I like bond girl's answer, and instead of painting the brick, I'd darken the shutters to match to roof.

I agree too, just "beef up" the porch, paint the shutters a warm brown eg Ben.Moore; clydesdale brown2092-10, perhaps the door black? Can you get the urns in front of the pillars? Oh yeah, paint the garage doors the same colour as the brick...

This is a very classic looking home, timeless & very attractive...embrace it!!

Here's my take...
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DARK SAGE...
Shutters, roof fascia trim, and garage doors. New wood garage doors are semi-opaque stain, and the rest is paint.

MEDIUM SAGE...
Windows, and front portico. Portico has beefier columns and is topped with a decorative railing.

LIGHT SAGE...
Body of house.
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The double front doors are swapped out with a wooden door with transom and sidelights. If you could, it would look better without a storm door. The door ties back to the color of the roof and adds a premium quality.
...or you could do dark sage transom and sidelights and paint the door red (if you are in love with the idea of a red door).

The sage color is a good complement to the brown. It will give your house a nice color balance. Painting trim brown might get to be too much brown.

I think it could be beautiful!

The biggest positive change you can make is to replace the front doors as others have suggested. The second is changing the portico as shown above. The third is getting new garage doors with windows.
I'm not a fan of painting brick, unless it is really ugly. I think you have a good neutral brick. Painting it will add up to a large expense over the years. The sage color should work with your brick.

Thank you all so much for your responses. I have so much to think about now. I never considered replacing my front door, but I think I'll move that to the top of the priority list now!! Thanks again.

I like all the suggestions but one thing puzzles me. Why is there an arch over the garage doors? It has no relation at all to the house. I'd paint the area above the doors all one colour. A minor suggestion but an easy one to fix.

There is not enough contrast between your brick and shutters. Paint your shutters and door close to same color as roof, change double door to one door with side lights and add full glass storm door same color as your front door. Putting some of your budget into landscaping would also help. Tall evergreen shrub on right side of house would give you height and color all year. Make the area on the left side of your walkway from drive to front door all mulch with colorful flowers.

Totally agree with Cheryl/Casual Elegance. The only thing I would add to that scenario would be to stain the entry walkway to give it more presence. The current walkway is too light and it seems to just get lost rather than leading you to the front door. It's an easy 1-day DIY project....then add the suggested mulch and seasonal flowers...it would definitely have street appeal!

realtorCheryl..Great idea to stain the sidewalk

HI Everyone, I just finished the exterior and wanted to share the update.

Here are the things I did:

-Got a new front door. I love it! My favourite part of the house!
-Got a new roof in an updated colour.
-Added a ton of pot lights and changed the lights under the portico and between the garage door (Murray Feiss).
-Got some new house numbers (Restoration Hardware) and moved them to the top of the portico
-Painted the portico and garage doors the same colour as the window casings.
-Removed the dead tree out front!
-Last thing was to order new shutters. I ordered them in the same colour as the portico, garage doors and casings in a modern panel design.

All in all, I like the outcome. I am disappointed that the shutters disappear, but I can always paint them darker.

The house is just very neutral now. The front door is clearly the focal point. Unfortunately the pictures don't do the house justice. The brick is not as pink in the pictures and the sage colour is much more taupe.

I really wanted a WOW change - but after living in the neighbourhood and in the house for a bit, I realized that this was the way to go. I'm going to do some crazy landscaping in the spring (I'm in Ontario, no point in landscaping now!), and I hope that will bring the Wow-factor I am looking for.

Oh, I still haven't replaced the garage doors, so when I do, I think that'll bring the house up a notch too. Also, I wasn't able to change anything on the portico since it was in rougher shape than I thought. It will have to be come down in a few years. So I just left it.

Anyway, just wanted to share the progress.

Here are some close up pictures. You can see the real colour. Errrrr, that last picture I posted bugs me. You can't see the pretty taupe colour!!!

Love it! I think the most dramatic (and best) change was pulling the screen doors off and allowing your new red doors to pop.