So we did some more test painting and decided on the muted gray/blue for the main sections, similar to what gracie linked. We tried 2 different trim colors and are feeling like the dark gray blends in too much with the blue. The lighter gray seems to have more contrast. What does everyone think? Also, what would you recommend to paint the lower concrete section of the house. The lighter gray trim color if we pick that? Or would you possibly paint it a darker gray like the trim we weren't digging? Gray/Blue with light gray trim: Gray/Blue with dark gray trim (on right side of garage): Closer pic of Gray/Blue with darker trim: lighter trim in the shade: Close-up of lighter gray trim: (Middle of pic): Lighter gray trim again. Lower concrete section that will need to be painted:

Chris your inspiration house has a large proportion of the natural cedar color to the blue and a lot of what we can see on that house in the photo is in shadow which makes a big difference. You're trying to choose a color for your house without a clean background - the yellow is a player in making colors look different. I took a picture of 2 colors from one of my paint decks for you - put them on a table on our porch that is similar in color to your cedar but when I compare the picture to the paint deck it's horribly off so I hesitate to post it for you. I may email it but just know that it's not representational at all. I'm looking at Benjamin Moore Everard Blue CW-575 and Wetherburn's Blue CW-580. these are from their Williamsburg collection, grayed blues with green in them. Even on the B/M website the colors are off on my computer. I'm not certain these are the *right* colors for your house but it's a slightly different direction that brings your setting into the mix and a place to start. Hale Navy is part of the Historical Color collection from B/M - that collection is a good place to be as well. The colors are dirtier which is good - what you don't want is a bright, clear color on your house. There are different ways to approach trim and house colors - they can be high contrast with crisp definition or lower contrast and more subtle transition. Neither one is better, they are just different looks but your trim will still be differentiated from the house body with less contrast. Are you planning to paint your eves and rake boards like the inspiration house?

I don't have experience with exterior stains but a sage green paint would look good. I like your stacked stone and could see it as column bases around the porch and deck posts. Or you could use river rocks to match those in the landscape. Not sure I like the steel in the middle of the chimney or the mantle overthe top of the TV. They break the lines of that soaring fireplace and the mantle will be too high to set things on. If solid rock to ceiling is not an option, rock to mantle then wallboard with timber trim to ceiling. Solid rock would be good for passive solar so you might get a tax break for that. Once you rebuild deck consider sun sails instead of roofing which could block those windows year round. That would cut your winter heat gain and ruin your views. Use lower deck in the heat of the day and upper one for evenings. Gorgeous setting.

Hi - what a beautiful home! Have a look at the colorographies at The Land of Color .com to compare key attributes of many popular white colours. Mascarpone is a very light, quite colourful off-white. As an exterior colour in bright light, it may appear lighter still again. Perhaps surprisingly you may find you can afford to go slightly darker than you imagine for the exterior, to mitigate that. Bright sunshine can also bleach out the appearance of colour, so Mascarpone’s quite high Chroma (colourfulness), may help to maintain an appearance of colour in those conditions. How much colour you can enjoy before it appears positively yellow to you, is a combination of the effect of light upon it and your own personal aesthetic pleasure. Viewing a sample outside in situ will help. Here’s another colour similar in Chroma, but slightly darker. It maybe helpful to view both. You still may prefer the lighter one, but try and think what bright sun & snow reflection will do to it too. Not an ideal way to do it, but measuring the colour from a photograph of the lovely roof colour it appears to belong to Blue-Green Hue Family. Helpful to know when building up your exterior palette.