I like the Wool Skein color as it appears to be a light yellow, a color I would suggest. I believe your home would look much better if you would paint the terra-cotta colored porch either the dark brown of your entry door or the light grey of the roof so that the entire color scheme will look unified. If you care to add shutters, please have them the same grey as the roof and have the house trim white.

Some things to remember, darker colors will be hotter in temperature than lighter colors. If you get full sun on the front porch in summer, a dark color will hold and radiate that color back on you, making your front porch hotter during the day and into the evening. But that might be a good thing if you want/need more heat and your home faces south in winter.

You can use your landscaping to work with your home color. Deciduous trees in winter will let the sun shine through onto your home (if south facing) and give you a boost of warmth during winter. Summer will give you shade in/around/above the porch, when the trees or shrubs have all their leaves.

Do you have a view you want to retain or block in the front of the home? Too much or too little light? Your landscaping can help out in that area.

You have a huge yard, and you can also create a garden area in front for additional enjoyment, with seating. Freestanding iron gazebo type structures can be very attractive, and add to the home's charm.

Another combination I am fond of is a very light blue or green paired with a very deep red. Here's a light green, red door, white windows and garage door, black shutters, grey roof.

http://www.galgeller.com/28490-exterior-paint-color-schemes-for-ranch-style-homes/

Taking under consideration the gray roof, you could try a dark blue on the walls with all other details (windows, door, railing) in sparkling white (i.e. Blue 2066-10 of Benjamin Moore) or you could replace blue by Crushed Velvet (or anything close to it - 2076-10 by Benjamin Moore again).

A combination I really love is the one on the photo. As I live on the Mediterranean coast, I have lots of sun (like in your place) and this combination proved to be very interesting, especially with the greenery around the house.

Yes, this is the combination but I have applied it on the external walls and the openings (door, window frames and shutters).

Another idea would be an all-white house with dark blue details and some pottery with red flowers in (geraniums need almost no care at all and come in very beautiful reds!).

Good luck!

A tail-end suggestion..

love the darker grey - adds lovely contrast with the white trim...

Perhaps this has already been suggested, but I like traditional looks and think your house would look great with a really dark grey on the wall (looks like stone or brick) around the windows, the deck and above the garage door gave. Any woodwork should be left white (classic and goes with you aeron deck chairs). The other areas of the house wall should be in a slightly lighter grey color- so you would have two different tones of grey. By keeping it neutral, you can now add colorful pillows to the chairs and lots of colorful plants (think fuchia, turquoise, blue etc) that will really popp against the grey background.

I think we all agree that groveraxle is an awesome virtual house painter!

Before I painted anything, though, I'd live with the house for at least a year. During that time, I'd visit the neighborhoods and see what colors I was attracted to. If Florida is a new area for you, it will take time to adjust to "Florida style". Something that looks great for colonial Massachusetts would not look so perfect in the Sunshine State.

I like the photo shop of the gray and the wood garage doors

Could grocer axle say what program he is using? I have the same issue with a FL home - see Mid century modern dilemma

I was thinking it might be awesome to paint your window trim darker (really the ideal is new, darker framed windows versus painting, but don't know your budget). This awesome house was in the houzz Sunday articles and is an example. Your home is charming; hope you have many happy days there.

We're replaced windows and garage door and I think replacing yours might cost about the same as painting the whole house (professionally). A new garage door would be wonderful. You could also paint your porch a warm gray or taupe with the darker window scheme and it would look smashing. You chose a great house. Enjoy!

Groveraxle, how did you do that? It's amazing to see the house in so many colors. I've been looking for a way to do this to my house, I can't decide on a color either. Sorry to hijack the thread, Abbott, just hoping to find out how this is done. Thanks :)

@jillguzzo, I Photoshopped it.

If you don't own Photoshop, you can use gimp, an open-source free image editor that does pretty much everything PS does.

I grew up in a house just like that that was built in 1957 in So. Florida. I vote for bright yellow. Stand out. Be different. It is just paint. If you get tired of it, change it.

I've been scrolling up looking at the options posted ... if it were my house I'd still find it near impossible to decide. So many look great. But then I'm a sucker for bright, white houses too. Not a lot of use to anybody, really. How do you feel, Abbott?

SO funny you read my mind! I am puzzled for the same reason you stated. If it were up to me right now, I think I'd repaint it WHITE! My family is ready for a color though. I have bought over 15 paint samples and still can't decide. I'm probably overthinking it though. Thanks for your insight and for everyone who has given such great ideas!

Abbott, Sometimes I agonize over decisions for months, then when I finally pull the trigger I wonder what took me so long. I'll tell you what I tell my daughter.... Just do it. It's paint, paint can be painted over.

Abbott - what about white trim and something colorful. What color do you wear most often? That might be a hint. I wanted a white house with blue trim sort of like Santorini or a blue house with white trim but it wouldn't work for our house (or our marriage), so we have a tan color with cream trim and a green roof and I have a blue kitchen.

SW's (and also now at Lowe's)

HGTV's Coastal Cool collection! 20 colors! Foolproof!

We did our small beach house in Comfort Gray (it's really not gray, though it seems so online), with Lemongrass trim!

Scanda blue front door, with our white windows and screen door.

I was afraid it would be too much color, but on an exterior in southern sun, most definitely it is not. I love it, love it!

What a sweet house you have; enjoy your changes.

Grover - you are a super duper nice person ! Kudos to you for helping a stranger with your visuals :)))

Just a thought-- stained wood garage door and front door will likely fade if any sunlight falls on them regularly. Painting them will be much more durable.

Forget trendy colors and embrace the age and location of your home! A solid medium yellow (no green undertones), with white trim/shutters. Clean, crisp and a lovely contrast for a green lawn, shrubs and every flower color will harmonize beautifully!

I just stayed at a house that was painted light gray ... actually 2 tones of light gray and the result was it looked liked shadowing and then they popped the front door with a bright yellow door.

I am not one to stay this long & read through all the suggestions but Abbott I am having the exact same problem as you. Yes its just paint but its a expensive project & if you end up choosing colors that don't sit well then you are stuck with it. My first impression when i saw your house picture was the bushes in front of the house-they are hiding your house. I would tone those down & add some sort of trim around that planting area-to define it. Something to keep in mind when choosing your house colors think of future landscaping colors you might chose-you don't want the colors in the landscaping to blend in or contrast with your house colors. Example if you like alot of red in your landscaping I personally wouldn't go with greens on my house-you will look like Christmas all year. My house is a ugly mustard color ,( see pic below) which i want to paint but its not in the budget yet so i added my favorite color yellow in my landscaping-looks ok but didn't do a thing to tone down that awful mustard color. Like others have suggested drive around your neighborhood see what appeals to you-you will know when you see it. Please come back with pics when you have decided. Your house is very cute and has lots to work with.

Lime green! Fun and citrus-y. If I ever moved to Florida, I wouldn't want a house that looked like it could be anywhere at all. Does the world really need more gray houses?

Sherwin-Williams has a great color visualization chart. Take a pic of your house and play with colors. It even has an area, you choose a base,and it will fill in coordinating trim colors. It has an area that recommends paint for historic homes, lifestyles, etc...

Your house would look great in a color palette of twilight gray-base house , paper lantern- in eaves, and trim,and smoky blue- shutters and door. Even paper lantern- base house, august moon- in eaves and trim, green sprout- shutters,and door.

i once upon a time saw a medium dark grey house, with mossy (yet acidy) green front door (not lime... but a deep rich color) it was accented with and even darker grey trim and it was insanely beautiful. it would be good looking with all that foliage around your place!

Well, how about a medium tan? I'm a tan fan. The right shade makes both black (porch fence) and white (window trim, porch furniture) pop, without freaking out the neighbors over a garish combination (it didn't look that bright on the sample card).

This is using one of the ready to paint homes on the PPG site and a good looking tan called Gaia:

Yes, all their homes are massive two-stories with shutters. But it does illustrate the pleasing contrast of both a white and black shade against the tan, and the center window is not unlike your own.

This is what happens when an idiot gets loose in their paint program, or perhaps the end result of a fly-by-night painting co:

All the more reason to appreciate Groveraxle's work.

It's understated, classic, comfortable. It will never scream at passersby, will look neat and tidy in all seasons, will take seasonal color accents without conflict. Such as landscaping colors, that change from spring blossom to summer green to autumnal glory.

You can easily update the look via the front door color. Yes, you can put in red, white, greys, blues, greens.

I'm still tempted to do the front edge of the porch in black. I do not know what the porch material is, but I would love to see a light checkerboard on the surface. Here's one at Benjamin Moore:

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/for-your-home/checkerboard-porch

Many combinations would work, view some images via a Google search for "checkerboard porch". Grey and white, black and white, there's one with an aged look doing red and white.

Checkerboards can be worked into the landscape design, pathways, focal points, etc. See if anything appeals to you in image searches.

I have a similar style house which needs updating and have been researching everything. The other day I found this on Houzz and felt it would be a stunning solution for a bungalow.

The nice thing is that you can alter it to your interest in gardening. I'm a big fan of boxwood, which works well with this design. I usually like simple architectural garden design, but this made me happy. I love how the color of the house and trim compliment the garden, giving the house much needed style. (like mine, also)

The landscape designer is David Morello Garden Enterprises if you want to go on his site. He has several different types of plantings depending on the month (and your area). Have fun!

Before

After - Plantings #1

After - Plantings #2

After - Plantings #3 Boxwoods

Porch - Wood Rail - Bluestone

Boxwood Ferns Geraniums Gravel
Boxwood Slate Walk

Try Dune by Sherwin Williams- many in our neighborhood have tried to copy it from our house on their homes but haven't been able- it's not yellow or beige but somewhere in between- a pretty neutral.

I love the lime green ^^

LOVE the light aqua and it's sooo Florida :)

I like to see the exterior give a hint as to what the interior colors are. It's like the cover of a book...it doesn't tell the story, but it gives you a clue what to expect. With that in mind, I'd choose a color that coordinates with your interior colors. If you really can't decide, just paint your front door with your favorite interior accent color for now. It's surprising how much easier it is to pick a house color once you've been greeted by a front door in a beautiful color for a while.

Dee, I have a suggestion for your "mustard" house. From the photo, I don't think it is the mustard itself, but the doors, trim and gravel that have a sort of pink-ish undertone. Yellow-ish and pink-ish are not things you want together. If you don't want to paint the house, you could paint your doors and trim a different color and it would make a big difference. (There is a designer with a website that talks about the different undertones of beige and why some combos look bad - even if you can't pinpoint exactly why. I'm sure someone here remembers the designer/website; I have seen it referenced in Houzz comments before.)

Abbott, you have some great options. I sort of like the medium gray with white trim and a bright door or the wool skein with white and some black accents. I sure hope you come back and show us the final results!

Did anyone ever answer the question as to the program to change the paint colors on a picture of your own house? I too need to paint, and get ideals for landscaping on shoestring budget.

Yes i would love to know the name of the program too.

There are quite a few options -- I don't recommend mine, because it's very old-fashioned Paint and extremely basic so it's a bit of a sweat. Several Houzzers, most notably Groveraxle, use Photoshop. And there are online facilities, including some on paint manufacturers' websites. I've seen Sherwin Williams mentioned a few times, I think. You might explore their site as a first step.

I use Photoshop Elements, and I believe both Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore have paint visualizer programs where you upload you image and just click what you want to paint. But those are a little messy and end up looking like they were painted by a toddler without using painter's tape.

I've heard of a free program called Gimp that gets good reviews. I don't know anything about it, but I've seen some renderings from it that looked really good. You could google it.

Oh, yes, I've also heard of Gimp. It sounds good.

I tried Sherwin Williams visualizer and gave up - wasn't user friendly for me...

Supposedly Hone Depot has a program where you take a pic of room/house..and then you pick a colour and apply. Haven't tried it so it may not be as "EASY" as the advert looks on Telly.

Sorry meant HOME DEPOT...

I'm in the process of selecting a color(s) for my 50's Florida ranch also. Because of the climate I am selecting colors that have a LRV (light reflective value) > 50% so my house doesn't absorb the heat from the sun and cost me more in utility bills. I average < $50/month in utility bills when I remodel houses. I have painted previous houses with a light peach color (which looks great with plants) and accessorized (shutters) with an aqua, one of the most complimented houses in the neighborhood. I recently painted a receding portion of a ranch house in a warm yellow after the grey house sat on the market for a month because it had no curb appeal. Once I added the yellow the house was shown several times and sold shortly after!

The website I referred to above is www.mariakillam.com I can't find the specific article on beige undertones right now, but the whole website is excellent for learning about color.

I have painted a similar house in charcoal with the windows, frames and spouting painted white. It would look stunning with white shutters either side of the front windows and you could put in white wooden Venetian blinds or white shutters inside which look very attractive from the road. If the front door has a white frame you could paint it black or a contrasting colour eg. scarlet. Charcoal looks good with shrubs and greenery that surround a house.

amnorcal...Huge thank-you for sharing www.mariakillam.com . I just spent the last hour reading & learning. Again thanks so much

You have so many suggestions and pictures to choose from...I would think it would all boil down to what is your favorite color...which do YOU prefer...The beautiful muted green and the pale cream or yellow hue..those are my favorites..but it depends on what look you are going for...I think the pale blues, tho beautiful are colors that, at least in my humble opinion, look more tropical or beachy...so ultimately its still about which color scheme "speaks" to you...have fun deciding!!

I am more partial to the gray tones, either light or dark, with black trim and you've got to have a RED DOOR! It is a must!

What an adorable house. I am sure by now you have painted it and enjoying your decision. If not, I will post my suggestions. I would rough up the brick exposing some texture. Are the gutters in good shape? If not, I would accent in black gutters, downspouts, wrought iron, and header above garage. I think keeping the body of the house white would look very nice. (It looks like your neighbor's house is dark grey. Therefore I would refrain from dark paint). The porch color provides a nice contrast and would blend well with partially exposed brick. I would straighten the flower bed and run it straight across the front of the porch planting sega palms, boxwood, or ornamental grass using red mulch. With such a neutral palate, you could paint your front door and furniture pieces, or pottery your favorite color: teal, yellow, red, navy, sage green, apple green. Wow, options are limitless. What a fun project. Good luck.