I love, love, love blonde brick. It has such a lovely golden color. Are you sure you can't work with it instead of painting over it? It has a great midcentury style to it that I find appealing.

Your new home is quite handsome -- clean lines, nice materials, looks comfortable and sheltering. As much as I like Frank Lloyd Wright and his Cherokee Red, your red overwhelms the house. A soft gray blue or gray green would work better with the cream brick, the tan roof, and any landscaping you might do. Since the garage dominates the house facade, I'd save up for a nicer garage door style. It's not a cheap fix, but would add a lot to your home in terms of looks and perhaps value too. Don't get anything fussy, but something with clean, strong lines that could work with a contemporary home. A more contemporary door would be good too. Other than that, just better landscaping! Those old yews block the entry & your pretty picture window.

Great! If the roof is brown, you have a world of colors to choose from. In that case, I would chose a color for the trim and then paint the garage door that same color. The house door can then be another color to bring attention and help it stand out. Do you want to paint your trim every several years, or are you wanting to cover the trim with vinyl and aluminum? That is the first question you have to decide. The second choice greatly narrows your color choices. If you decide on paint, Chose a color family (like dark taupes or bronzes or ivory or hunter greens or turquoise...) and get paint samples at the local paint stores and paint some poster boards. You just live with them next to the house and roof on non-rainy days and see what you like. I once painted stripes of color on the wood of a house we were going to side. Neighbors walking by were asked to vote! Are you gardeners? Are you interested in taking care of annual flowers (water once or twice a day, fertilize occasionally, keep weed-free), or learning about perennials or bulbs? If you want to learn, you can actually make a garden bed that always has either a bulb or perennial in bloom. Or, you could go low-maintenance with shrubs and mulch. Again, your zone and your house's orientation (NSEW) is needed for anyone to give you advice on plants. I am with those who think that your bushes are way too old and overgrown. Maybe you can keep one or two that are green all the way to the bottom and don't look all shaved down. Use those as a backdrop and go from there. Are you interested in putting in any hardscape? If the window next to the door does not come down too low, it might look nice to have a bench there. Is there a concrete slab area behind the bushes there? if yes, you can use containers to add colorful annuals. If you want to garden, you can make garden beds in front of the front door area. Little fences or a raised bed made with landscaping stone are all options. Over where the room comes out further than the porch, there is a nice bush near the corner that may be in good enough shape to keep. Not the one by the downspout, the one in the front. (I would remove all of the bushes to the left of that one.) If there is a matching bush in good condition on the other side of that room, I might leave them both, but remove the ones in the middle, so the other two have room. You might be able to put a trellis under the window and train a flowering vine to spread side-to-side and fill some of that space on the wall. A few low plants around the tall bushes and in front of the vine, and you are done in that area. With a taupe roof and creamy brick, you have a pallatte limited only by your wallet, skills, and imagination!

Hi jjags. I do like your color selections except for the front door. You might consider making one of the two front doors a lot more prominent as I don't know which one currently is the actual front door. There are several ways to address this confusing issue including but not limited to the following; 1. Extend the porch out farther for the real front door. 2. Paint the non front door & railing a color that blends in with the siding color. 3. Address landscaping to help direct your eye to the real front door. 4. Paint the real front door a BOLD COLOR and not a shade of black. 5. Also, as you said, no shutters is a good idea. Best of luck on your project. Jerome DeMarco ART.chitecture