https://www.houzz.com/photos/quiet-casual-home-exterior-traditional-exterior-columbus-phvw-vp~93808

You our can work with the existing green. Perhaps a wood front door and trim color not so stark white.

First off, I think you have a lovely home! I wish they built homes with more traditional styling like yours where I live in California. We have the garage face problem too but none of the charm of your siding, shutters, and porch.

Yes, paint the garage door a darker color, I agree. Same color as the siding color you choose or darker, including the trim.

I love Craftsman style too, but I wouldn't try to turn your colonial into a craftsman. It would be a house with an identity crisis; it's meant to be a colonial.

I would suggest starting with thinking about what lifestyle you want to have and therefore what design style and era you want to echo. The more the outside of your home reflects what you love, the less cookie cutter it will be.

If you love a cozy, welcoming cottage feel, you could add a low natural wood picket fence and gate around the front yard, a whitewashed brick or stone path curving to the front porch, and cheerful and free form plantings of shrubs, flowers, and herbs (think English lavender) in curving beds along the inside of the fence and around the front of the house. I would use a soft color palette for the house for a cottage feel- ivory or cream siding, taupe or pale greens or blues for the shutters and door (paint both the same color). And a trellis with something like honeysuckle climbing over the garage. I love cottage gardens, but they are more upkeep.

If you love a stately, elegant look, I would go for high contrast colors and symmetrical plantings using repetition. Black or dark colored shutters and door, light siding, dwarf evergreen trees in black pots at the corners of the garage and porch, a low manicured boxwood hedge up a straight and wide front walk coming from the street- that type of thing. Simple is elegant.

Good luck! You're starting with a great canvas as far as cookie cutter houses go!

Thank you all for the great feedback. We are zone 5b for hardiness. We love low maintenance landscaping but we also would like to add a splash of color with perennials or annuals. I love the navy shutter idea with the green siding. The gray shutters we have now are so bland. Would we paint all the trim that is white a softer ivory? Definitely love the garage door upgrade. Should our garage door be wood colored with the windows or go with the traditional white and windows with hinges? Our driveway right now is asphalt and needs to be replaced would it brighten the house to go with a broom finish concrete?

We originally thought it would be nice to extend our front porch and awning to the end of the house and opening our walkway a bit more. My husband also thought it would be nice to add 3 dormers on the top. We thought it would probably be a big project and cost a lot of money. We did a little mock up of what it would look like.

Then we thought, let's embrace our colonial style house and focus on the front door and open the pathway and line it with boxwoods similar to this picture

and possibly add the dormers. However, our door is not centered with our windows and if you look at our home we have a lonely circle window on the right side of the front door.

I would love your input on these things.

Don't think you will get results proportionate to the expense of adding dormers.

I think the front door is a problem. I can't see it that well, but it seems like there is a lot of very bright trim and the sidelights somehow don't seem to be in proportion to the rest of the house.

I think that if you painted the red parts of the front door and the big white garage door the same color as the shutters, you would have a better starting point from which to evaluate options. And it would cost almost nothing.

It's fundamentally a handsome house. I think a few things would enhance it:

1. Pull your landscaping forward. It would add depth to your currently flat facade. A broad walkway would emphasize and draw your eye to the front door.

2. The curves in these garage doors break up the rectilinear look a bit, as would a curved walkway, and the color makes them recede somewhat too.

3. Lights with bling!

4. A simple, graceful door. Full sidelights are more elegant, and painting only the door makes it look slim and graceful too. I like this blue with your green siding & brown roof, though maybe someone could recommend a fresher color scheme overall. Paint the column white and maybe get a more substantial one too.

Not shown in the mock-up, but I'd consider adding cove molding between the flat trim boards and the eaves just for a little dresser trim treatment.

Awm03 this idea is amazing. Thank you very much. Can't wait to get to work.

You're welcome, cindymulk. Glad to spark a few ideas for you.

Wall pergola over the garage door. This one from DC America on Amazon and Lowes On Line. Very inexpensive.

Love green and white gardens with multiple plants. I have Annabelle hydrangeas with boxwood, looks amazing. You could plant some lovely big trees as well

Definitely think a carriage house style garage door would have a huge impact. If you are looking for a low-maintenance, insulated door, check out Clopay's Coachman Collection. http://www.clopaydoor.com/coachman There are many design options and window styles to choose from. You can use Clopay's Door Imagination System http://www.clopaydoor.com/door-imagination-system to upload a photo of your home and try on different styles. The doors shown in the renderings above are either Design 11 or Design 13 with Arch or REC windows. Professional dealers are located throughout the US and Canada. http://www.clopaydoor.com/where-to-buy

The row of shrubs along the front should be removed and replaced with evergreens like boxwood, taxus, possibly holly. There should be a solid run with no gaps. Consider using some color on your columns. contrasting or coordinating.

In your zone you can plant River Birch trees. They add texture and would show up nicely against your facade.

Also, your garage door gets too much attention as it is a lighter color. I would paint it the same or darker. Wherever you can increase window trim and paint it lighter.