Need SW Exterior Recommendations

3 years ago

I’m driving myself a little crazy trying to select a SW paint color for our new house. I want “white trim” I know that. I’ve looked at a lot of pictures of Gauntlet Gray and Dovetail and found a couple pictures of Intellectual Gray that I really like too. I want a mid-tone grey house color that makes the white trim/white garage doors pop. I’m thinking dark front door. I want a timeless look and nothing trendy. We have a tan house now so I want our new house to be a different color. I don’t like grays with purple undertones so I’m a little concerned about Gauntlet Gray or Dovetail in some lighting. We live in the Midwest and the front of our house will face north. My husband doesn’t like grays that have a lot of blue undertones. I like Intellectual Gray because of its green undertones but am concerned it’s not going to have enough contrast with the trim (what white would you recommend?) or that it will come across as tan. I’m not a huge fan of the monochromatic look with two siding colors. I have had such bad luck picking paint colors out in the past that I now only stick with tried and true colors that I can see pictures of online to help narrow it down. Any recommendations would be much appreciated. We will be doing white window frames as well and white porch beams. Thank you!!

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Comments (13)

PRO
Celery. Visualization, Rendering images
3 years ago
What color is roof?
houssaon
3 years ago
Well facing north is a good thing as far as color goes; the sun will not change your perception of the color at different times of the day, which is why artists studios face north.

I would pick the white that SW reccommends to go with a color. Are you doing the shakes and the lap siding the same color?

What stone are you using on the foundation?
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PRO
Celery. Visualization, Rendering images
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
FYI Intellectual Gray is neutral color, it is a medium light shade of brown and has orange undertone.
PRO
Flo Mangan
3 years ago
In looking at your ideabooks, most of your grays are leaning brown. From your exterior facade rendering, it looks like you will have stone, siding (Hardie?) and shakes plus trim and roof. These all have to coordinate. I strongly recommend selecting your stone first. Avoid ones with golds and yellows. Very limiting. You must get samples of current stone because the colors change a lot sometime due to different parts of formations being quarried. Then you can pull colors for roof and all the other elements. If you are using Hardie, they have a color called Aged Pewter that might work really well depending on your stone. So start there.
karenmsteffes
Original Author
3 years ago
To answer your questions above: I’m thinking a stone like this. Lighter and warmer. And a dark charcoal colored roof. I think I’d like to keep the shakes and siding the same color.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
3 years ago
You have a lot going on with that facade so IMO choose a color from the stone and unless tah garge door is a custom wood one IMO not something to draw attention to. But get your architec to do a colored picture for you to really see what it will look like. I think you have too much going on already .
PRO
PPF.
3 years ago
Are you planning your build, or is the house being built now?
karenmsteffes
Original Author
3 years ago
We are planning our build. We haven’t broke ground yet.
PRO
PPF.
3 years ago
Don't know if you are open to changes, or even able to make any, but here are some ideas.

First one is unchanged.
karenmsteffes
Original Author
3 years ago
Thanks PPF for the additional renderings. Yes we still can make changes but to be honest, I really like our front design. We will probably end up making the metal roof over the front porch the same shingles as the rest of the house. Do you think there is too much going on or why do you think we should make some changes?
PRO
Flo Mangan
3 years ago
I like PPFs 3rd rendering with wide porch metal roof. Found picture that shows a wider porch metal roof, dark paint and light stone. Hope this helps.
PRO
PPF.
3 years ago
What's most important is that you like your home.

You mentioned above wanting a timeless rather than trendy paint color, but the house itself checks all the current trend boxes. Stone on the bottom, craftsman columns, shakes in the gables, an extra gable or 2 for good measure -- it's as if builders have a formula.

Here I raised the stone on the single garage, extended the porch roof across to the garage, moved the gable from over the window to over the door, moved the 2 windows together, removed the large central gable, and extended the main roof to the right (guessing the right side 2nd floor roof looks something like the 2nd picture below). Unless there is a reason, this part of the roof might better match the front.

Difficult to see, but I also added trim between paired windows -- better seen in the images above, and I'd do all windows like this.

The goal being to simplify the elevation a bit.

I did some renderings in another thread that may give you some ideas for colors, but they are made up colors and not specific to any brand.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4710835/help-with-exterior-colors

Can your builder provide you with something similar?

Original.