It’s a classic little house. I love the brick color, I like the idea of all other trim being an olive or drab color. Then you need fantastic landscaping. Pull out the trimmed box hedge under the sunroom but keep the tree (crepe myrtle?).

Thank you @hallett&co ! I appreciate your feedback! So you would keep the brick the unpainted "yellow" color, but change the soffit and windows to olive green? Do you think that green soffits under the roofline will make the house look shorter?

You need more contrast with your trim and plants in bloom. Everything looks blah this time of year.

@sigrid would you recommend anything specifically?! I am hitting a total mental block when it comes to my home exterior. thanks so much!

You have so little trim that it should all be one color for consistency. Then a fun door color (I like purple…)

Yep, keep the brick as is. You can get rid of the drab with a nice wide garden area planted with shrubs (and perennials if you like gardening). I would also get rid of the hedge. Can't suggest plants unless we know where you are located (in general, not exact address). You have a cute house and the landscaping could achieve exactly what you are looking for.

ETA: I probably wouldn't paint the soffit, but the window trim might look nice in an olive or drab color as Hallett suggested.

Thank you @cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)!! I’ve been waffling back and forth on whether or not to paint the brick, but i have more people telling me not to then to do it! i agree that landscaping will make a huge difference. I’m in north Texas (Dallas) and woukd appreciate any landscaping advice!!

Thank you @cat_ky! I agree, maybe do landscaping before I decide on exterior paint. The windows are in ROUGH shape, so i know I for sure need to repaint those. Otherwsie the trim is in okay shape.

I had to enlarge the picture to see why you had blue walls on the right side - turns out those are windows and the blue must be interior window treatments! That looks so very odd to me and I’d fix that first thing (with white drapery liners). And also on the window with your bamboo blind.

The brick is quite lovely, but the landscaping is old and tired. The second thing I would do is rip out that tree blocking the front door. The trunks look like security bar fencing.

It also looks like cars have been driving through the front yard. I would put a stop to that quickly. The yard will never look really good, if cars keep driving there.

Yeah, nobody drives through the yard. I have no idea why there are perfect semi-circles of dead grass throughout. It's definitely strange. The grass is very hard and compacted in some areas, thus the patchiness near the driveway. There are also a million different grass types it seems - bermuda, st. aug., and fescue. I think I need to till and reseed/start over? Feeling super overwhelmed with all this landscaping stuff - and you haven't even SEEN the backyard, lol. It's a mess.

@littlebug zone 5 Missouri I'm not sure why the windows appear blue in the picture, but it doesn't really look that way in person. I have white blinds in the sunroom. I agree that the bamboo shades really throw everything off, but I just bought them and I LOVE the way they look on the inside, which has already been remodeled. That is why i was thinking to maybe paint the exterior brick white and eventually replace the sunroom shades to bamboo? Might seem like a lot of work just to keep the bamboo shades, lol. It just looks unbalanced with beige shades on one side and white on the other.

Alexandria, Texas, huh? Well, I will be no help! I have no clue what plants are native there or non-native, but you love them. We are in Northern Virginia-quite different climate. I can't wait to see what others suggest and then please come back to show us!

Are you new to this house? First I hope you will come to realize that even as is it is not what I would call "drab." It's a simple, but very well designed and cared for house. The brickwork with the curve, cream color of the brick, the placement of windows , the rafter tails (had to look up what those were called LOL) all very nice, looks to be some kind of blending of craftsman and more midcentury ranch, 1940s-ish, am I right?

No, dont paint that brick - for sooooo many reasons. It already is a nice versatile cream color so nothing really is gained by painting it, and the risks of severe long term damage just arent worth it. Yeah I could definitely see a grayed olive to replace the whites! Other than that - I dont think you need to add any more drama, cos as noted above it already has plenty of architectural appeal.

What is that tree exactly, a lilac? If it's nice flowering no need to rip it out, just thin out/ remove about 1/2 of the growth down to the ground - particularly the ones on the left in the pic - to leave only 5-7 trunks to have it be more of a multi-stemmed tree rather than overgrown shrub.... which it may have been originally. Lilacs and other types of trees send up a lot of suckers that should be removed as they come up.

On the other hand, maybe you would want to eventually remove it and replant with things that dont conceal and better frame that whole entry way area. There is a landscaping forum here you might go for suggestions - otherwise yeah $$$ for a good plan that you can implement in stages is money well spent!

HI @User! Yes, it's fairly new to me - been here for about 5 months. I renovated the interior first and now that the weather is changing, it's time to do some work on the outside! Thank you for all the compliments and you are correct - it was built in 1938, so very close to your 1940s estimate. I've been trying to figure out what "style" it is, but I think you captured it perfectly with craftsman and midcentury ranch.

I'd be a little apprehensive to paint the soffits and raftertails an olive color because I'd be afraid of making the house look shorter! What do you think about keeping the white, but adding an olive shutter? Do shutters go with this style of house?!

The tree is a pink crepe myrtle and it hasn't come back to life from winter. I debated for a long time whether or not to cut it down when I removed the bushes from the left side of the house, but ultimately decided to keep it. I'm sure my fiance would be HAPPY to take it down, lol. I'm definitely going to hit the landscaping forum up on ideas for plantings. Maybe I'll start with that and then decide on what to do with the exterior.

Appreciate the feedback more than you know!!!