Suggestion - post over at the Home Decorating site and, if possible, post a picture along with your post. In the meantime, try this site for experimentation. You can choose house colors, shingle colors, door, trim etc. in a mix and match way. http://exteriorfx.owenscorning.com/exteriorfx/Welcome.do

Thanks so much for all your comments -- and for not going "yech" when you saw my tone-on-tone shutters. I can always paint them again later, but sure don't feel like doing it now. Enailes, the pathway, which will widen to 10 by 10 at one spot to accommodate facing benches -- will be a stamped concrete in a coquina (light creamy tan color) banded in a taupey brick shade a bit darker than the shutters. The benches (Ellsworth on benches.com) have been painted to match the shutters. I like them. Amysrq, the plants you mention sound interesting and I will pass them along to our wonderful landscape architect. Thanks. Caroleah -- no offense taken on the roof suggestion. Yes, we're planning on cleaning it -- just trying to find something that will not damage the roof like pressure washing can. Next week the digging up of the old walkway and some plants will begin. That's why we have to figure out the door color. So I hear it for a dark berry or black -- any green/teal fans out there or anything else? Thanks so much to all!

The kitchen is 12' x 19'6" and is open to the family room which is about 14'x 18'8". We have 2 recessed lights over the fireplace in the family room, as well as 3 various lamps and 2 windows. There is a bay window in the kitchen and patio doors, as well as a window over the sink, so during the day we get plenty (sometimes too much) light. At night it's a different story. It can be pretty dim sometimes. We only have 200 watts above the table right now, and the big old ugly flourescent light box (4) 40 watt tubes, in the center of the room, and a flush mount fixture over the sink (2) 40 watt bulbs. So over the table we would be gaining 160 watts with the new fixture, 20 watts with where the light box currently is (although I don't know how a flush mount with 180 watts compares to flourescent tubes that are 160 watts) and also gaining 20 watts over the sink. I don't think we are going to do under cabinet lighting, because our budget is really dwindling. Would UC lighting be very helpful? If so, I may reconsider. We just don't want to keep adding extras we won't recoup when we move in a couple of years. BTW, if anyone has an opinion on the brushed steel vs dark bronze (which looks almost black IRL), I'd love to hear it. (SS appliances with some black on them, ss sink, brushed nickel faucet, probably satin nickel cab hardware, and 2 interior doors with antique pewter levers). I could always look at some other fixtures. I've seen some that I didn't like quite as well, but could get 500 watts over the table and 300 watts in the center of the room. Would this be a better option? Sorry, I'm all over the place on this. I hate pressure to decide quickly!

It is funny, but I did not change the garage door color. I used MS Paint and it did weird things to the roof too. Looking at it here, it seems like I made the top part brown.... I'd either do the garage door with the 2 light tones or keep it all white. I'd paint it last to see how it looks white first with the new house color. When I was working on the mock up, the lavender was either too strong or too light. I went with too light because the next step up was garish. Our lavender is sometimes very subtle, but when you see the nearby white, you realize it is not white too. It also looks different as the light changes throughout the day. I'll try to take an exterior pic of our house tomorrow. The landscaping needs a major trim, but the blooming trees out front are at their best. I work from my office Thurs-Sun and from home Mon-Wed (much fewer hours), so can do some work on them in the a.m. and take a neater photo ;) Although, it sounds like it is raining outside at the moment...