I will wait for pics you post them in a comment here do not start another post

Post pics or you will get no help

Oh im so sorry! I added a

picture when i created the post. Thank you for letting me know it didnt post!

The photo uploader here is notoriously wonky. People need to exercise a bit of patience if at first they don't appear!

You have an adorable house! You're undoubtedly going to be told to 'lose' the shutters since they are decorative only and not functional. I think you should keep them, as they're charming and give an otherwise blank expanse of brick a bit of extra character that is perfectly in line with a home of this era. I don't mind your current almond paint color, but understand the desire for a refresh. Have you considered a brighter white shade? I'm also wondering how a blue would look for door, shutters and garage. These examples may not match your brick completely, but will give you a general idea. You can Google images for "orange brick house" and see if anything appeals to you.

Blue is the best compliment for orange. If you keep the shutters, I would paint them a shade darker than your door.

Thank you so much for your responses and for giving me an example of what shade of blue to look into. I am terrible at picking colours!

Does it matter that our mortar is a pinkish/reddish colour?

To the contrary, I think a blue would be dynamite with that brick/mortar combo!

Ok great!! Thank you so nuch for your help!!

I would suggest a gray/green with your brick.

I love your brick colour.

Not a fan of the shutters. I think the house looks imbalanced with the shutters and windows covering the whole top part of the wall, and the expanse of brick below it.

I would remove the shutters and add more evergreens to the raised bed to cover some of the brick.

I'm a rose lover but consider moving your rose bushes to another bed. You need something shorter than the roses and their bare legs are unattractive.

I would paint the railings black so they don't pop out visually.

I like the blue for the door. Or the right dark green would look good too. You need to paint the storm door the same colour. My parents painted their metal storm door and it withstood 40 years of Canadian winters.

I would not paint the garage doors the same blue, because you want to draw the eye to the front door and the garage should fade away in importance. The almond colour probably draws the eye because it is light, so I'd repaint the garage doors a dark dull brown that looks good with the roof, a "nothing to see here" colour.

That actually does not look bad with the shutters removed! Might need to rethink my stance on them in this case. I think you could certainly keep them, but it does appear that removing them could create a more "opened-up" look.

some relatively simple fixes would bring this home into this century.

while the shutters are 'cute', they are really too small for the window size. it just looks crowded.

Remove them and you'll see how it instantly updates the look.

Here is a photoshop w/o shutters and a sage green door. these greens are beautiful w/the orange. I also like more of a white like shoji, or even a bronze color for the trim and garage door

bring in container pots for some plants around the door.

the blue/green/copper colors are nice w/orange.

Any type of copper accent or bronze accent (lighting) is also nice.

diff landscaping. they also used some vertical siding around the front. no shutters. darker trim color on the posts and main window

If you like more of the copper tones, these colors would be nice

The wrought iron railing is another. Does code mandate you have one?

Since the stairs are so wide, I think you can get away w/just one (since no one is going to use both while stepping down) check w/your city and see what's allowed.

exterior light.

maybe go a bit modern w/the address placque

I'm going to put in a vote for green instead of blue. Sage green or a very dark green. I think the blue makes the orange brick look more orange. But in any case, you should sample before you paint, so maybe you could try both. Black could also work. You could change your trim color to something less yellow, but be sure to use a warm white or off-white. When you paint your front door (or get a new one), get a full-view storm door also so people can see your door. Or if you get a new door and it is weather proof, maybe you can do without it? I also vote for no shutters, and I do think you need to address the landscaping in the spring. Since your picture didn't include your garage I don't know if you will need to paint the garage door as well.

Wow I am blown away with the responses! This is all so helpful and I truly appreciate the feedback! I think we will do away with the shutters. After seeing what it looks like without them I feel that would be a smart move.

We definitely need to uodate the landscaping. Our house faces the northeast and we have a large maple tree in the front that blocks the sun from the gardens by mid morning/early afternoon in the sunmertime. The garden by the large bay window is always in the shade and only gets the early morning sun.

We had a warm orange brick home, more like a Chicago brick (lots of variation in tone). At first, the house had a sage green front door, then beige, and later we painted the door a barn red color (which I loved but it wasn't really amazing). To sell the house, we painted the front door black (there are large windows in the door) and painted the sidelights white (SW Creamy), and replaced the old worn out bronze brown front porch lanterns with a pair of large black light fixtures that had a traditional vibe but modern looking. We also added several black planters (two large window boxes and two 20" square ones) across the front of the house, filled with beautiful plants and flowers. Thanks to the white sidelights, the black door popped and the entire effect was bright and clean and honestly, really classy looking. I was worried that it would look too autumnal, but it is lovely.

If all else fails, paint the brick.

Lots of great colour advice. Just don't ever paint the brick! It's a great colour, and your roof is perfect with it.

I love the classic look of your house! I would probably try to tone down the orange of the bricks to enhance that classic feel. (Romabio is often recommended for that on this forum, but I have no experience with it.)

The trim looks quite yellow in the photo; if that's accurate I'd neutralize that but stay with a light beige that tones in with the limestone, not bright white. (The trim has not been edited in the photo below.)

Normally I think a garage door looks best when it's basically the same color as the house, but without a photo it's hard to say whether that's true here.

I'd remove the scrollwork from the railings (if possible) and paint them charcoal or black.

I'd keep the landscaping also classic and simple, reducing the height of the existing shrubs if possible, otherwise replacing, and then filling in the gaps. Depending on your zone, Chocolate Chip ajuga makes a basically weed-free dark green mat with purple undertones that looks nice all year and blooms blue in spring; it would make a good ground cover under the now-dormant shrubs (roses?) left of the steps and could be repeated right of the steps as well for visual balance (ajuga will tolerate either sun or shade). In my experience it's pretty well-behaved (some ajugas invade lawns), but you could edge it with limestone(?) on the right to contain it and to match the left. A nursery local to you could perhaps suggest low deciduous shrubs for that area if you want to continue the planting pattern from the left side.

Now, you might have something much more edgy in mind, but here's a visual of a calm and classic look:

Personally I love the orange of the brick. It's a natural earth tone. Maybe I like it because it was the colour of the house I grew up in, built in 1966. A very popular choice at that time for this style of house. And I'm in Toronto where many of our houses were built from brick made from our local clay, which is warm toned.

And after years of gray/black/white and cool tones, I wouldn't change it now just as the cycle is shifting to warmer colours.

I feel the almond neutral colour to be a but bland and with the darker colours I am seeing on renovated houses I was wondering if there was something we could do to reduce the yellow a bit.