I would paint the brick, the picture you posted on the bottom is beautiful. Looks like a different house. I am partial to white and still use the cedar accents.

It is a different house, it’s the only thing I’ve found for brick with a brown roof that I like.

Looks like you have brick and stone, right? The style seems to be Mid-Century Modern.

My suggestions would be to change the landing to the front door to face forward and have a proper walkway to the public sidewalk. Have the walkway from the drive end at the side door.

Contemporary Transitional · More Info

Paint the side door the color of the house. I can't see a porch there. Do you want to sit out front?

Wood garage doors would look good.

Get rid of the railings. Replace them with more modern ones.

New landscaping. A low hedge along the side walkway and more on the left side of the house. Add two or three ornamental trees.

I love your bottom picture! you'd have to make sure and get a warm, brown/based gray, and not a blue/gray. something dark like this would work w/brown:

I think you could paint the brick and leave the horizontal stone work as is.

Look at Romabio for the brick paint. it's natural and will look great (you can get it any color.) Romabio Masonry paint, not the lime wash Classico.

absolutely paint the garage doors. I kind of like the mcm look.

here is one mockup with extending the porch to the right, new door, and new garage door

you don't have to do orange, just the style

another porch idea courtesy of DigDoug:

this one would change the roofline, obviously

Love your inspiration photo, think you have a plan and sounds great. I would get a professional to paint the brick and go with their recommendation as to paint, various types and if stain is possible.

The stone and brick are part and parcel of the style of the house. I wouldn't touch them, other than maybe to pressure wash to clean them up. I like the idea of a porch more than a pergola. Paint would be the next area I would look. Can't see the doors but you could do some MCM style front doors. The secondary one I would paint the same color as the trim and then make the main front door the focal point with a bright color.

If you're interested in seeing some virtual makeovers of your home check out my website, Creative Visual Concepts. I could show you how a porch and other changes could look.

I agree the brick is the whole point on that style of house which BTW is one of my favorites. I usually tell people if you want to instantly devalue your home paint the brick and in this instance even more. What you need is what was suggested above and then get to work on landscaping that is waht brings a home to life .Play up what you have which is a MCM ranch no porches no pergolas just well designed simple structures that work well. These homes were always my favorite style and we finally have one. If you like the mix of the brick and cedar I can get that you could do something like this and BTW you need a walkway from the street to. Check out MCM landscaping so many great ideas to work with to enhance that home without turning it into something it was never meant to be.

I'm almost certain that changing your home to look like your last inspo pic most certainly will not devalue your home. It's not like the brick is something to leave earth for. any poor paint job that looks awful will lower the value. painting the brick, leaving the other stone work, could be nice. Just redoing the porch, landscaping and garage door, may be all that you need. Try doing a little at a time and see what you like best. (Landscaping should be high on that list though)

Chiflipper, here are those colors (at least, this is the way I see them)

two right columns would be the black/brown grays

when you see the tones next to each other, it's easier to see the difference

to me, from L to R, I see

Beth, you always go above and beyond. You are so helpful! You kind of lost me on the color palettes but I still appreciate all the extra you give!

lol. lesly thanks. Chi was asking for an example of the 'brown, warmer' undertones of gray. trying to display how they look against 'bluer' tones or 'yellower' tones. They will actually tint the white base with yellow and black to get those tones. then they'll add drops of blue, or magenta to get the other colors. It's actually really cool to see how the tones change.

@Beth H. :Thank you SO much. Got it.