Just my initial thought, i think i would stick with the original architecture and rethink the landscaping ( that’s what bothers me the most ).

I would paint the house Wedgwood Blue and keep the white trim with it-- as in Wedgwood pottery. The molding will look lovely.

Replace the shrubs in front with a border of white flowers.

Not a pro, but I do live in the Bay Area. Off the top of my head I’d paint it deep olive/ grayish green with charcoal/ black where the white trim is. The quality of natural light in SF and the East Bay calls for somewhat grayed colors, IMO; too much “color” pastels/ too much white/ bright just doesn’t suit. Deeper colors look great against greenery and landscaping. Just my opinion. I love blue, but not as an exterior paint color because the sky is blue and it can clash with the sky:)

Bay Area native here, too.

Looks like near GGPark or the Presidio, lots of high fog. The first photo captures the S.F. light with the white sky and diffuse light.

@tracefloyd … even though I normally hate blue on the exterior of homes I think you nailed it with your suggestion. Brilliant.

Limewash the exterior

Quoin is what is on the corners of the house, Keep them, as it is part of the architectural design, What about changing the exterior to something this:

B.M. Gray Owl

Recommended trim is

Do the quoins in trim color.

I was thinking a pale-ish blue with white trim. Your house is pretty much a box, with some decidedly not-modern details to make it interesting. If you strip away all those details, you'll just have a boring box. Black and white will be too stark, look at your neighbor's all white house. I don't think many people would think adding some black would improve it. To make the house super modern, you'd need to strip all the current details, but then add some carefully thought-out details. A section of natural wood. I can't begin to suggest how you'd do that and would not recommend doing anything without talking to an architect.

I'm not a fan of the current olive-beige paint and stark white trim. Most paint schemes would be better. If you want something more subtle, you could have a medium cream for the body and a lighter cream for the quoins and trim --- it would give you more definition, without having the details stand out the way the quoins do now.

It's a lovely house, I don't know why you wouldn't embrace the style.

First that landscaping needs a total rip out, The house is avery particular style why buy it if you didin't like the style? To make this modern is a big $$$$$$$ job what is the budget ? I think all one color can simplify the exterior somewhat remove the stuff above the arch and maybe a really soft green for the whole house . I do not love blue houses at all and by the beach is IMO too much beachy . Some large vertical stainless house numbers on that corner and then landscaping to be a lot more modern and I like quite structuarl landcspaing o for a modern house .The scalloped trim along the roof line is awful but removing it might be a whole new can of worms so all one color . I actually don't mind the color on the body now it it was done on the quoins it would have a better feel for the direction you want to go. This is what I mean by more structural landscaping

I learned the word “quoin” by reading this post! I erroneously referred to them as “trim” above. I do like the limewash Beverly shows.

These houses are all in San Francisco.

These are in SF and stucco. I love the white stucco and pale green trim….

@K Laurence: Thanks for mentioning about landscaping.

Here is an updated more "recent" photo. As you can see, we did some landscaping already. Just need to remove the weeds. :)

@chinacatpeekin I think you brought up a good point. I also like the Wedgwood Blue color that @tracefloyd suggested, but yes you might be right that it may clash with the blue sky....

@tracefloyd The house is located near Stonestown area, about 1.3 miles away from ocean and near Daly City. So yes there are fog, but not as bad as Daly City.

Light version of Wedgwood. Not a paint color...

Rough sketch to visualize.

Darker version

House

Quoins

Front door

Sustainable garden

Your home has lovely details, and personally, I think the wall color is fine. I would warm up and darken the cool white trim and especially reduce the contrast on the quoins (maybe even more than I did here; use two variants of the wall color, darker for quoins, lighter for other trim). Then widen the walk to match the stair width (and upgrade its material?), reduce the size of the existing shrubs if possible (replace if not), add a couple more for a bit of contrast (in form or texture or color), and plant some crisply-edged ground cover. (Sorry, but I would remove the red and white gravel.) Think classy instead of flashy, timeless instead of trendy, elegant rather than edgy.

With the red rock, avoid a blue and white house, you don't want a red and blue color scheme. Especially not red, white and blue.

Here is a nice Gray and White color scheme with your red and white rock

Thanks for the like. People back East don't like rock or gravel but that part of the Country gets consistent Summer rains.

San Francisco has had some devastating fires. Remove the foundation shrubs. Use a five-foot non-flammable zone around the house. You can plant a small specimen tree such as a flowering cherry farther from the house.

https://www.fire.ca.gov/dspace