Dreamy, I'd love to see pics of the inside. Especially the pink bathroom, a rare treasure to find nowadays!

You're right on the money re: removing (all) the shutters and replacing the stark white lattice with wood slats. Could echo the wood on the garage door as well. A cheery mid-century door with windows would help with light if you remove the storm door, or you could replace it with a full-lite storm door. I'll leave colour suggestions to someone more knowledgeable, right now it's a lot of beige-y yellow.

I'd love to have an old rancher with built-in brick planter like yours. I'm sure the landscaping pros here will do wonders with revamping your place!

That's blonde brick, an upgrade from red or brown at the time. May help you to Google some ideas. The red-brown roof isn't doing it any favours unfortunately.

I've seen it with dark gray siding and it looks good.

You're on the right track with removing the shutters. IMO too much white doesn't look good with this brick.

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/104286547607511767/

What if you removed the lattice entirely? Then you’d be able to see the front door, as well as add light to the entryway. And, of course, ditch the shutters. Consider removing the hedges and replacing with updated landscaping.

You can rejuvenate your yew hedge. Next spring, cut the upper part so that it's narrower than the bottom. The bare wood at the bottom will sprout greenery if it's not shaded. It should be sort of a rounded pyramid shape, narrow on the top and wide on the bottom in cross section.

All good ideas. No shutters, remove the lattice, or replace the lattice with vertical slats. I would also paint the siding areas and garage door the same color whether you stick with white or use a darker brown. I would look for a new front door. You can get one in a MCM style that has glass in it to get more light in the entry. Since the secondary door is in siding rather than the brick, it may not be that expensive to cover it up.

On point, and full glass storm doors rerplacing all others!

I agree with partim. You can get quite aggressive with yews. Cut about 1/3 of the height and slant the sides so that the top is smaller than the sides. It won't look good at first, but after a few months it will grow in. Keep them low with a yearly pruning.

I also agree with removing the shutters and your other ideas.

That light yellow is not working for me. Too bad the roof is a red brown. I have to mention the color pattern in the area over the garage looks suspect, as if, it was not laid properly. It could be just the photo. Does it look different to you?

If you get a new roof, think gray and get a gray for the siding.

Lovely home. It is always nice to buy a home from someone who lived there a long time. One can assume they enjoyed the home.

Remove any dead leafless branches on the tree out front.
The lattice is not modern but it does allow some natural light into the entry area. It also can hide someone who may want to see into your home through those windows.
Trash bins should be stored behind a gate or inside the garage. They detract from an otherwise neat exterior.

Maybe something like this instead of the lattice.

eichler in marinwood · More Info

I love lattice , but not there ...perhaps you can use it in the back of the house ..for a climbing jasmine or rose ? Your house looks lovely ..just a little more landscaping ...and a nice front door . Since you have a little entrance terrace ...I would put some outdoor furniture ...to sit and have your morning coffee ...

The best thing you have going for you is how wide and low the house is. That’s a really great feature that you want to highlight and the first thing that stands out is the overgrown shrub completely breaking that up. Your trimming is an improvement but I’d consider having that removed entirely. You could replace it with something that has a lower, more spreading form. Some landscaping along the driveway to soften that would help too, maybe even something reasonably tall on the far side. There seems to be a lot of pavement in the picture.

That color brick is not my favorite and painting but unless you want to paint it, which is always a very fraught question, I think that you need to look to other colors that compliment it. As others have pointed out, the red tones of the shingles aren’t helping. I like the gray/brown tones of “driftwood” shingles. I’d avoid cool gray or black unless you plan on painting the house. My neighbor just did this to a similar color brick house and it looks bad, although they plan to paint. I’m also really not a fan of white trim and think it would look better with dark trim. I like “architectural bronze” with yellow tones like this. If the windows are wood you could paint them out. The color “Sealskin” by Sherwin Williams is a very good match for most manufacturers architectural bronze.

Good luck and enjoy the project!

You are right to want to remove the shutters and change the lattice; horizontal wood slats would emphasise the long, low lines of the house and be appropriate to a mid century modern look. Your front door is a more traditional style, so if it's in the budget you could change it to an MCM style that would admit more light and could be painted a bright accent color. You could go two different ways with the siding paint: 1. a soft sage green would go with both the brick and the roof or 2. try to match the brick exactly. Either way, also paint both the garage door and the window frames if possible because the white is not something you want to emphasise. The front door could be turquoise, Chinese red, or whatever you like; it would be nice to repeat that color in some flowers in the planter or along the front walk. And finally, you could investigate replacing your current lighting with some snazzy MCM fixtures, mailbox, house numbers, etc. Your house is full of possibilities - hope you will post an "after" picture for us!

The contrast of natural wood slats and details seem to be the most effective way to stylize a home like yours...but you need to go a little further and replace the garage door with a stylized wooden one and open the view a little more to a wooden style appropriate door ..at that point you can decide if you want to go one more step and stain the brick to a more contemporary color ...

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Took the shutters off today and that alone makes a difference. The roof has a few more years in it so not replacing it yet, but when I do, it will not be the red/brown it is now. That roof makes all of it more complicated and is likely why they painted the shutters brown too.

I assume they tried to match the brick when painting the siding yellow. It doesn't work and I would like to either find a good contrasting color (not sure what direction to go yet) or find something that is a much closer match to make it blend. Some windows are original wood, others are newer and are white.

I'd like to paint the front door something that pops as well. I like the bright blue suggestion and may get some samples of that.

Trash cans are already put away ...that was just laziness when I took the photos. ;) I would like to replace the lattice with stained slats I think. There are 4 poles behind it so I don't think leaving it open will improve on the curb appeal at all. The front portion of the house is an addition that was used as a real estate office by the original owner, thus the second entrance. I'm assuming that resulted in some changes to the exterior as well that make it look a bit out of balance.

Finally, I took another look at the siding over the garage based on one comment that is looked different. I think it was the angle of the original photos. When I look at it straight on, it looks the same as the rest.

Few photos added without shutters. More to come as I do some more outside work.

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I'll add another thread for help with the fully paneled room (family room). Paneled walls and ceiling. Its something!

Didn't read all the comments so not sure cleaning the brick before deciding on other colors might help with decisions

FYI for when you are ready for a new roof, this gray color would look nice.

Glenview, IL Gray Slate Exterior Hardie Board Siding Remodel · More Info

Glenview, IL Gray Slate Exterior Hardie Board Siding Remodel · More Info

It looks much nicer without the shutters, bravo! If you want to match the brick, bring a small chip of it to your paint store and they can analyze the color for you. Otherwise, I would pay attention to the undertones; for example your brick has much more of a pink undertone than the current paint, which makes them look unrelated and mismatched. A bright blue door would certainly make your yellow brick pop; with your reddish roof, you would be headed for a classic MCM color combination of red, yellow and blue! This may be jumping too far ahead, but fall is the time for planting trees, shrubs, perennials, and bulbs. So tell us your planting zone and which direction your house faces, and we can make landscaping suggestions (and if you have decided on your colors, we can even make the flowers match). Since most of the changes you are planning will be cosmetic, not structural, it isn't too soon to start work on the landscape as well.

Thank you! I am planting zone 4/5 and haven’t figured out colors yet. The house faces north.

I got some sample swatches for the door today and will live with them for a bit before I decide. The previous owners enclosed a patio in the back and painted the wood a much more brick friendly color than the front of the house. Photo attached To see the color against the brick which is indoors here. It’s also the same brick on one fireplace\wall.

I’m definitely not intending any structural changes due to budget constraints. I updated the kitchen and kept the footprint for the same reason. Maybe down the line inside but that would be much longer term.

Wow! Much improved without shutters & with that house & window blocking shrub limbed up. Someone advised removing it completely but IMO leave it & see how it looks next spring summer. I can’t tell what it is - evergreen, flowering, etc but it certainly now has some interesting trunk structure & adds interest. I do see what looks like ivy climbing up house & around window & it looks like a problem. I would be taking that out yesterday if not sooner! At least cut it off the house. The yews (?I was thinking that is juniper), is better trimmed but no matter where you live I think there are so many choice of prettier plants to line a walkway to a front door.

That paint from the enclosed patio is a much better color for your brick, and also would look nice with a bright blue or turquoise door. Since you live in a cold winter climate, I think a landscaper would recommend that you plant at least 50% evergreens (conifers or broadleaf) to give your yard structure during the winter, with about 25% flowering shrubs and 25% perennials. For a midcentury look, you want to have large swaths of the same plant, not too many different varieties, and to rely on contrasts of leaf color and shape. To see these ideas in action, check out Roberto Burle Marx, the father of modern landscape architecture. Although his gardens were tropical, you can easily translate the same ideas into temperate gardens. For example, a big band of day lilies in front of the hedge to the left of your door would look great and hide the hedge's scraggly bottoms. Also Bergenia, if it grows well in your area, is a low growing evergreen that would contrast nicely in front of the day lilies. I would use the same plants in the strip between the walkway and the planter (no grass needed there), and as someone else mentioned, try to use low, spreading forms to accentuate the shape of your house.