Painting my house lavender...but it turned out more mauve.

17 years ago

I am in the process of painting my house. I already have lavender shutters and they are a nice deep true lavender with some grey in them. See picture below.

I tested colors of lighter lavender for the siding and picked Intuitive from Sherwin Williams which had a bit of a rose undertone in it. I liked this better in the tests because light lavenders tend to look grey and I did not want my house to be light grey.

Well, we got coat number 1 up and the house looks much more mauve/pink/rose than lavender. I have been up at night thinking about the color. I'm not sure the more pink look is right. I've went back to Sherwin Williams and tested more colors and if I add more blue or more grey the color looks like washed out grey in most light.

Here is a piece of when I tested it. I don't have a picture of the 1 coat on the house yet. But you can see how the siding color has more mauve/pink in it.

So, what would you do? Live with the mauve or make it the more grey color?

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Comments (18)

shadyindylady
17 years ago
First of all, I love the shade of lavender on your shutters. As for the mauve vs "grey-ish lavender" for
the house.....I would definitely go with the grey-ish lavender. Actually grey and lavender are one of my favorite color combos as I think it's very striking yet
soft and you don't see it that often in homes. I'd definitely go for it. Good luck whatever you decide to do!
FlowerLady6
17 years ago
Please post a picture if you can of the house with the one coat of the rosey/mauve color on it. I love that color, but really need to see how it looks with the shutters which also are a very pretty color. It looks like your shutter color is in the shadows of the grooves of siding with the new color. They might look fantastic together.

FlowerLady
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limequilla
17 years ago
I vote for grayish.

Lime
eks6426
Original Author
17 years ago
Ok, I went home at lunch and got pictures of how it is now.
The house is in the shadows in this picture. It looks brighter in person.

The storm door will be black and the front door will be walnut wood with windows like in my "before" picture.
shadyindylady
17 years ago
Looks like it's already painted....and I thought from your original post that you were just "testing" an area to see if you liked the paint you chose! If it's already done, I wouldn't re-do it as it looks very nice as is. I would prefer the Gray and Lavender myself, but there's
nothing wrong with the colors in the picture.
gottagarden
17 years ago
I appreciate your adventurous use of color for your house. Bravo for you!

Everybody has personal preferences. Based on your last photo, it seems like the shutters aren't dark enough, or need a deeper hue for that color wall. I do like both colors. Together they seem to need more contrast. But that's just my preference.
robinco
17 years ago
I think your house is (and has always been) lovely. I'm all for adventurous use of color...

I would have picked a more bluish lavender myself (I'm in my blue phase right now ;-)) but what you have is really charming!
dayleann
17 years ago
I love that color-- it's exactly what I want on my house! Mind sharing brand & color #?

I can see why you might feel it's not quite right for your house, since you want to keep those shutters the color they are. I think you're right- a more greyish lavender would look better. Or as gottagarden said, darker shutters with the mauve.

My house trim will be deep blackberry purple, with touches of light turquise blue. I'm still busy scraping paint and will be lucky to get primer on this fall!

Dayle Ann
haziemoon
17 years ago
I really loved it the way it was! The shutters really popped. But the new color is really nice too. I sure wish my hubby would let me go a little more girly with paint colors outside. I love lavender it's always been my favorite color. So I think it looks great.

Your gardens are pretty wonderful too!

Haziemoon
gillian00
17 years ago
Well, I liked the before AND the after. I love the way it looks right now, and it works well will your lovely gardens. I guess the ultimate question, is do YOU love it?
friend
17 years ago
HI there!

First of all I want to say that I LUV LUV LUV the coplor you picked for those shutters. it's liek the perfect dream lavendar!
There is nothing wrong with the way the mauvish turned out, but I did kinda liek the higher contract in the before picture better... It' sstill beautiful either way, and i'd stop and stare at it as I was driving by for SURE!

Beautiful gardens in front too!
Personally, I think I would have stuck with white or even a light yellow. But that's just cuz I LOVE the combination of purple and yellow :)

But honestly it is gorgeous in the before and after pics.. send pics when it is complete as i think the plastic over the shutters dulls the contrast a but and it propably looks even better without the plastic. I bet it is just going to be gorgoeous. I love it. so exciting.

i have a taupe house. it's nice. I need shutters though. I will have hard time getting hubby to go outsdie the box with the shutters i think though. haha

I wish i could have done what you did. what gorgeous trim around the windoes and doors too

jealous... haha

Jamie
moonphase
17 years ago
I love the white and lavender best but now with the mauve color I think the shutters do not stand out like before.I think I would go for a darker lavender for the shutters to bring them out.I do love the color you have chosen.I love lavender myself.Also love your gardens.
moonphase
eks6426
Original Author
17 years ago
Thank you everyone for the advice. I went back to Sherwin Williams and played with 1 gallon of paint some more. Made it more blue and more purple...less mauve. Got it home and painted the section between the window where I had my "test" shutter and the front door. Put the shutter back up and realized that I didn't like it. It just looked cold and turned grey, but not a good grey. So, we stuck with the mauvish color. With the 2nd coat is was a little bit more muted. We got the shutters/windowboxes etc. back up and it looks pretty good. I think the mauve is still a bit too pink and the shutters could use to be a bit darker (but hubby said no-way to repainting those this year.) But it looks cottagey and inviting to me and that was my goal.

The cream that I had before wasn't bad. I might have kept it if it had not been for the school bus yellow house directly next door. My cream just looked like a washed out version of the yellow. I would have liked to have painted my house a light, warm yellow but that obviously wouldn't have worked with bright yellow next door.

I'll be posting some pictures as soon as I can get them off the digi cam. For those of you who wondered my colors are all Sherwin Williams. The shutters are Exclusive Plum and the siding is Intuitive.
jennypat Zone 3b NW MN
17 years ago
I like the mauve color, but I feel it's to dark. Maybe you could lighten it a shade or two. Then you would have more contrast, and still have the warm tones. I think something in a shade halfway between what you first had, and what you have now would be perfect!

IMHO
Jenny P
FlowerLady6
17 years ago
I love the mauvy color with your shutter color. I think with the shutters all back up, and the storm door painted black with a walnut door, will be stunning. Remember, that colors do fade after awhile. I don't blame hubby for not wanting to paint again this year. I think the colors look fabulous with your cottage gardens.

FlowerLady ~ who lives in a plum colored cottage ~ {{gwi:748904}}
Auntie_Clara
17 years ago
Looks like a story book cottage. *sigh*
moonphase
17 years ago
Can you believe I actually had a dream last night about this house.You had painted the house the color lavender like your shutters and painted the shutters white..gosh,I think I have been reading too much..lol
good thing yu have a good understanding husband.When I move next yr.out of this subdivision with all these restrictions the first thing I want is a purple potting shed,then maybe a husband..lol
moonphase
haziemoon
17 years ago
Too funny moonphase!
My hubby keeps telling me I need to get a REAL life!
All I ever have to talk to him about when he gets home,
is about this forum!! It's my garden friend this and my garden friend that!hahhahaah

I have a hard time sleeping sometines...and I have found if I take the pictures in my mind from this site.....
and do a landscape makevoer in my head......in 20 minutes
I'm usually asleep. I don't count sheep..I do garden makeovers!!!! I think my mind gets so tired from too many ideas and finally shuts down!

Haziemoon

Painting my house lavender...but it turned out more mauve.

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Painting my house lavender...but it turned out more mauve.

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