how about a darker "slate" grey with black accents?...(think Boston Commons)

I was thinking a slate grey color too. I think the bricks are gorgeous but the windows could stand out more which would make the bricks less of a focus. do you have a photo of the front door area?

Do these help? I also included some of the siding on the house.

I was thinking a dark blue as one of the colors. Would that look bad with slate or should I go with the black?

You could go a lighter slate color on the wood at the side and maybe the top and bottom of your windows. You could then get a darker slate for the door and trim and also the guttering. If you can paint the windows then the dark or light slate color would be good. If you go light on the windows then the surrounds should be the dark and vice versa. Your front door needs to be in the darker color and gloss to make it really stand out. Its a beautiful front door and needs to be made more elegant. I would also repaint the porch etc and letterbox. (light or dark would be fine) You could do the lighter slate maybe so the door can stand out. Another color that can be nice with a slate is a wheat color. Not sure about the blue with the slate. Our slate color here in Australia has a slight green tone so i think the blue would not work. If its more a blue tone then you could add a dark blue. Hope this doesnt confuse you...

I own a 130 year old brownstone and all I can say is paint on brick is NOT A GOOD IDEA. Granted the technology has come a long way but the prep for the brick and painting is bank busting. Also you must be mindful of which part of the country you live in because putting paint on brick in a place that bakes in the summer and freezes in the winter means the condensation has no where to go and you will eventually see bubbling and peeling. Hate to be a debbie downer but I had to spend thousands to remove the old paint just to get the brick back and had to repoint everything. Granted my brick was a lovely red. That being said, I see a creamy white paint but leave the window lintels alone that stone grey is lovely... but think heavily on what you do regarding paint.

Christine - I am not planning on painting the brick. I would just like to paint the siding/trim to help make the orange brick appear more attractive. :)

Noyceee - You have some great suggestions! We plan on refinishing the door with a darker stain and putting on some new hardware. We also plan on replacing the mailbox. I had not thought of painting the windows a different color, but that is a good idea!

I plan on going to Lowe's again this week to grab some more color swatches and start playing...

I agree with the creamy white for the trim. It will also work nicely with the existing stone lintels over the windows. Definitely not a dark blue or slate gray or black, and definitely don't paint the brick. You have white windows that look to be vinyl clad, and as such will not take paint. We did a creamy white on the windows and doors of a brick NYC rowhouse and it looked great. It is one of the historic pallettes for such houses. It has the added benefit of reflecting sunlight, reducing some of the heat island effect and also lasting longer - the sun will heat the darker paint and it will degrade faster. It's a nice color brick really, it just hasn't been allowed to show itself off. The darker colors look like they were trying to diffuse it. Imagine that second story clapboard in a creamy white with the chimney cutting through it - much better!

As a construction designer, I would tell you first, never paint a wood door. Always, always stain. A darker color would be nice. Also, when not sure paint trim the same color as the window color. It creates a nice cohesiveness.

I love the suggestion to do the windows a different color.
Window planting boxes in the windows with beautiful flowers or vines would also help lighten your orange load.

I would consider the rules of complimentary colors in your decision. I think a slate gray/blue would look great complimenting the orange brick - very similar to what you have in place at the door surround and I would stick to that value range (level of darkness). Some complimentary color rules: Orange & Blue, Red & Green, Purple & Yellow. Obviously it is going to be very important to consider the right shade, those are just the simplified base color rules.

Try Stone Brown 2112-30 by Benjamin Moore for the trim and I would not paint your front door, it should be stained. This color is a very deep brown, with gray undertones. I think you need contrast against the brick color. This shade will compliment the orange tones of the brick and contrast at the same time. Hope this helps. Charmean Neithart

Hi, just a comment about painting vinyl windows: you can paint them but must sand them first. In case you were interested in learning more: http://paintgurus.typepad.com/blog/2010/09/painting-vinyl-siding-and-window-trim-.html

Hi--re painting vinyl window trim, we painted dark brown over off-white using a semi-gloss exterior paint. If you can believe it, we didn't sand a thing--just slapped on the paint and it's been three years and all is still perfect. Granted, we are in Sacramento, CA, and all we painted was a trim piece that was about 1" wide. I was surprised my husband went for this quick fix because he usually goes by the book, but it worked!