I like the red. The light color divides the house so much. Maybe something darker in value but not all red? Maybe red shutters?

I like the red with the red brick; it makes the house more a unit. Not sure about the door; should it match the shutters? A paint store might give some good advice.

I would photoshop the house color dark to pick up the dark blotches in the bricks and use white shutters to match the front door and fence.

I agree that something darker than the cream would look nice with the brick. If you get red, be careful to get one that goes well with the color of the brick.
Sue

I would also add two window boxes under left windows - will balance it more. Senond picture looks better, I think - the entire house is more uniformed, not divided as in a first one.
Isn't photoshop great!

I like the cream but I agree that windowboxes would help break up all the light space. I also agree that a different color of shutters would be nice (to match whatever door color you choose. Have you played around with colors for those?

Mary

What is your favourite colour? A decorating show that I watched a few years ago, said not to worry about the colour of the brick, etc., but that you should pick out your fav. colour and paint your front door that colour. I haven't done that yet as I am waiting until I get a new front door. Right now it is kind of chestnut brown to go with the sandy brown bricks.......it will soon be forest green when I finally get the new door.
gg

The shutters are already green as is the first coat on the porch. The window frames will be sanded and painted white this weekend. We aren't doing the siding anytime soon as it's just not in the budget yet but I was trying to come up with an ultimate plan. I've tried the door every colour I could think of and it looks out of place no matter what I do.

My fav colour is purple and it definitely wouldn't work on this house.

Lots of different ideas on what color to paint your house, when it comes right down to it you have to pick a color YOU will be happy with. If it was me and it was my house my choice would be a darker color but also a contrasting color. In my mind I can see a darker sage green. Window boxes would be a nice touch. The door I would probably do a muted dark brown with window boxes to match. Take your time and pick a color you both will like, it's a long time between paintings if you're anything like me :o).
Annette

I love Annette's idea of a darker, but more contrasting color. :)

I prefer the red-brown color that matches the brick. I read your other post, and loved the idea of painting the whole house blue! Including the brick, even though I'd never advocate painting a house that is all brick. I think having the house front one solid color will keep the focus on all the beautiful flower plantings you have and will add, and will be more cottagy. (By the way, we are sort of house-twins; my house just doesn't have the brick portion by the picture window. My siding is yellow)

I was already thinking that a medium green should look good on the front door, when I saw the shutters are that color. Tan or light brown would be nice, too.

For the purple door idea, I think you could get paint chips of potential brick reds, and get some dusky purples, and you will probably find something that looks good together. Or, you could just do the panel moulding in purple, while the rest of the door is another color.

Whenever you do the painting, I hope you remember this: before you buy all of the paint for the house, buy enough to paint a 2x2 foot panel that color, prop it up near the brick, and make SURE it's the color you want, and in different lighting. Major projects need large samples! (Do this with carpeting too. Don't ask me why I say this...)

Generally, I would prefer creams or a soft yellow, but I agree it is such a contrast with the brick that it divides the house too much. You might be able to get around this by incorporating the red brick tones into your shutters instead, but you say you've already started with the green paint.

If you go with reddish tones, I would choose a shade that more closely matches your brick.

Or what about a smoky blue-gray sort of colour to tie in to the darker bricks?

I'd leave the door colour choice to the end once you see how everything comes together.

now how's this for throwing a loop...dh hates the siding (regardless of colour). so we had a little looksie from the inside through a filled in window and it looks like we have wood siding underneath.

after reading through the old house forum i'm contemplating the possibility of uncovering the wood siding and repainting that!

again i wouldn't be doing this until at least next year, either way will be an adventure!

...me again, smokey grey would be a good choice too. The way I visualize color with brick is whatever darker color I chose I would want it to be a subtle contrast to the brick, playing the brick up as the predominant feature. In other words if I was choosing the color I would pick a color that had a definitely smokey cast to it. Now I'll shut up LOL.
Annette

My suggestion, go to a quilt shop, buy a tool called, "3 in 1 Color Tool" by Joen Wolfrom. Using this tool find the color of your brick, or your favorite color from your brick. Then turn the example over, on the back there are color plans. These plans are designed to show you what colors work best with your chosen color. If you want to do a complimentary theme, it will tell you to use the colors from opposite on the color wheel, and give you examples.

I bought this for my work, but use this tool for EVERYTHING! LOL, when I painted my own house we had a green we wanted to keep, so I used the tool to chose a triadic color theme. I ended up painting my house a pale Apricot, that looks great with purple and violet flowers in front of it!

I also used it to chose colors inside my house. It's a cheap tool, If I remember right under $20.

HTH
Jenny P

As far as no door coloring working, how about trying your shutter color, but in a deep tone. That should be really pretty with the brick. I think, also, if you were to trim out the door, and add a header, it would help by transitioning the door to the other materials and provide more definition. It would be nice to trim out the picture window in white also, with a header. That would bring more of the light siding color to the brick side of the house. Then window headers on the two smaller windows to balance the picture window. I don't think that's a big project, maybe something dh could do : )

Definitely window boxes! Maybe in red, to incorporate red on that side of the house.

The cream does divide the house very strongly, but I don't like the red, either - it looks too much like you were trying to match the two sides and that just isn't going to happen.

The suggestion for a darker but contrasting color sounds good. Or go with a lighter color if you like it and find some way to balance/meld the two materials/colors: a raised brick planting bed on the left, or a painted pergola over the door extending to the right to bridge the two sides ... of course with something trained up it, lol. Remember that light colors generally make a house look larger than dark colors do.

As for the door color, consider a variation of your favorite purple - wine? plum? For fun, see what a feng shui reference recommends. I wanted a red door, but f.s. said too much energy for my south-facing front door. Recommended a blue (nah), purple (uh uh) or green ... hmmm, didn't go for the forest green, too dark, but chose instead a sage green and love it - it goes with all my wreaths, containers and gardens year round, nice with my indoor colors, too.

I do agree with those who suggest you consider what color(s) and other features YOU like. As your home, it is an extension, an expression, of what makes you ... you. You could pick all the options that are technically correct, but if, when you pull up to it, you feel like it's someone else's home, it isn't right.

I'm really glad to learn about that 3-in-1 color tool and will have to invest in one of those.

Diane

AngelCat, I hope you don't mind but I wanted to try to balance the color of the two sides. Here's the brick bed to the left, with your colors, and a few other ideas to distribute the color and values. Looks adorable to me. Hope something helps : )

I like the red..with lots of white trim, makes it look larger and less broken up and cottagey rather than 60ish

Maybe creamier would look less 60's? And softening the end edge of the house. Here's one of those green roofs.

omg i'm so confused now! love the green trim around the white door and the brick bed, oh and all the window boxes...

i agree with keesha bout the red. i tried to match it to the brick but it's not quite there.

i also like the white siding.

i tried purple siding and it's ghastly lol

lol, I was trying for a purple or periwinkle, too, and didn't get anything to work either : )

I love the brick beds. That helps bring it all together. It's amazing to see the difference the window boxes make, too. :)

-Sharon

i like the cream! we pulled back the siding a bit today and it is wood siding painted white underneath.

Here it is with the white door and green trim : ) and some purple (one of my favorite colors, too :)

I did add another strip of white trim, along the fascia.

that's awesome, love it! with the green roof though. i'm definitely saving these pics. it's amazing the difference to the house.

thanks so much!

Wow! The green roof : )) I was just thinking how, even though the smaller windows are modern, maybe some window grid inserts for the picture one? Curtains are open! Here's the green roof back on. Totally charming and adorable cottage heaven : )

lmao is that my cat on the fence?! you are brilliant that looks sooo good. dh was talking about window inserts but i didn't believe they existed. my biggest issue with the window was it's vastness blank space. love the pic, will definitely work towards this.

just needs some lavender along the front of the fence and it will be perfect..... ;)

:) ok, here's some lavender along the fence. With some cascading roses. Actually, your cat was in the yard -- on the fence is even better, lol. Now he wants to go in though. The thorns on the roses miffed him.

(Thinking of your shutter color, there are a number of 'greens' out there for roofing. Think it's the Hunter Green that has blue in it, another has a good bit of gray. Might be the light, too. Some are more green, ie, yellow in them.)

So does dh like the lighter color, now that it's more filled out?

Maybe those two shrubs by the gate should be low ... Some of the flowers are now spent, and the cat's still waiting to come in : )

That is so brilliant. Hubby is coming around to the cream. He loves the brick bed.

Unfortunately I can't put the gate there. It has to go on the side where you have the trellis. I planning on putting an arbor there with a climbing rose on it (instead of a regular gate).

The shutters are stained and ready to go, just waiting on some decent weather so he can go outside to sand and paint the window frames. He is really itching to pull off the siding and redo the wood underneath but that's a project for next year at the earliest.

You can't tell from the original pic but the flower bed under the big window continues all the way around the inside of the fence. When I get it planted the flowers should show through the pickets.

I can't believe this is the same house. I was going to pay to put in new windows because the two on the left were too small for the house and the picture window was too open and boring. We spent $50 on the shutters and will buy the grids for the big window. That is enough to totally change the look no window replacement required!

I keep sneaking back to this thread to see the latest proposed changes. I can't believe how much you can change the looks of that house in each picture. Your house is going to be a real showstopper!

The arbor and roses are perfect!

I wanted to show an alternate brick bed -- sometimes they are deep -- reducing the cream a bit more for dh. The other side is just edged.

Great news on the window savings! : )

So, what's going on with the siding (pulling it off)?

dh wants to pull it. he doesn't like the look of vinyl. the thing is there is a layer of insulation between the old wood siding and the vinyl. our walls are very thin as it is and i'm hesitant to pull of the added insulation.

so the options are to leave the vinyl and paint it or pull it, refinish the wood and put blown insulation in from the inside. i actually don't mind the vinyl with the above colour changes. with the shutters, lights and plants, the siding really disappears.

either way i need to clear off some debt before we tackle the siding. so next spring is the earliest it will be done.

i still have a completely horrible kitchen (no countertop, cabinets put together out of trash wood) and a leaky bathroom that need to be completely gutted as well. not to mention the 60 ft long retaining wall that needs to go up out back to stop the soil that's eroding away from the basement (walkout) it's neverending but i guess that's what i get for buying a fixer upper.

for sure this year, the shutters, porch, window frames, window boxes, pathway and potentially the bricks around the roses and the arbor will be done. i've got shrubs planted in all the corners of the fence and the roses are in.

i was going to put in a brick path but i'm thinking that it might not work if we also do the brick bed. so might do a mosaic path using broken patio stones from home depot like we did our patio out back.

if it stops raining long enough to get some work done i'll post updated pics on sunday night.

I see, layers of siding. That's a lot of work to do! It's fun though and very rewarding. All the more to enjoy and be proud of when you're done.

The irregular stone path sounds great with the brick : ) I love those.