Thank you for your suggestions. Any suggestions on landscaping?

Your house already has a dominant color from the brown roof. Some sand, limestone, or darker creams would be fine with a white trim for the windows. Three colors are traditional, so you could also use a dark chocolate brown for the doors. This photo from your ideabook shows an excellent color scheme:


As for landscaping, if you have the ability to transplant the pair of crepe myrtles (I think that's what they are) farther away from the house, that would help enormously. I'd also remove the 5-foot high shrub at the left across from the lamppost near the street. Small mounding plants just like in your ideabook photo would make a statement along the front path.

If your porch has room, two large pots filled with colorful annuals would add a welcome touch.

You have a French inspired house. The body color is OK, but the blue grey is a bit too cool and the white contrasts too much. Also the pilasters and pediment around the front door should be one color, not picked out like that.

If you have vinyl windows, you are going to have to work with the very wihite sashes. If not, I would paint them cream or a darker color than the trim. If you don't want to paint all the trim now, I would at the very least paint the pilasters and pediment all grey or all white for an instant improvement. My preference would be all grey in keeping with the style of the house--white would take it colonial. I would consider painting the arch around the front door white to visually widen it too. The brass kickplates are very shiny and distracting and I would consider removing them. .

In the future, I would pick a warmer lighter grey for the quoins and a brown for the windows, perhaps even turquoise/verdigris type color, which is very popular and tradtional for this style of house, and a red-brown or turquoise door. I would also completely remove the pediment (totally wrong style and proportion for the house) and replace with some nice deep trim tying in with the band between floors and add a decorative balcony railing, perhaps with some ironwork that echos the curves of the front door, but not too skimpy or Spanish looking. This would also bring the large window above the door in more proportion with the rest of the house.

This is a case where using a computer program or online color visualizer can help.

Three colors is a modern tradition. Older traditions had 4 or 5, sometimes more, colors, but generally 2-3 were subtle tones or shades of related colors. Picking out details in subtle tones and low contrast emphasizes dimension--doing it in strong light/dark contrasts flattens things our and can make it look fake or too circusy, especially if the wrong elements are picked out.

Here are some houses from France for inspiration. Note that the tones tend more toward cream than white white.

Downton Abbey and other BBC programs and Jane Austen movies, and books about the great country houses of England and France, can give you great ideas for period refined color schemes and how to place color on moldings. I tried to find an online guide, especially for doors, but haven't found one yet.

This is a little hard to read, but check out this link on pp. 40-42, especially 42, to get an idea of proper color placement and tonality on moldings and doors.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZATeHmlZNLsC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=paint+color+placement+for+panelled+doors&source=bl&ots=EFGxvNVjyD&sig=WGadMRo5WxxEa_1xd0KqXM7-VNc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oLvhUJ7HOMSQqgGA54Ag&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=paint%20color%20placement%20for%20panelled%20doors&f=false

A simple paint job will do wonders. Do a monochromatic color scheme.

A bit of neutralizing will go a long way toward increasing the beauty and perceived value of your home.
Consider replacing the doors as well.