upping the curb appeal.

when i purchased my house in september of 2009, it looked like this:

in this sad state, the poor girl sort of looks like a double wide. rest assured, i do not live in a trailer.

nearly two years later, things are looking exactly the same. time to update! eventually i'd like to replace the front door altogether. can you see those crappy little black boxes all over the front door? they are annoying. they are fugly. they must die. part of the door that doesn't have black boxes on it is painted the same beige as the house.

so what color should i paint my front door? i want something fun, but not tacky. there's a fine line.

other suggestions?

i'd also like to swap out the old, black shutters for board and batten style shutters. something like this:

but i'm left with the same dilemma: what color do i paint them? or do i go with a stain? i'm leaning toward the middle photo.

i'd also like to add a couple of coats of spray paint to my sconces. similar to this effect:

hmmm, after looking at this photo, how do we feel about a blue like that for the front door. ugh, why are choices so hard?

right now everything looks so flat. i'd like to remedy that with the addition of a small pergola over the front stoop.

who want's to whip me up a pergola?

and a hosta lined walkway never killed anybody.


these are all relatively small upgrades, but i think they will make a big impact. now i can't promise i will get them all done this summer. heck, i can't even promise that i'll shower every day this summer, but it would be nice to check a few things off of the rapidly expanding to do list.

now i need your color suggestions. door and shutters.
any ideas?