Here's a few picture ideas, depending on your budget: [houzz=] [houzz=] [houzz=] [houzz=]

Your color choice will certainly work, but it is quite common. Have you thought of getting a greyed brown roof and painting the siding a earth green. The shutters could be a darker green (or dark brown) and the front doors gorgeous natural wood. This house is the color inspiration:

This is another color scheme that would work: A medium tan for the siding, a brown red for the shutters and the front doors and a medium brown for the roof.

I would transplant the shrubs in front of the lower level to another area.

Black would be the 'safe' choice and quite versatile.

Hello, from the photo you sent, your roof looks grey now and the shutters also are quite dark, the only noticeable change would be the front doors painted black. I think painting the body of the house (upper story and the garage door) would make the biggest difference.

Carriage house garage doors would help!

I agree with Dytecture - black is grounding - neutral to go with any landscaping or floral colours that you may want to change from year to year, and has a sense of formality to it. Something I think your home needs is a bit of formality - go with black!

It appears from the photo and your intro comments that the white is vinyl siding that cant be painted ?
and doing so in the wooded surroundings might be the start of larger problems with mold, etc. (East Coast, yes?) The charcoal gray roof with black elements are classics for the split level colonial, so I would vote to keep the black shutters but the front door could use some color- to highlight the entry and make it welcoming. A dusty deep sage or mossy green (research colonial colors) would be in beautiful contrast to your brick - Lay color chips over your printed-out color photo to help select color.

You may want to consider adding more and beefier columns to the front porch area when budget allows. The single, narrow one appears visually unsubstantial and the location of it confusing. A pair of those round columns on both sides of the bay with a bit of brick showing might be more balanced.

The wide, white trim over the garage door would benefit by wrapping both sides with something equally weighted. A 10-12" wide, trim on both sides, still in the white, would give more of a grounded, framed effect. Extend the horizontal piece to cover the entire trim (a deeper 'block' at both corners would give further relief) and if you like the carriage door look, add some black wrought iron 'strap hinge' hardware. to appear as functional.

Two other elements stand out to me - the bright white gutter downspout against your brick garage - paint only the downspout portion to match as closely as possible to the brick and let it disappear..... And the black lightpost in the front planting area - if it must stay, coat the interior of the glass panes with an 'etching' paint to 'frost' the glass and use a softer, frosted bulb - doing both will cut down the glare of the light.

These are all smaller 'projects' that can be phased as budget allows and each one easily done in a weekend.... but they would make a big difference. Then on to the landscape ..... no lollipop shrubs/trees - shaping and cutting back based on natural growth pattern : )

In addition to the front doors being changed or painted and perhaps a more carriage like garage door, before you do the roof think about adding a gable over the garage side of the house. This would give a "companion" to the gable at the upper story of the home and serve to break up the long horizontal roof plane from the front. This may also play up the porch like aspect of your home's entry. Something to consider before going through the expense of changing the roofing material. Adding a couple more porch posts in pairs would also provide more visual balance around the doorway

What a lovely house. One thing I did notice is the long line of the lower low pitched roof. It dominates the look. I'm not sure if there is room under the low pitch, but if you could put two very shallow arches that meet in the middle at the pole (which you could change out for a thicker column) this would soften the long spance of roofline. It could also draw ones attention to the front door. Good luck and enjoy remolding. It's fun :-)

I like Schrader's look and idea for opening up the front entry. This bylevel style is difficult to deal with and I do think you could use a black and grey color scheme to make it look more formal and modern, however I would still go with a lighter grey roof, maybe a mid tone. The dark roofs waste a lot of energy. And they are so dominant especially with your large horizontal expanse of roof. If you could even add a small cutout in the roof in front of the bay window with columns on either side I think this would also lighten up th entry and break up the horizontal line. Also I would consider painting the door and white siding a taupe color. The white is so bright next to the warm redness of the brick. Then your accents could be white and black. Instead of the shutters I think I would paint the trim around windows and doors black and the downspout black and let the white siding be plain. This would keep the look of the current color scheme but give it a more modern update. Add black urns out front and tame the landscape!

Thank you so much for all the suggestions. I have a lot to think about and maybe need to save up a little more. All the photos are spectacular. Thanks again!

I have a very similar house, but the entry is on the lower level of the two story section, and we are having a hard time with how to make it seem like the main entrance. The kitchen door is next to the driveway and everyone just goes there, because it is about 35 feet closer than the front door! I love the Schrader look--our house already has a stone facade, and we still have some ot the stone left from the 1969 construction. I had thought of the pergola myself, but could not get my husband to invision it. This is a big help! My two cents on your new front door color: Don't do black--it isn't welcoming. I'd like either Chinese Red, or a sage green. And please take the shutters off any window that cannot actually be covered by them. It was so common to install 18 inch shutters on the sides of an expanse of window 6-8 feet long, and it's a pet peeve of mine. If you like them on your second story windows, at least they are believable as workable shutters there.

What did you end up doing? We just bought a similar house and are looking for ideas