Normally I don't favor shutters but in this case, I think they add a lot to the look of the house.

Shutters!!! They will help bring the detail out in the brick and other features that you want to highlight.

Since there's such nice, decorative design in the brick detail around the windows, the shutters don't really seem necessary. They kinda distract from the beauty of the geometric brick design, which stands alone just fine. I would rather see stone plaques or emblems on the facade than I would, fake plastic shutters...which are just too ordinary. I would use strategic lighting to highlight the brick detailing around the window frames so you can see it better at night and get rid of those two trees directly in front of the main facade of the home, which would make that prominent section come forward more and appear more grand...further eliminating the need for fake plastic shutters - to compromise, I would use nice wooden shutters of the same wood, style and quality as the front door...that I would accept...it would compliment the iron gate on the driveway...then, I would use a good landscaper to take care of the rest.

Shutters should be wide enough that if they were to close they would cover the windows. The ones in the picture are too narrow. Try Timberlane.com

There isn't enough room on the exterior wall for shutters that are wide enough - the center and two left windows are next to a wall.

Skip the shutters, paint the front door a great color , get rid of the 2 trees on either side of the right window and enhance your landscaping. The brickwork is beautiful, the door is boring.Make your entrace say here I am, welcome ! I say spend the dollarsnon the landscape.the house is beautiful.

Shutters!

Shutters only make visual sense if they actually work, or are large enough to look as if they do. WHich they can't do because there isn't enough exterior wall space. How about painting the window trim and the front door black or deep green? And yes, eliminate the large trees.

ANSWERS TO SOME OF YOUR QUESTIONS

Eliminating the tress is being considered. A local tree nursery wii remove them for free since they are very resellable.

The door will not be repainted.

HOA rules prevent a front fence.

We relandscaped the backyard this spring. The front yard is to be relandscaped in 2014.

Besides their large size custom made wooded and composite shutters are cost prohibitive.

If we were to use shutters they would be raised panel. I have located a firm tha has variable widths but their height is restricted. Also, as pointed out there is not enought room for the proper width. (I am going to remeasure to confirm).

Flower boxes under the second story windows would be pretty yet our harsh hot climate quickly (daily) dries out such plantings. We found that out the hard why along two backyard decks.

At least here it is best not to place mulch around the bottom of trees. Mulch around trees attract unwanted insects plus add an additional layer of cover over some of the root system.

Many foundation plantings directly in front of the windows get too big.

As odd as it may sound Juniper (fir) plants that are not native to this area generally die out due to environmental stress or as in most cases mites. Once red mites attack fir the foliage dies and does not return. We and many others have had hit & miss luck with those beautiful evergreens.

Very tasteful trim atop the bottom floor windows is a definite "YES".

Our home has sixteen windows. Repainting the frames and grids is cost prohibitive. Good idea though.

The photo showing vines on the north side of the house were eridicated. Growing them in the first place aw a very bad idea.
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We are considering our options and look forward to any additional comments.

Shutters - Check our Timberlane, Inc.!

Hi Zerolotline. How wonderful the detail of response you've gotten. I'm working toward having my property certified as a wildlife sanctuary. Congrats. Here's my .02

You've already got "relandscaping" scheduled for 2014. Put your dollars there and in finding someone who really understands your soil, climate and maintenance needs. The house was not designed for shutters. It's nearly as "wrong" to try to make shutters work as it would be to plaster some Mid-Century modern detail on it.

The large tree is gorgeous. The two smaller trees are pulling the eye up too much. I agree the entry is overshadowed by the closer tree.

If your HOA allows for some softening of that straight walkway, I'd make it wider, which is better for your stability and far more welcoming/gracious. Get a proper landscape designer to get the focus/ eye to plantings along either side of that wider walkway.

I look forward to seeing what you do. Good luck!

Shutters give it a pretty colonial touch. Liked your white trim, too! Window boxes would be pretty, if they could be secured well. (But they require fussing on the content.)
Use epoxy set bolts when fastening anything to exterior brick/stone..
http://www.architecturaldepot.com/exterior-vinyl-shutters.html

I would not put them back up, lest the wind ripped them back off again! The brick work is awesome as is. We get a pretty rough storm every few years here and it reminds me each time to overbuild when adding onto or upgrading my home.

NO SHUTTERS. The brickwork is beautiful and with the brick detail around the windows it is clear that the house was not designed for shutters. Do remove the two trees on the right. The house needs much better landscaping and then you will be able to appreciate the beauty of the facade without shutters. Also put a nice wreath on the door for a pop of color.

No shutters. On the left side of the house, theres not enough space on each side of the window to make shutters look "real". The shutters look silly because the are too thin. I would put the money towards landscaping.

no shutters

No shutters. Not black ones at least. Black is a dead color. If you must have shutters on that lovely home, maybe blue? NOT black.

Dead color may be going a bit too far, but ... agreed, it's not unique, especially on this type of home. The casing around the windows is very cool, but we've got a set of shutters ready to ship today that I saw and they are painted in Black Plum. They are GORGEOUS!

I'd be interested to see what Black Plum looks like.

Sorry for the dusty pics, we're prepping them for our Tent Sale tomorrow and just pulled them out.

second pic

Okay, now that's a lovely color for that shade of brick.

Thank you Timberlane. We will review your website.

The previous shutters were too narrow. Shutters need to be in proportion to the window size and be the width when closed they would totally cover the window.

GREAT NEWS!

The two Yaupon Holly trees in the right side bed will be removed next week. New trim will sit atop each first floor window. A top quality colorful wreath will adorn the front door. Old four foot post light by the street sidewalk is going away. Up lighting will show off the brick detail at night. Front yard professionally re-landscaped in April 2014. Front door surroud plus the soffit, fascia and gutters for the whole house to be repainted later this month. All 16 windows to be resealed as necessary. Large Burr Oak tree may get thinned out by an arborist in 2014 to ensure it remains healthy for many decades to come.

I cannot thank you all enough for the help. The number and quality of your comments were amazing. As work progresses I will post updates with photographs.

Best regards,
Louis & Cathy
North Texas

I'm sorry to see the Dr. Seuss-like holly trees go, as I really like them, but I agree they aren't quite ideal as a landscaping feature on your particular house. Best of luck with all the changes!

How are you going to reseal the windows? Are you talking about caulking around them?

perhaps you should consider putting your budget towards permanent plantings that will enhance the appearance rather than trying to add items to the house itself.... There are many "evergreen" plants that look good all year round...... Spiral shapes are great unless you don't want the upkeep, but there are also tall, narrow ones that would be a nice touch as well, either side of the two windows on the right side, where the spindly ones are now.

Yes Victor, the painter will rechaulk if needed and many of them do.

No shutters, but highlight your windows by painting the frame and muntins a dark color.

The new plants will be permanent Stamps. Excellent suggestions.

Would love to have the window frames a darker color. I did price it and to change the color on all sixteen windows was in excess of $6,000. It's the labor cost.

Not a good idea for vinyl anyway--it has a high expansion and contraction rate and dark paint would just make it worse, and would probably fade and peel pretty quickly.

The broad exterior trim around the windows (shown in a picture provided by another post) would provide a much better balance than the thin shutters and also provide a much classier look. Agree revised landscaping could greatly improve the overall impact and help frame the design of the house. Good luck with your project.

no shutters but paint the windows, door and trim a dark color-black

Great look John but for numerous very logical reasons such a color change is not planned.

Check my blog about selecting the proper sized shutters. http://www.designingyourperfecthouse.com/proper-shutter-size-windo/

Thanks for the article Mr Hirsch. It was very informative.. The windows on our narrow home are large. In fact, each window is 44" wide thus each shuttebeowulf have to be 22". The narrowest window side space is 23 3/4". This leaves a mere 1 3/4". Aside from the fact our home was not designed for shutters having such wide and tall shutters on our narrow home (to us) would be over powering (see photos at the beginning of this discussion).

William, please reply back with your opinion of our plan in lieu of shutters.

The two tall Yaupon Holly trees in the right side bed will be removed and resold by a local nusery this Thursday. New trim will sit atop each first floor window. A top quality colorful wreath will adorn the front door. The non-functioning old four foot tall post light by the street sidewalk is also being removed this week. New Up lighting will be installed to show off the bricks detail at night. During the month of April 2014 front yard professional re-landscaped is planned. The front door surround plus the soffit, fascia and gutters for the whole house to be repainted later this month.

Thank you Mr. Hirsch.

It is pretty clear this house was not designed to have shutters. The projecting brick detail makes it virtually impossible to install shutters properly. They will end up projecting out from the wall and look awkward. Also, for shutters to be the proper width for these windows, they would be excessively wide. So I would recommend against them.

Having said that, there is a way you could try out properly sized shutters without actually buying them, yet. Cut rectangles of the proper size out of cardboard and paint them the color you choose. Then you could temporarily mount them on the wall and see what you thought. And by the way, there are plenty of historic buildings that have shutters that nearly touch and they look fine. Some even have shutters that overlap when opened.

If you feel the house is too plain without the shutters, window boxes can help, as someone else suggested earlier. But they are a bit of a maintenance item.

I think it would be hard to add headers or other trim to the existing windows and make it look right. You're probably better off letting the house be what it is. If the contrast between the white of the trim and the red of the brick is a problem, you could consider painting the brick or "fogging" it. Fogging is where a mist of paint is applied and does not completely cover the surface of the brick. A little or a lot of the red would show through depending on how much fogging you wanted. It can give a house an older feel since the brick takes on the visual appeal of aged brick. And it dampens down the strong impact of the brick. But keep in mind that these questions are all a matter of personal taste.

Good luck with your remodeling.

A quick update. The two large Yaupon Hollies have successfully been removed by a local tree nursery. Hopefully, they will have a new home soon. The two lower level windows should have new top ridge trim installed soon. To add color to the oak door we will soon be selecting a very colorful wreath. May have one for each season. Thanks for all your help.

Sounds awesome zerolotline! I hope you're going to share some photos when it's all done! Can't wait to see them. You made some great choices I think :)

We loaned our Nikon to our son so plan to take new photos in early December. Oh, other completed house updates include replacing existing limited siding with new James Hardy Colorplus Technology siding and two new Engery Core Low3e Triple Pane Windows to combat the rear of house western sun exposure. Complete high quality repaint of all soffit, fascia, gutters, down pipes and front door surround. Rechaulking of all original windows. New bronze house numbers that match front lights. In 2014, front windows will be replaced with Engery Core Low3e Triple Pane windows.

I would love to see some "after" pictures! The lovely masonry work on that home was clearly designed in consideration of the home not being able to accommodate shutters. I really liked the white header trims that went above the lower story windows and matched that above the front door.

It's lovely.

Would really like to see a current picture of your house, Louise. Please share! :)

Will provide one in about a week. Thanks for your interest kkid.

awesome!

What a great lesson on shutters - & how shutters can seem to be the problem when something else is ore amiss, like the landscaping. However, BIG DISAPPOINTMENT to do all this reading & not see a final picture.

No shutters, as the brickwork doesn't accommodate them. We have the same thing. The door would look good painted black. Extending the landscape forward (curved) will give the house more width/depth that it needs.

No shutter. Chane the trim of the windows to dark green (olive) or black. Use any color door.