I can't tell what function the low brick walls are serving,(is that a patio area? a garden?) but I do know that I had a similar wall around a side patio of my house. That side of the house had drainage issues due to the slope of the land. One of the first things my landscaper did was take down part of the wall because it was basically acting as a corral for the pooling water. I wondered if your walls could also be corraling water close to your house, which is never a good thing. I would try not to paint the brick until you've at least experimented with pulling another color out of it. I agree with earlier posters about trying one of the tan/brown colors in the brick to paint the rest of the house, which will minimize the yellow you dislike so much. If that works, change your outdoor lights to something bronze-y and substantial. You could find some bronzed house numbers to place either vertically down the one structural pillar or horizontally in the triangular space above the garage. Here is a link that might be useful: house numbers

That is an attractive house. I like painted brick and there's a lot of it in my neighborhood. "Off-white" is a lot of range, though--some off-whites are grayish and others are creamish, for example. I like creamy better than cooler tones, but that's me. Some pretty painted brick houses in my neighborhood are: warm gray with white trim and charcoal shutters cream with sage/taupe-y trim and shutters sage green with black shutters and there's also an electric periwinkle blue with white trim and black shutters, but that's a controversial choice among my neighbors... I wanted a black garage door and the garage door guy said that around here (Kentucky) a black door won't stand up to the heat, as black absorbs more sunlight than other colors. So, you may want to find out if that's true where you are. Or even true at all--maybe he was wrong.

Foxes, I don't know if you are still following or have given up, but Id have mixed feelings about wallpaper. It would allow you to have a more easily removed look in case you don't' like it -- if you put it up to be removed, and the investment would be more in time than cost. But I keep going back to the stained glass. That's the wow in your staircase, and you have nice woodwork. You don't need all that detail on top of detail. Chances are that painting the walls of the stairwell will lead into more halls or rooms needing to be painted too. What about using your ombre idea but starting with a warm gold at the bottom and fading up to a pale honey? Get a sheet of luan (very thin plywood) and cut it into pieces the size of your risers. Painting them and then attaching them (velcro or silicone some to mind) would allow you to work at a table or a more comfortable place, not worry about them getting marred while drying and curing, work with the shading until you get it just the way you want it, not worry about getting paint on the stairs, remove them without stripping wood -- all the advantages of wallpaper, but on a smooth surface without the detail you don't need. It would be a way to test the idea you originally liked. I would just do it with color (what you probably liked in the first place) and be easy to work with or change. Get one pint of the darkest color and one pint of white and you'll have plenty of paint to mix yourself.

Thanks, I was once a big time DiY'er, but age is making it more difficult to be a aternoon craftsman... I have replaced two of the lower shases on subject living room windows. I have hired help on outside work that is too big, or too complicated for my knowledge, and have hired local repair people, all have done a satisfactory to excellent job. Like the old days of "consulting" the Sears Catalog (or Montgomerwards) to see what somethign costs I consider the big box to be a good start and have to admit they have made some sales. When it comes to architectural design, I don't trust myself at all. Maybe I need to get out more, I just couldn't recall ever seeing a residential window with white grid inside and out and with natural finished wood inside. Heck, I even went to great pains on my wooden "snap in" grids to assure the white paint on the outside facing side didn't bleed into the wood stained side. It would have been a lot easier to just paint white both sides... may do that on windows I keep. My dual goal is to also get UV protection on the windows facing South. I think this is an extra cost adder, but maybe not significant cost difference. I am considering replacing just the 6 large (tall) double hung windows in my living room. If I get the same light pattern they should match okay with the upstairs windows I currently have. Need too to find out the incremental cost, i.e., when they are here to install 6 windows are additional windows offered at a lower cost each... clearly they have to make another trip only if the work goes an additional day. Here I am thinking of replacing one master bedroom widow facing North as it doesn't close well, never really did best I can remember.. Thanks for the help I feel more like moving forward on a decision.