Um...

what is the name of the current gray on your house? I love it.

I could see doing a creamier color on the trim, and maybe a more brick-related color on the door? The trim and door would warm up the gray, quite possibly, so you might like it.

maybe squirrel will wander by here and do a mockup?

nice.. I actually like that gray a lot!

I really like that grey also.. On my monitor it looks like BM Briarwood. If it doesn't need to be painted - I'd look at changing the trim colors first. Good luck!

Wow! What a gorgeous house! I love the colonial style. I really like it as is, however, I'm sure it could be painted different colors and still look stunning. The gray is very traditional, and I definitely think red doors are classic and inviting. Again, what a great house.

Jan

Jeez, it is rare to see a house that really looks so perfect the way it is. And I am picky! Do you really need to paint? If it is just an urge and not a necessity, think about the Fine Paints of Europe Dutch Door kit. It is a fabulous product and will get you that gorgeous high gloss you are looking for. I love Zuider Zee Blue, but maybe Navy would float your boat.

Here is a link that might be useful: FPE DDK

I know you don't want another person telling you this, but I too like the grey you have. It works well with the roof and the brick.

I would like to see the trim a bit richer in color, perhaps a bit warmer. What I do think you need to do is paint the little triangle under the peak of the porch in the trim color, rather than having that little patch of grey - it looks unfinished.

Then you could still do the front door in the deep blue (tho personally I don't like the high gloss look). A red closer, but deeper, to the tone of the brick would be nice as well.

The other way I could see would be a medium taupe color, with either door color. A nice change, works with the roof color.

What you might consider, if you don't have to spend the money on painting the house, is re-working some of the landscaping. The straight rows of bushes across the front don't really add any color or texture to the area. Curving out the bed a bit on the left, having some separated bushes or plantings rather than the slash of solid green, could do a lot to warm up and enrich the already pretty house.

What a lovely house. I too like the grey.

Brighten up the red door and the grey will really pop.

Have you considered shutters? They would suit your colonial facade.

You might also consider window treatments (curtains) that help your windows look as nice as they could. Right now the windows look a bit blank and unfriendly.

Wow, I agree - the pewter base color looks great as it is, and it would ease your job soooooo much to work around it. You could wake it up a little bit by painting the window sashes/muntins (not the trim) black for some contrast but not too much. Believe it or not it's actually a historically appropriate color combination for the style of house (even though it's 1936 instead of 1836)... white body/black accents/red door are sort of "standard issue" for Colonial Revivals but it's too safe and way overdone. Be careful about going to a creamy trim with a cool-toned base color, because the creamy color can end up looking dirty.

I ran the house through a couple of the paint visualizers at SW and BM and think that a slightly lighter, a bare tad grayer, but still strong blue (perhaps SW Down Pour?) might play better though, especially if you punched it up with a new, "oomphier" entryset and perhaps a doorknocker ("what knockers!" "oh, thank you, Doctor!" *ahem*) and not those puny little things they have at Home Depot... Red doors with red brick don't really do it for me, but I'm kind of over the whole red-door thing anyway. JMO.

But, if you truly loathe it as it is, I think a pretty ocher/medium-buff (no, not yellow) tone with creamy trim and chocolate/umber accents would be a nice change. If you have access to a paint brand called California Paints they have THE most amazing historical palettes developed in cooperation with Historic New England, one of the premier historic preservation associations in the country.

Okay, a couple of unsolicited suggestions, for which you may tell me to fold until they're all corners and insert where the sun don't shine. :-) However, these are all cheaper and easier than painting the entire house! LOL

What the house really needs IMO is some "accessory" color that isn't physically ON the house and isn't dependent on blooming seasons; perhaps some shrubbery with winter color to it, different shades of green instead of a single mass of one plant in one color, different leaf shapes like a mixture of narrow needles and something broader like holly? At my previous house I planted a dwarf falsecypress variety called "Heatherbun" which turned the most charming plummy color after first frost. If you went with a blue door, blue-toned junipers (I really liked the Pencil Point we used at our previous house, perfect for the corners of a house) would look just lovely. Of course I'm completely talking through my hat :-) because I am the Anti-Gardener (I can kill mint, for pity's sake) but I'm just repeating what the landscape designer told me when I did my previous house and what I've learned by osmosis here. Oh, by the way, many nurseries offer landscape design services FREE one day a week or a couple of days a month - bring photos of the house, a "map" of the planting area, and they will go to town! I waited until everything went on 50-75% off in September to buy the plants, since I was starting from scratch.

Second, when the time comes and you have some slush money (I know, who ever does? LOL), I think it would look awfully pretty to replace the concrete front walk with brick pavers to echo the brick steps and brick on the carport area.

Just call me Mini-you!!! Another 1936 colonial here.

This is a virtual of my house that squirrel did for me last year (we're residing) when I was struggling with colors and it was immensely helpful. I agree with everyone that what you have now is lovely. johnmari had some great ideas - there's a house down the street with dark sashes and it's a wonderful look, amazing impact for such a small change. Landscape changes would be the direction I'd head first. And btw.....I'm on the lookout for a big round, Colonial knocker myself ;-)

{{gwi:1711364}}

Here's a round door knocker I plan to use on my new house...

Here is a link that might be useful: Baldwin Colonial Round

Very nice, Amy - do they give the size anywhere? I didn't see it.

You have a lovely home and I also love the color. If you feel you want a change, I would go for a green -and at least as dark as what you have. But what you have is great and I would keep it.

dlm, Baldwin doesn't seem to have the size listed. I found this elsewhere:

SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5" (108x140mm)
Center to Center of bolts: 3.75" (95mm)

so japhy, you think it's Briarwood? I could see that. Very nice to see how it reads on a house. Completely different from the washed out BM color viewer...

Thank you! So much great feedback. Sadly, the paint job is a necessity rather than just aesthetics -- paint on the back side is failing pretty badly & peeling off in layers. (After reading up on the paint forum, I think it was just too many layers of latex on top of old oil paint without adequate prep.)

Maybe we will keep it close to current color. I'm not sure what color it is, but I'll have to stop by the BM store and pick up a tab for Briarwood. I think those color visualizers are just a bit off, at least on our monitor -- Down Pour is a very smurf-y blue on my screen. Luckily, SW store is right down the street.

Of the SW colors, we liked Mineral Deposit -- gray, but not quite so dark. Johnmari, my wife said exactly that about warm trim looking bad with cool gray field color. I just want to get away from the current ultrawhite, just tone down a bit but not too much.

Shutters? I think we will someday, after we've finished the essentials. Of course, being picky, I don't want to just screw aluminum shutters that don't match window size on there, so might be a while given that real shutters & hardware are pricey. The suggestion about doing the sash black is good--that could look really sharp and make the windows pop a bit more until we can dress it up a bit more with shutters.

Absolutely agreed on the landscaping solutions. Could be more varied and it would add a lot.

THANK YOU for all your suggestions, such a helpful group & nice little corner of the internet.

Peel off a chunk of the failing paint and take it to the paint store - they'll be able to match it. If only one side is failing that badly, by keeping the color the same you can do one side of the house at a time and save some time/money. I live in New England where the weather is just brutal on paint and that's a common way to do it.

Yeah, the visualizers behave really weirdly on some monitors. I have fandecks on hand so I used those to pick colors initially and just double-checked the combos on the 'puter; it definitely didn't look smurf-y in the deck though though. :-)

plan_r
lovely home! I know, I know... but sorry, I like the gray too! :)
you have a beautiful house...
Ree

dlm
wow..you too! very beautiful home! it does look like plan_r house..wow! I just love older houses..my favorite! you have great landscaping too..very,very, nice!
Ree

Stopped by good local paint store today. They carry California Paints, and loved the colors in their Historic Colors of America series. Picked up a couple sample pots, too. Particularly like the Standish Blue and Lexington Blue, just exactly what I was looking for in a more blue-hued gray. If anyone has any thoughts on these, love to hear it. Otherwise, I'll try to remember to post the "After" picture here, and thanks for your help.

Here is a link that might be useful: CA Paints Historical Colors of America - Colonial colors