I absolutely love it! It was nice looking before, but now it has a whole new, vibrant personality. It says "look at me!" in a very sweet, welcoming manner. Well done!

It really needed that!

Looks really good. And yeah sure next time you have someone out on a ladder, go ahead and do that bit of window trim, but it's great as is.

The mermaid is quite lovely.

It looks great, Oceanna. I'm painting my house today, am thinking about a blue front door, maybe similar to your trim.

looks great! A little unexpected and pretty!

ML

I love that blue!

Oh, you must be so pleased! Isn't it fun to find something whimsical that you just adore (your mermaid)?! Once you expand your garden and things are blooming next year, I suspect you will be even more enchanted with your changes. Congratulations!

Love the mermaid and your beautiful window, it looks super and unique just like you Oceanna.

It's really pretty. The colors look wonderful together. I love the mermaid too!

Thanks for the very kind words, everyone! I am pretty happy with it and it puts a smile on my face when I see it.

Cyn,I finished the painting just as the hydrangea at the right corner of the house was fading away, but there was enough color left for me to think it will really set the house off when it blooms next summer.

Shermann, what colors are you painting? I hope you post before and after pictures. My door is Sherwin Williams Meander Blue, and I really like it. I think the white and darker blue around it sets it off. There are actually four colors on my house now, the cream, the white, the light and darker blues. The darker blue is SW Reflecting Pool.

Yes! Can't believe I didn't notice the hydrangea in your picture! I am usually so tuned in to gardens-I planted five hydrangeas around one side of our patio last month. Yours will look perfect. Don't forget to post pics next summer.

It looks so pretty! Very fresh, and takes your house from just nice to lovely.

Great job! I love it. I love that you used a color scheme that is not used too often, it is so fresh and vibrant. Love everything about it.

Really brightens the front facade....what a difference the trim color makes!

I'm sorry to say, no, I don't like it. I know the appropriate thing would have been to not respond, but you asked.

When I get around to posting photos of my house, I'm likely to get some naysayers, given some unique color choices I have made.

Thank you!

Bronwyn's mom, it took some courage to do this because it is so different from my neighbors' homes. Most of the houses around here kind of blend in, and when you cross that line to make yours stand out a bit it's scary. Seems to me there is a very fine line sometimes between decorating successes and failures and we always hope we'll get the former and not the latter -- especially with something that involves 30' extension ladders!

Annie, I was astounded too at how much difference just a couple of gallons of paint could make with just a couple of afternoons of work. My last house was almost this same body color and I like it because you can change the look so much by just changing the trim, but I'd always stuck with just two colors before, as most folks do. Since I moved in I had painted the shutters a slightly lighter green and painted the front door red, but I still didn't like it. Finally, I do like it.

Polly, it took some courage to do this because it is quite different from others in my neighborhood, and definitely a bit bolder. I'm relieved to see all the positive comments here. My neighbors said they liked it but you never know if they're just being nice, or if they mean it, you know?

I love your house. I see you removed a tree to the left of the house and now I can see part of a white and blue building behind the fence. Is that a part of the house, or garden building?

Do you live where morning glories will grow and bloom? An arbor or some such structure covered with the Heavenly Blue blooms will really play up and show off the lovely blues on your house!

The Mermaid? Inspired and fun!

Cyn, I'm not surprised you missed the hydrangea -- that corner of the pic is pretty dark. I have two azaleas under the windows that are bright pink when they bloom, but they bloom such a short time, and they never seem to get enough water because of the house overhang. I planted some bulbs there too, and some big pale pink day lilies that seem to be thriving. I've long struggled in my mind to figure out what's the best thing to do with that bed next to the house because of the not getting much sun or rain problem. Can I move those well established azaleas without killing them? I think they'd like more sun too. The P.O. said he watered them heavily all winter long but I'm too lazy for that in the cold weather and I feel guilty about it all the time. The house is in the Seattle area, btw.

The little tree in the center of the front planter bed is my pride and joy and was a big splurge. It's a 'Tinkerbelle Dwarf Lilac' on standard and I love it when it blooms.

I've toyed with the idea of expanding the flower bed that's closer to the street, too, but I fear that would make it harder to access the middle of it for weeding. I really don't know much about yard design, but I do love flowers and have planted a lot of perennials and bulbs there, plus it has three blueberry bushes that bear -- yumm! The bed is pretty crowded now because I love the cottage garden look. But that also gives a great haven for slugs, which we have a lot of here. Eeeew.

Another guilty point is I shouldn't have let the lawn get so brown, but all the neighbors do that and it's expensive to water and the plus side of not watering enough is you don't have to mow so much. LOL

Ideas on the yard would be welcome from any of you!

Caroline, thanks! I did remove the bush. You have sharp eyes! If you look again at the pictures you'll also see there used to be two TALL evergreens in my back yard that blew over in a storm, so the skyline has changed as well.

I don't like bushes leaning on the house because it makes it really hard to paint the house, so that's why I yanked it. Besides, I just didn't like it. Dunno what it was.

That is a garden shed you're seeing, but it's attached to the house and looks like part of the house. It's wonderful and stores the mower and a bunch of other stuff. The siding on it is the same as on the house. The P.O. was a carpenter and he did a lot of neat things here, that being one of them. Here's one of my favorite things about it:

That's an interesting idea about the morning glories because the color would be perfect. You can't see it well in the pictures and it's spent at this time of year, but there is a trellis on the garage side next to the front walk and every summer a clematis grows up it. I can't wait to see it with the new trim colors.

Where would you put a trellis for the morning glory? And if I plant it will it try to come up all over and strangle my other plants? We do get white ones growing wild here and that's what they do; they're a real nuisance. I'm a little afraid of them for that reason, but I've seen them look very pretty when properly cultivated. The blue ones are gorgeous but I've only seen them in photos.

I tried to do delphinium, but they didn't take and in retrospect it's just as well because they're so tall. I do have forget-me-nots in that front bed so it will be pretty when they're in bloom. There are a few baby roses there too, and some daisies.