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Paint Design Dilemma Exterior

Garage door and exterior color choices for our house?

5 years ago

We are planning on replacing our garage door with this model (see photos) to let the most light as possible into the garage. The decision of black, anodized bronze, silver or white has brought us to the looming question of an exterior paint job that we are in desperate need of. We are surrounded by both very tall as well as shorter trees which we love but are causing stains which are coming down from the roof. Power washing was not able to remove these so we are thinking about either repainting the stucco it's existing color or painting the house a somewhat darker color in hopes that it would camouflage this persistent issue.

If we were to paint the house a different color, we are looking for opinions...we'd like a modern but fitting color palette given all the surrounding greenery and the style of the house. The window trim is super skinny and the house doesn't have a ton of architectural interest. We could use some advice on exterior paint and trim colors. The windows are white vinyl and cannot be painted.

Any ideas would be very helpful. Thanks!

If we repaint the house the existing color, we will go with the darker black or bronze garage door.

BTW - We know the red bottle brush tree blocking our front door definitely needs some major pruning as well as the other trees that have grown too close to the house but the staining is from the larger trees which line the streets of the neighborhood. Also, please excuse the photo quality.

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Comments (4)

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Beth H. :
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
you have a spanish bungalow. what else will you be doing with it in order to make this very modern style garage door work?

do you want to stay true to the Spanish decor and period details? what are your plans for landscaping other than pruning?

I'd do a wood door of some sort that doesn't fight to make it something it will never be. I know you want light, but do a door w/little windows or something. here are examples.

carriage style

all of these compliment the house. as for color, these were always a light color. usually white, pale yellow,,,,

the white w/black windows and wood garage door, along w/a nice Mediterranean type of landscaping, would look the best

or warm colors

what you don't want is this... it's not an mcm house. this looks silly
wintlaz thanked Beth H. :
phuninthesun
5 years ago
(Of course, I had to guess what your house looked like.) Here are a few examples of colors, just to get an idea. You can also load the top white pic into Sherwin Williams Color Snap Visualizer to try on more colors. I would use a brown/black trim around windows regardless of the color you choose for the base.

RE: Garage Doors - Depending on your budget, you can get custom wood doors with more windows. Check out link below.
Custom Wood Garage Doors
wintlaz thanked phuninthesun
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Not really getting the whole Craftsman/Arts n Crafts home/vibe. I think you can do whatever colors you like. You could do a coral door. coral and turquoise are natural compliment to each other. trim out the casing w/a nice white. any of these would also work for door color. (including your front door. what's there now isn't really the best color for your home) what I think you should do is paint these garage doors. I'd also bring in the carriage hardware you can find the hardware on Amazon. it's not expensive. t wanted you to see them w/the hardware and the windows on the upper tier. I do like the white trim around your door though. If you really want to "Arts/Crafts" the color, use a deep plum/eggplant on the door, and some wood garage doors. bring in diff lighting, an address plaque, and plant some coordinating flowers around the door. This is really pretty Creamy white Trim color since you have a peacock color on the siding, are you up for colors that work w/it? for instance, notice the one door color. slighting lighter than your siding color. shown with it are yellows and a darker peacock color. another trio. You could paint your garage doors (and the side door) this deeper charcoal color, and use the chartreuse for your fornt door some other combos w/your blue/green siding color I like the witch hazel color for the trim, maybe the sage for the front door, garage doors. your siding is slightly lighter than Dark Knight. you could go w/dovetail for garage door, and maybe the gray for the trim, peppercorn or sea salt for the doors
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Hi, great call outs, thank you! Yes, we will be re-doing the driveway, combo of new concrete around the garage entry and connecting over to walkway leading to front door, the driveway itself will be gravel, which will look more country and fit the surrounding better, there is a ton of driveway that winds around back of the house, that much asphalt will create quite a stark look. The paint is starting to chip in some spots so we need to paint anyway, had originally planned to do board and batten or something along those lines for ourselves, but now will just repaint. If we go white, would you keep all trim, garage doors, etc, white? Would the green door look okay with that, maybe I just paint the door as well while I'm at it? Also, totally agree the door doesn't go with the house, it was on my list to replace! Garage doors will be replaced (they're ancient and have never worked since we've moved in), I'm thinking of barn door style carriage to echo shop doors. Currently we have a weed lawn, and not much of one at that. Our lot is a freeway for wildlife that tromps through all day/night long, in particular the deer and turkey wreak havoc on plants as well as mulch (the turkey love to dig!). But some hardy landscaping, particularly close to the house/walkway in contained small areas (due to drought, as apple_pie_order so correctly pointed out) are in the plans as we get closer to listing.
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apple_pie_order
5 years ago
The attention-getter glass doors instantly become the dominant feature of the house. Is that what you want? If you just want more light in the garage, add more fixtures to the interior lighting and paint the garage interior bright white. Put in a garage door with a row of windows up top. Add a new garage door opener with two light bulbs, too.

I suggest you get the landscape pruning crew in to do the major cleanup, then take more photos instead of using google streetview. Painters prefer to have a whole foot of space between the plants and walls. The two story bougainvillea can be tied back while they paint.

Sage green walls with white windows would look good. Terracotta accents.

Custom Home - Door County, WI · More Info
Flip through this link for other ideas:

https://www.houzz.com/photos/mediterranean/exterior/query/sage-green
Denita
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
^Agree with apple_pie that the landscaping needs to be cut back before attempting to paint. I also think it is more difficult to decide colors and styles while you have all this overgrown landscaping. Clean up first, then make your design choices. No question that the garage door you chose clashes with your homes style.

I think you will be able to see it once you have cleaned up the trees and bushes on your property, especially those right against the house.

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