Oh my gosh, I just talked to this guy today. You should call him. He totally gets color!!! His name is Michael Kornell, VP Sales & Marketing of Eco-Wares, 866-874-8070 Â Toll Free, 703-425-0439 Â Direct Line. Eco-Wares offers Trojan Masonry Sealer that leaves no trace, but they also have a TINTED one called Color Sealer. He's sending me the color chart of 36 colors. Yes, 36 colors! According to Michael, TCS dramatically changes the color of your brick without making it shiny, it's matte, it is permanent, and waterbased. It's a green product ta boot. Coolest stuff I've come across in a long time. Really excited about it. If you call him, get info, or use it, definitely post back. I don't have the color chart, so I can't make a guess at what might work to bring some harmony to your exterior, but honestly it doesn't sound like it would be that difficult to pull together a good exterior color combo. Here is a link that might be useful: CHANGE THE COLOR OF YOUR BRICK!

@Zone4 yeah, I think I'm starting to realize that the brick probably helps break up the facade and keep it interesting. I'm starting to be really intrigued with the limewashing idea. If it turns out we could paint the windows, would you do black or white? I like the idea of a black/charcoal, but have also heard that is the worst color on vinyl windows. @aprilneverends it has been hard to really get the colors across from the listing pics. Basically it is 50 shades of unappealing (to me at least) tan inside and out. So I want a dramatic change, but I know people are really torn about changing brick, so I'll probably have my husband mockup a version with the brick and a dark greige paint to see how that looks alongside a limewashed version. Front door, yes, that thing has a big stain glass Texas star that doesn't help anything. I was thinking one of the modern doors with 3-5 satin horizontal lites to keep some light coming in from the door, then finding a complimentary garage door. For the French doors, I definitely won't change my mind on the divided lites - however they are just an overlay on top of a solid piece of glass, so one of the contractors said you could just pop them off. One set of doors needs a new handle, the other needs about $300 in repair work and weatherproofing, so that is why I'm debating whether or not to rehab these versus put in new ones. And if we replace, I don't know if sliding glass doors that let in tons of light or new French doors with the thinnest frame possible would look best. I know landscaping will have a huge impact too, and could really turn this into a more modern looking house. The bones are certainly good, and it is plain enough that we can subtly take it in a couple directions, just trying to narrow down what will look best while also being somewhat our style.

I think you should lean towards a light color, actually a whitish in my opinion. I've attached a site that shows different paint colors on brick homes, it might help you decide. Your roof is dark and using a cream light color will bring more balance to the house as it will be more prominent. Brick houses painted

I wouldn't paint that brick. Lime wash is (mostly) for unfortunately colored brick. Yours already has a similar lime wash look and it has a really good colorway. Get a designer to suggest some new ideas for the trim/shutter/door color. Try taking off the shutters to see if that helps give an updated look/feel.