Is the wood stained or painted? When was it built? Any more photos?

It lost the WOW when someone put the garage up front.

That little place, even just as it is...is adorable!

Perhaps a different garage and front door color.

Grey, anything but grey. You might think about some kind of trellis structure to the right there along the path to the entry door as a way to draw some attention away from the garage and make a nicer entry transition into the house behind. I think the yard has a lot of potential.

Take a look at this house...all the pictures provided. Maybe some painted trim to start would highlight the windows and trim. Personally, I would love to see a dark brown stained in a satin gloss finish for both the front and garage doors.

green black front door
carriage house garage door
Otherwise a very nice classic shaker look (salt box?)

I agree rocketjcat. That house could be very cute with some white trims & maybe a red door.

I still wish they would have built that garage behind the house, instead of making it so "in your face" out front.

Boggles the mind.

I would leave the garage all grey and paint the trim of the house white and the front door fire engine red. Right now, all I see is the garage. Then again, you focused on it when you took the photo, so maybe it's not this bad? There are tricks to guide the eye where you want it to go, so I would hire a landscape professional to create a design that guides the eye towards the house.

i agree, the farmhouse look that everyone in the free world is going for right now.........you have !! paint the trim white, punch of color on the front door. and do a white or brass carriage lamp. instead of black. get two industrial style pan light fixtures for the garage, in a red color and paint the door red......that will add some pop. or just to stainless.

a carriage house was meant to be in the front.
In Great Britain the farm building was called a Cart Shed. These typically were open fronted, single story buildings, with the roof supported by regularly spaced pillars.[2] They often face away from the farmyard and may be found close to the stables and roadways, giving direct access to the fields.

Thank you all for your input. I agree the garage is taking the stage with this home and I'd prefer it to be pushed further back. The home was built in the late 80's and I believe has a semi-transparent stain on it.

Your home reminds me of this photo. You have lots of potential.
http://finelinesmaine.com/project/colonial-farmhouse/
I think having a different finish on the garage like in this reference pick and changing garage doors to carriage style would boost the curb appeal. Then landscaping to have an inviting walkway to house will finish it off.

White or blue color door may add that wow factor to your house. You can also change color of windows by painting its outside border white.

I really like this house, so sober, respectful of, and discreetly blending in with it's natural surrounding.
And to further accentuate this point i strongly suggest a darker, not a lighter finish for the windows and door; charcoal or a dark, slightly blueish grey but stay subdued.
If it's just stain already then so much the better, you can keep it natural by applying the darker stain.
This will give it even more atmosphere, not so much WOW as OOOH !, a strong but discreet graphic impact, much more sophisticated looking than white, thats for sure.
Once outlined, the garage door may settle in a bit better too.
If you really have a yearn for color then blue is to go for, again not too light though, a toned down mid pastel.

If you have anyone close at hand who's a dab hand with Photoshop or Gimp then take a bigger photo and select windows and door and you can then test out different colors to get the overall effect.
But whatever you decide, ONE color only. This is very tasteful architecture and deserves to be respected.
as Mies van der Rohe formulated : "less is more"

I agree with magada. Having owned and restored 3 18th century New England houses the better way to have a wow factor is do less. Window mullions and front door in a bold color ( never white) is the way to go. The pics with white trim and windows give the house a very common suburban look.
Go bold with front door. This is where the wow factor can shine. For inspiration look at California paints historic colors. Their colors are used on New England restoration projects. I have used several of them.
Don't add anything to garage door. It recedes nicely with monochrome palette. Your home is lovely, graceful and elegant in its simplicity. A good looking reproduction colonial house. Too many houses attempt this look but fail with bad paint colors and bad shutters.
If you do paint or stain the house then the wow could be the whole house. Historic colors include pumpkins, corals, strong blues ( good blues are difficult). Where do you live? Here in New England I like to pick my house colors to stand out against a lot of snow. If you live in a warmer area think of colors to go with greens and flowers.
Good luck. It is a great property.

I think a nice mustard color for the door would look really good with the gray and a darker grayish black for the windows. The house fits beautifully in the surroundings and adding white trim definitely makes it look suburban and ordinary. The garage will never not be the focal point from the street and you can enlarge the window, add a window box or perhaps a small roof or trellis over garage door to camouflage it a little. Make it look cozy and inviting and then add interest to the walkway toward the house with gardens. I would definitely not paint the siding. The garage door could be a beautiful wooden carriage door which could be very charming.

I concur with others that colors will help draw attention away from the garage and to the home. If you go this route paint the home first and determine whether to leave the garage with the weathered siding to further set it apart from the home.

I'd also establish a walk way from the street to which the walk way from the garage would connect. This would help direct attention toward the front entry.

If the budget allows, I'd make a couple of changes to the garage to make it more "barn-like" including changing the garage door. I'd also change the siding to vertical siding unless barns in your area typically have horizontal clapboard siding in which case you could change the exposure on the horizontal siding to help differentiate it from the home.

Good luck.

Your ideabook shows a classic red farmhouse. You might want to try the Sherwin Williams paint visualizer on a photo of your house.

The more i look at your house the more i see sober blue trimmings, and i think Charles Ross Homes' idea of having vertical clapboard on the garage is the ideal solution, would totally change it's aspect in relation to the house.

For "WOW" effect wall, please kindly refer to our designing pictures and Products.

I love the way the house and garage look.... What I would personally do to add wow would be to start at the path to the house with more color in the foliage gradually enlarging flower beds to the house. I would also add some gas lanterns along the path and hang lighting on each side of the front door.

I think it looks great. It fits it's style. Be careful trying to change the look.

I would recommend a different garage door- the one you have is really modern looking and draws attention to itself because it is the only thing that is. I did a quick search for garage doors and found a website that does "hand made custom garage doors" that are very nice- you could easily do the same, just use that search string or something similar. I would suggest something with windows and that looks wood. Once you take care of that, perhaps a door in dark teal. I personally I wouldn't go too far away from what you have, it is so pretty- just give it a little pizzazz. I did a very quickie photoshop to show you what I mean.

Such endless options concerning color palette. I love the classical cottage look, very romantic. But a more modern rustic farmhouse could look good aswell. The facade as is (without shutters and all) looks a bit colonial to me, if you intend to keep it this way, all white could look great (maybe black window frames). If you want to change it, I would like to suggest a front porch or a small gable entry, to break up the big flat facade.

Here's a bunch of random farmhouse pictures. Note: the last picture caught my eye most. What if you'd start by painting all trim white? Even if just primer, you could see the effect of white trim. Maybe the place will completely liven up.

Add a pergola above the garage door and plant a wisteria that will grow over it eventually. Leave everything in the gray stain, but paint the house door in a mustard yellow.

I wish Houzzers would retire the phrase "wow factor." Sorry, pet peeve of mine because it's all about impressing other people. A garage at the front of the stage makes "wow factor" impossible, so be glad you already have decent landscaping, and a discreet color that suits the style of the house. Down the road, you might think about replacing a lot of lawn with a well-designed front garden that could wow people.

This is what I meant:
I also made the pathway a little wider, looks more welcoming.

I second the white trim. It will make a huge difference. If there's a sidewalk, I'd create a walkway from the sidewalk to the front door, then from the street, you'll focus on the house, not the garage. Do Wow! with landscaping. It looks like you have a nice start. Remember that a lot of Wow! pictures are taken when the light is just right and the plants are in bloom.

It is a gorgeous looking house and property just as it is ...why mess with perfection I say...If you do anything I'd say to work on the front gardens adding color in landscape, such as old fashioned roses, plants ground covers etc. I think the house colors suit the house perfectly, and fit the overall look of this beautiful home. If you start taking away it's charm...it will all be lost very quickly.

Another color mockup. I've tried one with red shutters but that looked awful.

I rather like it like it is. A weather vane on the garage roof, paint the front door red.

A window box on the garage window would be nice. I love rinqreations idea for paint on the garage.

Yeah, I was also going to suggest some kind of decoration between window and garage door, to act as a kind of welcome -- could stencil a pattern (or words), hang trailing flowers, hang some farm implements, whatever fits your style. Like some of the suggestions for getting in some color too.

Here's another idea and notice the weather vane

Rondezines upthread really nailed it, especially her suggestions about old fashioned climbing roses and gorgeous plantings. A garage pergola and maybe some kind of archway structure on your path with climbing plants and less lawn could really be beautiful without your doing much else.

Maybe I'm missing something, but IMO your house just needs some paint tweaks and upgraded landscaping, which will pull the eye away from the problem garage. Are you sure you want to buy a house that has such a humongous garage front and center? Most likely, you'll have a car or two in front of it much of the time, so you'l be looking at those a lot in addition to the garage itself.

Alas, this thread reminds me of many posters who have double, single, sectional, or otherwise massive dark leather couches in their living rooms who ask why can't they can't make their living room cozy, light, and inviting. If someone wants cozy and light, don't buy massive black or brown couches that suck up space and light. In your case, the builders minimized the unfortunately placed garage by painting it to match the house--not the worst idea at all. Trying to prettify it too much will call attention to it. Over and out.

I really appreciate all the suggestions and comments. I like the idea of using 2 colors instead of one. Still not sure about white trim. Rinreation had a great idea but now I'm wondering how it would look to paint the house red and keeping the garage the original color. We would definitely put in a carriage style garage 2 door concept as we do not like the 1 door. landscaping definitely needs a bit of TLC and the trellis/pergola is a wonderful idea. Using the right combination of flowering plants and adding a flower box under the garage window is a must!

We both also thought since the home has Gray windows, we would paint the trim gray/charcoal and paint the house red with wooden garage doors and a wooden front door.

As I see it, the photo is what emphasizes the garage compared to the house. The garage takes up twice the space in the photo as the house. If the photo had been taken 30 feet to the right, the garage would not be so prominent. Keeping the garage the old weathered gray while putting a nice fresh barn red on the main house will make the garage look old and like something you have not gotten around to painting. Using the same paint scheme conveys that they belong together. My two cents.

Has everything been resolved, last fall?

I would like to second the motions of Charles Ross & housegal.

I would put a period gate at this end of the front walk, saying "welcome, you are leaving the barn area and are approaching my front yard". I like the planting that I can see, as well.

Keep the garage all one color and without glazing, so we can make believe it is just a wall to our left.

cascio.offsite@gmail.com

I would give it some red shutters and door red also