3rd color for outside of house

12 years ago

Our house is painted an off white on the outside and the trim, soffit, and overhangs are all the Country Blueish color of the 1980's. Hubs won't consider trying to paint the soffits and overhangs so they will be blue forever. Outside color will eventually be repainted but will probably stay in the white family. We just finished tiling our back porch area and doing some repair work on the posts that support the porch roof. That needs to be painted and I want to choose a third color that will go with the blue and the off white of the house. Then later on we will do the front entrance area and I will use the 3rd color there on the door and trim. The tile we used on the porch is a gray-beige in color. Another project is using pavers on the pool deck and they will be a combination of grays and beiges probably.

My question is what 3rd color can we use to go with the off white and the blue that I can't get rid of. I was thinking maybe a dark gray. I'm not sure I want to go with a darker blue, think I have enough blue already! I know I should post pictures. Will try to do that soon.

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Comments (9)

dawnp
12 years ago
Pictures would help alot!
amysrq
12 years ago
Would also like to hear about the landscaping. What you have planted, or plan to install, is a big part of the equation.
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mboston_gw
Original Author
12 years ago
Well...long story... Hubs is a do it yourselfer and has big plans for the front entrance in the future. Right now we have the original shrubs bordering the walk to the front door with an evergreen tallshrub that is tall by the L shaped entrance we now have. Our plans are to extend the slab the length across the front of the house and then tile the entire front entrance to match what we put in the house and on the porch. We already have the tile. Then where we have wood and shutters, we want to put a stone type finish. Probably grayish in color, which is why I mentioned the gray color for the trim etc. The overhangs and soffits are vinyl, not wood so even though they could be painted, it would not be easy to do so. We have a big island in the front of the house with two big oaks. The back porch is open to the pool area. There is an indoor garden area with large tropical type plants (?) and caladiums for the summer. In winter I have potted impatiens in there.

We have alot of work to do on the porch ceiling. We had a leak on that part of the flat roof so it was repaired but the ceiling needs patching and painting and the walls of the porch need painting. This used to be an enclosed porch before we bought the house and put up the pool enclosure. We removed the screen part of the porch and all that but had to leave the posts for ceiling support. Turns out they weren't really anchored in the flooring so before we had the tiled installed, hubs fixed them and now they are anchored properly and he made the white decorative parts to cover over where he had to do the repairs.

This will all take quite a while to do - but choosing the third color needs to be done now so that when it is time to do the front, it will match what is on the porch now. Repainting just to match colors isn't a priority as far as Hubs is concerned and painting is not my forte'.

I will come back with pics as soon as I can get them taken and posted. I know it will help to see what I am saying!
peaches12345
12 years ago
Any chance you could talk DH into letting a professional paint the soffits and overhangs so that you could chage from the '80s Country Blue since he doesn't want to do it? A new color would open up a whole of opportunites for your main color and trim. Change is good!
mboston_gw
Original Author
12 years ago
No, Patty - that is why I am trying to find a third color now - he would be just as happy to keep all the trim the same blue color. Atleast if I can get him to agree to the third color, I would be making progress. Thanks though - it would have been nice to start over from scratch.

Here are pics - the first ones are of the back porch/pool area. You can see the gray in the tiles and the posts I am talking about as well as the blue color.

href="http://s607.photobucket.com/albums/tt155/mboston_2009/?action=view&current=165a-1.jpg"; target="_blank">

These are from the front of the house where we will be putting the slab under the window and covering it with the same tile even in front of the door. Where the shutters are the wood would be covered with some kind of stone/rock.
Walkway would be replaced with a curved one from the driveway to front door.
dawnp
12 years ago
What trim on the front of the house will be painted in the 3rd color?

If none, I would paint the front door a bright cheery color- something that will work with the blue and white. I would also consider painting the sidelights white to match the house.

You have a grey roof so it seems that the dark grey might be a great choice. I agree that you shouldn't go with a darker blue.

I think you should paint the posts in the back to match the color of the house.

Hopefully others will chime in with more ideas!
les917
12 years ago
I hope you don't think me abrupt, but here goes. He is willing to do all that work (which sounds amazingly wonderful) to make the house a showstopper, but he won't paint the sofit and trim?

No matter what you do, honestly, that blue is going to affect the overall impression. It is going to look dated, and tarnish the effect of the wonderful updates you have planned. Could you at least get a free estimate as to what it would cost to have someone paint it? Perhaps if you presented him with facts, it might have more of an effect on him. Also, perhaps someone here could photoshop the trim in a rich grey, put in the stone around the front window, and change the door to a deep red or rich gold, so that he could see what a difference it would make.

All that said, if he won't budge, then I think you need to paint MORE of the blue around the house, on the posts, trim, etc to make it look intentional, not like a bad leftover. In that case, I would do the door in a deep yellow or an eggplant.

Good luck, and I hope it all turns out just the way you hope.
amysrq
12 years ago
Color is what it is because of what's around it. It is all about relationships.

My goal would be to push the colonial blue back into the gray zone. That means using a more vivid color. Not too bright, but enough so that the dated color recedes visually, probably two notches up on the vivid scale, IYKWIM.

I would either use more blue, which will certainly shift the existing trim into the gray zone, or a deeper, livelier green. Blues and greens play nicely together and a green would harmonize with the surrounding landscape.

Using a neutral like a gray will accentuate the blueness of the trim.
Using a color from the other side of the color wheel (like yellow) will also make the blue stand out more. I would first explore an analogous scheme myself and try to ever so slightly overwhelm the colonial blue with something similar but stronger.

I will also agree with Les about your husband's resistance to painting. Nothing contributes more to the appearance of a home than the proper use of color. He is being penny wise and pound foolish IMO. Sorry you're up against this...not an easy place to be.
peaches12345
12 years ago
It would take so little paint and effort to change the small amount of light blue, at least what we can see in the pictures, and it would make such a difference in the look of the house. As long as that light blue is there the house will be dated no matter what else you do. I'd be very tempted to pick my color and get a ladder, paint, and paintbrush and get started on my own!