Shutter color for gray colonial house
We just painted our new old house BM Boothbay Gray. I plan to put up shutters and would like to paint them a dark blue instead of the expected black. I think I should go dark enough to create good contrast, but don’t want them to just read as black.
Three candidates, the first (Hale Navy) is very dark, the second (Deep Royal) maybe not muted enough, and the third (SW Naval) somewhere in the middle. I don’t want them to scream ”blue” so I’m leaning toward #3. I’ve also included my photoshopped mockup, but not sure the shutter color is right, I used what I could find online to cut and paste. Opinions welcome.
Comments (19)
Joanne
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoRelated Discussions
Is it a Dutch Colonial and what are appropriate colors & shutters
Comments (20)Organic, thank you so much for the complement. I fell in love with the house the moment I saw it even though it was in really REALLY rough shape when I first saw it. Luckily we were able to look past the chipping paint and god awful gold brocade wallpaper (as a matter of fact EVERY wall was wallpapered and that was real fun taking all that down lol) to see that the bones were solid and really charming. We have been here for 8 years this fall but I really did not start working on the house in serious mode until about two years ago. I had a baby when we first moved in so between taking care of her and my two other kids, there just was not time or energy for the big stuff. I am only now just getting down to making it what I want it to be. The interior pictures are what the house looked like a few years ago which I knew would only be a temporary fix. I am in the middle of doing everything over again and getting down to the real changes I want to make. lol...hey, I am an out of work interior decorator so I have to use my skills somehow hehehe... Anyway, about your question, the paint color is Benjamin Moore "Butter". Two years ago we paid a contractor to scrape and paint the house. He gave me an estimate of 4,000 ... it ended up costing us 7,000 and the paint started peeling the very next year. Needless to say I am furious. The prep work he did was shoddy. So I am going to be doing some scraping myself in the next couple of weeks and will have to buy more paint and do certain areas over again. I sure hope they have this butter color still because I love it and do not wish to go lighter or darker. Usually if they no longer carry a certain color you can usually find the same color in their color charts with a new name attached to it. I may have a add a bit of cream to it to account for fading, but I will work that out :)...See Morecolonial house shingle sidings stain color?
Comments (3)Your house looks more like red cedar which can be left to age without a stain. White cedar shingles are normally stained at the factory so all sides are protected. What is often used in New England to make white cedar shingles turn a pale gray is Cabot's Bleaching Oil, a mixture of a bleaching chemical and a semi-transparent grey stain. Here is a link that might be useful: Cabot's Bleaching Oil...See Morebeige colonial- need shutter/door color ideas
Comments (10)Because your siding color is very subtle, using white trim is not going to give that crisp contrast that usually makes that look so appealing. Is your house facade generally in full sun like the picture? That makes a big difference, too as those subtle colors get washed out. I'd keep it a study in neutrals and go darker with the trim, pull in the gray from the roof and the siding beige and pick a greige color for all the trim, use a darker version of the same thing for the shutters and possibly the doors Or use a burst of color for the doors if you like color, but I'd keep it a deep color, nothing too bright or pastel. Hard to specify colors but I'd start with a few from the B/M Historical collection - look at Copely Grey, Sandy Hook Gray, Sag Harbor Gray, Fairview Taupe, even Providence Olive and Hampshire Gray. In bright sun like that you'll just have to experiment and see what undertones become the most prominent. The green undertones could totally disappear and you could be left with a really nice, rich neutral which gives a lot of depth. Something like Dinner Party Red could be beautiful....See MoreShutter or No Shutter? Need Help w/ Paint color 1960s brick home
Comments (7)Thank you all so much for your comments! Just to clarify... I have black louvered shutters on all windows on the front of the house (as shown in the 2nd photo). The first photo shows how it looks since we have removed a few shutters for repair and paint prep. I have seen a lot of tone on tone or lighter colored shutters and began wondering if my black w/white siding on top of multi-color old brick looked too dated. The back of the house has 4 casement windows (upper) and 2 lower. We have never had shutters on these. I noticed that my photos - front and back yard - look almost mirror-image! But that was just a coincidence. Thanks again to you all! Picking out paint colors is tougher than it looks! :)...See MoreJoanne
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agothanks all. Flo, these will be fixed louvers and I’m having a painter spray them. My former home had 60 oversized operable adjustable louver shutters in poor condition and I got it into my head that I would repair, prime, paint and rehang them myself. It took a year and I was sometimes sorry I ever started it, but I got it done. They were amazing in Essex Green on an antique brick house.
My current front door is BM Audubon Russet, but looks a lot darker due to being in shadow and behind a screen door. I chose it as a nod to feng shui as the house faces West, the metal element. I didn’t want white or gray, so the alternative earthy or rust tone which relates to metal seemed like a good choice. I’m not an adherent, but hey, can’t hurt, might help.
PROFlo Mangan
2 years agoOMG!!! Sounds like something I would do. That’s something. Glad you don’t have to do that again. Hey, I had a thought. Have you tried Charleston Green? That is a deep green one millimeter from black. The backstory on that color is after the civil war, as a kind of secret protest, when people were fixing their homes, they wanted to change things up slightly, they took black paint and tinted it with green and called it Charleston Black. I think this could be your shutter color! Might want to try it.
Joanne thanked Flo Mangan- PRO
Flo Mangan
2 years agoI added purple front door. But doing the door in Charleston Black would be classic. Such a cute home. I tried putting a couple pots is purple mums in the mock up but picture is too small to work.
Joanne thanked Flo Mangan - PRO
Flo Mangan
2 years ago Joanne
2 years ago- PRO
Flo Mangan
2 years agoI understand. Here is story on Charleston color. I just ordered new outside lanterns for this house. Keep enjoying this darling house!
Joanne
2 years agoAnother photoshop of some color possibilities. I’m leaning toward the New Providence Navy because it has a tiny touch of green in it and seems a bit more sophisticated than plain blue. I haven’t asked him yet, but the DH will likely go for Newburyport, which, for me, is a very close runner-up to the New Providence. Hale Navy third. The very dark navy seems more expected, and I like to be different, lol.
Joanne
2 years agoSo I decided on BM Newburyport Blue. In case anyone is interested, I’m posting my mockup with the actual painted shutter for comparison. I photoshopped some windows that had shutters onto a photo of my house, then used Ben Moore’s online app to see the color on the shutters. The blob is an online image of the color and the shutter is the actual shutter painted. I’m pleased with the fairly accurate results, though I’ve found that the photo you use on BM’s site to try out colors can affect how the test colors appear on it. Takes some trial and error.
Joanne
2 years agoUpdate: Newburyport Blue shutters. Guy put shutter dogs on backwards, we changed them already.
Jilly
2 years ago
Jilly