My first choice is the white with brown shutters. Second is the pale yellow, or that is how it shows on my monitor, with black shutters.

I Like your existing walk way. So I would go white with brown and keep the walk way as it is.

To me the shakes make it really look like a pretty little cottage.

Put me down for a gray vote. I like the way it contrasts with the brown shutters and roof.

Enigma, I like the taupe color you have now. I also like the dark door and shutters.

One thing you might have to consider is replacing your front door if you want to paint it a light color. All I see when I look at it is a pair of EYES with the two door lights, and especially with the "O" of the wreath. It looks like a caricature of the emoticon for OOPS. You know, :0 ? And that takes the eye off the whole picture. Even a door with THREE lights up top will stop that mental immage from identifying your house as "the one with the OOPS front door."

The siding you are considering does not allow you to ever PAINT IT? What kind is that?

I dearly love the color your house is now, but with a little more taupe in it, you could go with black/brown/blue/green or white doors and shutters. It is a great color for siding. And your house is a jewel of a cape.

Haha! I'm afraid there has been no clear consensus but it's good to hear different sides and opinions!
Thank you so much for that :)

Moccasin, that's hilarious, I never even thought about the door looking like a face! It totally does! I'm HOPING that it's the starkness of the virtual sketch and that in real life it would be more subtle. I definitely will not be using a wreath at least! The color of the siding is really not that bad, what we have are huge, extremely faded blotches all on the front of the house to the right of the door...I guess I'm just so annoyed with it that the color has lost its appeal to me :)

I had always heard that you could not paint vinyl siding because of the expansion and contraction that it does...that paint would flake off. Are you aware of a technique that works? Just in case I suppose :)

I like the blue--but I think it depends on how close the blue is to the shutters--looks nice on my monitor, just not sure about in person. I am not crazy about the yellow at all (sorry shades). Otherwise it is a toss up between the white and grey.

I also found this website that has a quiz for helping you pick a color!

Here is a link that might be useful: Quiz

I think the yellow would look "happy".

Oh great, ML. I hadn't even noticed until you said that and now it jumps out at me! ;)

I love that blue with the brown shutters! Very welcoming. I would do that in a heartbeat. My 2nd place is for grey. I would not go with white. Too predictable.

Not sure about the style of shutters, but I do like the color. Just a personal opinion. At first glance, I hated the style...cross-brace/barn style...but as I keep looking & typing this, I think they are growing on me more. What would it look like with a simpler style shutter?
Gayle

LOL took the test and I am timberbark . I HATE brown. That is funny the rest of it was true. I am down to earth and all of that.

The first two white and gray look like shakes and the others look like the same siding you have now. I really like the shakes look.

White still is my favorite. The main reason we choose yellow for our house is because we live on Canary Street. The choices we had for color were yellow that blue you show a dark green red and brown. If white had been a choice I would have gone white like we did on the shop.Our neighbors bought a manufactured home just about the same time we did and theirs is the blue gray and I really do not like it. But that is me.

Sorry, Marti, but it does jump out at me.
:) Oops.......

I took the test too :) It said I was "autumn tan"...which was funny since it's what I'm trying to remove! Haha.

I made two more variations on a theme...

I'm still a little torn but hopefully a decision will be made soon!

Gayle, the shutters I've "put" on there are only because they are a style that I can make. There's no way we can afford custom shutters and I don't want to just repaint the louvered ones we have. I want to make them wide enough to look operable. I think skinny shutters look crummy on houses as simple as mine. I figured the board and batten style was something I could make out of cedar myself :) It is a certain style though, I see how not everyone would like it.

Shades, I have to say...white typically would be my #1 choice. I love white houses...almost always. Previously I'd always imagined our house going white. Our issues with it are that the white is a little stark against the roof, we'd lose the detail of the pediment etc. and the white shakes don't look quite as realistic as the darker ones...ugh I hate this decision!

I like the blue with the red door better then the yellow door. If the shake style looks better in a darker color then that is what you need to do. It would be a shame to loose vision of your pretty pediment. My boss had a pretty green with brown glaze shake on his house and it is really nice. I think he has a brown roof too. Like your roof.

I went ahead and posted all the pictures, along with some new ones on my blog so they're all larger and right next to each other. Hope maybe that will make it easier :)

http://greystables.blogspot.com/2011/04/one-last-decision.html

Some of the explanation on there will be redundant so you can skip over it :)

Here is a link that might be useful: siding post

Love the blue with the red door! LOVE IT!! :) Also I am big of browns with creams rather than white. So I think that is why I am not loving the white with the brown shutters as much. White and black - good, but brown with cream is better than brown with white. I think it is a richer combo. It also makes the greenery in your photos really pop as well.

I like the white or the grey with the white shutters. I tend to go with neutral colors though. I really like the vinyl shakes idea. You have a really cute home.

Now that you've changed the door to red and changed the shutters from brown, I like the blue best. I took the quiz too, I'm an autumn tan. But some of the choices were just "better than the others" not really a good answer for me. What can I say? I'm a maverick.

I am new to posting here but I just wanted to say your house looks so much like mine except the color. You say you are tired of the taupe but mine is "ugly" green. We can't afford to re-side or paint right now but our neighbors had their siding painted and it looks great. The trick, so I understand, is to go to a lighter color. They had the painting done by a professional and I think it cost them around $2,000. It's been 3 years so far and no problems.

I LOVE the blue one with the red door!! The grey with the white shutters and a very close second though.

I think it is also important to look at your neighbors before picking the color of your house. If all the neighbors have lighter colored houses, then your light-color house may look drab and boring with all the other similar colors. (a neighbor may have a color that really makes his/her shine in that light tone) I would definitely pick the blue in that case. It will make your house pop.

If many of your neighbors have strong colors; greens, blues, darker blue/grey (they are quite popular here), then you will want lighter but a bright color to make your house shine out of the background, ie brighter yellow/taupe/gray color.

Another approach is to take the similarity to blend in with the neighborhood. Either way, it should be deliberate before you pick the color.