Try BM Mill springs blue HC-137 in high gloss. It should pop right out and be accented by your Emerald Gaiety euonymus.

What is your budget high end or low end?
Let us do a little cosmetic surgery by changing your stairs and walkway.
Have your walkway entrance centered with your front door, when you remove the banister keep it and install it on the opposite side of the veranda.
Install full-length stairs that is the entire length of the front porch with banisters on either side of the stairs.
Paint your veranda and banister a light grey colour. Paint your front door yellow.
You have many more colour options. I prefer yellow; I think yellow will make your front door pop.
Your screen door, do you need it? If not remove it, or paint it the same colour as your front door.
When you are finished your project start landscaping. Good luck, and have fun.

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Hi gidmo,

I really like the blue suggestion from houssaon & lionnessone. My vote would be for a bright blue. I also think the yellow door would work as well.

I'd also sugget a new light fixture for the front porch, something like the picture below. Lastly, I think adding a nice decorative star or something similar to the exterior would really set your house off. It would look great below the pitch in the roof centered between the top two windows. See below as well.

Thanks for sharing. Cute house- good luck with your decision. Please post the finished product I'd love to see what you go with.

Thanks so much for the suggestions!

I know the landscaping is terrible. This house was built in the 20s or 30s and we just totally gutted the interior. As of right now our budget for exterior is really low. I plan to just beef up the front door then come spring look at landscaping.

Before posting this I was torn between blue or yellow so it's nice to hear that I was on the right track.

Thanks again!

I think it is very cute and I hope you were able to salvage some of the interior casework, doors, light fixtures and detailing, and used some fairly beefy new casing.

I suppose those spindles are new, but something chunkier and not turned would fit the house style better, but the color makes it blend in nicely so I think it works well. The really dense screening under the porch is nice too.

As suggested above, picking out the half timbered detail and the lintel would really enhance it, and a simple craftsman style door, or a 6-panel with two glass top lights would look better, but that one is OK for now. Nice screen door though. I would consider painting the upstairs window frames the same color too--taupe or a similar color.

From the style of the brick and the facade, I would say this house is from the 1930s to 40s.A jadite/sage green or a sort of a park bench bluish green is more period color, but the yellow or blue could look great too. I would consider keeping the storm white since it is a nice one and doesn't cover up the door and ties into the upper floor.

Is there any way to paint out the utility line and box, especially on the brick? it is really distracting. If not maybe a bit of decorative trellis fitted over the box and the color of the spindels would help.

I don't think the landscaping is that horrible. i like the vine--it just needs a bit of training. The ground cover is nice and very low maintenance, but you might want to contain it with a barrier in the ground because it is invasive. Add a hydrangea bush on the left or some other ornamental long-lasting shrub and a cottagy flower bed in front of the ground cover or some nice contrasting small bushes with a dark mulch, and a natural stone border, maybe some succulents tucked in, and it could look great!

Did you see your house in the houzz article about exterior paint colors? It is the first of three listed. What did you decide on?

Yes I did see the article!

We've decided to go with a blue like houssaon suggested. We are going to change the location of the stairs to the front as well.

We won't get to this until the spring as the cold weather has settled in.

I'm not so keen on painting the deck. Our neighbors have their porch painting (mind you awful colours of green and white) but it chipping and looks terrible.

And I'm not sure what people mean about painting the trim.

I love the light fixtures people have suggested, however I've looked into it and there is no way to gable the porch roof, so it will remain like a ceiling (if that makes any sense). We must have a flush mount light there or we will hit our heads on it. I've looked into a couple exterior flush mounts that have the essence of the the lantern style that I love.

I'm also searching for a nice rod iron art piece to put at the crest of the roof on the front of the porch.

The utility box is terrible, I'm looking into what we can do there. And we need to replace the numbers and mailbox yet.

Our interior reno was supposed to be finished at least a month ago and just got work that it will be an extra 2 weeks. We are REALLY hoping to move in by the holidays. All that is left if some small touch ups and then the whole kitchen needs to be installed. (we are doing a lot of the work, with the help of our contractor, and I'm finding that this last little small bits are the most difficult to be patient with)

Again Thanks for all the help!

By trim, I was referring to the gable half-timbering and the casing around the windows and maybe the facia and trim along the gables. Paint will help lessen the impact of the utility meter--prime and use the kind for metal. If you can cut out the concrete a trellis might be possible. Or it could just be ornamental.

Paint on the porch depends on what was used. Composite and vinyl, leave as is, pressure treated--let weather for about a year and stain or paint, cedar, prime and paint or stain. There is colored and white stain on the market, which has quite a lot of pigment in it and ends up looking like paint, but soaks in the wood more.

It also depends on surface prep (clean first, perhaps sand, if pressure washing, let dry a few weeks, maybe a month to make sure the moisture is completely out, and sand to eliminate raised grain) and primer makes a huge difference.

The color you already have is OK if you want to keep that.

If you add the front steps and a walkway to the sidewalk, I would conside keeping the side stairs to the driveway as long as you landscape to conceal them a bit, and I do like the vine too.

Painting a ceiling on a porch can look very nice. Light Tiffany type blue is traditional and is said to help keep bugs away.

I would vote for a crisp sage green, although your storm door with the white bars will be more prominent, interrupting the green door importance. You may also consider painting just the gable above the porch the same green to bring it into a focal point. Good luck.
Benjamin Moore Saybrook Sage
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I would love to see you try a soft yellow/gold colour picked from the field stone under the brick

I love your vine! It would be wonderful to extend the porch all across the front, but I doubt you'd ever be able to match the lovely brick for the third column. Do at least try to screen all those meters.

Your house is really beautiful but very dull. It needs some life! Maybe like a turquoise or a yellow! Brighten up the area make it more welcoming. :)

I personally would go with black to help "pop" the glass door in white you have. Glass doors are not inexpensive and black always adds an upscale look. Bright colors in my opinion may make the house look cheap looking as brick is older and very traditional in it's own right. Use what you have to the best advantage. Black on upper eaves above just outside "the porch/entry" would really tie in the door too. If you don't want to paint the eaves, look for some black wrought iron looking decorative pieces that you could attach to each of the brick columns to really set off a traditionally elegant look for very few dollars tastefully spent. I would also bring white to posts on porch rails as you have so much white on the top of house, looks as though the bottom has been forgotten,left unfinished. Would blend everything by just doing that :)