Picking a color combination for the exterior is absolute murder.
After more great advice from Stephanie, I went to the drug store, printed out a picture of my house's exterior, made 20 photocopies, and began coloring with some colored pencils. I obsessed for a couple of hours and now have about 11 different color combinations. Most of them are horrible. The one that looks best to me is bone white with mahogany trim. It makes the house look a bit like an old train depot, which I like.
At first I was sure that I wanted white trim, but now I'm all over the place. After deciding to abandon white trim, I happened to drive past a bungalow with suede-colored paint on the wood siding and white trim. It looked so good, so now I'm sort of back to that. Arg!
I never imagined that I'd be the sort of person who subscribes to the Better Homes and Gardens website, but they have this great Java tool there that allows you to color in the exterior of a variety of different houses. They had one just like mine, only with much better landscaping.
Check it out. Honestly, it just left me more confused, but at least I can visualize things a bit better.
5 comments:
Oh gosh - I'm so sorry. I was hoping coloring in your house would make things EASIER, not harder for you!
They have a similar house-painting program on the Sherwin Williams site that allows you plug in any of any of their paint colors in various combinations. The thing I don't like about it is that the colors aren't very true to life - they look too light or bright or something - they just aren't quite right. But it does give you an "idea" of the overall look and it couldn't be easier to use. You might want to check it out.
Also, you might also want to check out Robert Schweitzer's book which deals with exterior colors for bunaglows:
http://www.amazon.com/Bungalow-Colors-Exteriors-Robert-Schweitzer/dp/1586851306
Most of the paint stores sell CDs that contain programs allowing you to upload photos of your home and then you can try any color or color combination of paint that the particular brand sells. I bought one from the Benjamin Moore paint store when we did my daughter's bedroom and it was a great help. I have also seen them in the Home Depot for their brands. BTW I wouldn't use a bright beachy coral color on the entire house, but the front door is an excellent place to use it. If this is a house you plan on reselling in the near future, you will want to stay with more neutral colors. That's what the realtors always say. Drive around your area and see if any homes have a color you like on them.
Good Luck!
kath
Since you love Bottle Green, I was wondering if you'd ever seen the paint job at the 1912 Bungalow site - it's lovely. :-)
http://www.1912bungalow.com/archives/2004/11/exterior_paint.php
Now that you have removed the bushes and the brick porch is really visible you should choose a paint color that will look good with the red of the brick. I think that the suede color would probably look nice next to the brick.
We painted our house 2 years ago and choosing the colors was really agonizing. We finally went with SW polished mahogany and one of the darker greens for the sash. Don't remember the name at the moment.
trim is a light beige color. You can see it at:
http://mahoganyhouse.blogspot.com/
Kim
Ah, what a choice. I feel sorry for you. I like the "coastal" theme too. I would lean towards coral/peach, light turquose, yellow, pale orange. Maybe even a little pink thrown in. I visited down in Florida with friends, and we went down to an area where a lot of houses and buildings are painted these kinds of colors, and I loved it. It was so refreshing after the area of New England where I am stuck in, where home exteriors follow a pretty regimented, dull pattern. Ugh. If it were up to me, my house would be pale sunshine yellow, with white trim, and white or maybe dark yellow curtains! But no, I have a nondescript stained gray cape house, which suits my husband & the resale value perfectly. Ugh.
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