Hi- just an fyi, I'm American and we Americans do NOT use real wood for weatherboarding!!! 20-30 years ago ppl used vinyl but that had issues, now they use a very strong resin board. No rotting or painting.

Hi Nicky, my apologies I have only just seen your message. We went for cornforth white Farrow and Ball (which it definitely not white). The shutters are not back open yet but some of them will need to go back on because the large expanses of grey look very grey. The bits next to the white look less austere. The new white garage door with windows has made a big difference. I'd be careful with a very pale grey because if your windows are anything like mine you'll find that they are not actually that white after all....

If you are looking for a green based grey I would recommend farrow and ball Old White. We are just having our house repainted this colour. I wanted grey but we are surrounded by greenery and the blue based greys looked light blue rather than grey. The green base to Old White works well with greenery. Its also a very classic colour and so is easy to live with (or at least I hope so!). I have been amazed at how different the different greys look when put next to one another. All look grey in isolation. Together you can very clearly see that some are green based, some blue based and some purple based.

If it were my house, I’d paint the flashing beneath the first floor bay window black, and the front door a lovely bright colour, perhaps turquoise. Do you need all the drive area for parking? If not I’d take up curved area of pavers on the left (leaving a walkway of pavers in front of the window) to create a bed and introduce some structured planting. Depending on how the pavers are set, though, that may be a significant job. In the meantime, add a couple of large planters with something like bay on either side of the front door. It’s often a good idea to check with neighbours to see what grows well in the particular conditions of your front gardens.