Hello and congrats on your new home!

We suggest removing the shutters entirely. Paint the trim ivory and the front door a soft yellow. Using a bright color on the door will help enliven your entry, which is currently quite dark and shadowed.

If you don't want to part with the shutters, we suggest painting them ivory.

For the back entry, we also suggest a soft yellow.

Good luck!

Will you be repainting over the gray-painted brick?

personally, that grey brick is kick ass! for interior colors, a warm blue/red would be awesome. Smokey blue by sherwin williams would blend perfectly in.

I don't know what we will do with the gray-painted brick...I'm open to suggestions!

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to do this! It's great to have the visual for comparison. I had never thought to remove the shutters until you guys suggested it...

With all that gray it is starting to look like a penitentiary :) at the very least, I will have to paint that door and get some friendly succulents in that front yard

Smoky Blue would be nice as mentioned. I do like the red, but worry over the long haul how I'd feel down the road?

I like the blue door on this dark gray brick. Naturally, this is a different style home. Yet, the right blue is nice!

I suggest that with your orange colored steps and porch, you find a way to do some cladding with cypress, including the gate. Remove the shutters, and do a cypress front door. It will look great with the gray brick. Focus on the foundation and paint it to match the brick before installing new dwarf variety landscaping so it won't get out of control and overgrown.

Big budget: repaint the exterior including brick, white brick, dark gray trim, orange-red door. Small budget: paint the trim and fascia board white, paint the door orange-red or green. Remove shutters in both cases. The red should coordinate with the orange stone porch and walkway, not cardinal or cranberry red.

I would paint the brick white, but not solid.....paint the trim charcoal and the door, poppy red. If you keep the shutters, use charcoal on those too! I actually think you should keep the shutters. Also, add some terra cotta pots with red geraniums.....good luck!!

I like everybody's feedback, it's been a lot to think about. Given our budget, we aren't going to paint the whole exterior - just the trim & door. I thought long and hard about taking the shutters off, but I suspect that if we did, the house would look too much like a medieval castle or a prison. At the moment, I'm considering a couple of options: 1) painting the shutters/trim a warm white, and painting the door either orange-red or a nice bright blue to pop from that recessed walkway, or 2) painting the shutters/trim a light sage green, and painting the door either orange-red or a warm white. (Eventually, I will do something with that front yard, put in some succulents) But I'm still thinking about everyone's suggestions, including the soft yellow idea for the door...

This is messy but I wanted you to see that you don't need shutters to brighten it up. Color in your landscaping will help as well.

wow that tool is amazing! I love that color you found

It's fun to play with. Glad you like the color. Sorry it's a bit messy.

I think a nice tone of white with no yellow undertones will be great for the trim..... I vote a pretty blue for your door and shutters! Snowbound looks like a great white as katinparadise mentions! Good luck and please post when you get it done.

katinparadise.... I couldn't copy the photo for the life of me to paint the trim/door...... good job!

I will definitely post pictures! Hoping to have the job done by next weekend. Whee! I will post pictures of the interior rooms as well (we are painting five rooms inside. It's a real project!)

just a photo of blue shutters and a light trim...

Good luck!

If you can remove the kick plate from the front door... it's too tall and paint it the color you choose!

Oh I hadn't thought about removing the kick plate! Good idea. I just went outside and investigated. The shutters are attached directly to the exterior walls. I'm sure they could be popped off but the tan paint is on the exterior wall as well, just behind the shutters, so if we take them off we'd have to retouch the gray -- it could be done, but would be extra hassle. I will keep thinking it through!

Beautiful house, congratulations. Beverly is so right about the shutters. If there is no way to remove them then minimize them by painting them just one shade darker than the house. Ideally, they will eventually be removed.

Your house is so awesome it does not need much to make it look good. I especially like the lights on the ends of the house and think they would provide good down lighting for some specimen plants.

The shutters puzzle me as I doubt they are original to the house. They match the nice kick plate. I would keep the plate but get rid of the door. The door, along with the shutters, were the idea of someone who thought they could make this a traditional home and it failed.

I think you are underestimating the role of landscaping here. I got a bit carried away because I live in a drought location too.

I would plant a soft looking tall grass near to the door. Not something stiff looking like Phormium which isn't grass anyway. Muhly grass would work. I recommend natural mulch, not rock, near the house. For the rest of the yard I gave you iceplant. Artemisa Powis Castle also looks billowy uses little water and is light silver so I put it in the center. I think the house is actually enhanced by minimalist landscaping. I imagined contorted pine on the left corner but I can't draw one. They do require training which you may not be interested in.

I forgot to highlight the windows as Katie shows.

I am not a skilled artist so I hope you evaluate the ideas more than the drawing.

I wasn't entirely happy with the door color and there are many colors that looked good but it looks so hot that I did not want to try any warm colors. A pale silver would be nice though. New house numbers too.

I agree about the penitentiary look without the shutters, but they really are wrong for the house, especially the ones on the right side. I understand your keeping them for now, though, so I would probably paint them navy and do the front door acid green:

Or maybe deep teal with a rusty front door:

Just a couple more cypress ideas to warm things up and help avoid the prison look some have mentioned.

I do like that cypress look. (I have never even heard of cladding.) We've only been in the house for eight days so there is so much to figure out! The plants out front have grown out quite a bit since those realtor pictures were taken, I will take a picture today and post it here.

Also, fwiw (at some point) I want to do *something* with the front yard to warm it up. Would love to get some succulents out there, for example. I've never done any garden design so that's another big learning curve waiting for me up ahead :) Thank you for the suggestion about the Mulhy grass!

Here's the update! Thinking Sherwin Williams Pure White for the trim:

and here are three options for the door:

1. Tame Teal (bottom left on the list below)

2. Oceanside (top color in picture below)

3. Splashy (again, top color in picture below)

Of the three door colors you prefer I'd choose 2 or 3... I'd try them taping up several sample cards of each on the door then look several times throughout the day to see how it appears then at night with the porch lighting on. I fear number one will be too light and lost/boring.

The other person voting on this color scheme has yet to say an enthusiastic Yes to anything. :/ I'd love to get consensus if at all possible. I wonder, could you see a bluer blue on the door? Maybe Fountain in the third card above, something like that?

Maybe that Smoky Blue is the winner after all...

I prefer 2 or 3 out of the choices given but I'm afraid they're going to end up being too close to the house color. With the warm color in your stones, I would consider a warmer color for the door. The good thing about it though, is that it is just paint and if you don't love it, you can always change it. My front door has been about 4 colors in the last 3 years and I finally found something I love and intend to stick with. I look forward to seeing pictures when it's finished!

I'd *love* to do a red, personally, but The Dude isn't enthusiastic. (You're right, it's just a door, I'm tempted just to try a color! Any color!)

Susan, ask him after it's finished if he'll just indulge you and let you try a spicy red or even a terracotta to pick up the stones in the sidewalk. If he doesn't like it, promise you'll change it. My husband thought I was crazy to paint my front door coral, but he likes it now and it really fits with the warm greige color of the house.