Pat - can you find a house here in houzz photos that generally looks like your home? Are you using board and batten siding? That is terrific on a farmhouse . . you prefer cedar / stained shutters? Sounds like you may prefer rustic board and batten shutters too.

What latitude are you in? Will your windows be prefinished vinyl white? Did you get muntins on top (i highly recommend some customization of the window muntins and it is inexpensive compared to the other elements). Green is nice with white windows and brown roof - you may want to do a cool brown / warm gray roof so you have a lot of freedom later.

To answer your query, some people are doing modern farmhouses and painting them black (this is a very trendy idea), others with white love red - doing a red house with fat white trim would be very charming. Here's a green roof and white house - classic. They did some terrific single vertical window muntins. One of my favorite farmhouses in my area has a red roof, green body and white trim - and it is gorgeous. Sherwin williams has good colors, and they will make all the ben moore colors in their paint - that is a great spectrum to have.

Look at the exterior photos on houzz and see if you can find a green farmhouse - look at this link- that looks like you want yours to look. Green being a nature color - there are as many different greens as there are houses . .

http://www.houzz.com/photos/exterior/query/farmhouse/nqrw

Holly Ridge Farmhouse · More Info

Menlo Oaks Residence · More Info

Or, do you have something like a front elevation on your plans in a pdf that you can jpg? There are as many different "farmhouses" as there are states!

How exciting to see it come together in such a lovely setting.

Looking at the proportions of your windows, there are only a few that support shutters (you want enough space on both sides for shutters to close over the window). There just are only one or two windows like this so I want to suggest that you not do any shutters since they won't be balanced. Fat exterior trim is going to be your best friend around the windows instead.

If the base of the columns of the porch are in stone or brick (they are fat and square but I can't make out the material) then we need to key the colors to the natural stone or brick tones. If these are concrete block that will be faced then picking out the stone at the same time is a good idea. If you have a stone or brick or manufactured product picked out then I need you to post that so all is coordinated.

The green that I'm going to suggest for your farmhouse is deep - given the greens around you in nature, you are trying to nestle in to your setting with green. So, add the fat white trim ( 1 x 8 - 1 x 10), white eaves, white posts / rail, porch ceiling, fascia. .. for the walls, board and batten siding - for the garage - double cross white doors. A dark green - sw evergreen http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-family/SW6447-evergreens/#/6447/?s=details&p=PS0

Look for dark roof tones if you head this direction - roof not lighter than the walls. Red roof shingles would be amazing with this approach.

One additional question libradesigneye - would you paint the shakes the same color as the vertical siding - or would you contrast those areas. Maybe a brown tone? Thank you!!

Okay that stone definitely changes my mind about some things. Your stone has brown with gold and red undertones and a tad charcoal and a tad gold. The charcoal / black has a blue undertone. Green is not your color here. Is the stone already on the front of the house beneath the porch? I think using the same stone quantity but in different places would give you a much better result. Let me think and look and think about your shake elements and be back.

Pat - I can't recommend you use this stone under the porch on the house front. The same quantity tiled to the front of your concrete foundation will be more attractive and not cost you any money (except the board and batten to go in its place - not a lot). This would be more true to the farmhouse architecture and look nicer in the long run than breaking up the facade and using something dark there in the shade. It is a manufactured product (perfectly useful) but when it is nicked or broken it shows that it is fake. That is bound to happen over time but you don't want it where it will get the most wear and tear like a busy porch.

I think you want to key your roof color to this stone - there is a maximum definition resawn cedar (LOOK) shake in the lines of the major roof manufacturers. That is going to repeat these tones and have the highest end look for you. see here at certainteed http://www.certainteed.com/products/roofing/Residential/designer/308747#

Black iron fixtures in a sort of barn / farmhouse rustic style would be great here.

The tapered columns sound good - is that the stone piece and the wood above or just the stone element? Taper can indicate a sort of craftsman genre and you want to stay away from that.

Let me come back to discuss board and batten and shake in your gables.

Guessing you are not planning to carry the board and batten siding up through the gable - that does take special planning on the builders part to get the lengths you would need. I see that the underlayment is a little different in the gables.

Still, the builder can do a wide / feature trim piece at the base of the gable and still carry your board and batten above - that is my recommendation on the front of the house to the far left where you have the one wonderful elevation that goes straight up to give that true farmhouse feeling. If that end and the dormer areas get the board and batten siding, then the end gables and the rear gable of the twins could go shake very nicely.

Because of your house proportions, I don't think you are going to want anymore brown on the front of your house than the roof and the stone base are going to provide. I couldn't recommend painting anything brown.

But, a charcoal front door on a dark brown undertone white for the house would be gorgeous with the stone and give you more of the farmhouse feel you were looking for. Test sherwin williams zurich white, aesthetic white and windfresh white - http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-family/SW7035-aesthetic-white/#/7035/?s=coordinatingColors&p=PS0

Outside, you want a bit darker shade of white - especially on a house designed to look like it could have been there one hundred years. Titanium white just looks bad on an exterior - it is too white and blue. Here, I would pick the windfresh white because it is the darkest white - paint the trim the same color. On an exterior, it has so much natural light that it will reflect everything.

If you had your heart set on a color for a front door, try sw bees wax - it is a lovely soft gold shade that will echo what is in the stone but not fight it .. .wonderful on an exterior door. Looks like soft butter http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-family/SW7682-bees-wax/#/7682/?s=similarColors&p=PS0

otherwise - charcoal on the front door black iron barn style exterior fixtures - cross buck white garage doors .. . .

For the right shade of charcoal for the front door - SW just doesn't have it. SW will make any ben moore color though, and this is the one that will pick up the slate tones in your stone. Tell the sw people bm bracken slate #cw-690 http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/brackenslate#ce_s=slate

Hope this helps - good luck.

If you really don't like the idea of a white farmhouse, come back and tell me. It's classic but if it isn't right for you, we can explore some other shades.

You have been so gracious to offer this extensive help. I have a lot to consider and decide - and you have definitely helped that process. Can't thank you enough!! :-)

Again I thank you so much for your thoughtful suggestions. I feel like we have some direction with well considered options. We live in NC - come see us when you're on this side of the world! Thanks very much - blessings, Pat