As cute as your home is, it is a far cry from a Cape.

What if you painted the horizontal siding the same color as the brick?

You won’t wind up with a New England Greek Revival like this, but having one color on the facade would make a world of difference.

I pulled the darkest flash from your bricks and used that to arrive at a color.

BeverlyFLADeziner. Thank you for the image!

The color is very close to the siding of our neighbor's house, which makes me a bit reluctant to choose this particular shade.

Is there anything lighter that could work?

I'm not really digging the cool blue/gray siding color w/the warm orange bricks.

Are you up for Doing a lime wash or painting the brick?

Here's a before and after from another poster on here who went with the advice to paint

She used Romabio Bianco Limewash, 2 coats, and SW Summit Gray and pure White

Otherwise, I'd switch to a warmer gray, or another color altogether

BeverlyFLADeziner,

You can see the neighbor's house a little bit in this picture. You can see the dormer of the neighbor's house on the right.

Beth H., we prefer not to paint or lime wash the brick at this time. Thanks for sharing the photos!

BD, that's fine. I gave you about 5 diff color combos that will work w/your brick. try some of those.

here are some others

I like the darker tones w/the orange

Thank you, Beth H.I do like some of the gray colors you shared!

I would paint both the dormer and the front the same color. I like gray to go with the stonework corners.

I love the navy color (or even a shade darker) that Beverly photoshopped. I think it tones down the red in the bricks and is a really pretty color.

houssaon, I do like the gray colors you suggested! Thank you for the image. This helps me to visualize what it might look like.

Does the image use Pewter? Or Timberwolf?

B D see if any of these grays work (the above image looks like Timber Wolf

Your brick is definitely funky but I like it. I would play it up and do a fun color like a light aqua. I think it would go nice with the warm orange and won't clash with the grey stone. I really diskike brown paint.

Actually it uses both. They are so close in color on the samples. You can barely tell the difference. Timber Wolf is on the gable facade and Pewter is on the dormer. Timber Wolf has the very slightest green undertone to my eye and Pewter is just a bit more blue.

I'd really like to see those bushes gone. I think they are hiding an interesting detail.

houssaon, yes, I agree that the house would look better without the bushes! We are debating whether to gradually trim back, do a hard cut, or remove altogether. They are yews, so it seems like there are different options. I found this old photo of the house when the bushes were small (and windows were black with muntins!).

But I'd love to have them cut back even more than this!

Thanks for the paint color suggestions, Beth H. and Christina Fisher!

how about a light yellow

Thank you, Melissa R, for the image! I like a yellow or cream too!

I do find choosing the right shade of yellow to be very difficult (based on past experiences when they ended up being much brighter than I expected)!

To me the yellow looks washed out. Not enough contrast with the bricks.

Yews do respond well to hard pruning. I would take some (most) of them out. I think seeing the stone work will effect the color decision of the gable.

I love all the stone work. You can always do island beds.

How different the house looks with the iron windows.

I like the yellow, but agree it is hard to get it right.

Here is a light gray blue that works. I didn't change the dormer color for reference.

Thank you, houssaon. We have decided to hard prune the yews in late winter. I'll post some photos after we do that.

Still indecisive about the color for the siding so we may wait on making a decision on that.

That old photo with the BLACK framed windows says a lot. Too bad those windows were re-muddled.

Yes, I love how the house looks in that photo! I guess the previous owners wanted something more energy efficient but I wish they had kept the old ones!

Window manufactures do now make energy efficient replacement windows in period styles.

For the the yews that block the stone at the corner, I'd think about transplanting them elsewhere on your property and installing a different variety of yew in that spot, one with a more low, horizontal growth pattern. (There are MANY varieties of yews available if you find the right nursery!) The plants you have now seem to be the more upright type so you will have to continually fight with them in that location.

Once you have exposed the stone, your color decision should be easier. I love that old photo, with the blue-gray contrasting with the yellow brick. But now that I look more closely, do I see the same stonework under the front window on the driveway side? If so, I'd keep the upright yew closest to the driveway to anchor things and do the same transplant replace as I mentioned above for the corner.

Finally, I share your feeling about the mullions. Many people hated those old metal casement windows and couldn't wait to be rid of them, as they were leaky and prone to rusting, etc. (I recall my mother long ago refusing to buy a house with that kind of window!)

But I wonder if there might be a way to add mullions to the windows you have? When we replaced our windows, which were the typical double hung wood sashes with 6 over 6 mullions, I was shocked to see that for many new vinyl windows the mullions were simply a grid that was added on to the windows after manufacture, while for others the grid is embedded between the glass. It might be worth some exploration to see if the add-on could be an option for you to make your house look happier!

Karenmo, yes, there is stone under the windows on both sides. Since the window on the one side is larger, there is more stone on that side.

I like the idea of adding grids. Do you know if this can be done to the existing windows?