Looking for lots of advice and help please
Good morning,
I am in desperate need of help and guidance as I am very uncertain how to proceed with paint colours as there are so many options and shades. My mother has been following this forum for years and tells me how helpful and wonderful the community is so here I am.
We moved into our first home 10 years ago. It is a semi detached house facing east but zone 4 so never scorching hot. The sun hits the front in the morning and by noon/1pm it's on the side then the back as the day goes on. The pictures here were taking around 4pm on a sunny day. The roof, front door, garage door, flower box and shutters were all Kelly Green when we bought it - I never liked it at all but was patiently waiting till the roof needed redoing to change the colour.
That day came last fall and our roof is now a two tone black. Hallelujah the green is on its way out! Everything needs an overhaul. I realize that there are thousands of different shades of the colours we are interested in so I am hoping that I can get guidance and suggestions from this community.
I am looking for paint colour suggestions for the following:
- Stucco: Grey (not sure if it should pale or dark? I don't know what would look best) It's very difficult to picture.
- Front door: Red
- The rest (Garage door, shutters and flower box): Black
By the way, our neighbour is on the same page as us and will be painting at the same time (the same colours) as us to maintain the look of the houses given that we are attached.
Thank you so much in advance. I can't wait to read the suggestions you have.
Comments (84)
Hope
4 years agoHope
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Need lots of help and advice, (Young New Teenage pond owner)
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But many people don't like that in their pond...so it's really best to decide what kind of pond you want...Wildlife Pond, Water Garden or Koi Pond. That determines how plants are used. You can try one and if you don't like it you can change to another pretty easy or some pond in between. the water looks a little murky. (BONUS QUESTION) Is there any way to clean that up? It's pretty simple to clear up water but only after you know what's causing it to be murky which is the complex part. There are lots of filters and methods to removing different things so the filter has to be matched to the stuff being removed. One pretty universal murky clear is a 24/7 drip water change system. A drip emitter runs 24/7 into the pond and an overflow takes away the extra water. I plan on heading over to a local park nearby and yanking out a couple of cattails and whatever else I find interesting, I highly doubt it's illegal and the poor little stream that leads to the enormous carp pond is choking with all the vegetation. (OH! I know that these plants will probably have other bacteria and algae and critters on or in it, is there any way to clean them without killing them? There are chemical baths you can use, including chlorine and similar oxidizers. They aren't super effective imo. The question is do you want to do that or are all these critters something you want? You see this goes back to deciding what kind of pond you want. A Koi Pond owner with thousands of dollars worth of koi would never allow any plant within 10' of their pond. Their focus is koi and the risk of pathogen form plant would be unacceptable. At the other end of the pond spectrum a Wildlife Pond owner would welcome all those "pathogens". It's a matter of perspective. To these pond keepers "pathogen" is just another name for "life". That's what natural ponds are, life. Stuff killing and eating other stuff. I want to make sure the plants are settled before getting fish, but I heard that a certain string? Algae is a pain to get rid of, does that grow in zone 9?) You don't get rid of algae, you control it. Just like you weed a garden. Algae grows in all zones, from the poles to the equator. There are thousands of species. ...since I live in zone 9 in one of the cities that borders the Rio Grande, Does anyone have any recommendations for the type of plants I might want to scavenge for, how to transport and transplant them from the stream into my pond, and what no-no plants I should try to avoid? Giant Reed, Arundo donax, is a spectacular plant you can probably find. It's an aggressive grower, makes bamboo look like Pussy Willow. I don't believe there is such a thing as a no-no plant. They're plants, you're a human. 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Stuff lives in it, eats some growing in it, breaks it down into better and better soil (from a plant's perspective). Oh, and is Walmart a smart place to buy these babies at? (I'm sure most are familiar with the store...) My only other option is PetCo... Are they a good option? I don't want to buy bad fish... but I would feel terrible if I had to take a fish back because it was sick or it got the others sick... There not really anything like a "good" store to by goldfish. Here's how it wroks. The store orders fish from a grower. The grower has a bunch of ponds with different kinds of fish. The grower puts a bunch of fish into a box and sends it to the store. The store dumps the box of fish into a big tank. An employee gets a net and scoops out a few of the the prettier fish and puts these into separate tanks. Like for instance some Shubunkins would go into a tank labeled "Shubunkin $4.95". 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Comments (14)Brooke, Here's how to add your location info to your profile so that it posts automatically next to your name, including a zone look-up. That way you won't have to remember to give location info each time you post. That is what appears in parenthesis after my username. Go to Your Houzz in the upper right of every page, click Edit Profile, and then on the left side of the profile page click advanced settings. Well down the advanced settings page is a blank labeled Climate Zone for Garden Forums along with a green link to find your zone. If you add info on your state or the nearest large city you will get even better information since zone only relates to average coldest winter temperatures. Then return to the top of the page and click Done Editing....See More
Annie Deighnaugh
4 years agoI would go much warmer on the body of the house, paint all the trim dark brown and then pick a deep color for the door like a hunter green or a burgundy. (sorry...can't get the color program to get the door to what I have in mind.)
Hope thanked Annie DeighnaughHope
4 years agoHope
4 years ago
mtnrdredux_gw
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoJust to be clear, Fashionable Gray was from Celery's post (see image below. It's the top left paint color in this image from her post.) It is one of the colors that occurs in your stone, computer matched.
IMHO, you don't really want to break the house "in half "anymore than it already is. Most people look best in one color head to toe and so do most houses (with "accessories"). So I would choose a warm color for sure, but also one that blends rather than one that creates a horizontal line. YMMV
PS A black roof is a neutral; should pretty much work with anything.. note the black in the middle of the right row above
Hope thanked mtnrdredux_gwHope
4 years agoHope
4 years agoI am a bit confused about the BM online tool. Below is a mock up. I did a picture screen to show the colours I picked (in the boxes on top of the house) and then this is what they look like on the house. The colours aren't really the same as the swatches. Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong?
just_terrilynn
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoHere’s another. I tied in the color of the chimney and horizontal detail bits into the door color. I still like a dark trim.
Hope thanked just_terrilynnmtnrdredux_gw
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoForgot to mention; you may want to take a head-on photo in better light? The close up of your stone has colors in it that I don't see in the whole house photo, because the light is so different.
ETA: I did a search on stucco over stone, and copied some images below. Your house is so much nicer than all this new construction, btw --- i love its character!
But my point is, FWIW, professionals probably chose these color palettes. And each case, it appears to me, they pulled a color from the stone. This keeps the houses from looking like "black and white cookies" IYKWIM. But they aren't dull, and they don't even have all the nice details you do.
That approach, pulling a shade from the stone, is your best start (again, using something like Color Snap). Then paint a few poster boards and lean them against the stone IRL. That will give you an even better feel.
Hope thanked mtnrdredux_gwUser
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoI like the contrast of a lighter / different color of stucco on the upper part of the house vs the stone of the bottom half. They are clearly different materials and the color difference not only reflects that, it also looks right—to me personally—and in keeping with the style of the home. I think the monochrome look is very modern and just doesn’t sit well on certain types of houses (or in certain locations).
Was the close up picture of your stone taken with a flash? Because on my screen it does look very gray blue, whereas in the longer shots the overall effect of the stone is warm gray and brown.
I would use a warm cream color on the stucco and not more than two other colors for trim/front door/garage door. I would suggest looking at a Sherwin Williams color called Anonymous for your darkest Trim color and working backwards from that. It is a rich, complex color that looks different in different lights, of course, but also at different times of day. (It’s my new favorite color!). It is a gray in the warm family, but has some indefinable depth that is beautiful. The color strip doesn’t do it justice but was intriguing enough for me to have the the inside of my front door painted with it. I like it so much I am actively looking for other places for it 🤔
This is a terrible picture of our entry door. The wall paint is BM Pale Oak but looks very tan in this photo. While it looks better in person, the picture serves to demonstrate that the door color looks good with both grays and tans and in between. (Rooms on either side of entry are also Pale Oak.)Hope thanked UserHope
4 years agoHope
4 years agoHope
4 years agoHope
4 years agojust_terrilynn
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoI like KSWL’s color pick ( if we are reading the stone color right).
Also, this would be a perfect door color to tie in to the chimney and diagonal details on each side of upper windows and elsewhere . I really really love this color because from the road it will look almost like a wood tone (Only yummier)
SW Copperpot 7709
When you bring all the details together you can see why an apple or cherry red color door wouldn’t work.Hope thanked just_terrilynnHope
4 years agoHope
4 years agoHope
3 years agoGood morning everyone. After getting so much advice and many great ideas I have spent the last two weekends driving around town taking pictures of houses I like, googling different colour options, looking at tons of paint chips and playing with the BM and SW paint programs.
I think I have landed on the following.
Seapearl by BM (I also like Dove Wing and White Dove which are on the same chip). In my research this came up as a warm which with a grey undertone.
Red Heritage for the door
and a dark grey for the garage door, shutters, flower box and trim around the house.
Here are some of the mock ups I've put together.
The garage door is the same colour as the trip but seems to show up much darker.
Am I going in the right direction?
Hope
3 years agoHope
3 years ago
Lyban zone 4
3 years agojust_terrilynn
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoI think it could work if the chimney and front bands are in real life cherry red. If it were just the chimney a different shade it wouldn’t matter. I’m just not sure how the bands read in real life.
Is there more of a brick red color shade that you like for the door?I see you painted the bands dark in your mock-up? What are those bands? Tile? Brick? I wouldn’t paint them. It’s a lovely detail as is.
Possibilities? These are close to what you picked.
Hope thanked just_terrilynnHope
3 years agoHi Justerrilynn,
I marked up my neighbours house here. Mine has a crabapple tree right in front of it so many of the extra elements don't show up.
In turquoise those are all wood and in red is bricks.
I don't plan on painting over the bricks but will paint the wood.
Hope
3 years agoJusterrilynn - I saw the following three houses in our neighbourhood will out for a walk. Don't mind the bad set up - I gave my daughter the job of picture taker! I'll know for next time :)
just_terrilynn
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoI like the above but if you wanted the main body color to be a tiny bit lighter, go up the same chit from Gray Area 7052 to Analytical Gray 7051. Every thing else the same.
SW Fired Brick 6335 door
SW Analytical Gray
SW Analytical Gray
Hope
3 years agoHi all, it's been a busy month. I thought I'd come on and share our final result and thank everyone for their feedback. I ended up choosing BM Alabaster for the stucco and moulding, BM Kendall Charcoal for the garage door, shutters and flower box and BM Heritage Red for the door. The first picture is the house in full sun, the second is once the sun has come round to the side and isn't hitting it full on.
Hope
3 years ago
just_terrilynn