What you need is a plan. You need a budget, you need to do some research, and you need to list out, in order, the various changes that you want to make. List out all the issues that are bothering you. Start with the peeling paint, move on to the color of the bricks, the cracked driveway, the lack of landscaping . List everything. Without a budget, you have no idea how much you can spend. You may not be able to do everything all at once, so you may need to budget money for two or three years to get everything done. Repairs first, like the peeling paint. Then necessary changes, like converting the door to a window, if you want to. Then the fun stuff, like changing the landscaping. The research can also be a fun thing. Scout out home DIY blogs and see what other people have done in terms of paint colors for brick houses. How other people have changed their front porches. How they landscape their yards. Get a Pinterest account and keep a collection of all the pictures that you like. You'll also get an idea of the cost of some of these changes. Pick up the phone and call people to come and give you estimates on converting the door to a window, painting all the trim, or fixing the driveway. Or even if the driveway needs to be fixed right away, or can be patched temporarily or can be left alone for a few years. Repaving a driveway can be expensive, so do find out what your options are. Then, once you know what you need to do and want to do and have an idea of how much it will all cost, put each item on the list in order. Start with the repairs--those need to be done first to protect your house. So, peeling paint, broken windows, whatever is wrong with the porch, the driveway. Then move on to the "fun" stuff--the color of the brick, whether or not to remove the door, colorful plantings in the front yard. It might take two or three years to get the entire house and yard to where you want them to be. But with a plan laid out, you can keep track of what you are doing. It's possible that changing the color of your trim to something that works better with the color of your brick would make it feel less ugly and orange. I'd post some close-up pictures of the brick and the house on the Home Decorating Forum and ask for suggestions. You'll get suggestions on changing the entire outside of the house, because the posters over there have lots of ideas, but you'll also get some suggestions on colors that would work well with the brick. I think part of the problem is that the white paint is so stark and white that it contrasts too much with the brick. Imagine the house with all glossy black trim and shutters and porch posts? Changes the entire look of the house, doesn't it? About the door--how much do you use it? If it is the primary door that you enter on a daily basis, I'd be tempted to keep it. If it only rarely gets used, then consider converting it to a window. If you are going to convert it, it might be a good idea to do the work before painting the trim, so that everything can be painted at the same time and it will all match. This is why doing some research before jumping in can be valuable.

I like the idea of the porch, but not that particular design. Part of the problem is the driveway goes right up to the house....makes it look too sterile and commercial. More green space with bigger shrubs in front of the house would help a lot. Maybe some hydrangeas? Window boxes would help a lot. The color is at once too dark and too light. If the logs were bigger and darker the log cabin look could work, if it were much lighter colored it would be cheerier. Also, the house and garage almost but don't quite match. Maybe paint it a redwood color, with a less neutral colored garage door? I recognize the instinct is to hide the garage door, but the garage door is too big to hide, and the attempt makes it look like a commercial building. A garage door with some trim or windows would make it look less commercial...perhaps red or green.

I'd get a quote from a painter or two and ask their advice on colors. It may be that newer paints hold up just fine in your climate. You want a painter to give you a quote, not a salesman from a chain of painters. I think sage or moss green is pretty. With, perhaps, tan trim. Warm colors. Then think about your steps, which, right now are a grayish color that doesn't go with the grayish beige of your stucco. I don't like color blocking except in modern houses with exceptionally good color schemes (ie hired an expensive color designer rather than asked strangers on Houzz). If your stucco is not too uncommon in your area, notice all the successful stucco colors. I took pictures of houses in my neighborhood to get a sense of what shade of blue worked with what trim. I'd hide the hosereel (is that what it is) with a shrub. The landscaping looks like it could use a boost, but the picture quality is poor and few gardens look good in March, so I put that out there, but you might decide the landscaping is good enough.

Anna I love your front entry! Of course you already know I like the color scheme :) what colors did you use? We haven’t 100% committed because we haven’t purchased more than the sample sizes. If I could I’d just get rid of the brick, but that’s more than I have to spend! im also open to other paint ideas, we just want to freshen things up and improve curb appeal this summer. Our neighbors house is a rusty orange and red brown trim, the others is a blue tinged white with bright red trim. The rest of the homes in the neighborhood are beige like mine or green, grey, or blue. Lots of stone on those as well. Full sun today.