love the design and colours of your new house, definately not too dark, looks stunning and edgy. love it.

consider a comprehensive front landscaping solution that takes the attention away from the building to the garden/external elements, with repetitive and layered planting. If you want to go further bagging the brickwork and/or just painting it with a contemporary grey would certainly give the whole thing a significant makeover. This photo/project below was a 60's cream brick monster that we managed to tame/control a few years back - you could do get similar result with yours with just strategic cosmetic and landscaping investment - good luck :)

Funnily enough , I think the whole house already looks too dark , and I think the bricks and the roof are actually a good base , but again just personally , the windows used to close in the garage I would have liked to do in say surfmist or silver just to lighten things up . Maybe not for good reasons , but the lighter concrete below those windows is the first thing I noticed -- I realise it will presumably get covered or painted , but I noticed it because it is lighter in tone . The green fence doesn't help , and I'd do it in charcoal , which might sound 'silly' with what I said about the windows , but to do just the fence in a lighter silver or white or off-white would look 'weird' -- you want the house to be noticed , the fence less so . So what else ? Maybe a bright front door , or even a natural cedar or lighter -- make it a feature , at present it just blends/blands in . Maybe 2 or 3 large bright orange or yellow 'ali baba' glazed pots with vibrant spikey plants , bamboos , etc positioned right along the front -- large pots at least 60cm x 80cm to get noticed ! Just my thoughts .

I reckon that going dark will make it slightly more modern , but lets talk about the elephants -- the roof will still be brown so that is always going to show what era it is ; the garage door is always going to be bland unless you go red , yellow or orange , but then that will reinforce the era of the bricks and roof , and I don't want to be too insensitive , but what is that front appartatus ? It may be for a wheelchair , but it doesn't look like it drops ; it looks to be a different era again and similar to say steel stockyards . Painted the same as your trim etc will soften and tie in the look , but if it isn't neccessary , I'd look at removing it , or somehow 'hide' it . And I guess I'd also add that the red oxide coloursteel fence doesn't help either , its a bit less of a worry but still an issue IMO . Personally , I'd go lighter -- all the trim in surfmist or similar ( an offwhite with a blue tinge ) , and if leaving that front apparatus , paint it the same and plant some 1 metre or taller evergreens around it . BUT so that it isn't 'just' brown and white , I'd ideally change the garage door and entrance door to maybe a red cedar ( both with surfmist 'surrounds' ) , or paint the two doors in charcoal or similar ( monument etc ) , again with the lighter surrounds , if budget is tight . And the fence -- ideally , change it , but even painted monument will help quite a bit . IF you do go dark , then what about a bluey/black Japanese black -- just paint everything , including the 'cattleyard' ? The entrance door looks to be wood , so if going dark , you could paint/stain it ( and the sidelight windows etc ) the Japanese Black -- the garage door personally I'd change to wood or even a fake woodgrain panelled door , again in Japanese Black . With that , I guess the fence you'd go a mid charoal -- sort of greyer lighter tones than monument , but you don't want lighter fences for several reasons , both looks and practicality wide . The other option I guess , if you are brave , would be to not only embrace the era , but even go back a bit , and do everything but the brick in apricot or even mint -- personally I wouldn't do buttery yellow or blues or even sherwood green , but basically add a pastel fun tone that will work with the brick and roof , but doesn't look like a bumble bee haha .