A bright cheerful paint on the front door is an inexpensive and easy change.

Is the path to your front door paved? A paved path wide enough for two people to walk side by side from the street is a welcoming and eye-catching feature.

The white frame around the side door by the garage door really stands out but not in a good way. It would look better the same color as the ivory panel of color above the garage door.

Yep, it's a little drab, but it's not bad otherwise.

I can't suggest particular colors. It depends on the brick--which looks like a good shade--and roof.

Paint both doors a nice cheery bold color, paint the chunk above the garage door the same color as the garage door (which you want to be tastefully close to the brick). Or paint the door by the garage door to match the garage, too. The garage and its doors have some weird stuff going on with the trim colors that will take some planning to straighten out.

Landscaping--which is not gonna be maintenance free--will be a big help here. You can reduce maintenance by getting a good hardscape down, though. Landscaping (trees, walks, beds) should accentuate the right side of the house and minimize the garage area, even if you have to have a pointless walkway from the front door to the street that nobody but the UPS guy will ever use.

Thanks for the advice so far! The door and window trim has all been poorly done and definitely needs to be replaced. We also like the idea of chunkier columns on the front porch.

The door has been painted a dark blue/grey, but of course that can be changed. I believe that the pole to the right of the driveway is a for sale sign. This pic is one of the listing pics from when it was for sale.

Any advice on siding and eaves colours?

I don't mind garden maintenance - I love gardening! I meant more that the exterior of the house should be maintenance free. In other words, I don't think we want to paint the brick. I agree about accentuating the right side of the house. It (the house) just seems to be out of balance. Not sure what can be done to the house itself to break up that expanse of brown on the ground floor though...

Definitely don't paint the brick. The shutters on the larger upper windows are too small. Each shutter should be half the window's width which can look odd on larger windows. A nice wide trim might be another option.

Yes, I agree that it would be better without the shutters. We plan on putting up new siding as well as new soffit, fascia and eavestroughs. Any advice from anyone regarding colours? When the roof needs to be replaced in the next couple years, that colour will change as well. We are finding it difficult to choose colours that go well with the brown brick! I really want it to look sharp instead of drab...

I dont think, I would call it drab. It isnt really drab, it just looks like it desperately needs some tlc.

EVERYONE is so worried about maintenance on painted brick! There is NONE! When we bought our painted brick house, it was a ugly green color - nearly mint ice cream in color. We hated it. We thought we'd wait until it needed painting to change the color. NINETEEN years later, it still didn't need painting and we still hated the color, so we finally had it painted. That was 15 years ago and paint is still in perfect condition. Nearly every single brick house in my neighborhood has been painted, and I can't remember ever seeing anyone having the brick repainted - wood trim and windows, yes; brick, no.

You don't mention a budget, but if you can afford it, change your windows. Hire an architect to redesign the windows and the garage and that ridiculous small door next to it. But, this will cost a lot of money and the house/neighborhood might not justify such an expense.

Fair enough, Anglophilia. I do wonder if the maintenance might be different up in our neck of the woods (Ontario, Canada)? I have seen painted brick homes here with peeling paint. Do you see any reason why we would want to paint the brick as far as colour considerations go? If so, what colours are you thinking?

I would love to change out the windows, but don't think that can be justified right now.

We have cold winters sometimes, and very hot, humid summers. Paint takes a beating. What you may be seeing is houses that are painted to actually have that "peeling paint" look. It's often found in older neighborhoods and is quite intentional. Another possibility is that latex paint was put over oil paint - a big no/no. That will peel.

The house looks like a drab, tired, brown and white checkerboard. If all you did was paint the siding and trim to match the brick, it would be a huge improvement, but with a little thought, you could come up with any number of far more subtle, interesting color combinations.

As per usual, I advise planting two or three or four big trees. As big as you can afford, placed so you look through them to see the house.

The paint was definitely not meant to look that way. You see it especially on the west side of a home, which takes a beating from the winter storms and -22 F as well as aft/evening summer sun and 95 F temps in the summer.
It is the siding colour that I would love some help with. Not sure I want to paint the entire house brown. I was thinking more along the lines of a contrasting colour. Any ideas? The white windows are staying for now...

Can you take a closer picture of the brick? Maybe on the garage side to better see what is going on on that side of the house.

This is a pretty accurate representation of the colour of the brick.

What is that above the garage door. It should have been brick like the rest of the garage. Is there brick underneath it, since it looks like it sticks out past the other brick. If so, remove it, and you will improve the garage front a lot.

It is a vertical aluminum paneling of some kind. Unfortunately no brick underneath. Not sure why, but many homes around here have the same non-brick panel above the garage door.

Is it possible to find any matching brick, remove the aluminum and have that place rebricked. If not, then, it should at least be painted as close a color as you can get to the brick.

I had a very brown house once. I accented with a deep cherry red. I really liked the red.

How about a medium taupe color for the siding? Some examples:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/373869206555065693/ 

I think taupe might look very nice with your brown brick. Perhaps one of the resident photoshop experts will show up to give you an example of how it might look on your house.

Nice home and lot.

There are a number of things to do that would make your entry the focal point of your home and more inviting.

You could paint that white trim on and near the garage the same color as the garage door to visually minimize that part of the house.

You could replace the two front porch posts that are in front of and on each side of the front door with larger, more substantial looking posts and have them support a a forward facing gable end over just that part of the porch (leaving the rest of the porch with its shed roof.

You could create a short retaining wall about twelve to fifteen feet in front of the house parallel to the front exterior wall of the house and level that area up so that it is only one step down from the front porch. Then create a new sidewalk from your front porch to the driveway that walks out at least half the distance to the retaining wall and then arcs toward the driveway ...

... thus creating a planting area between sidewalk and house in which you could create a front garden.

... adding a row of evergreen shrubs just below the new retaining wall could give you some privacy from the road and a place on the right side (opposite side from the driveway) for a small front yard patio.

You could outline the driveway in the same product used for creating your new sidewalk and/or retaining wall.

Add a post with a solar light at or near each end of the new retaining wall, preferably with brackets for hanging flower baskets in good weather and either wind chimes or bird feeders in winter.

Below the new retaining wall, you could level a place for a double parking / turn around space for vehicles. Below that, focus on feeding and improving the grass on the sloped area between the new parking/turning space and the road.

Great suggestions above! Also, the house on the left in the link below looks very nice, I think, in brown and taupe with a red door.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/322640760794660845/

Limb up that tree a bit so you can see the front of the house. Add some hardscape. And a dog.

Some ideas:

-Pull gray/brown that compliments the brick. Apply it to the siding, fascia, garage, and garage trim.
-Remove the shutters
-Thicker posts with lighting run through
-Remove random lanterns or match to new lighting. There seem to be a few different lanterns currently.
-Add walkway from porch to garage. Maybe with concrete or brick pavers rather than poured concrete.
-Beef up the landscaping, make sure to include some plants that keep winter interest. You seem to have hostas right now, which I love, but they have nothing going on in the winter.
-Paint front door a pop of color, maybe what is currently being used on the side door, love that aubergine color

I just want to quell your concerns over painted brick. I live in a climate that gets extreme temperature changes, with feet of snow in the winter, and extreme heat in summer. We painted our brick and it has held up beautifully for 4 harsh seasons now. Painting brick can also greatly transform the vibe of your home. Frankly, your brick is ugly, as was the brick on my home... a quick coat of paint (and primer) can do wonders for the look of your house.

You've got great bones in your house (It is similar in style to mine). Don't be AFFRAID to go outside the box. Lastly, I would definitely consider larger columns... This did wonders for our home.

The Google photo is how the home originally looked before the remodel. Hope this helps! Good luck!

I am not opposed to painted brick, but, I do like the brick you have. I do like a washed brick, rather than a flat painted brick. However, it is maintenance. There are two in my neighborhood that are painted and one does touch ups here and there every spring. The other was done about 6 yrs ago, and was repainted again last year. Thats more maintenance than I would want to do, especially, since the houses were pretty much maintenance free to begin with. My house is stone, and even though, the color isnt what I prefer on a house, I would never try to change it. If it were brick, and I didnt like it, I would consider a wash.

Thanks, everyone, for all the advice, landscape and otherwise.
I don't necessarily dislike our brick colour either. I think the problem is that the original family that had the house built, opted to increase the floor plan (main floor and basement) by putting a family room where the garage would normally be, right beside the main house. This is great for our family as far as the interior goes, but it ends up affecting the balance on the exterior, not only colour wise, but also as far as structure goes. My feeling is that the overall drab feeling of the house might be remedied by choosing a nice colour siding (I am leaning toward taupe), which would also be used for the garage door. In addition, perhaps a cosmetic change to the long main floor roof line would break it up a bit?
I am in full agreement that the pillars/posts/columns need to be more substantial.

I love the mock-ups that people offered. I add that once the plants are trimmed back near the entry, I would add a colorful bench to the left of the front door.

@Vonkfamily, I didn't realize my statement about your brick came off a little brusquely. That wasn't my intention! I misread your comment and presumed you didn't like the brick. I simply sought to offer my two design cents in order to offer a new perspective. I'm excited to see how wonderful everything turns out! Cheers!!

A light and medium taupe-y sort of color:

Are you saying the garage is not a garage, but is a family room now? If so, how about getting rid of the garage door and matching the siding on the upper part?

@groveraxle No, the garage is a garage, but where the front window is beside the garage, is where you would normally see the garage in homes of similar style and age. Not sure if this makes any sense, lol...

@cdubya28 No worries, no offense taken!
@groveraxle I like that last colour you posted - the grey taupe with your question about the garage? How do you think that would look with white eavestroughs/soffit/fascia?

Taupe with white fascia:

Just don't make the mistake of painting your downspout white. Paint them to match whatever is behind them.