Prune trees and clean up landscaping first to show off architecture. Where is the front door?

It looks like your front door is up the stairs off to the right. In that case, I'd try to draw attention UP. If you go darker on the house, I'd choose an Eichler look-alike that (according to the interwebs) is equivalent to a Benjamin Moore color called Deep Space. It's a dark blue/gray. For the underside of the upper roof, and the beams, a soft white (not totally stark....but not too far off the window trim if they are unpaintable). For the bottom side of the upper deck, and those beams, paint the house color. I've seen an Eichler scheme with these two colors, and a reddish brown for fascia trim along the roof. The handrail on the deck could be that color as well. I'd see about doing a simple globe hanging light at the peak of the roof rather than the two side lights.

I'd change the rail to horizontal like your neighbors, and stain it in a blue/gray complementary to the house color, rather than leaving it reddish. Otherwise, it might just scream "DECK RAIL", when the best part is the roof angles and beams.

At the lower level, you might consider switching out the existing door (which again, I'm assuming is a service door, not the main entry) for something much simpler. Top half frosted glass, bottom plain panel. You could paint it the trim color. Then change out the light fixture for something quite simple, but striking.

On the right hand side leading up, I would remove the large shrub. You need the front door landing to show. Additional rockwork up to about the base of that shrub with infill plants (maybe ferns would work) with accent in-ground landscape lighting would create the path up. There may be an opportunity to install some great house numbers into a boulder, which would be illuminated at night. I'd remove the iron handrail, and do only one rail in a simple wood handrail and posts on the right hand side (if that meets code) stained like the deck slats.

For the front door, again looking at Eichler house colors, there are plenty of choices from a BM Pumpkin Cream (orange, naturally) and BM Turning Leaf (greenish gold).

Great house, lots of opportunity!

This house looks like a modern take on a chalet. The railing and the roofline are consistent with that.
I would replace the railing with a cable railing, and sharpen the details on the house: New door to replace the traditional wooden one, charcoal grey under the eaves and on the rafter tails. Deeper taupe on the walls, with trim that unifies the windows on the facade.

As the owner of a house in charcoal gray, with white eaves, and a bright front door, I approve.

what a fun house! .Maybe glass windows on the garage

It might be similar to this:

The Eichler paprika for garage door with glass has my vote.. Eucalyptus might be fun for the main house color

I think your instincts are bang on, on every front. We do a lot of work on "Eichler Inspired" architecture and the color scheme you've outlined works beautifully. We would do exactly as you're describing and make the beams white as well, the difference in massing (shadow lines) makes the beams contrast from the white of the eave despite being the same color. We often use a wood named Meranti (stained with "Mahogany Flame" from Australian Timber Oil) for a nice reddish-brown wooden contrast as you've described. I might go for trim in the same charcoal grey (or the beautiful Deep Space mentioned above).

I'm attaching one of current jobs, which unfortunately is still not complete: http://bldgworkshop.ca/projects/quigg-house/

Lots of good ideas mentioned above. Re the large shrub to left of curving stairs... Looks like it might be an over grown camellia or rhoddie. I would leave it but clean it out in the center. If you're not a gardener, you might hire someone with some Japanese gardening skills, NOT to trim it into what I disparagingly call poodle trees but rather an open, thinned out look. Done correctly, they will look contemporary and clean and you'll have blossoms in late winter or spring depending on the plant type. Portland Oregon has I think the largest authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan; you might look at their website for pruning ideas. I find that look works well in contemporary landscaping since the look is open, clean and timeless.
Is that an extra car you have or garage is full of stuff so you can't park in there? Don't get me wrong...we also have one car bay that is full of stuff so we have a car that sits out. But, my thought in your case is, since someone sits out there using that area as their patio, how 'bout improving the view? So instead of having to sit out there and look at an auto grill, how 'bout a row of planters with some tall grasses (Karl Foerster) to provide a greener view? Just a thought.

Thank you all so much! I appreciate every one of your comments and ideas - great stuff. I'll come back with a few more specific thoughts and reactions once I've had a chance to all of your comments.

In the meantime, here's a quick and dirty photoshop of our original thoughts, with a globe light added per nwduck's suggestion. Too dark? And is the deck rail too dominant?

love the color! not too dark at all in my humble opinion.
personally, if it were my home, i would make the fascia, eaves and beams all white. i like the railing color, but I would make the pieces smaller (in our area code would not allow large lateral members such as this because it becomes a climbing hazard for children, but i just like the look of smaller members as in the link i'll post) also, i'm not sure about this idea (it may be overkill) but you might think about expanding the meranti detail onto the garage doors. similar to this project:

I'd leave the current colour that you have and do all trim in the dark charcoal, with a deep burgundy door. I don't mind the deck left more natural, but like the tighter ( and safer) style. On seco d thought, maybe a grand door (we don't really see what yours looks like) in the same natural colour as the deck. I'd put glass at the top part of the garage door as well, or perhaps do the top squares in the darker trim that I have suggested.

Additional thoughts... I thought I liked the idea of matching your neighbor's fencing but , in your mock up, think the red stain is distracting. Plus, painting the body of the house that dark, you lose all definition of what the house is, IMO even emphasizing more the distracting railing. Does this side facing the street happen to face east or north? If the majority of the day the house is lit from the back or one of the sides, then it's like having a spotlight in your eyes... You can't see anything in front of you, blinded (or almost) by the light. In order for see the details of your home from the street, I think you have to paint a lighter taupe or grey and limit the DARK color, which I do like, to trim detailing. Look at the wonderful definition of the house in the photo just above my comment. Yummy colors...good detailing.
What about going inside to determine your railing... You have lots of windows. Do you have a view? If you do and you sit down to get comfortable with company, what happens to the view with a railing of thick, horizontal slats? You'd end-up looking at railing rather than sky and trees. Perhaps you could find a railing solution a bit more "see-through". Another answer, if you want privacy, is to do an open-work rail of some sort and pair it with "top-down/bottom-up"shades so you can enjoy the view yet can pull the shades up from the bottom if you need to run around in your skivvies :-)
Lastly, if you want to add windows to your garage doors, be sure to add rectangular ones that will echo the rectangle of your house... And definitely don't put those fillers that look like sun rays or divided panes which would kill the whole mid-century look in one fell swoop.

Again, thank you all SO MUCH for your comments. Really helpful. Still digesting, but a few quick notes:

There have been a few questions about our door - it's up the stairs to the right of the house. The house isn't visible from the street - you drive around a curving driveway to see the house. Due to the location of the house and slope from the front door down to the driveway, the front door isn't ever visible from the front of the house (yes, this causes no end of confusion to pizza delivery guys). Regardless, we want the front door to be painted a bright color.

Also, the mock-up I posted isn't particularly accurate. If we go with this railing design, there would be 10 rails, not 7, so they'd be smaller with more space overall. Also, there would be vertical supports on the outside of the railing (so there isn't a gap on the inside), which would break up the horizontal lines. The supports do concern me a bit as it might really clutter up the rail.

I'll see if I can do another mock up with lighter house color and darker trim, and also add the railing supports.

Is it possible for you to reutilize part of the existing system on the deck? That is, just to take down the more solid-looking bottom piece with the vertical cutouts, and replace with the horizontal boards? That way the supports would not clutter the horizontal line, it's a little less massive (since you don't go all the way to the top) and less expensive. You'd have that space between the boards and the top handrail which gives it some breathing room. You could paint the top handrail a color, if you liked.

I don't think we can reuse the existing railings - the current setup has a fairly large gap, which is something we want to get rid of. Plus the railings are two boards stacked together horizontally, which creates a water trap and so they're starting to rot.

I'm really concerned that those horizontal deck boards will create a ladder for a child. This may not be a problem now, but may be if you ever want to sell the house. I know that, in my city, it would likely not pass code. I do like the lighter colour that you already have and that Resource Art and Design suggested as you would be able to see the detailing. If not black trim, also not stark white. Love the posting pic from BLDG as it breaks up the strong expanse of grey on the garage doors. How about using wood that matches your deck on those doors instead of cutting windows into it? Good luck. It is a beautiful home. Glad you are trying to maintain the era integrity.

HI -- I love mid century houses . What ever you decide for colors and railing , the one thing you need to do is to enclose the beams on the under side of the balcony and add a fascia board . I would also like to see the exposed ceiling beams painted black or accented with a dark color .

In response to the very flattering comments regarding the picture I've posted, that was posted specifically to demonstrate a wood detail that I think could work for the railing and the garage doors. I really like the color scheme in that picture as well, but for this project I would still aim more towards what akassover has created. It feels more period and design correct to me, like this: http://yoshimichi.blogspot.ca/2011/08/some-idea-for-eichler-houses.html
In that vein, I would respectfully disagree with enclosing the beams, fascia, etc... and stainless steel (although could possibly be convinced on the stainless steel).

Great discussion, but.... Check code first on your railing before you get your heart set on one style and then have to "settle" for something that meets code or worse, buy materiel that has to be returned.

I'm interested to hear what the OP discovers on the code front. It has been my understanding that height of a preventive rail system is more strictly enforced. How do metal horizontal rails get past code? Or cable systems? Or the square wire rail inserts? These seem much more likely to be a climbing hazard than a small reveal between wood slats. Will you let us know what you find out, akassover?

PS It's going to look great!

I'm in Toronto Canada, so it's very possible that the code in your area is somewhat different. Here, however, this isn't a railing, it's a guard. At this height above the ground the guard would need to be 42" high. Horizontal members like the neighbor built (or the horizontal cables you always see in movies or design magazines) are not permitted because, as discussed, they do create a climbing hazard. Guard components are only permitted to work in a horizontal fashion if they are placed a max. of 3/4" from each other so as not to provide a proper toehold. Usually, people will simply place them vertically or use a full panel system (ie: tempered glass)

Thanks again for all of the thoughtful comments.

I'll report back on local codes and horizontal rails. We did some "field research" today (driving around looking at other houses) and saw lots with horizontal railing. We're in Seattle.

Creating a ladder hazard is legitimate a concern as we've got 21 month old twins. One option we saw on several houses was to have tighter spacing on the lower 2/3 of the railing and then open it up in the upper 3rd. After the trip to the department of planning to discuss code on Monday (our carpenter didn't know), I'll mock that up to see how it might look. I do want to avoid cables.

We have a small fence across the walk to the front door with the same horizontal style and we're looking at other ways to use horizontal fir on site. I think covering the garage doors would be too much, but we could do a fence to the left of the house and also a planter/bench in front of the downstairs window to the left of the garage.

Lots of good stuff to consider...

Thanks for the article! Some of the things they list were done before we arrived and we're slowly trying to make it right. I don't think my plans described here commit any of the 100+ sins, but let me know if something seems wrong! This is a big reason why while we love cable rails and glass garage doors in new modern houses, we're fighting the urge to add them to our mid-century modern.

A few comments: while you are at city hall, ask them which projects require permits. It might be as simple as "everything over $500". The local building codes may be online (Seattle is that kind of place).

When you change the second floor wood railing, you may want to add handrails on the front stairs. Also, you might consider adding lighting up the stairs to the front door. Not just for the pizza guy, but for other visitors who arrive in the dark, such as parents with small children or visiting elderly relatives. Lighting built into a handrail can be a fine design statement.

Trimming back the shrubbery will let in a lot more light during daylight hours. In a rainy area like Seattle, moss growth can be significant. You can minimize it with good air circulation around the house itself, meaning keep th shrubs a couple feet from the house and avoid overhanging branches.

I have to say that I love the new glass garage doors people have been adding to our neighborhood's 1950's one story ranch houses. They do become the dominant design element.

Okay, here's the update... Seattle has surprisingly few codes for guard rails. Here's what they say:

"A guardrail is required for deck surfaces more than 30 inches above adjacent surfaces. The following standards apply to guardrails: minimum height 36 inches, maximum openings 4 inches."

Regardless, I don't like creating a ladder. As I mentioned earlier, we've got two VERY active 21 month olds and I hate the idea of creating a hazard for them or future little ones. The solution we've come up with is to decrease the spacing between the boards on the lower 24" of the railing to 3/4", and then open it up probably to 1.5" or so for the remaining 16". We saw quite a few houses that did this and it looks good.

For paint, charcoal wins with sunflower highlights. We'll keep the lower beams charcoal, and paint the upper beams and underside of the eaves a very light grey.

Finally, I hear what libradesigneye says about the horizontal fence needing to tie into something else on the site. I think we can accomplish two things at once by adding a privacy screen at the end of the driveway to create a separate outdoor space for the downstairs (which currently houses my office, but is technically a mother-in-law apartment). Resource ART & Design pointed out that looking out to a car grill isn't idea and separating this area is something we've thought of for a while.

Attached is a *very rough* photoshop mock up showing these things. I also added horizontal boards, washed in charcoal, on one of the garage doors to see how that looked. Don't know if we'll do that, but it's fun to explore.

The old rail came down today along with some other exterior repairs so we are committed (and excited)!

Thank you all again for the great discussion.

Great solutions - like the sunflower too. You may want to let your cedar weather naturally to gray - it will always tie in, and you won't need to maintain it as often.

Exciting! Good luck!

Out of curiosity, what's the depth of the deck? We have a mid century ranch that's similar and adding a deck like yours is on the project list. We're thinking about 8 feet deep and wondering if that's too narrow?

In the front of the house, the deck is actually really narrow - 4 1/2 feet. It wraps around the side of the house (that you can't see in the picture) and is about 10 feet wide there.

The new railing is on and looks awesome. The privacy screen will be up in the next few days. The wood sure isn't cheap though... We'll be staining and painting in two weeks.

It's done! I thought I'd circle back and post some "after" pictures so you all could see how things ended up. A few notes on the work:

* We ended up doing the railing with a tight enough spacing on the bottom 2/3 that it isn't a climbing hazard.
* We decided not to do the globe light for now - might happen later, but for now it feels like it doesn't quite fit.
* The upstairs solid door moved downstairs (we couldn't find a simple plain solid exterior door for sale anywhere) and we got a new door upstairs.
* We ended up making the privacy screen T shaped with one side being a large gate, creating a space to keep our trashcans.
* I took these pictures before we had the yard cleaned up.
* We also had the roof repaired and recoated so pretty much the entire exterior is redone.
* While we were at it, we replaced the 1965 furnace with a modern efficient one (and instantly cut our gas bill in half).

I'm happy to break down the costs for anybody that cares, though I think it is so specific to the region and house, I'm not sure if it would be beneficial.

Congratulations! It looks beautiful. I love the colour combo and the top yellow edging. That new door is gorgeous! Very mid-century.

Looks great! Good job taking the best of the suggestions and turning them into a handsome, cohesive look.

Looks great! Love that new paint gleam.

I've just seen these images now. They're spectacular!

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Just wanted to say I love how your house turned out. I've just changed my deck and rails to a natural color with cables from white pickets. I'm thinking about a charcoal color for the house and came across your dilemma in my search for ideas. Great job.