to the door. Too, it is topped with a filigree "wrought iron" piece that holds up the corner of the upstairs. Even though these things were part of the period, most periods have flaws and fads that would have been better not done. The New Orleans French style column seemed out of place in the 1960s, too. In the interest of updating, I'd remove the wall and the wrought iron and replace them with a single, bold, decorative wood column or post. In spite of the fact that you adore the rose bush, it couldn't be in a worse place. It visually blocks the primary point of interest of the house: the front entrance. I would find another place for the plant.

Just remove the shutters and see how that looks. I don't think painting windows with black is going to enhance the house--just adds another element and you do have a brown roof, not black. A much warmer white for the middle would work better with yellow stone and brown roof. Save $$$ for a beautiful landscape design to further beautify the house. But what you have is pretty nice right now. It's important in a newly purchased house to go a year before making landscaping changes so you can see how the plantings look in all seasons. It's great you have quite a few evergreens for year round color--and no leaves to rake!