A great way to update your home, without doing something drastic, is to paint the front door a bright color. Growing up we had a royal blue front door, cherry red front door, and then a glossy black front door.  It amazed me how fresh and revived the exterior looked after it was repainted.  My all time favorite color for a front door has to be cherry red – that with a white house, black shutters, and topiaries on either side of the door sounds perfect to me!