Hi tony - yes it did have shutters before. I played around with Photoshop (poorly, I might add) and put a few diff shutter styles / colors on. I think you're probably right on just needing to add them!

How about landscaping the front yard with vibrant colours that draw the eye? Japanese maple, burning bush, colourful perennials, striking annuals, maybe even a garden feature such as a bench?

Are those light fixtures on either side of the garage? If so, I'd replace them & the one by the front porch with something larger & in a contrasting color ( black, dark bronze, etc.). Paint the front door another color & what is that trim above the front porch? Landscaping to bring interest & beauty will draw the eye & make it more visually appealing. I'd plant alongside both sides of the front walkway.

Yes, I would add shutters. I would consider olive green, and then do the door/stormdoor trim in a dark red ( SW Rustic Red).

i agree that professional landscaping , new lights, colorful pot on the porch, etc. will really dress up your lovely home.

I like the look of the reddish shutters. We put burgundy ones on our last house which had taupe colored siding and it looked great. A darker front door would look nice, too. And large wall lights as hbfn suggested. Definitely bigger than what looks like the trim squares on the garage. You might want to try photoshop and see what shutter look like on the picture window, too.

Ah yes sorry - we have big black lights for the sides of the garage that aren't up yet in that photo! And we definitely want to redo the landscaping; we bought the house less than two years ago and I was very pregnant last summer so we haven't done much outside at all. Does anyone have any plant tips for in front of the house? The house is north facing so it is primarily dry shade.

Also - the trim above the front porch isn't quite yet finished either; that will be white. I got eager and posted this photo before the front was 100% done.

This is one time I agree with putting shutters back on. I have the same house you do!

Lhutch - what is your downstairs inside layout like!? We have a small kitchen with a little eat-in section next to it, then a step down into a living space. We do not like this layout much but don't have any ideas of how to improve it!

For plant tips we need to know your general location. Plants that do well in the south do not do well in the north, etc and that would be true no matter where in the world you happen to live.

Oh sorry! Cleveland, OH area - I think zone 6

Maybe paint the second story siding a slightly darker color so it doesn't contrast so much with the roof. I like the clean no shutter look, but if you do shutters, I'd match the roof color and only put them upstairs.

I think window boxes would look charming (even in the winter). I have seen them both at the bottom of the windows and raised slightly, so the garage window probably wouldn't be a problem.

I had them in one house with geraniums and trailing vines and they were easy to water from inside the house and they looked good!

Also have you looked into garage door trim (they're just vinyl pieces that get added to your existing? And beef up the window trim a little?

Penny - do you think relatively shallow window boxes would work? Or perhaps making a beefier window box but whose bottom is angled to match the roof so it can be taller in front?

Absolutely angle it if you can...great idea!

I would also have them raised a little from the bottom of the window...(originally window boxes would sit ON window ledges)...and a little wider.

What I would do is tape a piece of cardboard as a visual test and see if it works and then you will see how deep they can be.

Definitely add shutters to the upper windows. Please make sure they are the right size and look functional. They should be sized so they appear to cover the window when closed. I think that people are moving away from shutters because they are many times very wrong for certain homes. I do not have many colors to suggest, but the red/browns look dated to me and clash with your roof. Consider BM Copley gray to start. So what's happening with your front door?? Since you have the portico, do you need the storm door? I think that a nice colonial style entry door would look awesome. I would also suggest a heftier post for the portico. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

So basically when this whole project started we had outdated picture windows that were solid panes and could not open - as such, we had added the storm door to get a breeze in the spring, summer and fall from the front of the house. When we did the siding, we replaced the picture window AND door and now we can indeed get a breeze through the windows. Since the storm door is so new I hesitate to get rid of it yet! I think the contractor is going to try to do something with the post on the porch to make it snazzier, but I don't know what yet. Also, I love the idea for the cardboard to test out the flower boxes! You guys are all giving me such great vision, I really appreciate it!

I think all you need is a little more color. Definitely put this on a visualizer (Ben Moore, etc offer them online), but probably going 1 -2 shades darker than your existing body color, for the upper story only, would give it a little more visual presence. Also, it appears that your garage door color is 'off' from your body color (though certainly colors don't photograph or display accurately on monitors, so maybe in real life it's not). But, it seems too purple-gray. I would paint your garage door either the same color as your body or your upper story. The rest can be done with little accents like pots of flowers/tall plants, light fixtures, a colorful door mat, and so on. I don't mind the idea of shutters, but if you prefer a more modern look, I would leave them off and try the paint color solution.

And if that's your stone chimney sticking up in the background, maybe a color from that stone would be the answer. It would kind of tie things together.

I think it just needs some getting used to. I'd do a bit more with the entry -- nice chunky porch light to the right (and on either side of the garage? is that coming?) and a stronger color for the front door. Before I put shutters on, I'd consider just beefing up the trim around the windows, to give them more presence. But honestly, I think it looks pretty great so far! (You do need to paint the capping/fascia under your portico roof, though, to match the rest of the trim.)

You might also consider extending your plantings out along the near side of the sidewalk -- landscaping makes an amazing impact on how the total front of a house looks...

Danielle, sounds similar but we don't have the step down. There was a pony wall there that we knocked down a long time ago and made it into one big room. We have also decided since we don't use the formal dining room on the other side of the kitchen to knock the wall down and enlarge the kitchen. That's my Mother's Day present! Lol.

We recently put hardie siding on. Here is my house.

I love your house! We also don't use our formal dining room so we were thinking of expanding the kitchen. I'd love to see yours when you're finished!

Just a little update - the front is almost entirely done from the re-siding front. The lights are up and the trim above the porch matches.

It's looking lovely. I would consider adding your house numbers vertically on your post. I think raised panel shutters, in the right size, would work. I would only do them on the top though. They should each be half the width of the window to be properly sized. What color is your front door? I would consider adding a tall planter to the right of the front door. Plant it with something with height, something to fill, and something to trail over. Thrill, fill and spill as the saying goes! In zone 6, you could use hosta, astilbe, ferns, daylilies, and maybe a wiegela on the left corner for height. They'll all stay short enough not to overtake your front window.