Cute house -- not sure it needs a ton of changes. Would remove that one pair of undersized shutters, then maybe you can paint your front door black instead, for a classic feel and to draw the eye to your entrance. Landscaping looks nice... I think this place looks great! Give it a few seasons to get a feel for the place before you jump into any big things. I think you'll be busy inside.

Thanks acm! The landscaping is really nice and it's very well-maintained - I'm just looking for more of a "wow" factor (eventually). So you'd remove the shutters entirely and not repaint or replace?

I also agree with removing the shutters. They are only on one window and they are not the correct size. I would paint all the trim to match the siding and add a lantern style sconce next to the entry door.

What a really nice house! Best wishes. Everyone always gets upset when I suggest painting the brick, but I feel that it will give your home better street presence.

1) Remove the shutters and add a wider trim around the windows and doors.

2) Paint the brick and upper portion of the house the same color to delineate the shape of the house.

3) Paint the trim around the windows, doors and roof trim white or off white.

4) Consider cladding the columns on the front porch with wood to frame the entrance.

5) Plant an evergreen, like a blue spruce, in front of the electrical meter on the front of the house.

6) I have a red front door and a trick that a contractor once gave me, was to paint the door bright pink first and then the second coat the red I liked. It will brighten up the red. This will help especially since your door is set back.

7) Install beadboard on the ceiling of the porch and stain or paint it.

8) Add lighting, lanterns and house numbers, and front door mat. Anything to say welcome.

Hope this helped some.

Note: Light and wider trim, detail around second floor window, clad columns

Note: Wider trim painted white, pavers on floor, stained beadboard on porch ceiling

Simple landscaping, light trim, detail over second story window
This is before and after: Note the difference when the house is lightened up, shutters removed

Love the orange/red color of these doors

Paint the white siding more of a khaki color. Dark red or darker sage green would look good for the door and trim. Replace the wrought iron railing with a wooden one. That is a truly adorable house!

Thanks all! These are great suggestions that I never would have thought of. (And I didn't even notice the electrical meter but now I can't NOT see it!) It might be a little while before we tackle the exterior, but I'll be sure to report back when we do!

My father offered to do some Photoshopping based on these suggestions and here's what he came up with:

What did he do? I like the red door and crisp white trim - what did I miss? New address..... ?

everdebz: He colored the white siding gray and the brown trim white. He also removed the shutters from the window on the left and added wider white trim around all the windows. Finally, he removed the storm door, colored the door an orange-red and added an evergreen tree in front of the electrical meter.

Great idea adding the evergreen in front of the meter. Here are two more paint options...

love those changes tho i might not go fad gray, and rather a taupe/greens or charcoal or blue here's my take

Lauren B - That looks so much better. Also consider adding white trim around the front door to tie it in to the rest of the trim and the front door will stand out - and especially with the red door.

Add horizontal white trim across the entire front over the living room window at the bottom edge of the siding. I still would like to see the brick columns clad in wood and painted the same as the trim. Here are several pic examples.

Consider painting the concrete walk if it's in good shape. Easy to do, just follow directions.

Installing brick on the risers of stairs and slate slabs on the treads will clean up the front steps

Thanks Denise! Great suggestions!

A contractor gave me a tip on painting the front door red: Paint a base coat in a bright pink first and then the second coat the color red you want. The pink primer will make the red bright and crisp. I have always had a red front door and if you just paint red it has a tendency to be dark and dull.

Consider these colors. When there are many elements to a facade, these colors help to blend all of them into a cohesive curb appeal.

It also appears that your first floor windows:

are recessed into the brick opening without wide casing and have no room above them before the wood siding begins.

Given these conditions, retrofitting casing on the brick is problematic.

Just paint the windows and it's brick molding around them all the same color.

Also suggest a couple of interior plantation shutters in upper windows to add a vertical line to the window bringing its style closer to the first floor windows.

oh you can change out the porch light too! something more fitting for the home!

Did you notice the red brick pavers edging the concrete walk? It's in the last pic ScottDesign posted. Nice way to make the walkway more important and sharpen the edges.

You have a cute little house. But if you have the budget and go whole hog, this is what I would do.

Your windows are of late 70's and early 80's design, which is non consistent with the theme of your house. Replacing them might save you money on heating and cooling. (Cost approximately $1000+ per window depending on many factors)

Replace the windows with something more appropriate to the house's time frame and of proper size. I might go with a nice round window near the roof peak.

I would then replace the lower window with something more appropriate and an appropriate exterior sil, crown, and apron for the house. The popular trend is no shutters on new homes. But on old homes I think they are still a vital decorative element when paired with the appropriate windows as they act as visual framing.

I would then cover the house in vinyl siding to suggest the unified look. (Yes siding can be put over brick). Cost about $2000->$3500 / side. I would go with narrow slat design as this is both more appropriate for the design period and would give your house a "larger" look.

Your porch brick columns are rather "heavy" looking. I would rip them out and replace them with wood columns atop a natural stone base that ties in with the porch. Cap off the steps with slate, or place field stone facade on the front of the steps. (Concrete has a tendency to get dirty and look hard) Tear down the front porch wall to make it more "open" At the porch peak, put a round design element to tie in with the round window.

You could place the garage door with one of these: (available at home depot) (Roughly $1000 + labor)

Cheap changes/additions:
For the long wall in front of the garage, near the window you can insert a house star to break up the space. (I would suggest a rose trellis but you don't have any area to work there)

You could change the entire area behind the sidewalk into a garden. Keep topiary towards the rear near the house to cover up the negative space. For a bonus, add a natural stone retaining wall that follows the edge of the sidewalk. Add yuppy lighting (garden and path lighting) to the pathway. This is a relatively cheap addition you can do yourself. It's not hard with some hard work. If you don't like gardening, then you can place a decorative tree there. Up lit Weeping Willows or white birch, apsen (poplar), blooming dog woods, pear trees could be cute and would stand out from your neighbors. But that's a personal preference. If you replace the windows you can also add flower boxes in lieu of a garden.

The biggest thing you can do to update the curb appeal on this house is replace the windows. The existing windows are totally out of scale/design with the original design of the house. Replace the second story window with a French casement, with muntins/mullions (you want the panes the be taller than they are wide). The first floor window on the left should be two double hung windows with muntins/mullions. The shutters are too small (I would replace with a wider shutter more to scale with the window)- and I agree, would look better in black. Lastly, the first floor window on the porch should also be two double hung windows with muntins/mullions. (Muntins/mullions should be simulated divided lights- not between the glass. They'll add visual depth to the house- which is more in keeping with the architectural style of the house.) For both the windows and the gable siding, I would try to tone the color down to something closer to your mortar color. Paint the wrought iron railing black, remove the storm door entirely, and paint the door a deep color (maybe a darker brown, or a navy blue, or a deep purple). I would personally steer clear of red, but you might be able to make it work

Just my thoughts, but I think this would give you the "wow" factor that you're looking for! Good luck!

Everything this last poster wrote! I realize this post is two years old so I'm curious what the o p did.

Hi vaporvac! Sorry to disappoint you, but we have yet to do anything with the exterior. As another commenter predicted, we've been busy making updates to the inside, and a remodel of our partially finished but very dated basement is a higher priority right now. However, I also like all of the suggestions from the poster above you. We definitely want to replace all of the windows at some point so they're more efficient and in keeping with the style of the home, remove the shutters, paint the siding a gray or mortar color, replace or repaint the front door (I'm now leaning toward navy blue instead of red), and remove the storm door. I'm hoping we can do most or all of this next year, although the windows may have to wait a bit longer - stay tuned!

@lauren b you’ve got a beautiful home! I hope the inside reno has been going well! I like the dark trim on the roofline and would like to see that dark brown as trim for the windows and storm door (removing it may cause a draft inside). For me the classic brick and dark brown trim is reminiscent of a Tudor-style cottage. A light color trim draws waaaay too much attention to the windows. We want them to blend in, not stand out. I agree to remove the shutters because none of the other windows have shutters. My suggestion also cuts down on the work involved! Why repaint the entire upper half and all the added labor and ladders when you can just do a simple window trim?

I think the landscaping looks great and you’d only need a spruce for the left side to cover the meter. Be sure you research how big the tree gets, otherwise you’ll have a monster spruce in 10 years! There are many dwarf varieties. I’m a fan of a weeping hemlock for its drama, but they need shade.

Another option instead of the spruce is a climbing vine on a trellis, which adds to the Tudor old World vibe. This could be a great look on the side of the house as well.

One suggestion is to add up lighting around the base of the home that will really create drama at night and emphasize your wonderful shrubs.

Another suggestion is to add a flower bed and lamp post at the back corner where the walkway meets the driveway.

Lastly, for the front porch only, have you considered a brick shmear? It could lighten those brick pillars and make the porch a little more cozy and old World. Doing the porch only will help reduce labor and really set off the porch from the rest of the brick wall, keeping your eye focused on the porch only.

Oops forgot to add that painting the garage door the same brown trim would look great as well. Just helps to deemphasize it.

Well, nearly five years after I started this thread, we've finally finished the exterior updates! Here's what we've done:

• Painted the siding, trim, shutters and doors. After doing a virtual color consultation with Sherwin Williams, we chose SW Pavestone for the siding, SW Westhighland White for the trim, and SW Iron Ore for the doors and shutters. The painter also used Iron Ore on the meter. I also took the suggestion to plant a dwarf evergreen in front of the meter, but it will take a while before it grows tall enough to hide it.
• Replaced all the windows with a grid style that goes much better with the Cape Cod style of the house. We opted not to change the size/shape of any of the windows because of the expense and because we wanted to preserve the original (marble? stone?) window sills inside. The lone pair of shutters we have almost look like they fit that window now, but we may get bigger ones at some point.
• Replaced the rusting railing on the front porch steps with a black aluminum railing and also replaced the front porch light fixture.

A note on the landscaping: I realize that it would look better without the overgrown Japanese maple on the left. A previous homeowner definitely planted it too close to the house, but I had an arborist look at it last winter and he didn't think we needed to take it out completely, and I hate to remove it if it's not absolutely necessary. He did trim it back a bit but it will need further trimming this winter.

Thanks again for everyone's interest and suggestions. We're so happy with how our little house looks now!