I would just clean the cedar for starters. Then you might not need to stain.

The siding has been stained previously, is cleaning still an option?

How about taking your color scheme from something like the pic below: charcole/deep blue siding, bright lime green entry, and maybe paint the bump out's a contrasting color - white or even a little more bold with orange/red similar to the chairs.

I like Denita's idea of a dark charcoal blue. Based on what you said your windows were like, that could look amazing.

Cleaning is worth a try for sure. Then consider where to go from there.

Black stain? That might look amazing but not with the white trim. Is the trim vinyl or is it painted wood?

Replace front door.

I love the way it looks now. Won't the new boards change to the gray by themselves?

A charcoal/blue is interesting, it just might look ok with the windows. We are not lime green and orange people, but agree that doing 1 or 2 contrasting colors could be fun. I appreciate the suggestions—we have been working on every square inch of this house for the last 3 1/2 years. It was badly neglected and has needed everything. We seem to have come to the end of our decision making abilities and are really stumped and are having a very hard time figuring out what to do with the exterior.

we're getting ready to paint our home 'charcoal blue' as well. we've chosen BM britannia blue.

and we like the color with wood

Looks great ninigret.

OP, consider the dark 'charcoal blue' and crisp white trim around the windows and the door area, something like the insp pic below.

I don’t know if you are familiar with the Acorn Deck House which began many, many years ago in MA.

They have a spot here on houzz. Take a look at some of their projects.

https://www.houzz.com/pro/acorndeckhousecompany/acorn-deck-house-company

There is a gorgeous home similar to yours in the city I am moving to... painted/stained off-black, window frames & all. Reminiscent of what they're doing in Denmark etc. Looks gorgeous. I will try to take a photo in two weeks when I move!

Here are some photos I had saved for colour inspo when I was trying to close on a 70s wood house...

Nothing wrong with black stain & white frames...

And the opposite of black...

The roof looks black, or close to it. I'm not sure black is a good color for the house. I don't like house and roof to blend together and make the house look like a big black lump. Most people seem to advise a dark house so I made some images.

I might go lighter because you seem to have plenty of shade.

I don't know if your house is seen from the road or if you even care about street view but just in case you do, I modified the landscaping. The ground cover blocking the entrance negates it's importance. Even if no one approaches from the lawn it should look as if they could. I also changed the shape of the lawn. The shape you have now clearly indicates the handiwork of humans and I suspect you are aiming at a naturalized look.

If that is a Rhododendron in front of the door it should be relocated as it will block the door in time.

I would also consider removing the small wall at the entrance for a more open look.

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions, they've been very useful and we have a lot to think about. After all the decisions we have made on this home I find it interesting that we have become totally stuck on a paint color. We are usually pretty good at it—overload I guess.

We will be looking seriously at charcoal/blues. Holding up a fandeck to the windows there are a few that look good. I think they will be less severe looking than black (which we haven't completely ruled out). We used BM Soot, which is a blue/black in our breakfast room and it also looks nice outside. Decisions, decisions...

Emmarene, thanks for the landscaping ideas. The house is not seen from the street. We plan on working on the front bed, and were planning on a perennial garden. We will certainly look at reshaping the bed and using it to lead the eye to the front door.

Would love to see the Soot in your breakfast room!

BTW do NOT PAINT. Use a stain. Even a full body stain will last longer than paint.

If you still have a bunch of the old damaged stained boards around, nail a few together and use that as a test board instead of foamcore. It'll be easy to move around.

I suggest a light blue gray to go with your roof and windows.

Our neighbours have black wood siding and it is really oppressive looking. It has also weathered badly and I wondered if the dark colour absorbs more heat?

I do like a more barn board appearance with a grey stain. If you are still not sure, is there a section at the back left you could try with your colour choice and see how you feel?

Black is the worst color to paint wood because in the sun it cooks out any kind of oil, natural or added. Like you can't paint a wooden front door black or it will warp, and if siding isn't vented really well, black just cooks it all out of shape and can cause streaks of liquified wood sap. Black can be made to look cool though, sometimes, just not a good idea for wood without special precautions during construction. By black I mean a shade of any color darker than a 60% gray.

Yeah you don't want paint. Paint is absurd. Get yourself some Cabots stain OHV or OVH it's called, I don't remember. Very effective stuff. Mad capillary action.

If your tongue and groove siding is sitting right on building paper, and not on firing strips with air behind, you might cause some cupping if you coat just one side. When we put up wood siding that's going to be coated in any way, we prime every side before installation

Thanks again to everyone! Our painter is planning on a coat of oil based primer followed by 2 coats of solid body stain.

Ryan Olivieri, Inc— the bulk of the siding is original to 1970 so I assume it has moved around as much as it is ever going to? It is applied directly on top of some sort of compressed board that I am not familiar with. It is dark brown and fibrous.

Even though the manager of the paint store we use is very excited that we are considering black, it looks now that we will probably wind up with a medium to dark blue/grey.

1beth58—our breakfast room as requested

Very chic breakfast room...love it!

I love it, too!

Thank you Denita & Beth!

Yeah the wood has to be super seasoned by now and about as shrunk as it will ever get probably. I would forget the primer, myself. Oil stain essentially does the job of the primer. Your goal isn't to seal anything, quite the opposite. Primer is used to seal and smooth a surface, seal and smooth isn't what weathered wood wants. And... they didn't use any building paper?

Thanks Ryan. I'll have a chat with the painter about using primer and see what he thinks. It was recommended by the paint store. You raise an interesting question about building paper, I am not sure if there is any or not. There are no signs that I can see of any issues, cosmetic or structural. The siding is in relatively decent shape given its age and the fact that the home was neglected for a number of years—the husband died and his wife closed the curtains and never left until her daughter rescued her, and then it sat empty. The interior walls, except for the lousy drywall installation, are in good shape.

Maybe they used tyvek and the sun has totally eaten away visible building paper. You want the stain to soak in and replace oils that baked out in the sun. Maybe by primer they mean some sort of penetrating sealer that evens out the tone of the stain. There was so much solid pigment in the cabots stain I've used there was certainly no need to worry about uneven color.

Good luck. I live in something similar

Thanks Ryan, it has been what feels like an endless series of adventures. Now at last we are almost done. Maybe I shouldn't say that out loud—who knows what will now happen next???

Just remember, we like to see After pictures.

After pictures and remember to keep dirt and mulch from piling up against the bottom of the siding cause it will cause it to rot. Same reason to clean the gutters often.

I for sure will post photos after painting. It will be a while, probably a couple months, but I'll remember.We are very grateful for all the input and suggestions. We were totally stuck and you all have gotten us mobilized and able to think about what should have been fairly easy and somewhat fun. Painting to commence soonish!

Gutters get cleaned twice a year. We had a lot of rot at the bottom of much of the siding. We had a very clever carpenter cut the rotten areas out and replaced with a horizontal board with flashing. We also did some regrading of the yard—much of it sloped towards one corner of the building causing not only rot, but basement flooding. Drain tile and having everything slope away from the house (Duh!) fixed the leakage. The ground is now at least 4 inches below any wood. This place has been an endless series of problems—most of them at least have been fairly easy to correct. Then there was the homemade wiring and plumbing....

I have a cedar home too and it also needed a good conditioning paint. We used Olympic Elite which is a oil based stain that is solid color. There r many tints to choose from. I picked cedar. Cedar sucked it up. The up keep for cedar expensive but if u use this stuff u can go from 3 to 4 yrs in between staining. I would not put primer on it but I would presser wash it.

Posting pic of home and stain. We stained home 3 years ago.

So many typos. Should have reread before posting. Pressure washer is biggest gaffe...lol