Our house is a drab brick, flat front, two story tower of unoriginal crushed creativity. I think shutters are hideous in general and ridiculous to boot when they’re nonfunctional like all the ones in the area I now live.
I can’t seem to find any alternatives to fake shutters that would make the front of the house less… blah. Are there any alternatives?
(We have no HOA but the neighborhood is much nicer than most HOA neighborhoods I’ve seen.)
Edit: I don’t have a good pic of the front and it’s presently night but it’s almost exactly the same as this house – except our shutters are faded gray and we’ve a couple trees in front.
Best Answer
Suggestions:
Paint the shutters. You say that the shutters you have are faded gray, and that's not going to add much interest to your windows. I think almost any color would be better than that. Black or white would be good if you want something that stands out more, but is still very traditional in appearance. If you want actual color, a muted red, green or blue can work without calling too much attention to itself. (Or go with a non-muted color. There's no HOA to tell you no.)
Add a trellis with a climbing plant. This can provide some visual interest, and most climbing plants are fast growers because they don't need to support themselves. (They can't do much to brick that's in good condition, but if your brick is just a facade, or if the mortar is crumbling a bit, I'd skip this.)
Add window boxes with flowers. These can also be painted to add a splash of color, on top of the flowers during the appropriate part of the year.
Add architectural foam trim to the windows. There's a lot of options here, but I suggest not going overboard; it's easy to end up cheap and tacky.