Well, with the caveat that I've been studying Victorians, I think its nice to have contrast between the flat surfaces (front door, shutters and garage door) and the trim (door frame, garage door frame, and gable board above the e garage). Also, despite the current trend toward white windows, doing dark sashes is more traditional - the idea is that dark sashes make the windows look larger - plus, white doesn't seem to go with your brick. So I'd recommend bronze for sashes and gutters and any painted metal on the property (exterior lights, fencing - a wrought iron fence might look really nice with the brick, or you could paint the picket fence.) Then, you want 3-4 colors for the house itself - the body color, the main trim color (darker shade of the body color, in keeping with "coordinated and tasteful") for the door frames, window frames, garage door and gable edge, and the front door/shutters/garage door in one or two colors - shutters and garage door together with front door different, garage door alone with shutters and front door together, or all 3 together. It is very common to do the front door in an acccent color, and I do think a dark red that picks up the darkest red in the bricks would look great. The shutters the same red would be more lively, the shutters a dark brown would be more traditional/subdued. Doing the garage door, shutters and front door all the same would also work, but I think you want to downplay the garage door and play up the entrance, so I'd probably keep those two different. Note that using a lot of different colors will increase your painting cost - the simplest would be medium body color (taupe) with dark trim/garage door/shutters (dark chocolate), and red on the door to give the house some color. That would still look nice - there's no real need to have the trim vs garage door/shutters distinction. There's a good book you might be able to find at the library called "The Perfectly Painted House: a Foolproof Guide for Choosing Exterior Paint Colors" by Bonnie Rosser Krims. I found it very helpful. Let us know how it turns out! -- Amanda

Thanks for your response! I find this color of brick very hard to work with. I can see the black, or perhaps, medium charcoal, working. The front now looks like it does in the top picture. That is wrought iron fencing around the plantings. Do you think it would, visually, work, if just the window trim was painted, which would leave the white window. Or just leave the windows unpainted? The sliders would remain white. Can you visualize everything across painted black, and then all the brick...would that be too dark? Perhaps I could add color in the door area ( painting entrance door and switching to a full view storm door??

Lovely house!!!! Paint the shutters black/green and the rest of the trim white. Red front door or other bright color. Classic!

Thank you @houssaon. We do love this house and have worked on restoring/renovating the interior and now we're moving to the exterior. The landscaping and new front entry steps are the next big project to begin this summer and we're very excited to have it feel more cohesive and appropriate for the house and lot. We have thought about adding a sidelight, but the front door is actually original to the house and has such amazing detailing. It's in great shape and we're hoping to keep it if we can. We'll paint it and see if we want a door with a sidelight - I love the one you posted. Thank you!