Our house is 7 years old and has its original SW Duration Exterior Paint on the trim. Most of the house is stone, except there is wood trim in Belvedere Tan, Navajo White, and one small wing in cedar shingle painted Dark Birch (I'm fairly sure--it is a driftwood color), all SW colors. We are having the trim painted again. It is all in good condition except for a small area of Belvedere Tan on the front of a south-facing balcony. Our paint contractor usually uses Duration, but will use whatever brand and paint we wish. So, here is my question: Should I specify SW Duration Exterior again, or should I switch to FPE? I am sure he will not remove every piece of wood and prime on 6 sides, which I think is the only way to meet FPE's guaranty requirements. I do not want to change any of the colors because they work so well with the stone. Thanks for your thoughts! Oh, and we are roughly equidistant from Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, so whatever paints are available among the three are fair game. The big consideration is durability in the Texas sun and variable weather. This post was edited by kitchendetective on Wed, Feb 13, 13 at 15:07

Well, with the caveat that I've been studying Victorians, I think its nice to have contrast between the flat surfaces (front door, shutters and garage door) and the trim (door frame, garage door frame, and gable board above the e garage). Also, despite the current trend toward white windows, doing dark sashes is more traditional - the idea is that dark sashes make the windows look larger - plus, white doesn't seem to go with your brick. So I'd recommend bronze for sashes and gutters and any painted metal on the property (exterior lights, fencing - a wrought iron fence might look really nice with the brick, or you could paint the picket fence.) Then, you want 3-4 colors for the house itself - the body color, the main trim color (darker shade of the body color, in keeping with "coordinated and tasteful") for the door frames, window frames, garage door and gable edge, and the front door/shutters/garage door in one or two colors - shutters and garage door together with front door different, garage door alone with shutters and front door together, or all 3 together. It is very common to do the front door in an acccent color, and I do think a dark red that picks up the darkest red in the bricks would look great. The shutters the same red would be more lively, the shutters a dark brown would be more traditional/subdued. Doing the garage door, shutters and front door all the same would also work, but I think you want to downplay the garage door and play up the entrance, so I'd probably keep those two different. Note that using a lot of different colors will increase your painting cost - the simplest would be medium body color (taupe) with dark trim/garage door/shutters (dark chocolate), and red on the door to give the house some color. That would still look nice - there's no real need to have the trim vs garage door/shutters distinction. There's a good book you might be able to find at the library called "The Perfectly Painted House: a Foolproof Guide for Choosing Exterior Paint Colors" by Bonnie Rosser Krims. I found it very helpful. Let us know how it turns out! -- Amanda

May be odd man out but I like the version of Rockport she got and that's on the garage door with the stone. Don't love the current color of the stucco. Of course color online is never accurate but IME with stone on exteriors... If you can do colors that skew greenish it's always a good thing vs. a near neutral from the YR hue family. Or as some people might call it, taupe. IMO. And OP said she likes Rockport with the stone. So I vote more Rockport.

It's a garage light. .............: ) I think your impact on the planet may be rather minimal, and less on the sky above.. One light at a time? Okay, call me in 300 years. Because China cares less than anyone can imagine in every aspect. How many years have the existing lights been on the garage? Ten..fifteen? How long until you noticed rust? How often does a bulb burn out? I have used a lot of Hinkley, Visual Comfort occasionally. Hubbardton Forge same. Most folks are more driven by style and the look of the fixture on the house. . That's the truth. I see nothing wrong with Hinkley or the other two. You may want to try Urban Electric and prepare yourself$$$$$$$. You can customize as well. USA made. Tons of finishes..a spec page as example https://urbanelectric.com/inside-ueco Remember too.......you have a backer board. You may have to paint it to disappear.......or repair the area to match. Just one reason a builder always needs exterior light specs at the cladding point in a build Waste?the answer is put them on a timer. When you don't need them, you don't.