Thanks! Yes, they aren't fond of bright, too contrast-y, especially pastel-like colors :/

You could see if they would say yes to "light gold".

Thanks! I would definitely give it a try! My feeling is that they would say it's too different, but I might be surprised :)

I also vote no.

No to the white trim. As for the door, do they have a list of approved colors?

Thanks everyone for your inputs! The inside style is contemporary coastal, so that's why I was thinking if white in the exterior corners would be an option. Solidifies my feeling that no white trim is better :) No list of approved colors unfortunately. Any suggestions of door colors? I could then ask if they would approve or not.

With dark blue normally I would suggest yellow (out), fuscia (doubtful if yellow is too "odd"), orange, and red. Dove grey is probably going to be acceptable, maybe golden stained oak, and white.

A greyed yellow like mustard isn't bright or pastel...

Can we see a pic of the entire front including the garage?

Great ideas everyone! Yes, I'll include more photos as soon as realtor or builder sends me photos...hopefully tomorrow! Hard building out of state and not being able to see the actual progress :(

What about a light wine or maroon?

Well, you want a front door to contrast, and yellow is a nice opposite (aka complementary) to blue.... but that doesn't mean it has to be Screaming Schoolbus yellow. If they let you have a rather sophisticated color like Abyss, I would hope they could be open to a more nuanced yellow - like a rich gold Did they just refuse one particular yellow that you chose, or are they forbidding you to use the entire range of anything and everything yellow or yellowish?

A maroon/plum color was my original choice when I was going to originally do BM Gentleman's Gray for the body...but then I wanted something more bold/unique that not a lot of people do. Maroon/plum is still in the back of my mind. I wanted SW Decisive Yellow (see pic), but they didn't like that. I asked them if I can do SW Goldenrod but I was told that the association (which is pretty much the builders - 2 men in the 60's, are going on vacation and will be back in 10ish days) will get back to me in about 2 weeks. They responded to my SW Goldenrod alternative as "Yellow is a very difficult color to work with."

Also, I thought the garage will be painted as like the rendering, but I was surprised when I was told they unilaterally decided to paint it entirely Abyss as "the garage door paint pattern will not have circus strips." I was surprised and a little irritated. Especially since it was the builder's (his partner's) idea of the strips in the first place. So I have no idea what the garage actually looks like with the house until realtor or another person in the builder's team takes photos tomorrow or Tuesday.

I do wonder if I don't have enough white in the exterior to have the vertical edges/corners to look real nice in white. The coverings of the front porch and inside part of the roof adjacent to the sidings are Abyss.

Here's what the light fixture, one on each side of the garage looks like. (Not sure if they're installed yet.)

So let me get this straight. The two builders are also the entire home owners' association? If there isn't a written policy I would definitely push back.

"... the association (which is pretty much the builders - 2 men in the 60's, are going on vacation and will be back in 10ish days..."

In the middle of building your house??

"They responded to my SW Goldenrod alternative as "Yellow is a very difficult color to work with." "

That's not an outright refusal. Get your foot in that door (so to speak lol) and push it wide open! Carpet bomb them with emailed photos of beautiful navy homes with yellow doors. Send them a link to this post. Send them storyboards. Basically nag the living daylights out of them! Yes, while they are on vacation.

Yes, in their "Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions" all exterior design elements, even anything related to landscaping must be approved by the committee -- which is the composed of the two men.

They say that door color isn't their priority right now. People are still doing carpentry work inside, and house construction timeline still has 35 days until completion.

Hah! I email them LOTS! They almost didn't paint the house Abyss until I emailed them last minute and said I wanted door side light to be painted white, and by chance, also reminded them (maybe the fourth time) about the different exterior colors I wanted. Boy, were they surprised since painters were scheduled to paint pretty much the next day! I informed them that I emailed already about the body and door color changes a number of times a few months ago and showed them proof they replied their acknowledgement. So last week's email reply from them made me realize that they don't seem to listen.

Yes, it's been a frustrating 7 months so far. Realtor notes though that they are very reputable builders who build solid homes and all their homeowners are 100% satisfied. I thought I was paying a large premium to get excellent service and quality but I have been wondering about the service part of it...[sigh]

Oh man. Well at least you can expect to get a really well-built home out if it.

You could get really manipulative on them. Keep suggesting god awful choices, at least one every day. Start each and every email with "Since you feel yellow is too hard to work with, what about..." Maybe by day six or seven yellow will start to look like a viable option. Most men are terrified of pink and purple; start there.

I'm serious. It sounds like you can wear these guys down.

Of course there's always the horrible possibility that they will approve one of your god awful suggestions ...

How long does that covenant apply? Is it reasonable that they would expect to act as mini dictators for life?

Nothing's changed for me.

I would neeeed fuscia if it was my house though lol.

Red, turquoise, yellow.

Maybe a lighter gray from your stone? If you're good with photoshop, play with a few colors.

GREAT HOUSE! Must be difficult to work with when you are not around. I have an incredible condo, but we only get one color trim, one color wall (and a board of geezers on the HOA...lol), so at least you have some choices.

You need to ask them what colors are acceptable first so you can work within that family. With the bold colors they agreed to paint on your house, they probably don't want a bright neon door, so if you keep it classic, I'm sure they'd be down... They seem to be fairly modern and current with the build, so they might surprise you.... Play with colors on photoshop.

paint looks great--no white corners! Is the door metal or wood? If it's wood, would you consider a stain instead of paint? If you need to paint, a deep & dark orange would be fun. Unfortunately, a group of two ruling the HOA is a recipe for disaster...

You could also suggest that they ask their daughters and granddaughters if yellow doors are "difficult."

Thank you for all your suggestions about the corners and doors :) After giving it more thought, their color matching the BM Abyss looks off. Much darker with more blue undertone than I thought. Do you think it should be repainted?

I think you're viewing a copy of a copy of a photo from someone else's camera, probably their phone camera. And then you're comparing it to a photo or a paint chip that may or may not be perfectly accurate. And then we are viewing a copy of the copied copy. There are too many different devices and screens involved to get a truly accurate idea of the nuances of the colour.

On my screen it looks beautiful.

I don't think you should make any decisions about having it repainted until you can see it in real life. I believe and hope you will love it when you do :)

I think the white verticals would look nice, kind of frame the house. My house has trim work similar to yours and all the trim work, is painted white. I think the side trim would look odd on my house be painted the body color. I have a split level house.

I'd say, YES paint it white.

Thanks everyone for your encouragement :) I'll definitely have to see the house in person first. As far as the garage, do you think it will look nice if the window grids are painted white or keep it like it is?

Wait a minute. You haven't even seen the house in person? Just wait til you see it and then decide. It looks like a nice dark inky blue-black in the pics - much much better choice imho than any kind of true black.

I never saw it that way - dark inky blue-black! I think that's a perfect description of the colors...by just looking at the photos! Do you think this Yellow - SW Golden Rod would be a nice door color (if they approve the color) to complement the inky blue-black? Or another yellow color? Or a red, light gray, or robin's egg blue?

Every time I’ve seen navy or dark grey houses, the ones that I loved the most were those that had wood garage / house doors and trim. Just seems to look so rich. I’ve attached some Houzz photos to give you an alternative idea other than a color.

I understand that wood doors might be out of reach for many budgets, but there are inexpensive alternatives. Here in California there are so many companies that are doing Faux Wood Graining of garage / house doors, trim, shutters, etc. It’s a littler out of the ordinary but its very effective and a realistic look for your house. A nice rich walnut or mahogany color faux wood would look good on your doors. I would probably also faux grain paint the white columns and add some wood trim to the triangle above the porch like in the photos below.

An arbor over the garage door could also be good.

You could also add some nice large wood / teak benches on either side of the porch. For color you can always add colorful pillows on the benches and bright flowers in pots at the steps and porch edge. Since they are opposed to your yellow doors this might be a way to get a lot of yellow up on your porch.

Exterior by Mike Behr - Behr Design, Inc. · More Info

Front of Home at Dusk - The Genesis - Family Super Ranch with Daylight Basement · More Info

Crisp Architects · More Info

The lighter triangle
looks good too.

West Arm Cottage · More Info

FAUX WOOD GRAIN COMPANIES:

There are many companies online who have videos showing their method and technique. One guy is so detailed he even adds wood knots to his doors. These few videos will give you an idea what can be done.

HOW TO DIY FAUX WOOD
GRAIN DOORS Videos:

There are lots of other videos on the Internet besides these.

GARAGE DOOR SKINS

If you don’t want to faux the doors, then you could look into adding "Garage Door Skins." Its a new product that allows you to veneer your doors in about an hour very inexpensively with wood veneer panels. These are quite amazing alternative to the plain jane steel doors. They even sell all the carriage door hardware.

Garage Skins Link

Did you end up trimming the house in white? We did our house a dark green shingle and are trying to decide whether or not to paint the corners and edges white or leave them green. Thanks!

This post is old, you would be better to start your own post. However, like above, answers, I agree, and say NO paint on corners. It shortens the look of the house and makes it look boxy.