No shutters - wrong for the clean lines of your lovely ranch home, imo I think it is a great idea to take the bushes out of the planters. That will open up the full height of the windows, which will make the body of the house feel taller and work better with the strong roof line. A trellis mounted between the two windows on the left, filled with something climbing and pretty, would be a nice way to break up the long expanse of brick there. The door color does seem a brighter red, and perhaps something rusty would be better. Hard to tell what the real effect is from a distance, tho, in the pix you have posted. I would look for a more modern light fixture for the front door. The carriage light says colonial to me. How about something like this? kichler transitional bronze wall light I think the light has a cleaner line, but not too modern, and echoes the multiple panes in your windows, not fighting with the circles in the front door glass.

I love matte black. I chose it for all kitchen cabinets and drawers handles. We had to replace every door handle in the house. We went to the habitat restore store and bought sets of lever handles matching for all doors and closets, everything. They were $2 a set in brass, my husband carefully prepped and spray painted all of them all matte black along with all the door hinges. They look fantastic. Since we were on a limited budget working with the money fema gave us it was a great money saver. We got many great deals at habitat. I have since changed out other knobs and handles on furniture and other parts with matte black. I have brushed nickel for my faucets through out.

As with all good design, matching everything exactly isn’t the right call. You want your space to be curated and custom, and if you choose the same hardware throughout the house (especially in different rooms), your home will feel builder-grade and boring. Your hardware should be sisters, not twins—meaning sharing some similar elements but not the exact same. For example, if you have a more modern aesthetic, pick 2-3 hardware colors and choose all modern hardware. That way, the space will feel cohesive and custom without feeling boring. We have some ideas about hardware, fromour favorites to everything you need to know about hardware to what paint colors go best with what hardware. Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress!

Our doors arrived with black hinges. Generally you're able to specify the finish for hinges. Was this not an option? As Alison said, pictures would help a lot, of both your kitchen and also the light fixtures and pulls you're considering. Especially since I'm not quite clear on what this -- "My style is traditional with a tidbit of county" -- look like. I had planned on oil rubbed lighting, cabinet pulls, and plumbing fixtures. Some of the better ORB finishes are darker and look almost matte black to the eye. My cabinets are cream colored and the appliances are going to be stainless steal. When I realized our sink would be stainless steal too, I thought the ORB faucet would look funny with all the SS, but then again won't the SS faucet look funny with the ORB pulls? I would choose a stainless steel faucet. No, it wouldn't look funny with ORB pulls because stainless steel or chrome tends to be the default for faucets. People expect the kitchen faucet to be something like stainless steel or chrome. ORB tends to read as trendy, and in your kitchen with all the other ORB elements, it could also look a bit too matchy-matchy.