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Home Decorating Paint Exterior

Help! what color do I paint my house??

2 years ago

We’re getting ready to repaint the exterior of our house, which is a lot of money so I want to get it right.

The current color is a light gray, which I like just fine, but our house is big and long and sprawling and I thought a darker color could make it look a bit cozier.

I painter will be using Sherwin-Williams paint. One of their consultants recommended Waterloo, which I think is a little too teal for me. I like SW Downing Slate, a dark gray, but my husband thinks we need more of a contrast with our blue stone pavers.

Our house is a few blocks away from Puget Sound, so we get a lot of sun and reflected light off the water at our house. A SW Color Consultant thought we needed something with a little black to reflect the water & sun, but I don’t know how to find that.

Any ideas? Our trim is Sherwin-Williams Snowbound. Attached a few photos of our house and the samples I’ve tried so far. The trim around the windows and sliders is primed blue but those are all going to be painted white.

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Comments (9)

HU-187528210
2 years ago
I think the current color looks very nice. And I’d spend the money on doing something else. Personally.
But if you’re repainting I’d stay light. Your house has such a cozy vibe to it without needing to be painted dark.
Paint the door. Add some wood accents if you need a bit of a change.
ShadyWillowFarm
2 years ago
You need to get pictures of the colors in the sun, not while shaded. Nice house, I am sure whatever you choose will be fine.
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PRO
Celery. Visualization, Rendering images
2 years ago
I like both samples. Would look good with white trim.
Connecticut Yankeeeee
2 years ago
I agree with keeping the same or similar light color. Your home is beautiful and I think the lighter tones make it seem accessible and friendly. I’m no pro - I’m just going off the feeling I got when I saw your pic.
K Schu
Original Author
2 years ago
I think that’s why I was having a hard time committing – I just feel like the color was a bit too aggressive and dark. We’re now leaning towards Sherwin-Williams Norwegian Blue. It’s lighter and softer. I wish the new trim wasn’t primed blue so I could see what it look like against white!

Thanks for your feedback!
K Schu
Original Author
2 years ago
One more photo - Waterloo is on the far right & Norwegian Blue is on the left.
ShadyWillowFarm
2 years ago
I like the one on the left!
K Schu
Original Author
2 years ago
Thank you everyone. I have a new question that’s even bigger than the first so I’m really hoping there’s someone still reading this!

What color do we paint the soffit? It’ll save us $5600 to paint the same color as the house, but will that look right? Does it need to be painted the same color as the trim?
Lizzie Bennett
2 years ago
@K Schu - we had our soffits painted the same color as the trim (white), but we were going for very high contrast (black + white). Given that you've gone with a softer color, I would think it'd be okay to paint your soffits the same color as the body of the house. $5600 is a lot of money - you could put that $ towards something more important.

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