Congratulations on your new house! It's not ugly; my husband would say that's his favorite. And, WOW! What a beautiful door! Instead of MCM, focus on the broader concept of contemporary.
​
Check behind the shutters to see if the brick is in good condition. I think your instinct to remove them is more in line with the home style. Vertical siding is more appropriate than horizontal when it's time to replace it. And dark window frames are more contemporary. But you just bought a house, so I don't know what you are ready to invest right now.
​
Regardless, it is good to develop a great plan and execute it as funds allow or as materials fail, rather than think about just one aspect at a time. The most important thing is to make sure your home's skin is keeping out rain. Are the roof, windows, and siding doing their main job?
​
The key to making blonde brick glow instead of looking dingy is contrast with something dark like black (see photo). You may like this article, but pay close attention to the actual brick colors in the photos, because sometimes they use a more orange brick than yours: https://www.lostateminor.com/blonde-brick-house-color-schemes/
​
Beware of advice to plant landscaping around the foundation before you finish your exterior. Plants get badly trampled with exterior siding work and then all that investment is trash. Similarly, beware of AI generated plans where everything blooms at once...get real. You have a mature tree. Take good care of it. Make it and you happy by planning a bed around it where you can blow all its leaves in fall in a few minutes instead of hours of raking and bagging.
​
My first instinct is to replace the siding with vertical black/dark charcoal, including over the front door, black casement windows, dark but rich caramel front door and garage door, with a storm door that maximizes the view of your front door. And oddly, I want to paint your porch supports a very dark olive green, when usually I would want to replace them with something more substantial. I also want to put one or two dark terra cotta looking pots on the front porch with tall grasses in them. I also would put a contemporary bench or pair of chairs on the front porch and make a habit of sitting out there to meet your new neighbors.

I look forward to more feedback from you.

The door more Art deco than MCM and no shutters if MCM is the aim. Horizontal siding was very much the usual choice . I have owned 2 original MCM homes both with horizontal siding.. .You will also notice the 2 types of siding but no brick.
MCM original homes had horizontal siding always and I just sold my original 1956 MCM home with hotizontal siding. This is my fave for MCM inspiration notice the siding., the door, the garage door and the landscaping. The yellow MCM brick is very specific to that era not like other brick,BTW. Please do not paint the brick if MCM is the aim . I live in a city where a huge number of MCM modest homes are and the ones with painted brick are no where near as attractive as the brick left as it was original.

Suggest focussing on/defining what will have the biggest effect/suit and consider doing in stages if needed…like landscaping. Look on line for inspiration and note what others have done in your neighbourhood.

I’d leave the brick as is, but paint the garage section to match (test lots of shades) to create a more unified and larger feel. With your roof, suggest black front/garage doors and shutters, which will tie in the facade.

Suggest adding wood framing and posts. When landscaping, suggest improving the walkway/steps first and then design/plant to suit. Adding value to your home is always worth it. Good luck.

Great house! if it were me, I’d get the door hung (that could be $$ if the frame isn’t square and lots of work needs to be done - so I’d get that done first so you have the budget)

I’d remove the shutters and box/trim the metal columns with wood painted the trim color - we did this several years ago and it took a handyman a weekend to do it, it was inexpensive and cleans up the facade imo -

the rest I would spend on landscaping - I’d get a pro to do the plan and then install myself over time

fwiw we just bought a fun modern mailbox from Adorn, it’s a great pop of color at the curb

Is the siding vinyl, or wood? It needs to be painted the same color as the brick. The two colors clash. You can buy paint for vinyl siding, if thats what you have. Match a paint to the brick, and paint that first. That would be the very first thing, I would do, so you have a house that doesnt look like it has a mismatch on one side. The bright red shutters definitely have to go, and in your case, I wouldnt replace them, because, there is no room for shutters on the picture window, so it causes the house to look off balance. Get your brick cleaned, before you choose paint for the siding. The door is beautiful. Once its on, leave it until last to choose a paint color. You have the typical vertical iron posts. I dont mind them, but, many dont like them. If you dont like them, then you can easily box them in so they are just square columns. I would however, paint them darker. Not black, but, maybe the dark charcoal color of your roof. A good clean up outside, and some new, much nicer landscaping, and it will look very nice. Congratulations on your new home.

The first thing on my list would be the decorative metal posts. Is that MCM IDK but I am not a fan. You mentioned warm wood tones and I might let some beefy cedar columns lead the way. Painting brick had it's moment, I think it's about over so I would try and work with what is there before I jumped to that 'fix'. As you can see from the pictures offered going dark can be a very bold difference, does that 'look' fit your home? Easy start would be to remove the shutters. Hopefully they don't leave a 'shadow' of where they were. They are undersized and given they aren't on all the widows seem out of place. We can't see the red door but maybe it gave the shutter color some context. Yellow and white is a fine color combo but freshening up can do wonders. Looking at your landscaping and wonderful over hang I might looking into adding a patio with a rail system so it looks more like a porch to the right of your door. That would be a far more lasting than any paint job. Well worth the investment when I see the dramatic curb appeal a front porch adds.

It is currently very ugly with the landscaping

No, it's not ugly -- it's a throwback to yesteryear. It's not what we see in today's magazines /online materials, but it doesn't even need an update. What it NEEDS:

- A little clean-up. I mean, the driveway needs a sweep or a blow-off.

- The front door is underwhelming, but the stained-glass door you've chosen will be amazing. You're off to a great start.

- You say your current door is red -- but we can't see it at all. That (cheap) white storm door is blocking it. I'd either leave off the storm door (which means you can't leave your front door open) OR replace the storm door with a full-glass door that'll allow that great stained glass door to show. Do not keep that lovely door behind your current storm door.

- The burgundy shutters are a problem. Thing is, that color is not repeated anywhere else, so they look like an accident. And the burgundy is not great with your brick color. I'd choose a color from the stained glass window /repaint the shutters in that color. Then repeat that color in planters, a floor mat, house numbers, maybe even the mailbox -- don't go overboard with too much of this chosen color. You want balance, and you want to keep the door as the star.

- You could replace the white wrought-iron pillars with something more trendy, but the danger there is creating a need for more changaes -- the current pillars match the rest of the house.

- That garage door is a big, blank white square. It's doing nothing for you. I don't quite know what to do, but I know it needs something. Maybe replace it with a more attractive door -- something with windows. Maybe fake windows. Be careful, as many garage door "fixes" are traditional or colonial in style -- and you need to stay MCM.

- And you need some landscaping. It's all just so blank. Not bad, just empty. You don't have to do all your landscaping at once: This year bring in some shrubbery -- in my area, I'd want some azaleas, but you know your area. Next year add a small bird feeder to that front plantar and surround it with bulbs and annuals. Think about some flowering trees. If landscaping isn't your thing, bring in someone from a local nursery and have them help you develop a plan.

- Be careful about timbers and black-framed windows. Those are trendy today -- trendy today means "out" tomorrow, and this look has about run its time. Stick to MCM, the original style, and it'll work out.

- Think twice, too, about painting the brick. I adore white-painted brick; and, yes, it'd be easier to work with than your current yellow brick, but consider that painting means taking a (practically) maintenance-free material and turning it into something that'll require re-painting as time goes on. If you decide today to paint, you're deciding to put time /effort into more paint in the future -- and you'll never find a time when you say, "I feel like painting the house."

Lots of good advice given without knowing the extent of renovations you plan on implemeting. I could live with this look for quite a while just usng some charcoal gray paint to crispen thngs up.

I don't mind the existing garage door and siding.

Remove the shutters and power wash the brick. Then you can choose colors that work with it.

I wouldn’t paint it. All you’re doing is adding more work to your life.

You don't paint brick; you stain brick. Done with the proper prep (which in your case is probably just power washing because it has not been painted before), the stain will last for 30 years. Once in a while you can use the soft setting on the power washer if it looks a little grimy.

Would the ease of doing that change your mind about house colors, or would you rather stick with the yellow (power washed as @RedRyder advises.)?

Staying with yellow, paint any siding the same yellow as the brick; paint trim white, no shutters; if keeping that storm door, paint it the door color...not white as it is.

Staining the brick, painting all siding the same color, etc, you could have a house looking something like this one (notice garage door is same color as siding).

Landscaping and front walk leading to driveway.

There is a nice front gable overhang on the house do something special with it.

Wow!! My very first post here on Houzz and I wake up to a plethora of GREAT suggestions, including picture examples. I’m glad nobody likes the red shutters—I despise them. And yes the exact same red is on the front door hiding behind the storm door. Even if the storm door wasn’t there, it would still not tie the red into this home. We fell in love with the inside of this home and the cul-de-sac dead end a few houses down from us, as well as the small creek and a bit of woods in our back yard. The neighbors are great, too!

Yes, the vinyl siding color is off, I agree. We have white vinyl windows and we are considering replacing them in the near future. We plan to have the door hung in the next few months. I love the idea of modernizing the window frame colors to be dark, as well as thr trim and garage door, but my worry is that this fad may not last? Whatif rhe window frames stayed white vinyl? Could I still do the darker trim amd update the siding color to match the brick and it look good with the white trim windows? I really like the front door color SW Sea Serpent that @oncape posted. We have been strongly considering boxing in our supports on our porch with wood.

Also we planned on replacing the storm door with a solid glass storm door. We just had anew roof and gutters installed the gutters are white.

The first version @Design Interior South posted has white windows and it looks good. Wrapping the posts and painting the same dark color is a good idea. If you don't paint the gutters, I think the dark color will still look good as trim. I agree with you, will we love black windows in a few years? Windows are so expensive, hard to commit to anything but white frames.

Here's DIS's version with white gutters, painted fascia and white gutters, white fascia. Soffits are painted dark on both. Which ever way you go, paint the gutters and the fascia on the porch part to match the porch trim. That white bit sticking out looks odd.

Your new door is very Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Style.. Very MCM.

If you are unsure about gray, here is an option using white trim and cladded columns. Painting the garage door and siding close to the color of the brick unifies the facade.

This understated look might fit the character of your neighborhood. It's not a "look at me".

I would get a quote for grinding down the uneven seam in the driveway concrete and applying a skimcoat. It's a trip hazard on the way to the front walk so at least patch it.

"but my worry is that this fad may not last?" I don't think there is a fad in home design that will last more than 10 years for the best of them. Do not chase fads. Find what you LOVE and just do it. Even if it makes you different at least you will have spent money on what you love not what " The Jones'" say is hip and happening.

I love the look of pictures 2 and 3 that Design interior south posted above. I notice on the pictures, that the wrought iron posts are all enclosed. They do look very nice, but, they will also look nice painted a nice charcoal color. They are original to the house, so its totally up to your, which way you like them. My last house, only had two columns of them, in a odd spot, so they were all enclosed. The house I have now, has them everywhere, and I dont mind them at all, so they have been left. I disagree with removing the big tree. It looks like it cools the the house . Bare front yards dont look as nice as a yard with a nice big well cared for tree. If the tree is unhealthy, then, I might consider removing it, and adding some smaller ones, but, if its healthy, I would definitely leave it.

You can go a lot of different ways depending on what the budget is and how far you want to go with renovations.

The first thing I’d want to do is remove the big tree out front. I love trees and hate to remove them but sometimes that just date a place just like other landscaping can. Then start on the house.

Remove shutters and add new columns. The pics show the brick a bit lighter than your actual brick so keep that in mind. The pics show the home with different window trim and garage door colors, as well as, different style front doors.

I love the door. The shutters have to go. Paint the siding either to match the brick or perhaps one of the coppery colors from the door. Don't paint your pretty brick. A little landscaping will go a long way. It's a nice house, it won't take much to make it great.

@blestforsure welcome to Houzz! Your lot sounds lovely with the woods and creek in addition to your mature tree in the front.

I encourage you to consider dark windows. They are not a fad. The fad is having white walls inside with black windows on the inside. If you plan for all dark colors inside, you could have black windows inside, but if you want light wall colors inside, have the insides of the windows white. You get to choose your window color on the outside to coordinate with your siding/brick/stone and then you get to choose if you want the same color inside or white inside. Most people choose white inside and out because they are so much cheaper than colored windows (which I totally don't understand but that's the way it is) even if it doesn't look as good on their home. For your home, dark windows and trim will make all the difference. Without them you will continue to see dingy when you look at your brick. But you see what your home is capable of from the pictures. I suggest you price replacing the windows (dark outside), siding, and gutters together and save up for it until you can do it right, with the dark windows.

I am loving the renderings with the new garage door suggetions. What a better look than the present flat wood.

The posters have given you some great ideas for improving the look of your house. My two cents is do remove the shutters and do replace those wroght iron columns at the front.

DON’T take down the tree. DO have an arborist check it, fertilize and prune if recommended. REMOVE the shutters and REPLACE the porch columns and INSTALL the new front door along with a full glass storm door. Then enjoy your home for a while before choosing paint colors.

Such a cute house! Love the door. Make sure to post a pic once the door is installed. Do really need a storm door?

With the blond brick, I would not do black windows. I'd pick a taupe or a dark brown like urbane bronze. Black is too stark. That said, I would not replace windows unless they need it.