Hi Krista. Congratulations on your new house! You have room for shutters on the ground level but not on the dormer level. Appropriately sized shutters would be large enough to cover the windows when closed. You may want to consider painting your storm door whatever color you paint the front door so it all blends in. You could also paint your garage door a color close to the house color to help it blend in as well. The Benjamin Moore, Behr and Sherwin Williams web sites all allow you to upload a picture and try out colors. How about a color like Benjamin Moore Plum Perfect for your door and Ebony Slate, which is a deep purple infused with black for your shutters?

Good luck with your project!

The main thing I would do is add a portico like your dormers over your front door as the overhang on the eves isn't enough. You could make it big enough to have a nice front porch if possible.

Love your cape style home. Mine is similar but no dormers.

Look at timberlane.com for shutter styles. Make sure you get the right size shutters, they should cover the window when closed. If you are leaving the body gray, you have a neutral so lots of colors would look great. I would not say the main thing to do is add a portico, most capes in my Massachusetts coastal town do not have them.

Congratulations! You have a lovely home with a lot of potential! Consider larger light fixtures for the front of your home. They will enhance the appearance of the entrance, especially after you add shutters and paint your front door. Good luck!

You could lean to a green blue too.

http://houzz.com/photos/4816678

Here are various types of enhanced Cape Cod Homes. You can alter colors on your images if you have PAINT on your Windows 7 or Windows XP.

I would opt for more trim around your windows and not shutters.

Maybe these photos will provide you with some inspiration.

Congratulations on your new home! Looking at how the front door is balanced with one window on the left and two to the right and the nice space between the light fixtures and the entry. I would put shutters on the front door also, to make it more prominent and balance it with the windows. So there would be four sets of shutters across the first story maybe in a deeper gray and possibly paint the garage door a deeper gray to give it depth and balance/tie in the shutters on the other end of the front and use another color red,blue or yellow on the front door to focus the eye on the entry. Shutters on the front door would cost less than an overhang, would increase the visual size of the front door and your house seems set up perfectly for that kind of format. Larger lights would help the proportions also. Just a thought, good luck and enjoy your new home.

Another alternative to shutters by the door is to have a carpenter add wide decorative trim work to the sides and top if room. Give the door more "presence" for very little money. New entry lights sooner than later as first thing quests see. Again not need to be over the top expensive. Shutters on first floor at a minimum. When landscaping add a border of small shrubs/perennials to the right side of the walk to add color and soften the concrete walk. Vary the width not a straight skinny border line, some depth. A new portico over door while really nice far more expensive than the above suggestions. Could add a few years down the line while keeping all these small investments.

Thank you everybody; I really appreciate your ideas!!!

I now realize that I am more drawn to the houses without shutters and have the thick trim/ window grilles... do you actually think our house would look that good? :) Hopefully it will look like the house BeverlyFLADeziner shared.. Keep the white door then? (and new storm door!!) We do not want to paint the garage to clarify our plans..

Window grills would help a lot. Just tops would keep cost down. Should be able to order thru manufacturer if windows not too old.
New storm, full glass. Paint the front door starting with a soft color if not sure of choice. Can always get bolder, painting front door easy and only a can of paint. Step by step always improving curb appeal. It will be lovely and you will get great pleasure pulling into the driveway.

Krista, perhaps consider painting the front door black and purchasing a full view black storm door from a company like Larson. Then increase the size of the wall lanterns and select a new version in black to make a bigger statement for the front entrance.

I think in the future it would be nice to add a gable roof over the entrance. With your widely spaced light fixtures the builder provided you the space to install a front door that would have side lites on either side.

Fatter trim it is. Do paint your front door though. Your house is classic so black is always right, but if I had your house color, I would do a historic grayed blue green. Test bm templeton gray - adds just that bit of cottage charm to make it all feel a bit more vintage. See it at http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/templetongray great against a pale warm gray like yours . . .

or here at houzz

Then, study cottage landscapes for layers of flowering shrubs and concentrate on landscape plantings in zig zag layers - massing odd numbers of the same shrubs in groupings that will grow together - a group of five here (a little taller) behind a group of three ... use the mature growth distance but use it on the diagonal so they fill a little sooner visually but still have the right spacing at maturity .. look for shrubs that don't need regular trimming but have a nice natural architecture ...... you can layer groundcover in the front. Consult your local Sunset garden book and nurseryman if this is your thing and a landscape designer if it isn't. Make sure their website shows cottage garden landscapes as something they do . or the kind of landscape you prefer if that isn't your thing. Rows of bulbs along the edge of the existing pavement / stone liner will pay off big next spring - remember to plan ahead for daffodills and tulips.

There's another color that would be great on your front door - a soft buttery yellow - sw has bees wax that is terrific outdoors

I have the same color here's what I did. Landscaping in progress. Going to add picket fence and lamp post on the right side. Door color is BM Mayo Teal

I like the fatter trim idea as well. Maybe some window boxes for visual interest or just lots of pretty, free flowing landscaping.

Window boxes are very charming with a cape cod - love yours and the blue green doors northwindgirl

Love bluewindgirls' door color. Going to try it on my new England gray cape for some new punch.

I would consider putting a decorative tall wood trellis between the garage door and the window and grow some type of flowering climbing plant like a clematis or mix clematis and roses.

Yes, fatter trim, red door and storm door!!

I love the fatter trim idea as well, and agree with others about blue, green blue, or grey blue. Love that BM Templeton Grey. Yum!

congrats on the new house! I love having things to do for a house. one thing I did to make our large garage door seem not to pop out, was have the garage company put on black decorative hinges and handles. love the look and so do all my neighbors. several have copied me.

Building a portico would be expensive. To keep a cottage look, you could add a wide arbor with vines/climbing flower that spans the front door and light fixtures. Then you could add a single large shutter the same size as the front windows onto each - toward the garage door on the single window, and on the side away from the front door on the other two. Window boxes on the dormers with red or bright pink flowers - fake would be ok because no one will see them too closely! A carriage house style garage door, and of course, redo the front gardens. If you don't do shutters, I agree that wide trim makes a world of a difference, we just did that to our house. Amazing. But then you should have window boxes on the lower level too.

When I can't decide on a color, I go and get a bunch of color cards from the paint store of any and all colors I think are pretty, then go home and stand back and hold them up so I can see what they look like (in this case) on the door against the house. Gray is a neutral color so you can use almost any color that makes you and your husband happy! Go bright and bold or calm and serene. It's just paint! If you choose a color you don't like you can easily paint over it. HGTV magazine always has a door of the month with fun colors and accessories to match. Add plantings that complement the door color. The right landscaping goes a long way in adding color and interest to a home. All of the paint makers have uploads you can use to see what colors look like on/in your home. Or, search Houzz for painted front doors!

a link for front door pictures from HGTV https://www.google.com/search?q=hgtv+magazine+front+door+colors&rlz=1T4GGNI_enUS488US489&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CD8QsARqFQoTCNfMp-Kvv8cCFUerHgodZmoH7g&biw=1280&bih=531

Years ago I worked for a real estate developer. Part of my job was choosing the exterior colors for the home builders in a planned community. Fun! The key is to choose one color for the front doors and a different color for the shutters. The garage door looks best painted the same color as the shutters.

First, however, I would add a portico and beef up the front steps. Do it now. You won't regret it, and the project won't get left behind as something you'll get around to later. It will transform your home. I'd also say goodbye to the storm door if you can.

A previous commenter recommended Timberlane. They make beautiful shutters, and you can add cut-outs. I had these made for a home. They were lovely. See the first photo, below. Timberlane's site has a lot of photos to inspire you. Their staff can help as well.

As for specific colors, I gloss cranberry is always my favorite. A darker shade of the home's color could work nicely. Stick to historic colors for the shutters like Benjamin Moore's Storm AF-700 might work, or Little Falls 1621.

Here are some photos to get you started. You can see how a portico adds real curb appeal. Your home is beautiful!

Krista, I can appreciate your liking the thicker trim work--it gives the house a more substantial feel and looks truer to the period than the more modern millwork. Historically, many cape cod houses have (working and well proportioned) shutters on the lower floor and not on the dormers. Shutters on your dormers would crowd them, IMO. Great house - good luck!

Maybe make the garage door more interesting with faux windows. There are a variety of kits available - this one on eBay has decals - http://www.ebay.com/itm/FAUX-WINDAUX-DECORATIVE-GARAGE-DOOR-WINDOWS-DOUBLE-KIT-/140897720305. I've also seen DIY tutorials for painting them on.

Love the house! I see a front porch across the whole front of the house with a white railing and then landscaping in front of the porch. Also a walkway either leading to the driveway from the porch or all down along the edge of the driveway and then landscaping along the walkway. They say you can safely use 3 colours when painting your house so you could still choose another colour for shutters and yet another for the front door. Have fun!

Yes three colors is great. I like change and so our house has been painted 3 times in 24 years have used 3 colors each time. Black shutters are really hard to keep clean looking depending on the area you live in. We are surrounded by oak trees and neighboring farm fields. It just seemed like they always looked dirty no matter how hard we tried to keep them clean. A bright front door is always fun. When picking colors if you could get the sample size paints and try them out in the light they are going to be in that will help a lot. Valspar house paint is the best paint we have ever used. It is very fade resistant. Try to pick colors that are grouped together for color choices. It's very easy if you go all over the color wheel to get a color tones that doesn't match. That's not fun once you get going. Hope your new home turns out the way you imagine!!

I think it would greatly improve your curb appeal to put more curves in your front planting areas. Adding some colorful shrubs and some flowering perennials like a Limelight hydrangea and some Blackeyed Susans. Some arborvitae on both sides of the door would highlight the entrance way. It looks a bit stark and elongated with all the rectangular lines. I also vote for a colorful front door maybe in a deep red. The photo is just to illustrate how much more appealing curved lines look in your planting beds.

Our homes are very similar and I am thinking of going with a pale misty, sea salt green. Let us know what you decide and congrats on your new home.

I like Beverley's advice. I also have a cape cod and just pulled off the shutters. I don't like shutters that are not the right size to actually be working shutters and therefore I'm going to add wider trim. I think there needs to be distinction between the garage and the house whereas now it is all one straight line. A portico would help, but I don't think it is ideal. Perhaps if there was also a white picket fenced area about 10 feet out from the house that extended across the house and thus showed a separate area "jutted out" from the garage. Then it might make the garage visually look set back in from the house like the images attached to Beverley's post. Inside the picket fence you could have a wide walkway and flower beds.

A more expensive alternative to the picket fence is a covered veranda across the house. Maybe that could be a long-term project if you don't mind the porch roof making the house interior darker.

Congrats on buying a cape cod though. I love the style and they can look gorgeous with changing simple things like colour.

I like Beverley's advice. I also have a cape cod and just pulled off the shutters. I don't like shutters that are not the right size to actually be working shutters and therefore I'm going to add wider trim. I think there needs to be distinction between the garage and the house whereas now it is all one straight line. A portico would help, but I don't think it is ideal. Perhaps if there was also a white picket fenced area about 10 feet out from the house that extended across the house and thus showed a separate area "jutted out" from the garage. Then it might make the garage visually look set back in from the house like the images attached to Beverley's post. Inside the picket fence you could have a wide walkway and flower beds.

A more expensive alternative to the picket fence is a covered veranda across the house. Maybe that could be a long-term project if you don't mind the porch roof making the house interior darker.

Congrats on buying a cape cod though. I love the style and they can look gorgeous with changing simple things like colour.

Congrats on your new home! I would look for light fixtures you love- the ones near the front door should be larger. I agree on not painting the garage door- and adding additional moulding around the window & door frame. Nice house numbers that coordinate w your light fixtures would be great.

Awnings can also look very nice. I would put canvas awnings on each window and over the door. I love turquoise blue with gray.

Congratulations! Now about that white, wide, garage door. Have you considered a mural? I think a landscape would help disguise it and add to your overall landscaping!

Someone may have already answered this part but Sherwin Williams website has a great color visualizer where you can upload your photo.

Whoa. Option overload. And of course, I have changed my mind!

After soaking in all of these wonderful ideas and a nice dose of reality, I am back to shutters!! We thought through the logistics of adding thicker trim and we're not so keen about plucking off and trimming our (aluminum!?) siding and beyond. In my daydreaming it seems I was trying to turn our cape cod into a craftsman.. Sigh, they're beautiful.

I am so very thankful for the suggestions and plan to utilize many of them!! Hopefully we'll have some progress to show in a few weeks!

Krista-I would only suggest if you're going to add shutters, which are perfectly appropriate for a cape, that only add them to the bottom windows. There really is not enough room on the dormers to add the appropriate size shutters. Can't wait to see pics of your progress!

Krista - trim should go on top of siding, even aluminum siding . . if that helps. No contractor should tell you he has to trim it back to get the look you want. Thick trim is just that - trim - they can use part of the trim that is there now and add to it. Craftsman trim and vintage cape cod trim are darn near the same - don't let a contractor tell you about design (being a contractor who actually studied design) most of them don't know too much.

Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue is my favorite door and shutter color. Especially with gray.

Bring out the color of the house with colorful landscaping on the right side of the door. I agree red door and possible black or white shutters I would not use yellow.

Krista another idea would be to do some trellises with beautiful roses or evergreen vines such as asiatic Jasmine over some of the windows or either the front door or garage doors. A lot of cape cod style homes do that to add interest with the landscaping.

Also. Changing out your light fixtures on each side of the front door to something larger and maybe in a black finish. Some type of lantern looking light, would look nice. as a rule your fixtures should be approximately one third of the length of the door so if your door is 9 feet high your fixtures should be around 3 feet long.

Try Owens Corning's website to try various roof colors paired with various colors of doors, shutters, trim. You can upload a photo of your house or use their model homes for ideas

Hi Krista S,

Your new home looks lovely. We are the oldest open
flame/electric copper lighting company in the U.S. and hand make every one of our
fixtures in New Orleans, LA. We have hundreds of different lighting
combinations and offer a complimentary design service. From your picture, the French Quarter lantern or the Governor Carriage lantern are just two options that would work well for your home. Feel free
to email us pictures of your space and we will be happy to make style
and scale recommendations. Happy updating! -Lindsey

2015 post.