Hi gorgeous house! Would it be possible to take away the pots, trim back the shrubs and put in a more sympathetic side fence? Sorry but I'm one for less is more. Also maybe replace the downspout on the porch with one that blends in with the new door colour? And maybe new door furniture and outside lights - can you utilise exterior lighting to highlight the front walls?

Lampert Dias Architects, Inc. - I was thinking of sills as a possibility. I would be interested in hearing your ideas about what a nicely detailed window sill would look like. We had thought about painting the fireplace the color we use on the siding, but thought we would wait until the house got painted to make that decision. That may be the subject of yet another design dilemma! The entry redesign is on our minds once we get a number of other things done. Thanks for your comments. If you have time, I would appreciate your thoughts on sills.

kimedge - I agree that the fence is a detraction. It was there when we bought the house and hides the garbage cans. I would love to do something else and would appreciate any thoughts you have. The picket fence is cute, but wouldn't hide the cans.

I found some sill photos to share with you.........although I think that painting the fireplace and modifying your entry will do more for the house then new window sills........

Of course window sills would look great, but I am not sure that is the best use of money.

A horizontal slat fence lined up with the siding would make it look like an extension of the house. And paint the front door red to go with the brick. That gold color clashes with the brick. Otherwise, nice home!

Roc+Solid - thanks for the idea about the fence. The door is stained now and we will paint it once we have finished painting the house.

Lambert Diaz - We're moving along with the window trim with sills! Next exterior improvement is the entry. Earlier, you make the comment, "If you want to spend more money on dressing up the entry, you could redo the entry porch. to a more dramatic design........." Do you have time to comment further on that?

I would parge (a skim coat over your brick) and paint your fireplace the same colour as the house. Or you could just paint the brick the same colour as the house. Great house!

We plan to paint the brick chimney Cromwell Gray - the same color as we've chosen for the siding. That should make a big difference. Thanks for your comment.

I want to suggest that you not paint the brick - it will look more contemporary but your other steps are more traditional. If you want a change, mix 1 part cromwell gray to 1 part soft chamois and 2 parts water then spray the brick with one coat of this mixture. The brick will absorb a great deal of the paint, it will look instantly antiqued, you won't lose the bricks ability to deal with moisture fluctations well (very important where you are - latex paint might have caused your brick to deteriorate much faster if applied normally) . You will get a grayed down look that works with your other changes but also is traditional and attractive.

If I were changing something about the entry, I might consider the addition of wood brackets under the shed roof extension - (prowoodmarket.com is where I bought mine) for charm.

I wonder since you are on an island if you don't want to get a more nautical / industrial fixture and house number set, then I think someone suggested navy. I love the teal undertone on this navy as an entry door for such a terrific location - new providence navy = stands up well next to the cromwell gray http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/newprovidencenavy#ce_s=navy

Thank you for the insightful suggestions! I, too, had thought about brackets (both for the entry overhang and possibly for the gable ends of the house) so thank you for the resource. Have you applied paint in the way you suggest? If so, how much of the red brick color is likely to show through?

If you want to take down the fence that is at the side and hides the garbage cans, you could possibly build yourself a smaller enclosure for this purpose, tucked sideways under the large overhang of the house.

The gutter and downspout need some attention. You might extend the gutter back into the corner by the utility meter and put the downspout there so it is not such a prominent feature. Then add the brackets as suggested above. That, and removal of the fence, will do a lot for your facade.

We are getting new gutters shortly and I have been trying to figure out how to hide that prominent downspout. I would extend the gutter back to the meter, but there is nothing to attach the gutter to except the siding (see the slant of the shed roof). Have I misunderstood your suggestion?

There is a drain on the ground that the downspout fits into, so if I could hide it just around the corner from the door so that it goes straight from the gutter into the ground that would be ideal. How do I extend the gutter around the corner with nothing to attach it to but the side of the house? Any ideas are appreciated.

Used the wrong terminology. Meant to say you could take the downspout on an angle into the corner. Another idea is to substitute a rain chain for the downspout - a prettier solution, but you may get too many heavy downpours for that.

We have a similar type house in Kirkland and painted it the Cromwell Gray. LOVE the outcome. I had the windows trim redone and it made a world of difference. I also think if you painted the door black and added black shutters, it really makes the house color pop! I have attached a before and after of what we did. I hope this helps you out. :)

We have to recommend that you do not add shutters to your windows, unless they are bi-fold. There is not enough room for fully functional, properly fitted shutters as shutters should measure out to half the size of your windows.

We like your originial idea of widening the trim around the windows. This will give your exterior enough detail with the flower boxes.

Adorable house! Whatever you decide, will just enhance the charm.

I noticed that your chimney needs repairs. I personally would address that immediately, as I'd hate to make cosmetic changes only to possibly have to redo them a bit later on due to water damage.

Good luck.

Jill Seiler-Hancock:
Loved to see another 70s house transformed. We, too, were thinking of painting the door black. Your house looks great. It is nice to see the color on an entire house!

reggiesmall:
I noticed that the brick looks odd in the picture. I'll have to give it another look see in person to figure out what is happening. Thanks for the comment.

decoenthusiaste:
I love the idea about the rain chain and thought about it also, but it is so close to the door that I thought a guest might get wet during a good rainstorm!

If guests are good enough friends to come out in a rainstorm, then a little water won't hurt them!

The brick with a gray /cream blend of paint on it will absorb a lot of the paint and come out like a variegated warm gray with red undertone . . the red will mostly be gone. Two coats and you'll start to get too much coverage . . or thin it down with more water and then step back and watch it develop - you can test it on spare brick if you have them in the garden.

The bump out where the front door is reads like an afterthought. The siding does not align with that on the wall of the house, there is no roof overhang on the sides, and the window above the door seems to large, almost as if the bottom of it is hidden by the roof below. This has caused the roof to be low, almost hiding the top of the door.

This looks more like a rear entrance than a welcoming front entry. Visually, the large window above the door is the problem. If it were shorter, the entry roof could be raised, and that would allow it to extend out further creating a shallow porch. Extend the roof out on both sides -- it would wrap around onto the chimney and help break up its mass. If that window is needed for light, possibly a skylight above the door would work, and you could remove that window.

You might consider painting the siding on the bump out a different color, something complementary, but enough to draw attention.

Keep us updated with new pictures!

I agree that the entry bumpout was probably an afterthought. I suspect that originally the door was flush with the rest of the house. I hadn't noticed that the siding didn't match.

At some point, I would like to replace the window above the door with a round nautical window. (I like coming down the stairs and seeing outside.) Hopefully, that will allow us to do something different with the roof line and extend it further beyond the door so that we can have a reasonable-sized porch rather than a stoop.

Interesting thought about painting the bumpout a different color. I thought that might accentuate it, but maybe it would be more interesting. Do you think a variation of the shade that we are using on the siding would work or do you think an entirely different color would be better?

When we redid our exterior...if you look at the before/after photos, we used BM Cromwell Gray as the body color(were all the green siding was) then used BM Copely Gray as the accent (where the shakes were). They are a great accent to each other and not a huge difference in color but just added a little depth.

Just a thought also, if you maybe put a trellis from the bump out over across the window, you could tie your drain spout to that and it would help camouflage your electric meter and offset the chimney. Just a thought. As you can see from our house, I love Trellis detail :) Please keep in my from my little drawing I am not an architect...hence the scribble.

In a beautiful wooded setting such as yours, I'm not much on bright white trim. How about 1536 northern cliffs. The windows are white and will be accented by a darker trim. Paint the chimney tulsa twilight, and maybe the fence too. I don't have a Benjamin Moore fan deck, so it's not easy picking colors.

This type of house where the entry is between floors is completely foreign to me, and rather difficult to detail like I might with a different style.

I would paint the trim on the window above the entry the same color as the house to make it less noticeable, build a new artistic fence( Queen Anne area has lots of examples) and plant an airy Japanese maple left and slightly forward of the entryway to balance the foliage on the right. Then eliminate the clutter around the door and perhaps widen the walkway to open up the entry area, and eliminate the window boxes. Love the color! I would love to live on Whidby and have these problems.

You have a lovely home. I imagine the deck is west facing the water. Yum! Your entrance then must be north and the "dark" side. So don't darken your interior with additions over the windows. The gravel near your front door is your turn around as well as your guest parking. Guests should have a defined path to the door. The shrubs are large but don't add much color. That area could become a more welcoming part of your entry. And other then checking the health of your brick chimney I wouldn't hide it with anything more than a simple vertical trellis and some colorful climbers. I would add a visual stop like a parking barrier or planters to tell guests that anything past your front door is your backyard. That is where all your utilities are so in my book that is where your backyard starts. No expert on building modifications, but just a few landscaping changes could make a huge impact to your entry.

If you really want to change the look for the better, add a porch the full length of the front of the house. It would look beautiful, be functional, and worth the expense I think.

Your deck in back is the perfect design to bring to the side of the front door to balance and have a repetitive element. Create a small covered patio connecting to the front entry. It would allow for camouflaging the down spout and making the entry more substantial and inviting. Also, adding a small round or hexagon window above front door is a great idea. Enlarging the front step would also be inviting. Paint front door white. Whitewash the brick fireplace. Good luck. (btw, windowsills will look great, can we see an updated pic?)

If you could extend the porch cover across the end of the house on the left (looking at the house) as well as extend the stoop to make a porch the same distance, the entry would be beautiful. Add a bold color to your door, a glider or a couple of chairs and the house will have a more welcoming look to it. You have a really beautiful home to work with!

Thanks for the continuing helpful comments. Many your ideas we have thought of already. So many possibilities!

For the entry, we are entertaining a couple of possibilities: (1) redoing the roof structure and adding a larger porch that spans the entire bump-out and maybe wraps around with a japanese maple in large pots on either side of the bumpout to mask the obvious or (2) extend the porch past the lower window to the end of the house with an arbor over it. Unfortunately, the entry redo is lower on the "to do" list. This is a weekend house for now and there is only so much one can do a couple of days a week!

We have removed the window boxes for painting and will not reinstall them. Too difficult to have full window boxes on the North side of the house. New gutters are being installed today and we will reroute the downspout by the front door.

The gravel in front of the entry is not a turn-around, but leads from the driveway to the front door. Or, at least that is the way we use it. I should think about modifying that so it doesn't look like a turnaround. I thought, for now I might embed some large stones in the gravel to define the entry. We plan to make a path from the entry that ties into the woodland park that we have created on the East side of the house. We will landscape on either side of that path. This will eliminate the hollow with bad grass that disappears during the summer.

Incurabledreamer - thanks for the tip on fences. I'll take a drive around QA for ideas. Also, thanks for pointing out that the front landscaping is cluttered. Funny how you get used to looking at something and no longer see the issue.

As an update, I've attached a photo of the window frame (contractor tacked one up temporarily) and new paint colors.

Antonia it must be so exciting to see it coming along. You can get a small load of decomposed granite to lay between the rocks where you want to keep the path and it will help define it and make it better for bare feet. The smaller fines of the dg lock into the larger gravel pieces and make a stronger composition against the elements.

You can now see why the white white may not be your favorite when it is all done as ppf pointed out - but it definitely is crisp and high contrast. I think i remember this is cromwell gray - bm nimbus will look white next to it but harmonize in terms of your undertones much better. Don't worry about the white window frame that is inside - the lighter trim will help the eye make the jumpand it will look great together.

Thanks for the decomposed granite idea. I had forgotten about that material.

Actually, the paint looks much whiter in the photo than in person. The color is BM soft chamois. It has a softness to it that dead white doesn't. We do like the crisp look, but thought that white-white was a little too much of a jolt.

Window trim is finished. Painter coming next week and still thinking about the color for the fireplace chimney.

Libradesigneye: We tried your suggestion. Looked interesting, but not sure that's for us.

We're down to this: BM Cromwell Gray to match the siding OR some kind of dark charcoal color. Does anyone have any suggestions of a charcoal that goes well with Cromwell Gray? We have used BM Graphite on our other house trim and like it, but haven't tested it with Cromwell Gray.

THANK YOU for all of your comments and suggestions! We have finished the window trim and painting, but have not yet tackled the entry. It is a few items down on the list. Attached are two after pictures. Stay tuned for my next project, as I have plenty to keep me busy.

Thanks for the update. I see you followed my suggestion in painting the chimney dark :)

Everything looks great!

Very nice! The dark chimney looks great!

looks good!

I know this is an old post, but what size trim did you use for windows? 3.5"? or is it wide like 4.5"? Thanks!

Also, do you know if it is .75" thick or 1" thick?

The window trim is 4.5” and .75” thick however there is a 2” board that it is mounted on. It is an unusual installation that was necessary because of the way the windows were installed.