Brick can be stained so you could do that to the blond brick and then paint the gables white for a more traditional look.

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this might help https://www.mariakillam.com/the-best-exterior-trim-colours-with-brick-not-cloud-white/

Are the sides a brick material? Or is it that kind of shingle material? Do you know if there is any "left over bricks" somewhere on the property. In a garage or bordering a flower bed. You could test staining that brick. The brick that is the yellow color is really dense and I wonder if it would take a stain very well. Make sure you know what the materials are before you do anything. I would go for a darker color on the body of the house with white trim for a fresh and updated look but still timeless. You might have to "reside" the red sides so at least you have one look on the sides and gable.

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My neighborhood (developed between 1895 and 1915) is full of houses like this, mine included. With this vintage of house, it was incredibly common to face the house with a higher end material and do the sides and back with a less expensive material. For example, my house is stoned-faced with blond brick sides and back. Houses on either side are fancy red brick in front, plain red brick otherwise. There is a blond brick faced house around the corner from me, the porch of which has been removed. The area where the porch roof used to attach is cheaper red bricks. Yeah, they used the cheaper bricks only where they'd be covered up and now that there is no porch it looks pretty bad. Don't ever let your porch fall off.

Also, your house has a big wide lot, which makes the sides highly visible. The templates from which these houses were built generally assumed narrow urban lots (this is the case in my neighborhood - houses are 3-4 ft apart so you really can't see the sides of any of them).

The part of your house that is messing with me is that the PO painted the gable and dormers brick red of all colors - makes the yellow bricks appear wrong. Paint the gable and dormer white for immediate visual improvement. Then consider staining the facade bricks if you still totally hate it.

Queenvictorian, thank you for providing some historical context! We've haven't seen any other homes in our area that have a similar look, so I was a little baffled as to why they made this design decision. Makes a lot more sense now!

Thank you, everyone! If we keep the brick as-is, do you think white is our only option for the gables/dormers? I'm concerned white might be too stark.

Cat works fast. Best part: she works for kibble.

I think a blue or gray-blue could work. Actually lots of options if you look around - earthy themes (like wth olive) would work, too. I just tossed out white because it's by far the easiest color (and you'll need to prime it white anyway to go over the red).

Double-checked my street on Street View just now, and dang, there are three houses in a row with buff/blond brick facades and red brick sides (but like I said, hadn't taken note of the side bricks because the houses are so close together) - very similar to yours. Two of these have white gable/trim, and one has teal blue gable/trim and it looks pretty nice. Also, white plus a couple accent colors (like black or cobalt) would look good, too. For my house, which currently has mostly white trim but lots of details that are being totally disregarded by indiscriminate use of white and gray), I'm considering a four-color scheme - white, black, olive, and gold (saw the combo on another old house undergoing restoration and it's killer).

Check out oldhouseguy.com for more info and inspiration on painting older houses.

How about painting the gable ochre to match the yellow brick and leave the sides red? That sort of yellow brick does carry a bunch of architectural baggage-- it's surprising to see it on this house.

Grover can you persuade the cat to climb up and do the gable? Easier than the chimney was.

I don't mind the red gable, though I might paint it a darker red.

Groveraxle, your cat does great work! ;) What if we kept the front facade unpainted and just painted the gable white?

Eehhhh guys I don't think the gray is working if you just paint the facade (though it would look nice if you painted the entire exterior, and a lighter shade, but OP doesn't want to do that).

White is the easiest color (and what I see with this color brick most often), but there are other options - I think a slate blue or lighter cobalt with white trim would be very nice.

Also, I noticed that the window headers are white - a small observation I've made of the numerous blond brick houses (including my own) is that the window headers are very, very commonly slate blue rather than white (or unpainted - which reveals that they are made from blue-gray slate). I'll snap some pics.

what's wrong w/painting the red brick (Romabio is natural and requires no maintenance. let's the brick breathe resists mold) and leaving the yellow? White, green accent, maybe some cedar,,,would all look very nice

or, leave the red, paint the yellow white, and accent w/red like in this pic^

Here's a row of houses like the OP's:

White, white (but with red headers - meh), and teal, which contrasts nicely. You can see that these houses all have red brick sides (if you look closely), but that it doesn't matter because they are so close together. OP, this is probably more the context the template architect assumed for your house. And then it seems the builder didn't adjust the exterior specs to account for the wide lot and sides being plainly visible, or the original owners reeeeally wanted that blond brick but couldn't afford to do the whole house in it, or it was assumed that other houses would be built closer to it, or something.

Grover: Can I borrow your cat? I have lots of painting to do and plenty of kibble.

I think everyone agrees that some of the brick should be painted in this unusual brick situation. How about painting ALL the brick? If you paint the front facade only, you still have the same 2-tone problem but with a different colour. I say paint the whole thing then you aren't limited to a handful of colours. You can paint your house whatever colour you want.

Flo, the cat is not happy. She did this much of the trim for a can of tuna. She says if you want more, she's holding out for Dover sole.

For those in favor of leaving the yellow brick and just painting the gable white, here it is:

I hate painting brick as well. But in this case, I don't see any way around it. Paint or stain, gotta do it.

Don't paint but I think you have to make a choice for the exterior of your home. Consider staining the brick to match the front and sides.