2 things off the top of my head . Remove the shutters and paint the siding a color that works with the brick. I love this color with brick

A creamy white would look good, too. A little contrast with the trim which looks like a good color. That mustard color is not doing the brick any favors. I think once you change the siding you will be happier with the brick. Your brick isn't ugly - I wouldn't paint or whitewash it. That is currently very popular, but once it's done it can't be undone and then you have changed a no maintenance surface to a surface that requires maintenance. I agree with Patricia, you don't need the shutters at all. If your front door is the shutter color that is fine (it goes well with the brick), but if you go with a green on the siding as Patricia suggests then you should change the front door to a darker green. When you get a new roof, get a medium gray. The porch and the railing look fine. Don't add something very contemporary as it wouldn't fit the house. You might be able to cut the bushes back enough to make them look better. I am not a plant expert so I will leave that discussion to someone else.

No shutters. I like the brick. The gray/green color from Patricia would be a nice choice with your brick and roof.

A medium gray or charcoal would be a good roof color when the time comes. Gray is more neutral IMO allowing for more color choices with other elements.

Out front door is currently this stain. We aren’t opposed to painting our trim as well.
Thank you all for the advice!

The river stone of this house has a similar color mix as your brick. This palette would work very well with your existing brick,--ivory, taupe, red/rust door. Don't paint. This roof is brown, like yours. The no shutter look is very modern and streamlined.

Front elevation · More Info

Wooden porch and pillars in this stain would enhance the palette.

Tate Lane · More Info

I like your wooden front door, too! All the previous advice still applies. Alternatively, off white trim, pillars, porch on creamy ivory house would also look good.

Landscaping: What you have is actually quite nice but needs to be trimmed back on the left. I'm assuming the previous owners let things grow to give more privacy to ground-floor windows. Live through a growing season before doing anything drastic. This will give you time to come up with a planting plan.

No painting of brick. You have very nice brick. Several colors or shades of colors in it. Very easy to paint the siding one of the colors from the brick. Make sure the color you pick, also goes with your roof, since it is fairly new. I like shutters on your style house, so, personally, I would paint them, and put them back on. That is all up to you and your personal. taste.

I like the first pic from housegal. Nice how they pulled tones from the stone for the door and window trim.

This is just another example of a sage-ish green with stone that’s similar in color to your brick.

How do you feel about gardening? I ask because previous owner was obviously someone who enjoyed it. You may want less work. I like the current mature look of your plants. I would only reduce them in size.

Do not paint the brick. Your house is nice looking but the gold siding is too bold for my taste.

I would remove the shutters on the porch window. Paint the other shutters white.

Do you know the names of any of the plants?

The brick is fine, whether or not you decide to paint or add a limewash is up to you. If you go with a limewash, do that first because sometimes it doesn’t turn out as expected, which messes up your siding color. BTW, siding takes and holds paint beautifully so no need to replace, just paint it.

Your front porch looks so skinny!!! I would remove the railing and look into making it wide enough to add a couple chairs. It’s a lovely house overall, enjoy!

First congrat on your home purchase. Now sorry spoil the happy mood before change anything choose what needs to be fixed first If the roof not in good shape fix that first. Since a home won't be a home if it your roof leaks or has shingles missing during a storm. Make sure your gutters are not leaking etc. Looks not always important when you just bought your home. How about inside? Ancient appliances replace that could start a fire replace those first.

If none of those needed for now then painting the siding and around windows, removing fake shutters, landscaping.

That mustard siding and brick red shutters is doing your house no favors. It's hard to tell about the landscaping. A bunch of flowering shrubs is a good scheme for unenthusiastic gardeners. Yours could probably do with a trim. Or you can move a few.

Your house looks exactly like ours. We painted and love it

Thank you all for your recommendations!! We are definitely painting siding, removing some shutters, and potentially updating our porch. We do like to garden and one of our favorite things about this home is all of the beautiful and mature azaleas, roses, hydrangeas, etc. We plan to trim them back after the summer once they’re all done blooming. Thank you all again, the color options are so helpful. We are also not painting our brick :)

Sounds wonderful, would love to see your improvements!!

I noticed the bushes you have. They can take a hard pruning to bring them back in scale with the house and not hide the lower level windows.

I don't think you need shutters on any of the windows. I would paint the siding a sage green with a creamy white trim.

Good luck with your lovely house.

I would replace some of the windows with larger double hung windows.

Most of the shrubbery seems healthy but poorly chosen for the location. Move what you can (and want to save) and replace with plants--shrubs, perennials, groundcovers that will stay below the windows without constant pruning.

So much potential!
If you do love gardening and plan to keep the azaleas (and you should), please keep the pink colors in mind when you paint the siding. The current mustard with the blooming pinks and whites is….not a match made in heaven. The suggested sage greens with your bricks are lovely, and would be an excellent backdrop to your azaleas. Think overall cohesion.
And no to shutters.
Good luck!

Here are a few suggestions:

Repeating what someone else said. Plan your future roof color first before you paint the siding and trim. All elements need to harmonize. Here are several houses that show the coordination of trim paint with roof:

Charcoal roof with a bit of brown coordinated with taupe at the gray end:

Fredricksburg Brick · More Info

Warm ivory with light brown roof also coordinated with stone on façade and stone wall:

Coventry Homes - DOUBLE EAGLE RANCH · More Info

Sage/taupe garage and trim with same color roof:

Dark brown trim echoes brown roof. Siding picks up some of stone color.

There's a strict school of thought that shutters should only be used on window styles that would historically have had shutters that actually open and close. And that any non-operating shutters should still be wide enough that they would close if they could.

My view is that shutters can be a purely decorative element, free from these rules, and still look good. So I would leave your shutters, because your upper windows are relatively small compared to the size of the space they are in, and the shutters make them look more proportional to the space. I think they're just the right size. So then I'd also leave the shutters on the windows below them. I'd remove the shutters on the larger window on the porch.

Whatever siding colour you choose, I'd go with a medium tone - neither a very dark colour that could look overwhelming, nor a very light one that would pop out. Use the same colour to "paint out" the contrasting belly band between brick and siding, and also paint out the corner edge pieces on the siding (can't remember what they are called).

Your front door is beautiful and perfect with your brick.

Congratulations on your lovely home.

Just a note: Do not wait until after summer to prune the azalea or you will lose next year's blooms. Azaleas need to pruned just after the flowers fade, says the person who never prunes hers. ;-)

“They can take a hard pruning to bring them back in scale with the house and not hide the lower level windows.”

Yes!👍🏻

It's a good looking house in a beautiful setting and will be even better once you figure out a good color for the siding. No need to do anything to the brick. It's good brick!

Definitely keep the second floor shutters--that area will be too naked without them. The house was designed to have them there to add interest and was not meant to be bare. (The other shutters are fine too, but you wouldn't really miss them as much...) It's TOTALLY correct to have decorative shutters on homes of this era.

Do be sure to identify and prune the shrubs properly. Some may have to be removed but a healthy old shrub is a nice thing to build a new landscaping plan around. So often new home owners rip out all the valuable old plants when it would be better to tame them. You have good ones that are probably worth working with. :)

I would remove the corbels "holding up" the upper storey LOL.

Your brick is good looking, don't change it.

Your roof colour works with it. Get something similar when you re-roof.

No way Partim! Take those off and the whole house tumbles! :)

Haha. I think they're kinda cute.