Who designed the home? That should be part of the construction documents.

You are correct, it is part of the construction documents. To dive a little further into my situation, the builder's design center talked me out of what I wanted, which I'm kicking myself for, and I feel like what they suggested looks horrible. I was never shown a color rendering (not sure if this is standard) just 2" samples and the products are now on the house. The house isn't complete yet but I don't trust the builder's design sense to help and it's most likely too late for them to be involved in changing anything. I'm looking for some guidance on what I can do to change or enhance the exterior hopefully without completely tearing off everything. Its difficult to tell in the photo but the siding has a purple hue to it (Hardie - Pearl Gray) and the shutters are bright royal blue.

What was it you wanted originally?

Yes, I see the purple cast in the gray, however I don't find it horrible. Agree that an easy/fast fix is black shutters and it will be classic and elegant..... but that might not be your vision.

Ask your builder to change the shutters, they are too narrow and paint will not fix that. The only shutters that look ok are the small window's ones.

Black shutters and black door

Remove the shutters, paint the sidelights white, paint the door black.

This is what I originally wanted but then got talked into different colors and the city required stone. So the next photo is the example I gave for my compromise and as you can see my house doesn't look like either. Black shutters was my first thought and they can't be painted so I would have to replace them all. I'm not against removing them as somebody pointed out that they are too small which enlightened me to an issue I hadn't recognized.

I am not plugging my business here but just to answer your question I provide photoshop renderings of exteriors for many clients. It's sort of a niche. Believe it or not this is a common dilemma! Some builders do not provide renderings and detailed exterior direction and people really struggle. It is so important to get the color & textures right. You should be able to turn this around. The siding color looks nice to me. What did the house look like without shutters?

This is the only photo I could find where a portion of the shutters hadn't been installed yet. I also found a photo of a house with the same siding and black shutters. I feel like your services would be so helpful to those building homes. Many of my neighbors had a difficult time visualizing their color choices. I'm surprised more builders don't offer renderings. I would much rather pay to know in advance than pay to make changes. Not to mention the hoops you have to jump thru in order to do it...city ordinances, HOA's etc.

Please plug your business Color Zen, you're exactly what I'm looking for and may be calling as soon as I close and move in.

I wonder if you could get shutters that match your door. I like that wood color.

Yes, shutters are wrong but the windows look very bare without them. I'm sure the entire neighborhood is like this, so I'd leave them.

I actually like the colors in the photo - pleasing and classic. It will look very different if you spend some serious money on landscaping. If you do this, be sure to also put in an in-ground sprinkler system - young families today have no time/desire to water new landscaping material and it's too expensive to just allow it to dry up and die.

If you can do so, paint the garage doors the same color as the house - they will then not be quite so prominent. Paint the front door a color - one wants to first have ones eye drawn to the front door of the house.

This is a far better way to spend your money than a big re-do that you might not end up liking either.

Just a body matching garage door will do wonders. Add a bright door and some landscaping. Done. And it’s fine.