I am not a lover of Mcmansions but this one I kind of like so IMO remove the shutters everywhere and maybe a new front door . Then much nicer landscaping with some color. I usually like this color with brick for trim but I think in your case the cream works well.

I was looking at your photo and then read Patricia's comments. Exactly what I was thinking.

Remove Shutters, keep the cream and brick. Pop of color (Stately, not bright) for the front door.

You did a really good job when you selected colors the first time, and beautiful never goes out of style.

I would not consider painting or staining or lime washing your home. Too many are painting brick white and it will be the Cherry Cabinets all over again, but replacing cabinets is so much easier than replacing brick.

Your house is pink, not the orange tone shown with the green trim. Be sure to use a big test swatch before you make any big changes, and look at it in different lights.

OP didnt ask specifically about architectural tweaks, but.... hey this is just offered in the spirit of FWIW. I would remove the dormers or at least revise so they arent sticking up above the roofline . They really detract/ draw the eye from the lovely porches and entry way below. Maybe even straighten out the arch on the right or put some other design element in the space. One criticism of the quasi-postmodern architecture of 25 yrs ago was that they often threw in every sort of architectural gimmick in a way that doesnt always make sense visually. Random windows, angles, arches, pillars, many multiple rooflines, a zillion different finishes colors all thrown together - a alittle siding here, brick there. Sometimes this riotous approach can work well and the architect manages to create a pleasing cohesive whole out of all the various elements. Other times - not so much!

Your is a more restrained version and avoids the excesses o the era... therefore a better, more timeless design IMHO. And as such, very little "updating" is needed. And, your brick is more of a muted terra cotta, with nicely variegated texture - so again, if its not dated why even let the word "update" enter your vocabulary. Dark trim with brick is more on trend than cream if that's a consideration. Just get your new roof and trim colors in sync with the brick. Boom - done. Oh, and a new roof would be a good time to think about revising dormers (hint, hint).

I have to agree with Jinx. Its a gorgeous stately home, and it is perfect just the way it is. The landscaping could use a bit of help. Too many round ball like shrubs. I would redo the roof in Charcoal colored roofing.

Sorry to get so geeky about design but I think why this house works so well is that it is true to classic, eternal design principles - the parts of the house are in perfect balance (informal ). Google "golden mean" aka "golden ratio". It has to do with proportions and balance and is not about trend or style, has to do with how we humans are hardwired to experience spatial relationships.

Lovely home. I agree with cat_ky regarding a gray/charcoal roof. This shade of gray would be nice...

Looks very classic to me, not a ”Mc Mansion” at all, at least by my definition. To me, a ”Mc Mansion” is an overly large, ostentatious home built on much too small of a site ( often replacing smaller beach cottages on tiny lots in my So Cal beach city). Yours isn’t.

Far from being a McMansion (a term which I find rude, at best), your home is lovely. The second story balcony is delightful.

If you use a creamy off-white for the trim, I would suggest something like this color for the roof shingles...I love it with the pink brick.

Then, paint the shutter :

B.M Smokey Ash.

OM gosh hard to improve upon perfection. It is truly beautiful just as it is!

This. but with a gray roof (not a blue/gray or brown/gray, a silver gray, or medium charcoal gray)

if you like the limewash look:

or more of the opaque wash

YoungHouseLove. Before and After. Some like the before. I don't. I love the after. looks very French.

heres the colors she used on this one. she had the Romabio Masonry Flat tinted to this white color

Here's another before and after from a poster here on Houzz. quite a diff, eh?

silver gray roof. white/black and copper

Here's a darker charcoal roof paired w/limewash brick, black down-spouts, bronze windows.

If you want to keep the pink brick, here are two photos w/diff roor color suggestions that could work

DaVinci Slate Gray

or the shake Mountain color.

Paint colors

Yours in one color of brick that I wouldn’t bother with painting although Beth H.’s ideas/pics are gorgeous. I would do the roof in the grey Beth showed and work on landscaping. Your house looks authentic to me and not a McMansion at all

I think the house looks excellent as is and a gray roof will go perfectly with your gray shutters. I would probably leave the shutters as is. Where I see the biggest room for improvement is in the Landscaping. The tightly trimmed round shrubs (Some people call them "meatballs") are a very dated look. If I were you, I would change some of them to more naturalistic looking flowering shrubs. I would add a swath of pink flowering annuals in that mulch around your bed in the foreground.

If money were no object, I would remove the dormers and the arch above the right wing before re-roofing. Then tackle the landscaping. There is definitely a New Orleans Garden District feeling about your home, but the mushroom shrubbery makes for an uptight feeling that's just wrong.

New Orleans Garden District Home · More Info

New Orleans Garden District Home · More Info

good idea, deco.

those mushroom shrubs are rather dated looking.

Similar style home, lime washed brick, and removal of those dated shrubs replaced w/a nice flower bed. This is very pretty. love the down spouts too.

Something like this would be better suited, especially if you did the limewash and thought about doing new windows.

I love this one. the flower beds are so pretty w/the limewashed brick . if you pulled all the dome shrubs and just left that red tree, it would really update the curb appeal

This type of landscaping around the front windows alos looks better. I like the slate tile on the porch and the iron style door w/the charcoal trim.

some other Romabio Masonry Flat on the brick. notice the domers and the sage green/copper accents. very pretty w/the landscaping.

If you don't want the solid coverage, then just do the limewash. (what's good about this is you can try it out. if you don't like the look, hose it off. you have 72 hours to decide.)

Take a look here at virtual before and afters

https://www.brickandbatten.com/limewash-brick-exterior/

Similar landscape to what you have, minus the mushrooms

I would just do a darker roof and removed the shutters and the gingerbread on the curved gable. The house is French Eclectic and amputating the curved gable and dormers will just dilute that.

Here it is with the amputation. Not sure you will get a lot of bang for that buck, I think the radius bits are part of the style.

Romabio visual

As others have mentioned your beautiful, classy home does not need updating, and surely should NOT be painted, tinted, schmeared, or messed up! Any of those techniques would cheapen the luxuriousness of your home.

What grapefruit1 said. Just get your new gray roof and enjoy the beautiful home that you have.

Yours is one of the better looking and nicely designed exteriors that I've seen on Houzz. I like the composition, scale and proportion. If you want to keep shutters on your home I would suggest replacing what you have with appropriately sized operable shutters. It's a bit hard to see in the photo but if your door and sidelights have 80's decorative glass I might consider replacing to update the look. You might even consider replacing the door and sidelights with double entry doors. I would suggest looking at your landscaping - especially thinning out some of the shrubs in front of the porch. Just to say again - you have a lovely home!

Thanks for the "amputation" mock-up - ouch! OK, maybe the prominent arch on the right can stay but can the dormers be shorter so as to not loom so high over the roofline. Or maybe they are out of ones line of sight when standing near the house, not visible much in real life. I know this is all hypothetical but it's always enjoyable to fantasize what I would do with someone else's house.

Rajabose, my neighbor has pink brick. It used to have medium taupe shutters and roof with a dark chocolate door and light taupe trim. It was gorgeous! It made me think of a frosted raspberry bon bon. It was very feminine and lovely, especially in spring with the dogwood blooming in the front yard.

​Rajabose, my neighbor has pink brick. It used to have medium taupe shutters and roof with a dark chocolate door and light taupe trim. It was gorgeous! It made me think of a frosted raspberry bon bon. It was very feminine and lovely, especially in spring with the dogwood blooming in the front yard.

If the dormers are fake, remove them when redoing the roof.

They are not. They provide natural light to the walk up attic,

What color is your trim in the picture?