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Help with Cedar... so much cedar

3 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

My husband and I bought this house approx. one year ago. We really like the POTENTIAL the house has but really DISLIKE its current esthetic reality. It looks like some mish-mosh of contemporary and MCM that just doesn't seem to meld together properly. Too many cool/warm finishes mixed together that just don't go together. From what we know the house hasn't been updated since its build in 2000, other than some (bad) painting choices.

Some background info:

- Located in NC

- Built in 2000 by a commercial engineer for himself and family.

- The house is a commercial grade structure: concrete and structural steel build, ICF block foundation, vertical and horizontal rebar in foundation walls, radiant heat flooring with 6-8" thick concrete floors and walls

- Cedar tongue and groove siding with (I believe) flagstone base perimeter

- Heavily wooded lot, but lots of sunlight at front of house

-Well and Septic systems

I'm a big fan of living with something for a bit before changing it, so we've hit the year mark and I'm getting squirrely.

We had the exterior evaluated for updating and were told that the cedar is very dry and, while in pretty good shape, hasn't been updated since it was built. Suggestion was to softwash it, clean it up and see what that gives us... then possibly go the way of stain or paint.

Ideally I'd like to take the house away from the dark, woodsy cabin/fortress-turned-cruise ship feel it has to something more refined, cohesive, transitional/traditional. We tend to lean towards color schemes that are more New England/Coastal styling. We aren't huge fans of MCM but don't mind touches of it here and there.

Inside is just... ugh. There's so much orangy-red dated-ness in here, I don't know where to start. We love the height of the ceiling but the color is overpowering to me, between the ceiling and the fireplace I feel like I'm being visually assaulted. We've toyed with the idea of painting the ceiling but feel like there's no going back once we do that and I'd really like to find a way to LOVE the original character of it.

We have intentions (at least for now) of taking off the stone on the fireplace and updating it, along with a full kitchen remodel in the future.

Would anyone have suggestions for the exterior color scheme? Suggestions for the interior - floors, paint, design? I fee like the longer I live with it the harder it becomes to see the potential changes.

(P.S. - all pics are from the listing, they're the best pics I have)

TIA!

Comment (1)

holly6482
3 years ago
I think this would look nice if you white-washed the cedar and stone a creamy color and painted the windows in a lighter tone of the same family. The garage door could be painted something in the brown family to go with the roof (unless you're considering re-shingling...that would definitely open up your options to something more in the taupe family). I have seen many people try to do blue or grey with a brown roof and it looks horrible so I would definitely stay away from those colors unless you plan to change the roof and the stone. If you truly hate the stone but can't take it off, you can do a German Schmear and then white wash it. That will give it a nice vintage charm.

For inside, I personally would paint the cedar ceiling. It's too much with the floors the same color and the white pot lights look odd in the middle of it. I would definitely resurface the fireplace although you could schmear and whitewash it as well if you want to try something cheaper/quicker for now.
carameanie thanked holly6482
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