A pop of color on your front door and switch out those plain jane bushes with some color! Good luck.

I know what you mean. I would love to change the door and the color. I love craftsman design, but don't know how to give our home craftsman charm without major construction.

Because the small window can't accommodate black shutters, the inconsistency looks a little awkward. Before going to the expense of changing the garage doors try painting them a colour closer to a colour in the brick. The three pillars could quite easily be beefed up. The plantings could be changed adding some tall ornamental grasses & a new front door colour would go a long way to adding some personal touches to your lovely home.

Remove the shutters and either paint the trim around the windows a contrasting color such as green or taupe, even gray. Alternatively, paint the white garage doors and siding a different color and leave the trim white. I'm not sure why they put one white brick above the windows and doors but I think I would try to paint the entire row of brick aabove the window cream color. You don't need shutters to add interest just paint the window trim.

Good ideas. Does anyone know of a design tool that I could try some of them using photos of my home?

Out with the clumpy bushes and bring your porch on out to the garage, beefing up the columns. If all the houses in the area are brick, think about painting your brick to stand out from the crowd. The shutters could be removed but you might want to beef up the window trim if you do.

I'm a big fan of carriage type garage doors and adding windows to garage doors to break up there apparent blockiness, perhaps picking up some of the arch of the Palliadian window.

I also think changing the color of the siding (putty/taupe?) and perhaps the doors would really help--the white is so high contrast and really emphasizes and lack of shutters on the large window. I suppose you could add shutters, but it would look unbalanced, and there really isn't much room anyway.

Landscaping would really help too. How about a flowering tree to soften things a bit? Or take out some of the evergreens and replace with flowering shrubs.

I agree the pillars ar a bit undersized, but I wouldn't go too large or the lintel won't look right. A nice simple (unfluted or Tuscan) tapered pillar might work, with some simple top and bottom detail. More promenent lighting might be nice too.

Morning glories or sweet potato vine trained to go up wires could look quite nice, and wouldn't be a permanent thing if you don't like it. If you do, you could add sturdy trellises or a narrow pergola and train trumpet vine, wisteria, clemantis or roses across it to give you house a more cottagey look, and leave the pillars as is.

I don't normally advocate radically changing the style of the house, but you could go more Victorian--it was quite common then to have classical detailing mixed up with Victorian type houses and porches. If you look at Victorian Queen Anne style brick house in England (not the US) or Italianate buildings in the US, you will see some examples of what I mean. Galena, IL , has a lot of red brick buildings with wooden porches and that may give you some ideas:

http://townandcountryliving.blogspot.com/2012/10/historic-galena-little-brick-houses.html

If you do this it must be in scale with the building and properly detailled. Just sticking a few ornamental do-dads on won't do it.

I wouldn't paint the brick (see my post at https://www.houzz.com/discussions/need-thoughts-on-our-porch-dsvw-vd~216331) It can be a real maintenance hassle and for the size of your house, a major expense. Don't try to paint the keystones--it will just look weird.

Changing to Craftman would be harder, but you could go British Arts and Crafts/Edwardian Eclectic by removing the shutters, changing the color of the siding and doors (but not exact same color of the brick--something like dark taupe or brown would work) and putting in heavier porch pillars. Not rough hewn, but post and beam style with chamfered edges and mortised joinery. or for the Edwardian varation, keeping the white but adding some simple detailing.

Yes, changing the window frame color would be nice, but I bet they are vinyl, which should not be painted or you really have troubles on your hands. Rather than changing your door (besides paint) you could add a nice old-fashioned custom storm/screen to match whatever direction you choose. The key thing is to get the detailing on the porch right, esp. if you are radically changing anything. Here is a great resource on the do's and don't of porches:

http://www.oldhouseguy.com/porches.php

I have used Picture-It (cheap and easy to paste stuff in and move around) but the drawing tools are rather cumbersome. I wish it had an easier eyedropper tool to match colors better. I find Adobe Photoshop great for retouching, but expensive and a pain for adding architectural details and whatnot. Any software will require quite a lot of work to draw in what you want and everything. Remember, white is never bright white in a photo, and the same for any color paint you pick.

Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams both have nice paint tools, but it does take some work to create the masks and whatnot. If you want to visually take off the shutters and or change the pillars, do that first in a graphics program, save as a JPEG and then load it into their programs. They do a great job of adjusting the color to light conditions. They have quite a few preloaded houses, and that is easier and quite fun to play around with. Once you got something you like, you can save it and the colors and look at it later, or print it out.

I did a Google search for brick house porch ideas and came up with these styles that might work: Italianate, Craftsman, Greek Revival, and contemporary neo-colonial. Note that the last one has operable shutters and a small pediment in the porch roof over the door and dark rather than white siding.

Are you in a HOA? Are you restricted? If not paint EVERYTHING that is not brick grey.

I am advising on my friend's house long distance. Every house looks the same. Do something that no one has done and would probably never think of. If your HOA says you have to have shutters paint them a slightly darker grey. Front door is your choice, My thought would be the lighter grey with some interesting feature. Often, simple is the classiest.

I'm not sure dark gray will work with the gray roof unless it is destinctively different such as dove gray but a more bold color would work best with the strong color of the brick. Cream colors may work as strong mid range greens. Don't paint the brick!!!

I think your brick house is lovely and classic. I agree that the shutters are too small for the windows (and thus probably better removed) and that carriage house garage doors with windows echoing your mullions would have more curb appeal. If you want a change from the white trim (which looks good), you could always go with an ivory, a putty, or a light gray. We have a 1920's brick house with ivory trim, and the ivory has a similar effect as the white but not quite as stark.

There are three things I'd consider changing. First the white siding would look great in a medium tone blue and a red front door. A blue like this:

Then change the garage doors to carriage type. Add varrigated plants, flowing shrubs and flowers to your landscaping.

How about a green red or blue door. You could change the shutter and garage color to sage green or grey or tan also. For landscaping you can add some perennials in front of the shrubs ( daylilies are nice another favorite flower). You could also place flowers in pots on either side of the door for much needed color or hanging flower baskets also.

Here's some thoughts.

Above are columns, colors, and landscaping ideas. Here's another column facade.

The picture above, left, is for the copper awning.

Some ideas I had! Paint house siding and garage doors a nice gray/green and paint shutters white to match the room trim. Then do a fun front door color, such as red or burnt orange, or whatever you like! Add a fun door knocker, some potted flowers infront of the step, some neat house numbers on the left front porch pillar, and silver lantern porch light, whether you can put it by your door against the house, or hang it from the porch ceiling infront of the door. :)

http://cdn.homedit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/red-color-front-door-design-ideas7.jpg
http://www.front-porch-ideas-and-more.com/images/red-front-door-lights.jpg
http://www.potterybarn.com/shop/lighting/lighting-by-room/front-porch-outdoor-lighting/
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3396/3414194807_c7a6250245.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oHvyeWBRhXU/TA5rNLeXcbI/AAAAAAAAEsY/AvqkE009Ehs/s1600/modern-house-numbers-socalinstall1_800x533_rect540.jpg

I feel it's a path that's missing boarders both sides leading to a white door in a dark frame matching blinds I have made a blind for up stairs window.painting garage doors points you straight to front door hope it helps to see it

On second thought, maybe getting rid of just the shutters on the dormer would help. There is no rule that every single window needs shutters, but only have one without is a bit odd, and having shutters on all is overkill. That plus changing the color on the dormer could make a big difference. I do think white is a bit stark for the front door and gets dirty easily.

Drawing tip--use the pen tool for a clean line, and most programs allow you to press SHIFT and then click to draw connecting straight line segments.Inserting a shape and reducing it down to fit works too for quick mock ups, and use the eye dropper tool to select matching colors or load custom colors onto the palete. Using CNTL-z (undo) CNTL-c (cut) CNTL-v paste, speeds things up too.