Trim/Siding Paint Color for 60s Brick Ranch
Hi all,
Thanks for all the great information on the site, this is the first time I am making a post. We are the midst of doing cosmetic remodeling on a 1960s ranch, and trying to keep some of the original elements.
I am looking for advice on the window trim and siding color to coordinate with the facade of dark brown and gold brick with weeping mortar- not my favorite but we are going to keep it. The soffits/gutters are dark brown. At some point they painted all the window trim and siding around the house(that you can't see in the picture) all in a harvest gold. They picked out one of the colors in the brick, but its not pretty and I'm pretty sure it wasn't original. I'm afraid of painting all the trim brown as it would just be too dark.
A decorator recommended BM Navajo White for the trim around the windows, and BM Davenport Tan for the siding and to keep the brown on the doors/shutters (because we are keeping the garage door for now as its relatively new).
I am posting because I just can't find a good dark brown and I would love some additional opinions on the other colors-- does it really make sense to paint around the windows such a light color? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Comments (22)
palimpsest
7 years agoCDO321
7 years agoThanks! I hope we can get the paint colors and landscaping right so our weeping mortar looks nice as well.
Here is a close up. You can that the shutters/doors and gutters/soffits are a bit different brown which is why I am having trouble picking the brown. I also read that Davenport Tan sometime reads green, so thats my worry there.
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60's ranch - now painted - new door color? light fixtures?
Comments (7)No shutters - wrong for the clean lines of your lovely ranch home, imo I think it is a great idea to take the bushes out of the planters. That will open up the full height of the windows, which will make the body of the house feel taller and work better with the strong roof line. A trellis mounted between the two windows on the left, filled with something climbing and pretty, would be a nice way to break up the long expanse of brick there. The door color does seem a brighter red, and perhaps something rusty would be better. Hard to tell what the real effect is from a distance, tho, in the pix you have posted. I would look for a more modern light fixture for the front door. The carriage light says colonial to me. How about something like this? kichler transitional bronze wall light I think the light has a cleaner line, but not too modern, and echoes the multiple panes in your windows, not fighting with the circles in the front door glass....See MoreHelp with exterior paint, copper colored gutters, 60's ranch
Comments (27)Thanks live_wire_oak - I find myself agreeing with nearly all of your style points. I don't think we realized how prominent the roof was until we really spent some time looking at it from the street. I don't think changing the roof is in the budget now (it's pretty new), but we'll definitely keep that in mind. We're both really intrigued by the suggestion of a slab door - what is that? We picked up some paint samples yesterday. Old gutters are down and the house is already looking cleaner, even without the new ones up. We picked a gutter color that is called 'wicker', and had SW mix paint to match. Here's a pic of the samples we put up. It's dim - by the time the paint had dried, this area (east facing, under covered patio) is shaded - but you see the colors we're talking about, over the green and next to the brick. Trim/gutters - light tan (color matched wicker metal gutters) Front Door - BM Currant Red (1323) Shutters (if we do -- causing marital strife) - SW Umber Brick (more marital strife - not painting though!) - 6140 Moderate White. I like the green but we compromised and are currently planning on going with the tan color -- which we color matched from the gutter color we're putting up. That will be all the trim. The dark brown we were thinking for shutters, but if we don't do shutters... Clearly we won't use it :) Would you consider using that brown to paint the aluminum visible in the picture of the front? We'll replace the windows -- they're 1966 single pane glass -- but not sure when, and we don't like the aluminum lines.(could be usable) I like your suggestion on the planters and I'll consider today a success if I can get them dug up before the Rangers game :) Melanie, I believe, on the landscape forum, suggested creeping thyme -- I think we'll do something like that to try and break the planter box line. I also like the idea of semi-circle as landscape bed. My kids aren't playing out there - too close to the busy street - and having something to break up the monotony and add curves would be great. Melanie -- thank you for explaining! I'm looking at his books on ebay now. Thank you SO much for your help here and on the other forum! You've made us like our house a lot more. Summary on what we're going to do this week: Gutters (wicker above unless someone can talk me out of it in the next day) installed, trim/fascia/sofits painted to match. Paint front door Remove boxwood in planter boxes up front Pause and evaluate.... To sum up questions: If we don't do the shutters in Umber -- which my wife wants to do, and my painter assured her it was easy to shave the raised brick to install them, what else can we do in the brown to pop? The window frames? We had a decorator come to help with color selection, and she was a strong advocate of both shutters and painted brick. My wife is still on board with leaving the brick unpainted for now, but the shutters idea has come back with a vengeance. For what it's worth, most house in the neighborhood do ... But, this decorator also suggested we call a Realtor and ask for advice, which is exactly what I DON'T want to do. I want it to look good and not offend those that know what they're looking at! We were going to paint the windows in the white color, but would the brown pop? Give us some color without having to throw up fake shutters? VERY interested in learning more about doing a copper door. We're going to paint the door and frame in that red color above - more of a magenta. Finally, what are you guys thinking about the below picture? Dim again - my photo skills aren't the best - but this is an angle shot of my back patio. Same brick, which you can see. To the left is another bay window just like the ones out front, this one into the breakfast room/kitchen. The ceiling you'll see the drywall portion is white -- and then the wood portion turns to the trim color. The decorator we had suggested we paint the same color, the moderate white, so there's not a line -- opening the space up. But the problem is, if I paint that white, I think I have to carry the white all the way around the house under the roof, meaning the wood on the underside of the roof would be white, the rest of the trim tan. (We're thinking the white above) Or -- can I just tape off a logical line somewhere and transition from white to the trim color? Or .. I can just paint the ceiling the trim color, but then it all kinda blends in. THANK YOU!...See More60s Ranch Seeking New Life
Comments (9)Nice home; great potential. Don't paint the brick. You can cover part of it and otherwise minimize its effect on the curb appeal of your home. Do paint all the siding, including that bet in the gable of the house over the garage. Paint the garage door and garage door trim and the door closest to the garage and its trim all the same color you choose for the siding. Feed the grass and keep the leaves raked away from the tree in the front yard to see if you can get the grass to grow better there. If, after a season or two, it doesn't, you could have a new landscaping project for Houzz discussion. Ideally, budget permitting, you could have that electric meter moved to the side of the garage and then build a small square entry room in front of the door closest to the garage with the door opening toward the side rather than forward. The electric meter in the front and the two front doors facing forward are not ideal for curb appeal. You could update your front door to make it the focal point of your home from the road. You could either paint the storm door and your front entrance door both your favorite bold color or you could replace the current front door to reflect your personal taste, either without a storm door or with a storm door that is mostly glass to show off your new door. Budget permitting, you could add a small front porch -- (maybe 8'deep and about 12' wide; roofed with a forward facing gable). Have the gable cover the porch from a point between the door and the small window on the right to that corner on the left where the meter is located -- where the house meets the garage. If you are able to move that electric meter, you could even extend the roof of the porch -- (using a sloped shed roof) -- over the front of the garage to shield you from the rain and to help make the front door the focal point of the home. https://i.pinimg.com/474x/1a/bb/5d/1abb5d527db12e8ac278b2f6abf8a688--front-porch-addition-ranch-homes.jpg Building the front porch to the corner where the house meets the garage will cover part of the brick left of the door. With a roof over that part of the home, you could add front porch bench, table, chairs that would hide much of that brick. After you build your new front porch, choose some shrubs suitable for your area --(preferably that keep their leaves year round) -- and plant them between the right side of the porch underneath the small front windows ... and perhaps even beyond, in that same straight line, in order to provide privacy for your side yard and hide what appears to be a meter there. Choose shrubs that will eventually grow to the height of the brick and keep them trimmed at that height. To build your porch, that shrub beside the front stoop to the right side of the house could be moved elsewhere, perhaps somewhere on the right side of the house, and incorporated in new landscaping with creating a small patio and/or hiding your meter in mind. Make sure you know where any gas line or other buried utilities are before digging near it or between it and the road. Enjoy your new home and any remodel project your pursue and do keep us updated on the progress....See More60s brick ranch exterior update
Comments (5)Thats a nice looking ranch, I really like the roofline. I would paint shutters and door a darker version of the roof color (whatever it is- cant tell) for more cohesiveness. Id like this foryour door - it fits with and accentuates the horizontal lines of your house + windows: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Builders-Choice-36-in-x-80-in-Elite-Atlantis-Etch-Glass-Contemporary-Left-Hand-4-Lite-Satin-Painted-Fiberglass-Prehung-Front-Door-HDXD189450/300922903 Some other cool doors for ya: https://retrorenovation.com/2014/07/22/4-places-buy-midcentury-entry-doors-home/....See Moremelle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/
7 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
7 years agogracie01 zone5 SW of Chicago
7 years agoCDO321
7 years ago
Annie Deighnaugh
7 years agoI used chip it! on your brick and it's interesting. Part of the problem is it's not dark brown, but more of a dark charcoal gray in the brick.
Annie Deighnaugh
7 years agoSo I also ran it through color palette fx and it has found some surprising colors including a shade of pink in the picture. Now some of the shades of green and blue are coming from the reflection in the window, so I'd ignore those....
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
7 years agoAnnie Deighnaugh
7 years agoPersonally, I'm not a fan of the mustard and I'd go with something a little more white for the window trims and I'd pick a dark red like this SW cordovan for the accent color. I think it would look a lot brighter and updated.
erinsean
7 years agoerinsean
7 years ago
awm03
7 years agoI didn't nail the colors exactly (that's supposed to be Navajo White for the trim). But I think if you went with a warm golden brown for the shutters and the garage door (even though it's new and you're reluctant to paint it), or some kind of colors that blend in with the beautiful brick, it would make the house look longer and all one piece instead of being chopped up with different colors.
Going low contrast on the shutters and trim also would let the brick and that wonderful weeping mortar be the big decorative statements instead of the run-of-the-mill shutters and garage door. Your front door is nice too: leave that brown for a central focal point.
These colors aren't quite right, but at least you can see how the house looks longer & how low contrast doesn't compete with the brick for attention.
This post was edited by awm03 on Wed, Jul 2, 14 at 15:28
CDO321
7 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
7 years agojohnnycabot
7 years agoCDO321
7 years ago
graywings123
7 years agoCDO321
7 years ago
Olychick
7 years agosubell98
4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
CDO321Original Author