Color Help Needed

We are finally beginning the project of fixing up the outside of our house. (I'll spare you the entire history of this endeavor.) We are down to the point of choosing paint colors for the windows, eaves, front and back porch walls, ceiling, trim and floors.

Here's the trick: for now, the north side of the house has siding which is a sort of oatmeal tan color. The rest of the house is the burnt (but dirty) red color, and the trim is currently cream. We will need to choose a trim color and colors for the porch which will be painted before the rest of the siding will go on. The timing for finishing the siding will be measured in months, and hopefully not too far into the double digits.

Ideally, then, the color for the trim will need to contrast with the siding and coordinate well with the brick on the front porch, but also not look completely ugly when contrasting with the burnt red, which our neighbors to the south will have to endure for a little while longer.

And I have no sense of color, which is why I am posting these pictures and asking for ideas.

Without further ado:Here is the siding with current cream trim. (And yes, the contractor admits it was a mistake not to paint the trim first.)

This shows the north side of the house and the brick of the front porch. Note that the ceiling of the porch is the same cream color right now.


Here's the front porch. The green carpet is going to be ripped out.

Here is the in-process south side of the house where the wood is being repaired and the eaves are being primed.

What was suggested to me was to do the trim and eaves in a forest green, and to paint the front and back porch to match the siding. The green would contrast nicely with the siding and the brick, and not look too hideous with the burnt red. The color for the floors of the porches is still up for grabs, but obviously something that would hide dirt decently.

The house next to us (north side) is also getting a face lift, and it has a nice forest green on its upper portion.

I do think it looks nice with the brick.

So, I need some comments and feedback. I just have no visual sense whatsoever. I had wanted the whole house to be a deep blue, but that was before we realized that siding was how we needed to go (lest the house crumble to bits in a few years).