leave the brick and paint the siding blue. remove the front porch, or expand it take the shrubs out, if you expand the deck the brick will be less seen anyway. I love the colors on the below.

Wendy is your goal to go sort of contemporary with the house? Or are you thinking rustic?

Grover is the guy to come along and give you a photoshop makeover.

If you were to use cedar, using it at the existing siding locations would give you a lot more visibility for the outlay. The color of your brick is great - kind of a neutral taupe, so it can read contemporary or cottage or rustic.

If you go contemporary, you would want a deeper greige trim , you want new more contemporary house lights, take off the shutters, undo all the cottage elements on the porch (the trellis, the newel posts). You might put stairs all the way around so your porch has no railings - operates as a deck.

Cottage treatment here wouldn't use cedar at all. You might paint all the pink stuff a nice blue green shade - fortpierce green is a good one . .

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/fortpiercegreen

with white trim and shutters to match the porch . . that would give you a bit more cottage-y solution. You could have a softer toned door - the boca raton blue.

Find a porch that does what you want here . . use the houzz pictures to hone your vision.

Colors aside, what you really need to do is get rid of all that awful, eye stopping, railing. It's kinda like the big mole on a pretty lady's face, where I can't take my eye's off it despite the mental torture of not being able to do so.

Railings are generally not required for less than 30" to the ground. It looks like you have about half that.

Did you post this picture before?

libradesigneye, I am about 200 yards from lake Huron if you look out the tiny kitchen window (lol)you can see it! so with that being said, I feel rustic is what would fit. I am struggling with the brick and having a hard time envisioning...anything past the brick. I have decided to remove the shrubs for sure and we are going to opened the porch up (removing over half of it) and making a flagstone pathway back to the driveway. ok. with all that being said...I know these are good, cheap ideas to do its just the dang color I cant see!! I have accepted that the brick is going nowhere, so the only thing I can say for sure is no beige. nonono no! this is where I will not bend ; ). Mia, yes I have posted this photo prior and yes, I'm still struggling! thanks for your help, guys. especially to architectrunnerguy...your pleasantries are just lovely.

Ok Wendy, sorry for being a little too graphic visual but if you've ever seen the movie "Roxanne" you can relate to what I'm talking about.

So, in the spirit showing what I WAS talking about, here's a photo of a production tract house where we had a low to the ground porch like yours. This porch looks like it's about the same distance off of the ground within a few inches or so.

I dispensed with the railing altogether and it resulted in an open welcoming look without a bunch of railings everywhere to stop the eye. Carry the steps all the way around the porch and make them a bit wider, 12" or so with 6" risers. That's what these are. A nice shallow rise.

It not only gives the house a "pedestal" to sit upon it makes your house a lot more welcoming. Visualize this house with the same railings, lattice and stair handrails you have and it's a lot more "closed in".

And the real beauty is, is this suggestion costs minimal $$. Maybe less over time without the railings to maintain.

Again, sorry for being a little graphic with the mental image I painted. Obviously could have stated that better!!

In any event hope this helps however.

Hey Wendy: I don't think the blue and brown will go together well. Or maybe it's just me because I've never been a big fan of blue siding.

I like the deck there. Once again I'd forgo the railings and in addition, make the risers white so it visually ties into the house better.

I like the deck to. It doesnt need to be large, due to the fact that it is facing the road and the back of the home has a much larger deck that we utilize. We are sitting on over an acre of wooded property, so I'm tending to lean towards cottagey rustic colors...argh...too many choices! it is snowing (again) here today...hopefully by june we can get the shrubs out so I have a better visual. thanks for your help so much!

Here's an idea that should make the brown "blues" you are singing with the roof and the brick feel like they are just grounding the space. You've got a golden brown roof, brick with taupe and some terracotta, with white windows and porch (even after rework I'm going to assume you are still dealing with white. Olive siding would work with all of that .. something like bm providence olive http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/providenceolive

You would be more rustic if you replaced the shutters (not the ones at the picture window, but the others) with cedar board and batten shutters .. if you do the entry deck that way . . but I can't recommend cedar here - your windows are white so I would instead keep the white entry porch (fix the steps and railing per advice above) and use lancaster white (another historic color) for trim and fascia. You could do cottage red shutters and front door - that would make the brick take a back seat . . red and green and white . . very rustic / lake house vibe. . I would love to see board and batten shutters with cutouts painted red . . or, you might prefer red siding and white shutters and trim . . that would require a red-orange red to work with the brick well but it could be darling .. blue is going to make the small amounts of orange appear more orange . .

ahhh....I'm digging this idea! ok, ok...theres more to this world than blue! thank you! Im going to Benjamins sote to play around...ps...I have thst type of shutter "pinned" in pinterest, but I was told a opinion of no shutters at all....lets see both ways: )

I was just thinking no shutters, there is enough going on, and its really creating a lot of boxy looking spaces.

Trim (and shutters if you must) should all be charcoal. Leave the brick alone -- it already matches the roof. Get rid of as much of the white on your entrance porch as you can, and maybe consider a simpler railing or a new configuration...

Ok, you got me into Photoshop. here are a couple of stages:

acm THANK YOU! just having the visual helps me sooo much. Opening the porch is a definite now! the shutters are something im willing to let go easily and the shrubs have to be replaced with something much lower. I cant thank you enough for taking the time to do that! very appreciated!

Ok, finally had a chance to look at this. Get rid of the railings like I said and expand the deck slightly. Make the risers 6" or so and make the treads 18" so we get a nice gradual welcoming rise up to the door. Possible bench over on the left and we can stop one step short to great a nice place for a ceramic pot with a plant/flowers. Maybe build some hardscape in front of it so we're not walking up the drive around a car. And some more landscaping on the left.