What a beautiful house! You're right, those lovely shingles and trim are NOT showing up as they should. Consider using a couple of paint colors. One shade for the horizontal boards, another color for the hand cut shingles, another color for the trim and yet one more for the shutters. Look on various paint websites, like Benjaminmoore.com and you'll find palettes for different styles of homes to get you started. Don't be afraid of greens, mustards and taupes (they look fab with brown and white). Oh! Silly me, use the search feature on Houzz to look at exterior paint colors, both in "photos" and "Ideabooks." Once you've decided on a direction--some basic shades that you want to include--write us again and I'm sure we'll have lots of opinions to help you narrow it down! It's going to be beautiful.

Thank you! I needed some direction to get me started and already that's a huge help!

I agree with the post above about the colors and suggest that you look at the Sherwin Williams Historic colors collection (www.sherwin-williams.com). While you're at it you may want to get rid of the shutters and the shrubs as these tend to hide all of that beautiful detail and texture. Good luck!

What a lovely house. I agree with ditching the shutters and choosing several colors for the different style shingles. Benjamin Moore has a good historic colors collection, too. Paint the windows a different color than the trim.

I LOVE your house; I could see it in a medium gray or yellow, perhaps with off white trim. I love the idea above about a door with a contrasting color. Maybe lose the colonial eagle - it's kind of 1976 bicentennial style; you could have some fun painting it and putting it elsewhere, and perhaps switch up your lantern sconce to something carriage style or one of those onion shaped ones (I'll troll around and try to find some links).

What state are you in? I know when I worked for an historic town in Massachusetts that the Historical Society had all sorts of help for figuring out historic colors, door styles, and other accessories for different homes. Often they were a little too FORCEFUL with them; it was hard to hang a flag without a hearing, but they are really good guides! Also along those lines, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is a great resource; I suggest starting here:

http://www.preservationnation.org/resources/faq/

Can't wait to see what you do!

Becky

Thanks everyone, these are all great ideas! I'm hoping to play around with some of the suggestions this weekend. I'll keep you posted!

I agree with the paint tips and think the landscaping would be good. I wouldn't be so quick to ditch the shutters. I like them but the stark white against the dark brown doesn't do them justice.

Hmmmmmm....it's not really a Colonial house! It's a village victorian with a newer/renovated colonial-ish entry (see octagonal side window) and back addition (see garden window).
-First of all the shutters are the wrong size so you might as well ditch them. -Do you have the budget to switch out that octagonal window? Getting the house to be all one style and updating that window (there may be one on the other side?) is a good start.
-I agree with landscaping suggestions (if front is facing sun, variegated yellow/green and white/green euonymous or hydrangeas would look nice). Also, widen the path by lining it with a row or two of brick or cobble stone (make it as wide as the bottom step).
-For the painting, look at Benjamin Moore's "Mystic Beige" and see if you like it. It is a true beige.
-Clean up all distractions like switching out the black window screens on the front and side, the light fixture (an arts and craft style would work well), and check with Post Office to see if you could put in a mail slot. Add a matching kick plate to the front door. Match sure they all match.
You have a beautiful house and a little love will go a long way! Good luck!

I don't object to the shutters so much as the fact that they don't look "expensive" enough for the quality of the house. Think about changing them to a different design, if you want to keep them. That patch of lawn in the front could be turned into a multi-layered garden with a fountain, or tiers of plantings, to give it a sculptured look. Consider rodiron fencing enclosing it.

Is anyone going to mention the eagle? I'd love to see it in black. We dont see them in Canada but I loved seeing them when I visited Cape Cod.

I mentioned the eagle :)

I like this Victorian/Colonial mashup - but I agree that the shutters appear cheap and inauthentic - I'd replace them with functional wooden shutters...
...as far as the house color, a single lighter color would go a long way to showing off the detail of the shingles since the shapes would be revealed due to the contrast of light paint & dark shadow.

Personally, I'd go with a blue-ish grey such as BM's Cape Blue, stick with the white trim and paint the front door Vermillion.

Great ideas, my idea would be to go with a sage green for the body of the house, using a darker green (from same card) for the differing shingles at the peak of the house and above the door. I would replace the existing shudders with colonial style (flat panel that is framed). You could keep the white trim, but add in some other colors, consider a deep teal, charcoal gray, a dash of pink, like a small pin strip around windows or just the decorative piece at the very peak of the roof line.
For the garden, I would do a cottage style garden, removing the larger bush on the corner and adding a small flowering tree perhaps. I agree with widening the walk way and maybe install a poll lamp the the left and just off the corner by a few feet of the porch corner. Continue the gardens around the side by the road. As for the eagle, he would be beautiful if a copper color and returned to his place.
Have fun with this, add some spark. The historical colors mentioned are awesome and using multiple colors is amazing.

Hi Danielle: you have gotten some very good advice here. Your house is Victorian with some added colonial features, most noticeably the front entrance. Victorian houses did not have shutters, so I would remove them. Another feature of Victorian paint schemes - which I don't think has been mentioned - is to paint the window trim and sashes in 2 different colors (although they can be the same, too - just personal preference). To keep the paint colors from getting too complicated - and yet show off the detail - I would use shades of one color with a single accent color, or at most two, if the second is in a very small dose (see Paint #5) . I think you have the following opportunities for different paint colors and the areas which should be painted alike: Paint #1. main body of the house - clapboard siding - this should be the medium shade. Paint #2: decorative shingles: this can be lighter or darker shade of paint #1, but on your house I would go lighter. I think that I would repeat this color on the entry, for a cohesive look Paint #3. bargeboards (trim under the roof lines) + the flat trim under windows which should repeat on the window trim itself (so that flows); water table trim (large trim at bottom of clapboards) and foundation. Although this could be an accent color, for simplicity's sake on your house, I would use a darker version of paints 1 & 2. Paint #4. Window sashes (can be darker than paint #3 or lighter than paint #2 - if you have modern white screens/storms on the house, you might want to make white part of the color scheme to keep maintenance easy) Paint #5: the front door and gingerbread gable fretwork at the top of the house (or these could be paint #3 for a simpler look, or maybe just paint the door in an accent color).

If you want a very classic approach, which I think would blend the Victorian and Colonial aspects, I think I might go with a gray green color scheme (paints 1, 2 &3), white window sashes and a black door (or if yo

...as I was saying, if you like more color, how about a coral front door? As for landscaping, a couple of large black urns at the bottom of the stairs would be beautiful. I would remove the corner yew (it is overgrown and has been trimmed within an inch of it's life lol). Are there two rhododendrons in front or just one? If there are two, perhaps you could transplant one to the corner where the yew was. They seem to be happy there :-) I would remove all grass from this front area and outline it (right out to the sidewalk) with small boxwood. I would pretty much fill it with groundcover (myrtle is shady, pachysandra if sunny), leaving room for some annuals in the center, perhaps around a birdbath. I would add a pretty window box under your front window, which would match the urns in finish. If you want a bit more detail, you could add a small walk (gravel, pavers, brick)through the center to the birdbath, perhaps with a small wrought-iron gate at the sidewalk. It's a lovely house and I can't wait to see what you do with it!

Danielle, I forgot to add that a very easy way to try out colors is to draw an outline of your house using tracing paper over your photos. Copy these and then fill in, just like a coloring book. Although there are website where you can upload your photo and try out paint colors, sometimes the simple ways work just as well!

The house had lots of potential. First I would suggest inlisting the help of a restoration professional. If that's not in the bufget, the get new shutters, ones that are NOT louvered, but rather solid with raised panels. Kill the eagel above the door as well as the wreath and all the shrubby in front. Tidy up that front yard with new, well maintained shrubs that don't take over the yard. You can paint the house a pastel color, maybe a blue or yellow, or go bold with a red house, black shutters and front door and white trim. Light fixtures by the front door should be black as well and a little larger. Use a door knocker in either a shiny brass or black for the front door.

its a charming house! I fully agree with all the great Idea's mentioned above! first thoughts as a designer who has worked on a few houses like
yours in Salem, & Marblehead Ma, with all that wonderful detail dual or triple accent's
color's, if you should repurpose the shutters as headboards or distressed
accents, but window boxes full of seasonal flowers, especially on the side of the house, would give such
added charms, large urns at entry, with variety growths, so many idea flood the vast option's, but in harmony of mutual suggestion for all the fellow Houzz friends
its a really chaming chocalate sweet Home , good luck ! Jared V

Copper Shingle are costly but can transpire any home into a mansion.

Thank you all so much for the advice & suggestions. It took a year to save for but the painters are coming to start the prep-work in 2 weeks!
My husband and I have narrowed down to 3 color combinations – A, K & F (we started with almost the full alphabet) – so, what do you all think?

I think the bottom scheme is too light and non-contrast. I think I would like the one on the right (with the darker shutters and door) or the first one, but with the darker door!

Funny, I usually gravitate towards the clay family, but for your setting, I love the greens with the dark slate blue/grey accents.

I like the top right, but I'd paint the door a contracting color to make it really stand out.

Oops, That's contrasting color.

I also like the upper right with the dark/black shutters, but if it where mine, I would paint the door and entry triangle (above the door) in.....Eggplant. That would bring just a bit of color into a netural color scheme. Perhaps even changing the gray around the windows to eggplant, would be beautiful with the black shutters. Can't wait to see how it takes on a new life with the new colors.

I like both top colors. The one on the right a little more.