Here is a picture of the side of the house.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

If it's from the twenties, it's a Dutch colonial Revival. Very cute! You're right. I typically see these in white with either black or green trim. If you look at vintage magazines from that era, that's what you'll see. Often with a green roof.

There is a similar home in my former neighborhood that went a different direction. From the link go to "photos" and look for the Ratchford-Truss house. It looks very nice, but it's not what one normally thinks of when looking at a Dutch Colonial Revival.

Here is a link that might be useful: Roebuck Springs

Thanks jakabedy! That is what I was thinking- Dutch Colonial Revival. I appreciate the link as well to the home in your former neighborhood.

I am thinking I am going to go in a different direction too, but just have to come up with the right color scheme. The roof is only a year old, so I am stuck with the gray roof for a while. Anyone with ideas...they are certainly welcome!!

Also- anyone know what style house board-n-batten shutters are usually found on? I love the look of them, but don't know if they will work on this house.

I don't think you need to be locked into an expected color combination. I've seen this style done in pale yellow with green shutters and white trim. I did a quick search of board and batten shutters and could find only that they are primarily decorative, but I'm sure someone can add more info on those. You have a lovely home and I hope you find a color that makes you smile every time you look at it. I've included a link showing some interesting color combinations on a number of different homes.

Here is a link that might be useful: home colors

Don't feel that you need some kind of historically correct colors for a 20's house of this type. They would have used any colors they found pleasing. I too have soon old illustrations of this style house done in yellow.
The reason so many old houses were painted white was that white was the cheap color. Any other color could cost significantly more.
If it were my house I'd go with the board and batten shutter too. They would have been in use in the 20's. They predate the louvered style shutters we're accustomed to, and would be fitting for a 20's "colonial" rendition.

Thank you everyone! Your feedback has made me feel more comfortable in going ahead with my "not so traditional' plans. I will post pictures when the project is complete!

My personal rule of thumb is that deviation from historically correct colors can work if the color PLACEMENT is correct. The light/dark relationship between the trim/body colors needs to be historically accurate, but you can (carefully!) update the actual colors used.

If, for example, a house's trim was designed to be a lighter color than the body, it could look skimpy if painted a dark color.

If the house was designed to have dark trim, using a light color could make the trim look clumsy or chunky.

Your house is very handsome, and has gorgeous architectural details. It'd be nice to gently enhance those bay windows with color. Can't wait to see pictures of it painted.

Unfortunately, by the 1920s, white as an "authentic" colonial color was really taking hold in the United States. It could very well be that the house was originally painted white.

You could try doing some paint excavations on hidden areas, window sills, etc., to see what you come up with.

Look at it this way, if your house was originally painted white, do you feel a need to dump your fridge and call to find an ice man to deliver ice blocks to you to fill the ice box?
Find out what the original color was to satisfy your curiosity, but don't feel bound by it. No president was born there, was he?
There's a street full of Victorian sea captains and merchants home near me. One othe houses had been painted pink for years. It looked terrible. It was sold and the new owners needed to repaint it. Thinking they had to, they repainted it the same shade of pink. Apparently they were so happy when they learned they needn't have painted it pink afterall, within months they had it redone in several lovely shades of green. A decided improvement.

"Look at it this way, if your house was originally painted white, do you feel a need to dump your fridge and call to find an ice man to deliver ice blocks to you to fill the ice box?"

Doesn't everyone have an ice box?

I do, and I occasionally use it, too.

Yeah, but did you dump the fridge?
I love my new fridge, so far.

No, but I am getting ready to dump it.

Mine's from 1979. I was getting something out of it over the weekend when I looked at the door label on the freezer probably for the first time since I bought the house 13 years ago.

The fridge uses upwards 150 kwhr a MONTH!

Thanks msscarlet. I would love to see a picture of your house! I was considering putting on a fresh coat of white on the house and then having dark sage green shutters. There is also decorative trim (I don't know if you can see it in the picture) at the top of the bay windows that I was also going to paint in the sage green leaving the rest of the bay windows white. I am removing the shutters next to the front door and adding side lights. I was thinking red for the front door. Now you have me considering yellow! Decisions, decisions!!!

Eagles, I did not forget about you and posting the picture of my house. Unfortunatly I have had two computer crashes in the last year and I am waiting for my husband to come home so he can retrieve my photos from one of the computers. If he can't do it then I can take another picture and post it.

I saw the link another poster posted to the Truss house. My house is like that in that it has the pediment (minus the columns) on both the front and back of the house and I have one wing (a porch) on the right side of the house (which has columns). What attracted me to this house was the details. There is a beautiful beadboard soffet which is held up with corbels. We had considered vinyl siding the house (after a nightmare paint contractor did a TERRIBLE job painting the house) but I decided against it because I would lose all that beautiful detail.

So I will post the pic asap...

I think your house is simply gorgeous! And I agree that you should feel free to play some with color. I think, though, that the shutters next to the front door are fabulous and really give the house a unique and historical look. Side-lights are so common and contemporary that I think they would take away from that look. Anyway, just my $.02. But really do LOVE your new house!

Eagles, I could not get my pictures off the server so I took some new ones. They did not come out that great because of the sun :( Anyway, it will give you an idea of the color scheme. If you check out the garden album you will get a better idea of the color yellow the house is by looking at the garage...Hope it helps :)

Here is a link that might be useful: My house photos

msscarlet: I know you posted the pics of your house for Eagles, but I just wanted to say that your house is my dream house. I love dutch colonials, and both of you have truly lovely homes. Do you mind if I ask the name/brand of the yellow paint you used?

Organic, thank you so much for the complement. I fell in love with the house the moment I saw it even though it was in really REALLY rough shape when I first saw it. Luckily we were able to look past the chipping paint and god awful gold brocade wallpaper (as a matter of fact EVERY wall was wallpapered and that was real fun taking all that down lol) to see that the bones were solid and really charming. We have been here for 8 years this fall but I really did not start working on the house in serious mode until about two years ago. I had a baby when we first moved in so between taking care of her and my two other kids, there just was not time or energy for the big stuff. I am only now just getting down to making it what I want it to be. The interior pictures are what the house looked like a few years ago which I knew would only be a temporary fix. I am in the middle of doing everything over again and getting down to the real changes I want to make. lol...hey, I am an out of work interior decorator so I have to use my skills somehow hehehe...

Anyway, about your question, the paint color is Benjamin Moore "Butter". Two years ago we paid a contractor to scrape and paint the house. He gave me an estimate of 4,000 ... it ended up costing us 7,000 and the paint started peeling the very next year. Needless to say I am furious. The prep work he did was shoddy. So I am going to be doing some scraping myself in the next couple of weeks and will have to buy more paint and do certain areas over again. I sure hope they have this butter color still because I love it and do not wish to go lighter or darker. Usually if they no longer carry a certain color you can usually find the same color in their color charts with a new name attached to it. I may have a add a bit of cream to it to account for fading, but I will work that out :)

msscarlet- your house is beautiful! Thank you for posting these pictures. I love the yellow. My only concern, as my husband has just pointed out, is that we have the type of grass (the name escapes me right now) that turns yellow in the winter. I am worried that the house, which is rather small in comparison to the 3/4 of an acre lot it sits on, will get swallowed up in the fall and winter when the grass turns.

But this has given me some ideas...I have downloaded the Benjamin Moore software program that allows you to upload photos and paint them. I have tried everything from yellow to blue to green to red and I keep coming back to white with some kind of colored shutter.

Organic- I see your point on the side lights, however if I do add them, I will look for something that fits the style of house, not the more modern ones you see on new houses. Also, we want to add a small covered front porch and the shutters will not work with this.