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Farmhouse whole house paint and trim color ?

9 years ago

Hello! We are in the "so many decisions my head is spinning" phase of the building process. Today I'm trying to pin down the paint colors. We can have one color for the walls, one for the trim. I love the sorta colonial, sorta Swedish style of darker trim and paler walls. Not super dark trim... still light and airy, but a shade or two darker than the walls. Has anyone done this for their entire new build? I'd love to see pictures!

Also, if anyone can take a guess at the colors in this photo... I'd love to figure that one out. Our trim will be down right severe compared to all that lovely detailing, but our baseboards will be 10" and our trim hefty. Right now I have Farrow's James White as a guess for the white walls... I have no clue about the trim. Ideas?

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Comments (3)

yellowducky
9 years ago
Love the idea. Very clean and a great way to maximize your two colors.

You should cross post this over in home decorating. Those folks have a real eye for paint color matches, and white is always a hot topic.
D. L thanked yellowducky
Butternut
9 years ago
Very pretty! I agree post in home decorating...I hope you do cause I want to know too!
D. L thanked Butternut
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Someone will chime in that knows better than I .. Have you put the James White next to a white white ? F&B on their site says it has green undertones. That would dictate the trim. The walls are Farrow & Ball's " Wimborne White" and the trim is F&B's "Skimming stone".
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My concern with a black and white scheme and the look you are going for is this: the typical "modern farmhouse" or other white with black window houses generally have pretty balanced massing (if not nearly symmetrical on some elevation), and a uniform window size and placement. Your house, a 1970s rancher has a functionalist window placement, sizing and placing the windows based on the inside needs first, rather than the facade, and the windows are kind of small compared to wall area, which is also typical of the style of house you have. I am not sure but I think a pure black/white scheme would emphasize some things in not such a good way. I would consider reversing the scheme in a way and doing a grey house with white trim, unless you are going to enlarge the existing windows and add more. Or a white house with grey trim, not something so high contrast.
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LE
9 years ago
Don't worry about trying to match the paint to a photo. It truly isn't relevant to your house, which will have different lighting conditions, etc. Add to that monitor differences plus this photo looks totally overexposed and somewhat pinkish to me. Whites are the toughest! I ended up with a "leftover 150.00 worth of paint because I changed my mind to something imperceptibly different to most people, so I know how hard it is.

Get samples or the giant paint chips and hold them up to the walls after the primer is on if you can. They may look totally different on different walls. I have one wall where the color looks incredibly different from top to bottom, even. Good luck! (And take your time if you can. I must have had paint chips of 100 off-whites that looked good in the store. Some were immediately too pink or too yellow when I took them to the house.)
D. L thanked LE

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