I know it can be difficult making a final decision on somthing with so many options but asking folks on the net will only compound your stress. Call the major paint retailers in your area to see which offer designers. Most designes now days have program's that show your home painted differebt colors. The fee is well worth what they charge and often refunded if you buy material from them. BTW,I vote for lime green trimmed in hot pink. Just kidding but you get the point.

Hmm, last time I asked for some colour selections here, they were great. At the risk of psychologically damaging the OP, here are some similar style 1870s homes.

Since you're changing at least one roof, coordinate the colours of walls and roofs.

See this site from Dunn & Edwards Paints, illustrating genuine Victorian era colours on late 19th Century homes.

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I get stressed when I see houses I've built blandified by subsequent owners whose favourite colour is beige everywhere, no contrast to anything.

Thank you, Worthy. I spent quite a bit of time on the gardenweb 4 to 5 years ago when building our last house and received some great advice. I kind of thought that was the point of this forum.

We live in southwest Florida where there are very few homes from this era. Other than this, the oldest homes in the area were built in the 1920's. That makes it difficult when I am looking for design inspiration. I will definitely check out the Dunn & Edwards site.

You might want to take a drive upstate to see what people are doing. Palatka, oddly enough, has two large historic districts just full of houses from before 1900, many of which have been recently restored, and there are other little towns along the St Johns with homes from the post Civil War period, since that was where the tourists went before the railroads came.

Despite the state's long European settlement history, Victorian doesn't come to mind! (Blame Miami Vice.)

In addition to the Dunn Edwards site, Benjamin Moore also has collections of historic colors and color combos.

I just toured the Palatka, FL Historic districts on Google Maps. Just zoom in to street view. The pastels with white trim are very nice. There was one called Azalea House in the North district that was yellow with a white trim that was stunning. The blues and greens were very nice also.

Are you talking about the trim pain or are you considering painting those aged shingles, too? Wonderful house! I like it as it is as it reminds me of New England.

We are planning to paint the shingles. The previous owners of 44 years hated that they were ever painted and tried to remove the paint. They weren't able to remove it, so they just let it flake off over the years. The front of the 2nd floor is only about 10% painted, but under the porch overhang the house is about 80% covered in white paint. Here is a picture that shows the paint coverage a little better.

What a charming house!

Why does it have to be any color, and why must it be paint? Like the weathered wood shingles - with either white or a vintagey green. Greens always look good with wood. Of course the shingles would need some sort of sealer/waterproofer or a semi-transparent stain might be nice too.

I really wish that not painting the house was an option. I love the look of weathered cedar shingles and it would be great if the shingles could be sealed and/or stained and the trim painted, but there is no way to remove the existing paint. It is difficult to see in the first picture, but it's about 75% covered in paint. If you know of a way to remove the paint without destroying the old shingles, please let me know. I cropped a picture so that you can see the existing paint.

Find a shade of gray that looks like old weathered shingles. Is the downstairs shingles also?

Yes, Emmarene, the entire house is clad in shingles.

Painting it a weathered gray is an interesting idea. Thanks for giving me another option to consider.

Yep stripping paint would be a beast of a job... think of all the cracks and crevices paint would get stuck in..., dont know if Id have that kind of ambition but still.... people do it. There's a few around here that were taken back to raw wood , with a bunch of damaged shingles replaced (apparently still being made & easily available) and the intention to let it age again back to a dark color.

Re: paint I would be very curious what the original color was - not that it HAS to be that, but to inform and inspire you in making a choice. Can you find any traces of the original layers? May or may not be whats in the old photo. the porch walls up under the ceiling where it was more protected might be a good place to look. Perhaps peel it with a blade, or use stripper - I used Smart Strip or REady strip (not the toxic stuff) on my exterior porch this summer and interestingly it took off all layers right down to the first original layer, which was stuck on like glue - no need to remove that so I didnt - just wanted to get off all the yucky old peeling and cracked stuff.

Lovely house btw!

I like the weathered gray paint idea for what has already been painted, and then leave the unpainted shingles as is. I LOVE that house!

Thanks so much for all of your assistance in figuring out what color to paint our new to us old Home. We decided to paint the house Farrow & Ball’s light blue - which looks much more green than blue imo. We love how it turned out, but I just can’t capture the color in pictures. It is a moody light green which changes in the light. It is definitely not gray even though it looks that way in the photo and it looks much less boring irl.. It was tricky to choose because we can’t just turn a pressure hose on this house if it starts to look dirty and we didn’t want to go too dark. So far so good! The brick for the front walk is going I next week and we should be able to move the porch furniture into place tomorrow. Just I time to decorate for Christmas! Thanks again.

• Before and After
  
  

Oh wow! Great job. I love the color. Thank you for coming back and showing us the finished house.