Paint the cedar shakes, the garage door and the shingles. The stone is the best element you have!

Your house's issue is you have too many colors and no "scheme". You have natural brown shakes, cream trim, chocolate brown paint, red shutters and multi color stone.

The red does not belong there at all.
Try a warm coppery brown where it currently is chocolate colored. I'd make the shakes a cream color (lighter than the trim) and do the shutters in either a sage, a medium mushroom or khaki color. If you want to play it safe, make the shutters the same color as the trim.
Your paint swatches need to harmonize and your current colors just do not.

Just a warning, I painted the cedar on the front of my house and it soaked in primer like you would not believe. So, buy more than you think you will need!

Yes, you house looks disjointed right now, but it's not the fault of the stone, so don't start messing around with your best feature. Don't fix what ain't broke.

No the problem, as Dianalo points out, is that there are too many colors going on. That's what's broke, not your stone. On a big Stick-Stle Victorian, a multi-color paint scheme with five separate colors is perfectly appropriate, but on an unpretentious postwar ranch house like yours, it's way too many. But since the stone is indeed the best feature, what else could be changed? Well, that yellowy-beige trim, for one thing.

Corner boards, downspouts & fascia trim are necessary but they're not a decorative feature in the same way that, say, several tons of rough-quarried limestone are, so there's really no need to highlight them with a contrasting paint color. Paint them the same dull gray-brown as the shakes and the whole house will take on a more coherent, less jumpy character. Do the same thing with the pale trim on the windows. Then paint the shutters a dull lichen green. That color will better harmonize with the natural colors in the stone on the front facade & better define the window area around the corners than does the curent dark red, which just belnds in too much. Unless the shakes are in bad shape, I'd leave them just as they are rather than staining them. After all, part of the appeal of shakes like yours is the natural variation in color they acquire over time.

Agreed; first thought I had when I saw your home is the lovely stone is its best feature.

I'd also not paint the shingles as natural shakes can be interesting and I'd want to avoid the on-going painting commitment. Definitely get rid of the red; it's a pretty color but doesn't really work with the shingles.

IMO that chocolate garage door is too prominent and deflects from the beauty of the shakes and stone. I'd unify and simplify by using one color for the window trim, downspout, eves and garage door. The existing color is too yellow to blend with the shakes and the stone. Depending on what you decide for the trim and the garage door color, the one area I might introduce a different color may be around the entrance. I can't tell if it's shingles or the red, but I'd like to lighten that up if you go with Magneverde's darker paint idea.

I'd put two samples up on the garage door to see which worked best: 1.) a slightly warm color pulling from the stone but one one that doesn't look as much as an outline around the stone. It will be tricky but doable to find a color that is slightly darker and less yellow than the existing color but still is compatible with the silvery tones of aging shakes, and 2) the dull, darker brown Magne suggested (but bear in mind that your shakes will continue to get more silvery over time so pick carefully if you go that route). My preference tends to be toward lighter, warmer colors so I'd likely prefer that, particularly in the area around your front door, but you may prefer Magne's darker, monochromatic suggestion. After that decision is made, picking a color for the shutters and window boxes should be easy.

Your home can be lovely once you select colors that celebrate its best feature.

As others have mentioned, don't ditch the best feature of your house!

Ditto for me. The stone looks great. I am glad you came on this site to ask. It would be fun to see a follow up picture - your house looks charming.

OP I'm in agreement with the others. I looked at your photo and thought "that stone is really pretty" :-)

I live in a small ranch, too, and I'm not lucky enough to have nice stone like that. Definitely don't take it down, just bring the rest of the house up to par!

Keep the stone and do as the first poster suggested THEN tackle the landscaping.
The empty flower boxes are a turn off. I'd remove them completely they are too small for the space. Either put up bigger ones or leave them off completely. The shrubs need shaping and trimming back at the very least. It would be better if they went from corner to corner in a straight line.

I also love the stone and would hate to see you remove it. Agree on the landscaping suggestion. I think a nice slow growing conical shaped evergreen would be attractive on one or both corners of the stone wall with a curved bed along the front. That bed could contain low growing evergreens, perennials and annuals. Larger window boxes would be really pretty too.

Agree with everyone - gorgeous stone! Personally, I would paint the shakes, I think it would brighten and lighten up the whole house. I would ditch the red accents and go more creamy and monochromatic. I would probably go with a simpler paneled shutter style too. Folks here had great landscaping suggestions. One more thing to think about - we just replaced our large single garage door with two carriage style doors with windows and painted them the same color as the house - it is crazy how much it lightened up the whole side of the house and not as $$ as I feared it would be. You really have a wonderful house, it is going to be so charming!

I agree with the posters above - the stone is one of the best features. I would paint the garage doors, the trim and the shutters around the window instead.

stone or brick on just the front of a house always make me think of toupees. I guess that's just one of many reasons I don't like new homes.

Keep the stone for sure.

I would paint the cedar shakes (which I assume are also the siding on the house) in a softer mossy green, something like the large stone that is on the left side of the shutters on the closeup pix. The garage door should be painted the same color as the shakes.

I donâÂÂt mind the beige trim color.

I donâÂÂt like the shutters - they are too close, and only emphasize how the two windows are so close in the center of the wall space. I would take down the shutters, and add a wider trim around the window, about double the width of the trim at the sides of the brick. Leave the window boxes, and paint those and the trim the same green as the cedar shakes. Then plant things!

I would get rid of the odd bulky bush there. It does nothing for the look of the house, except to again emphasize the close-together windows. Maybe you can replant it on the side of the house or garage?

Leave as much of the stone visible as you can by creating a low planting bed in front of the stone area.

Finally, I would paint your front door the rusty pumpkin color that is the stone color that you see right below the left corner of the window box.

Adding a couple of stone planters on either side of the garage could bring some of the stone feel to that side of the house. Look for something that has a similar color feel.

Is there room in your budget for a new garage door?

Thought I'd seen your home before (linked). I would pull your paint colors from the stone, creams and goldens so it blends with the rest of the house. Maybe a very warm golden gray. If you leave the stone on the front wing, make sure your house paint blends well so it's still cohesive. I think your idea to wrap the stone around the alcove entrance is a good one as that's a good area to use an accent stone. It does make more sense there, I think. Don't know how easy it is to remove successfully though.

I like the rich red shutters for the color they bring to your house and with the golds of the stone. If the windows are vinyl and therefore can't be painted the trim color, I think I'd try to work in some creamy white trim to carry more white throughout, but too bright I don't think would look right.

Is the roof going to be replaced too? Unfortunately, what looks like a light cool gray from here also feels disjointed. I actually picture one of those reddish or brown & terra red colored roofs with the golds, along with shutters in the red family.

BM and SW offer color consulting. Since you're doing an overhaul with a lot of detail changes, I really think I'd pull a professional in for a consult to help you pull the details together. The PO is a perfect example of things gone awry. They really went overboard with such a mix of materials and lack of coordination of colors.

Here is a link that might be useful: Remodeling Thread

I'm thinking maybe that inside courtyard wall on the wing might be a good stone accent. If there's enough or you can get more that matches. Then the board & batten in the entrance alcove. Not sure about using B&B in the peaks with the lap siding below.

But honestly, I would get someone to lay out the materials and colors for you and do some drawings so you get this done right and to your home's best advantage. You're spending too much money to end up with another hodge podge. Since you're changing out all those materials and redoing, there's no reason your house can't be a beauty.

"I've even considered taking it off and putting it on the front porch around the garden window"

You mean putting it on the wall around the garden window? I like that idea best of all. How feasible is that, I wonder? The lovely stone would be in a central focus area, would set off your garden,, and your home would look more balanced too.

And while we're spending your money shamelessly (ha!), a prettier garage door with windows would help to balance your house too.

Thanks for all your input! Our cedar shakes are 40 years old and need to be replaced. I have decided to use fiber cement board and started asking for suggestions on the smaller homes forum. One of the suggestions I got was to get rid of the stone - which I agree is the nicest feature of the house. Having said that, I agree that it looks disjointed and was starting to second guess myself. We will do the landscaping once the hardiboard (fiber cement by James Hardi) is installed. There is no stone behind the shutters, so even with wide trim, we'd have a gap on the stone facade. I don't see any alternative but to put up new shutters in a different style and color. I agree that the chocolate brown garage door needs to go. We'll replace with one that has windows and matches the new color of the house.
I love sage but the James Hardi sage looks too dark. I'm thinking of monterrey taupe or some other neutral color. The windows are vinyl so I can not paint the trim. I'm stuck with the white which makes me wonder if I should just pick one main color and use white as the trim. The roof is new but is not light gray (as it appears in the pics) I think it was just getting the sunlight. It's actually brown, with taupe and dark grey accents. I'll try to get a piece to photograph for my next post. Lastly, I agree with spring-meadow and have already called for an appointment with an architect who is coming on Thursday to help me sort this out. Thanks to all for your suggestions!

Great, patrice! We used fiber cement siding for our remodel 2 years ago, and it's wonderful. Hope you'll like it too. Please keep us posted about the architect's suggestions. I'm curious what ideas he/she comes up with. (I love house remodels).

Yes, that's great news to hear Patrice! Please keep us posted on the meeting and with your plans and progress. I think you'll be surprised how great and different your home will look without the mish mash.

I also like the stone and it has so many subtle colors you can match to. Siding in a taupe color with white trim would look nice. Are you able to paint your current shutters white, it might save you the cost of replacing them. Best of luck, your courtyard area will look so nice and open once you get rid of the dark colors. Best of luck, keep us posted.

If you like the look of the shingles, Hardi makes a shingle that you could replace them with. Just wanted to suggest in case you didn't know about the product.

Sounds like you have a good plan! Once you lose the red, the shakes and the brown garage door, you will be mostly done.

I am so glad the shakes are going as they look sloppy to me (not yours, per se, but all of that style do to me). Some smoother siding in a nicer color will look wonderful. Painting them would have helped, but it would not have eliminated the "texture".

You have to keep us posted as you make progress ;)