There is a lot of dark wood trim inside, and it is surrounded by craftsman bungalows, but other than that, it's probably more Colonial revival. The triangle is the same cedar shingles. At first we thought about painting it a slightly darker shade, but now we're leaning towards painting it all one color, except for the trim. The house currently has white trim, but I'm thinking of taking the trim a few shades lighter than the siding color. So there is still definition, but not a harsh contrast. At the same time, I love a crisp gray house with white trim, and I don't want the house to feel too dark.

You didn't say if the windows are already installed or not. Since painting PVC requires cleaning, sanding, taping and spray primer and finish coats, it makes a big difference where they are. Its usually better to replace existing windows. The best approach is to order new windows in white with the exterior of the sash in black. That may not be available for vinyl windows but it is for most clad wood windows like Marvin and Andersen. The savings from not painting should greatly offset the higher cost of clad wood windows and you won't need to paint them again. All black windows look like black holes. I predict the fad won't last much longer.

+1 to WoW's comments. Certainly a raw wood interior can and has been painted black, I'd also recommend a factory finish if its not too late to do so. If you are asking more from a design perspective, then pics would indeed help.

Barbara (and housegal200) thanks! I'm in North OC, right on the border of LA county/OC. most of the homes in my neighborhood look like yours and mine. 1980? we just cut down a huge tree next to the driveway and will redo ours. I love those pavers you did , but w/our roof and the stone accent on the front of our house, it might be too much. I'll just stick to concrete, tint it, and maybe do a brick ribbon around the edges. your roof looks almost identical to what we had. (see pics below) Wehad ours redone two years ago and went w/the charcoal cement spanish tiles, but you can see the original tiles on a rental we have in the same neighborhood. Here's a pic of it after I redid the yard in a xeriscape design. I did very similar cobbles in the walkway. This is the original cement tile roof that we used to have. (my stucco was very spanish looking in gold and copper!) This house I painted in DE Swiss Coffee (or maybe Behr! I always forget which one I used) and a regular black trim Here's the before! a beauty, eh? lol More of a recent pic after the succulents have grown. you can see the garage doors are almost like yours. And, you can see how Swiss Coffee doesn't look as bright white like the garage doors. I think it's time I head down there and clean up the yard, paint the door a new color, and think about painting those garage doors. If you have a similar color roof, you can get an idea of what the colors will look like. Better shot of the back area so you can see how the Swiss Coffee looks w/the black around the patio overhang. I like the contrast. Let me show you my own front door area. Once I changed my roof tiles, I had to lose the gold and copper coloring. This iwas the before. If you notice, we both have those trim accent pieces above the garage door. on the previous, I chose to paint them all the same color, but on this new pic, you can see how I did both colors. (like yours is now) so depending on the new colors you choose, you could do the two tone colors, or paint it all the same color As for the photoshop, I use my Mac Desktop Preview and just copy and paste on to my photos. Sherwin Williams has ColorSnap App that will let you try out colors onto your photos. maybe try that one?