Ramona I really don't like the American style which is my house = my garage. De-emphasize it by making it blend into the stone face. Paint the front door a bright color to draw your attention to it. Landscape under the left window. Is there a yellow in your stone which could transfer to the front door? I can't really see the color potential here from the photo.

Mega Builders I think some plants will give you the most 'bang for your buck'.

Becky Our garage doors are painted a rich brown to mimc the look of wood. It's a great look like wood paneling BUT they do fade and have to be repainted every couple of years.

eztia Paint the garage the same color as your siding.
Put a very bright LED or other energy efficient light shining down from the center of the porch ceiling to emphasize the entry to the door.
Put the potted plants on the ground in front of the porch. It will make the entry stand out more, and give you more actual porch space.
Landscape under the left window. Make the area rounded, because there are so many straight lines in the house and hardscape. You might also consider "rounding out" the small sidewalk from the driveway to the porch with some kind of pavers. The walk to the front door looks small in comparison to the garage and porch sizes.
Paint the downspout the same color as the siding.

Curb Appeal Renovations Typically, your garage door is painted the same color as your siding/soffit/fascia. I can see that yours was probably painted the color of your soffit/overhang...however I'd paint it the color of your siding. I agree, I'd paint the front door a CONTRASTING color...something to make it stand out, put in some plants, color, to draw it away from the garage, but before you do that...what about jazzing that garage door up? Getting a coach style garage door with windows and some hardware? See this pic? Not the best, but it'll give you an idea...

Curb Appeal Renovations Oh...and I'd add some bigger lights for a bigger visual impact. And what about tearing out that small little walkway from your driveway to the front door and putting in something much bigger? I think a nice ornamental tree/shrub on the right side of your garage would help pull your eye away and not be "garage in your face"...

misecretary My suggestion would be to paint the shutters

soberg The rule of thumb is to use bright colors, contrasted to surrounding for features you'd like to emphasize, and subdued colors with minimal contrast for those features you'd like to minimize. So paint the garage door to blend with the stonework, and use a bright/bold/strong color for the front door. E.g. bittersweet orange, saturated ocean green, maybe slatey cornflower.

soberg Also consider lighting changes at the entryway so you can really make your beautiful front door stand out prominently. The builders usually don't size the entry light right IMO.

Also, well-chosen foundation plantings - something with year-round visual quality and not too fast-growing. Please advise your climate zone for plant ideas.

judyg Are you HOA? Can you get ride of the shutters? They are vinyl, no functioning and not attractive.

If you can I would have the windows trimmed out and painted, as I would all the rest of the trim and the garage door and I would repaint the clapboard, if you can, more the tone of the stone facade.

soberg A well-designed flower box attached to your front window - with lighting - could also be a great feature with huge impact.

CMR Interiors & Design Consultations Inc. I agree with posts here about landscaping, even potted boxwoods flanking the garage would help--if you paint it the sun will bake it to death and fade it. Its alot of upkeep. I think the white looks fine. You just need to improve lighting and landscaping.

bevballew Paint the garage door with the trim color or dark brown. Lighten up the front door. A nice color but not crazy color. It needs landscaping and maybe two nice coach lights larger. Your house is very nice and has a happy look to it. It just looks like a happy house.

Tres McKinney Design As any of you who have read my comments on exterior paint colors know I have a strong opinion on garage doors. I usually recommend that they be painted the same color as the siding and let the front door be the focal point. The two exceptions I make are carriage doors with windows can work in white to match white trim or in your case since you have black shutters and a brick lower facade I think you could paint the garage door black. It will require diligent maintenance to keep it looking good but it would be a very distinctive look (you can repaint in a day every few years). You might eventually paint the siding a deeper gray/green. You might consider painting all the trim black as well. It would be quite striking. I would make the walk to your porch the same width as the porch and in the same brick as on the house. Large box woods in black planters on each side of the garage door as CMR interiors suggests would look great. Eventually flesh out the landscaping.

bevballew Love the black idea. I wondered about that. Could not tell the shutters were black. That is what I was trying to match with.

amgoulet20 I think some flowers and trees would do the job!!!

Clinton Myers Here is my first go at Gimp. I tried matching the garage door to some of the suggestions. I like the idea of adding windows to the top panel of the garage door but I don't have the skills to add it to my picture. I also like the idea of the larger coach lights. I'll have to see if I can edit out the shutters as I'd like to visualize that.

We're planning on starting our landscaping this spring. That will help for sure.

We're in an HOA so everything will need to be approved.

Clinton Myers The trim is a chocolate brown, not black. Sorry if the colors aren't coming through correctly. I think I'll leave the garage door white now that I know I'd have to fight with fading. It faces the South.

Clinton Myers Can someone attach a picture of what a good flower box under a window would look like?

mdamron61 How about replacing the garage door for one that is a carriage style with windows, and brackets?

nancy4taylor I think a landscaping plan for the front of the home with a couple rows bushes would distract the eye from the garage . I think the color of garage is attractive as is.

myfanwyb Our house which is 25 years old is almost identical color and look. I painted our garage door a pewter metal color. It looks terrific. I used similar color metal accents elsewhere and did some serious landscaping in front to draw attention away from the garage.

Lkristine I have always wanted to try this idea.......it would be beautiful...... http://www.roomzaar.com/rate-my-space/Garages/Amazing-Faux-Wood-Garage-Door/detail.esi?oid=29586196

Mary I think the problem is not the color of the garage door, but that it's such a large part of the front of your home and is completely plain - no windows or anything - whereas the rest of your home is visually interesting - brick, windows, shutters, etc. I'd change out the door, but if that's not in the budget, I'd get some pretty, dark colored urns for either side of the garage door and put some nice topiary or flowers on them to dress up that area.

Susan Friedman Landscape Architecture Nice home! Instead of the eye going to the entry and detailed portion of the home, it goes straight to the large driveway and garage. One of my clients just replaced their large concrete front driveway with a new precast pavers with wide colored concrete bands. It looks very nice. Paint your garage door to blend with stone and brighter color on front door. Invite people to the front door with larger walkway or small entry patio using a natural stone material or pavers if do a new driveway. Paint your downspouts the siding color so they disappear. Then new shrubs at foundation of house, accent tree off corner of house with groundcover or colorful perennials under the tree. Add curved planting bed line to break up the squareness. The home is very nice and can really stand with some minor changes. Good luck!

bevballew I have a brick paver drive and do not like it. Weeds come through. It is very expensive to seal or add sand every few years. For snow removal it can be difficult because of pavers shifting and the unevenness. The path of the car causes the pavers to settle based on the wheel path. Do not suggest for an entire drive as very expensive and a lot of upkeep.

ourfarmhouse Here are a couple of suggestions...

Version 1

1. I'd replace the shutters with larger cottage-style shutters
2. Add the windowbox under the lower left window
3. Paint the entry door red, and the trim/shutters black
4. Do the larger exterior coach lights (you're on the right track)
5. Make the garage door more interesting. Either replace it with a wooden one ($$$) or replace the top panel with the divided lite panel (like has been previously stated). If you just replaced the top panel and painted, a nice charcoal gray would be a nice complimentary color to the tan and black.
6. Landscape, adding a bit of a curve to your front sidewalk and non-fussy, prairie-type plants
7. Larger-scale zinc planters also would make a bold statement

Version 2

Do all of the above and add the architectural detail in the front gable. It adds texture, dimension and architectural interest. Feels a bit "farmhouse"

Clinton Myers Wow! After seeing the wider, appropriately sized shutters the current ones look soooo wrong :) Our roof is brown. Would you still go with the black shutters?

ourfarmhouse Yeah I think I would. Black makes a bold statement. If you match everything too closely, it can start looking a little bland (think UPS, "What can brown do for you?"). Sometimes it's more about colors that complement. A bold pop of color here and there can really give a house some visual interest.