IMO your first PaintShop effort was the best. The pediment shaped center cross gable becomes an impressive feature once the little gables are gone. But I would modify the fussy spindle-turned Victorian posts at the entrance. The paired windows and pediment gable are typical of the Colonial Revival style so using a strong lintel over Classical round or square columns would complete the transformation. It would also help to pull the paired windows apart 3" or more so they would look like traditional windows instead of the modern nail-fin kind they are. I would add a sub-sill to avoid leaks and improve the appearance. Stone is fine as long as it extends to a floor or roof lie instead of stopping in the middle of a wall as if it were superficial decoration instead structural. I'm curious why your architect hasn't tuned the exterior up yet.

The front door is now painted a glossy black, and it looks so much better than it did before. However, it seems that nothing we do around the house is ever as simple as we think it's going to be, and painting the door was no different. Last week I'd asked DH to stop by the Benjamin Moore store on his way home from the gym, after calling and asking the manager to have a quart of "a deep, glossy black" ready to go when he stopped in. I first expressed my confusion over the many different shades of black on the BM website, and the manager said, "Oh, we have a standard gloss black that's already mixed and ready to go." That was fine with me. When I went to paint on Saturday, I opened the can, gave it a good stir, but noticed that it looked very gray - not really black at all. Maybe it will look different on the door, after it dries, I told myself - and proceeded to apply 3 coats. It looked even worse when it dried, taking on a deep blue-gray cast. It wasn't at all what I wanted. I ended up running to a nearby Ace Hardware yesterday morning, and taking one of their gloss black paints off the shelf. Turns out it was absolutely perfect, and I guess I have to just view the weird BM stuff as primer. I'm definitely returning the unused BM quart to the store, though, as it's not at all what I'd asked for. I wonder what happened ... bad batch, perhaps?

benjesbride, Oh thank you so much! I didn't even think about checking the coordinating colors for revere pewter! Ideally I'd have the house all white with a fun pop of color for the door but my husband would just about blow a gasket if I added another expense to our renovation lol. chloebud I'm actually loving both of those colors! I lean slightly towards the lighter color but I'm not walking away from the darker one either. I'll be getting some samples of those to try out. Thanks! Cheryl Smith Good point & good idea. As I mentioned to benjesbride, I so wish it was in the budget to have our home repainted white so we could do a sage green door or some other variation of green. Green is my favorite color and unfortunately the sage/mint colors that I love, just don't seem to go with revere pewter. (We just purchased the home already painted the RP color) loobab, Thank you for your suggestions! We are definitely changing up the landscape. We already took the rose bushes out and we plan to do some kind of hedge in that area instead. We typically like to landscape with evergreen plants and white flowers. I love green but I haven't found a shade that's not too dark nor too light that looks good with our Revere Pewter exterior. :/ In a perfect world, I'd be able to do a door similar to these colors: This one has an exterior closer to the color our home is painted now but I don't think it looks amazing. I think it would look better if it were a white home or something lighter.

@Design Interior South, yes, that is why I was pricing redwood at the lumber yard yesterday! :) And we went with "Cool Blue" paint on the front doors. IMO, they look like a tribute to LEGO! I'm giggling and cringing at the same time, ha. Also having the painters repaint the trim in white this morning. These doors are placeholders until we get our modern style wood door with window.