Leaning towards 1A or 1B. I actually like the detail on the decorative gable. I like that your house has some mid-century appeal. I think adding the brick would date it but not in a cool mid-century way. Maybe you could replace the warping wood. Get some nice mid-century modern house numbers. And maybe mid-century style door.

Thank you for the reply. The more I look at it, the more I think you’re right. Option 2 and 3 seem to get rid of any charm the house has.

I am thinking about grey, but can’t decide between just using one shade all over, or using two. Any opinions on which looks better? Or do you think there is another option I should consider such as going with a certain color or keeping the white? Thanks!

Having seen rotted ply on the exterior of a house, checking that is your top priority.

I'm not an expert at all in mid-century but the grey looks boring to me. Grey is very popular right now but I'm seeing signs of it losing popularity. Are there other houses in the neighborhood that could give you some color inspiration?

I've seen some of homes similar to yours. The space between large windows and the smaller one sometimes have a medallion or a decorative metal hanging there painted in the color of the shakes or black.

I would be careful here...

I'm no expert by any means, but the gable def. needs to stand out. Also the flat parts need to stay flat and stand out. I feel like they need to be a stained wood...hopefully others can pipe in while I poke around online to look for a pic to help describe what I mean :-/

Thank you for the replies!

Raye - You may be right about the gray. I’m not feeling very adventurous with the exterior, but I will look around the area for similar homes to serve as inspiration.

Izzy - Good thought, and while it would probably be fitting for the era and style of the home, I just don’t think it’s for me. I think part of the reason the gable bothers me, is that it’s purely decorative, and I want to avoid adding anything else along those lines.

Pennydesign - I’m having a hard time coming up with ideas for the exterior in general, and am really open to anything - I’m not sure I know what you mean with the stained wood, but I’m excited to see any examples you might find :)

Pennydesign - I think the style your talking about of stained wood is what we used to call creosote stain. It's a more natural look.

I would correct any warping wood issues before doing anything. Once that’s settled, I like the idea of using two shades of the same color, like that pictured in the second above. It appears your roof is light gray??? I also like the one color idea ... either way I wouldn’t chop up the exterior with competing colors or finishes. Landscaping will make the biggest impact on your cute house. Good luck.

Cute house! Perhaps take down the shutters. It already looks better with the shutters gone on the small window at the left. The Craftsman just wrote a blog about what's wrong with fake shutters.

(Scott Sidler writes the Craftsman blog)

Def replace the wood and, personally, I would stain it....I was hoping some of the photoshop gurus here would stop by, but I think the photo you have doesn't enlarge or show up as one picture of the orig. house and they need that...

I like the peak white because then I can see the detail whereas darker it looks solid to me.

I think the two-tone paint options just make the house look too chopped up. I would pick a nice color, blue gray, taupe or warm gray and then determine the shutter and front door colors. Even though I agree that gray as a color for interiors is out or on the way, it still makes a nice exterior color with white trim. That combination will not go out of style, and with a red or teal or bright green front door, it certainly perks up the house. BTW, I am not a fan of gray. except for exteriors.

K Laurence - I agree, landscaping will make a big difference. I guess right now I’m hoping to make it as good as possible without doing any kind of landscaping, so it looks even better when I do. Not sure if that makes sense, but at least it will be easy to paint without trampling any plants.

Gargamel - I thought about removing the shutters, as I’m not a big fan of purely decorative shutters either, but it almost looks unfinished. Below is a pic so you can see what I mean.

Pennydesign - I’m interested in stain, but I feel like it might be strange if I just replace the flat pieces of wood with new flat pieces of wood, not sure if it needs an interesting grain or if that is worse- maybe I’m not thinking of the right material.

Powermuffin - Got it, if I go with a grey exterior, would you go darker grey or black with the shutters - or something that would coordinate with the front door depending on that color?

Emmarene - Good call on needing contrast with the roof and nice photoshop work! The left side of the house is definitely odd. After I paint the next step is landscaping (i.e. a big shrub). I am toying with the idea of removing the gable as well, but that wouldn’t be for a while as I’d be waiting until I got a new roof. I thought about making the cedar shakes level all the way across (pic below), but that looks odd to me as well - what do you think?

Actually it looks much better with the shutters removed. Mid-century should be plain and I also agree that you need more contrast not less. What about centering a pair of lights around the large window?

Another suggestion is to be careful with foundation plantings. With wood there needs to be some "breathing" space to reduce mold/rot issues. So often the size of the adult plants is not taken into consideration so you'll see chopped up plants jammed up against a foundation. Another thing I've learn is that if your area has the stinky varieties of boxwood you don't want those anywhere near the foundation. I kept wondering why I was smelling cat pee in the house, it was the bushes!

Darker color for sure.