When trying to click on photos to enlarge them, I accidentially "voted" for #2, when all I was trying to do was to enlarge the photo. Therefore, you could remove that vote from me and give it to #4 instead.

What does the elevation look like now as I like none of the choices.

Current image of back--was looking for a more modern style addressing the white "cross" and brown paint. If home was a log cabin, which is common to the area, brown would be fine. Was advised to avoid white/light colors due to the maintenance being in a heavily wooded area (spider webs/debris etc.).

I am also torn on how much black to use on front of home and whether we should use Onyx color for window/door trim or keep all the same body siding color of Iron Mountain and just have Onyx for roofline and fascia. Landscape will help tremendously, just waiting for it to be warm enough to plant.

Thank you Lars and millworkman for your notes. If you have other suggestions please feel free to share them. Thank you!

These are a few inspiration photos for style/look that might work with our house...

Too much going on with trim in choices, and in original, very choppy looking for me.

That's what I am struggling with doods, the choppy busy feel with existing and some of the proposed. Do you see any option for back you think looks better or what suggestions do you have for addressing this better?

This is the current version of front of house. Also very busy/choppy. Thinking we need to paint/stain the cedar shakes above garage doors the same color as the body to blend this area and disguise fact that previous owners did not trim bottom of the windows over garage... Cedar shakes to be stained a little warmer brown tone but waiting on sample colors from painter to see how it will take. Like the variation of cedar wood with grey and black paint but I don't think all areas where they have cedar shake need to be wood tone. Maybe just over front door and possibly right window.??? Windows on front of house are fairly small and I think if we trim these in the Onyx black it further accentuates that choppy vibe--

Hi Stephanie ... I'm not a pro, so hopefully some of the pro's on here will have suggestions for you. However imo not all trim needs to be highlighted. I'm thinking mostly of the vertical edging on the corners of your home, and especially the downspouts. On the back if it were me I would paint the support posts of your deck the same as the body of your home.

why not just match the back,

the same way as the front?

Do the roofline w/the onyx, every thing else in the iron mountain. (check out Wrought Iron as well)

This one is actually Iron Ore, another nice choice

similar to yours. notice the trim around the windows and the garage doors

https://www.brickandbatten.com/review-iron-mountain-benjamin-moore/

Thank you Beth H.! I appreciate your thoughts on matching back to front, which is what option 1 on the poll was (at least my quick drawing was to match front). I do think we will just have roofline in Onyx and rest (body/window trim etc). in Iron Mountain (or Wrought Iron).

I like wrought iron but feel like it has more blue undertones and as it's a little darker maybe won't have enough color variation from the Onyx. I just wanted more black on the back to feature the big windows a bit more and make it more modern rustic than just rustic looking. Maybe once the whole house is repainted and landscaped I won't feel the need to change as much as I currently do. It's probably easier to add the black to that seciton of the house later if I don't feel it has enough impact than paint it black and then find it looks choppy or disconnected.

I can't get past that large section of orange wood off to the side -- it sticks out like a sore thumb and is just kinda hanging there with no relation to anything else on the back of the house. Paint or stain that first with something that coordinates with the rest of the back of the house and go from there.

mxk3--100% agree the orange cedar screened in porch stands out and I cannot wait to get that restained a warmer brown shade. Painter bringing a few samples to test. Given it's all cedar I'm not inclined to paint it as I think that will require more frequent repainting than staining.

Beth, your home is beautiful and the wrought iron looks great. I also like your garage doors. Are they wood or just painted/stain to mimic wood?