Love that your shutters ARE fully functional with dogs!!! I would keep them on the lower, porch windows. Don’t mess with your upper windows. They look beautiful as they are. No tinkering with trims, etc. I’d keep your shutters and paint them a light color. A pale taupe, a soft green, a faint blue. Or white. Very soft. Just a hint of color. Your home is absolutely beautiful.

I love shutters, but in your case, agree with others. Your window trim is really nice and I think might look better alone. I’d remove them, live with it a bit, decide from there. You can always put them back on. :) Congrats on your new, beautiful home!

Nice home and really great yard. Not a pro -- just some thoughts. Agree with others: Wouldn't keep or add shutters. If what you're doing is painting existing siding, consider using a darker siding color but keep the white fascia and window trim. A MCM garage door and MCM trim around the front entry door -- perhaps also used as gates -- driveway/patio gates -- could be a great look with darker siding. You might consider a medium / dark gray with the MCM wood look. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/638526053395559546/ One way to add the wood boards -- horizontal or vertical -- that you like that give you an MCM vibe -- without replacing a lot of the existing siding of your home -- is to add horizontal boards as swinging doors that are gates, either to the driveway and/or to a patio, particularly a front yard patio. https://www.losangelesfencebuilders.com/horizontal-fencing-in-los-angeles/ https://www.northgatesinmotioninc.com/3-design-tips-to-match-your-home-and-driveway-gate https://www.tkostructure.com/redwood-entry https://blog.advantagelumber.com/2019/01/09/best-wood-for-a-horizontal-fence/ Beautiful front yard beyond the shrubs alongside the house. Don't clutter it with "stuff" unnecessarily. If you want a path to the road, build it alongside the driveway to the mailbox rather than cut through the front lawn. Would remove (and, if possible, move it to another location) that shrub that extends beyond the front right corner of that left wing of the house -- that shrub is in front of the front door. Do some checking on the appropriate way and time of year to trim the shrubs you have and consider trimming them for a level look and all underneath window sill height. Would remove/move all the shrubs that are directly in front of the front entry door and the exterior wall beside it between the front entry door and the window to the right of it -- perhaps even in front of the three windows to the right of the door if you are interested in creating a front yard patio. Since you don't have a front porch on which to sit, consider creating a short landscaping wall from the front of the house toward the road in order to create a small level patio to the right of the sidewalk that enters the house. The retaining wall should be to the right of the existing front sidewalk -- a level step or two to the right of it -- and be one comfortable step down from the sidewalk level. A small level area created in front of the three windows immediately to the right of the front door could make a great place for a front yard patio (maybe about 16'x16') immediately beside the house/front door and, aside from a walk path to the you can create a MCM and green privacy screen fully around the right and front side of the patio. Aside from an opening for a walk path, you could also add a privacy screen between sidewalk and patio -- (?perhaps made / as and with the MCM look horizontal board feature you want to add?). if you the two (or more) shutters pictured, you can hang them on horizontal boards between posts to use them as a privacy screen for that front of that patio directly across from the front sidewalk as it approaches the house -- and/or you could even have the two shutters double as eye level privacy wall by hanging them as a pair of "saloon" swinging doors on posts of the ground level set between the sections of green privacy hedge -- doors thru which you enter your front yard patio. You could reuse your existing shutters, perhaps repainted black or your new house color, as the wall between your house and the gate to your patio. You can reuse any shrubs you removed, moving them to create the front and right side privacy screen. Good luck on your project; let us know how it turns out.

I like it with the shutters off. I see a lack of any color for interest now though. You mentioned a wicker chair, or two. Please put colorful cushions on them, and in your before picture, you had some colorful plants in front of all the green. They are missing in your after picture, and you really need to add something similar back there. The only color, I am seeing now, is the two yellow pots.