Its a very nice looking house. Basically just needs a bit of tlc. What I see first, when I look at the house, is a badly stained roof. It should be cleaned. The brick on the house, looks like it has never been cleaned. It should be cleaned. The garage door, is a color that is totally unrelated to the house. Paint it the color of the trim. I know, you said lighten up, and this isnt going to lighten it, but, once its all cleaned it will definitely feel a bit lighter, and a whole lot fresher. The landscaping is all stuck right along the front of the house. Make the beds larger, and curved out towards the sidewalk, and put both greenery and flowering plants in it. Set some colorful pots of plants, at the entrance to the sidewalk leading to your front door. You have a small ornamental type flag by that sidewalk, leave the frame, but, find a different flag, that isnt so dull and boring, to add a bit of color. There are many videos etc of both brick cleaning and roof cleaning, if you put them into google.

some colors changes and landscaping redo would really do a lot.

lets tackle some of the colors. Any of these are great w/your brick,,,,the copper color on the gutters, and the darker bronze/copper exterior lights.

If you painted the underside a creamy white, and repainted the downspouts an actual copper

(yam color front door. BM CopperMountain)

or light bronze color, plus changed out the door/color, you would get something like this^:

I actually just did this combo for another poster and her brick, but these colors and accents would prob work for you too. that sage green on the front door would be pretty.

I'd do a darker garage door but would want the door to look like this. I think this shape w/the windows is more flattering. (the white one below w/the carriage hardware and windows is ok too), But you'd have to paint it another color. the white doesn't look good against your brick.

Any of the color in this pic ^ would work on the garage, or some of the others I've listed in other pics would also work.

I like these for your siding / trim/ door colors too.

I gave you a blue/gray front door, new lights, address and a bronze metal garage door. I like the colors.

in the back (and front) remove the grass next to the foundation and give yourself some flower beds.

for a bit of interest, how about curving your walkway, or adding to it, and doing something like this?

see these golden grasses and yellow/orange flowers? this is what you need to accent your brick in the flower bed.

around the downspout, try the flower bed like this. some other colors

any of these should work too

doesn't have to be overly grand, you could even trim it out w/cement or pavers and do some type of pebbles or rocks. Just anything to seperate the grass and the bottom of the house.

You can easily DIY this by cutting the grass back, and laying some dividing pavers.

Aside from the roof needing to be cleaned, I like your home as-is, except I would select a trim color that is not that chocolate brown. I would replace that with something that matches the roof color.

What your home requires is massive landscaping to add brightness and texture.

Wow! Thank you so much for the feedback. Sounds like adding some landscape and doing some cleaning would probably make a huge difference. As for the house color combos I really like what you showed me Beth H. I really love the shoji white, urbane bronze, and a green/gray color combo. Which of those would I paint the gutters and downspouts though?

When we do replace the roof (it’s very old so cleaning it isn’t going to fix everything there) I wonder what color, something similar to what we have already?

Here is another option.

paint the down spouts in a bronze/copper tone.