Colors for soffits, windows and doors on brick colonial

last year

We would love input on exterior colors for our house. The soffits are old and need to be fixed. We're also having trouble with our casement windows (cranks are broken and windows get stuck after the winter) so assuming we will need to update those at some point. Based on advice from this awesome group, we replaced our roof 2 years ago to Weathered Wood. Painting the front door and garage doors is also on our list for this year. We updated the landscaping last year and will likely add some more this year. Our thoughts below:

1. Change soffit color to a lighter cream color (Alabaster?)

2. keep dark brown color of gutters for a contrasting look

3. Paint garage doors and front door black; trim to be the same light cream color as soffits

4. windows to eventually be replaced either a similar color as they are now, or black

Here is what we started with 3 years ago for context!

Featured Answer

palimpsest

last year

This house is really a mildly prairie inspired contemporary

1. Change soffit color to a lighter cream color (Alabaster?) See below, I would probably pick one color.

2. keep dark brown color of gutters for a contrasting look Don't contrast the gutters, they are a utility not a design element

3. Paint garage doors and front door black; trim to be the same light cream color as soffits Black will be too harsh with this roof. I would try to blend in the garage doors. The front door could be an accent color.

4. windows to eventually be replaced either a similar color as they are now, or black I think black would be harsh with the brick

5. back side of the house is wavy edge cedar siding which we are planning on keeping for now and painting either a beige or muddy green color (ugly, deteriorating sunroom to be removed and deck/siding to be extended!) I would probably pick one siding/trim color for everything including the garage doors and do a front door accent color.

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Comments (9)

jukoziol
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
@palimpsest thanks so much for your response. I never heard our house referred to that way! I will look into that.

I'm trying to incorporate two colors so we avoid looking like the below picture which only features one "accent" color across the soffits/fascia, windows and doors. I agree that black may be too harsh, especially for such a long term investment like windows, so I think I'm leaning towards brown there.

Don't want this:

I would prefer if possible to do a mix of light/dark accents such as the 2nd picture below:

Here's another inspiration image showing contrast gutters and darker garage doors with lighter trim:

not sure if these doors are a really dark brown or black
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BeverlyFLADeziner
last year
last modified: last year
Match the gutters, eaves, and soffit to the color of your windows.

Stain the brick on the center portion of your home to break up the large mass of brown brick

Add new, taller light fixture

Replace the doors with glass doors.

Your landscaping is pretty meh. That could use some attention.

If you really wanted to be daring, I'd limewash the total house.
jukoziol thanked BeverlyFLADeziner
kandrewspa
last year
Alabaster is just too light a color for your facade. Look at Neutral Ground. Sunlight washes out colors, so whites look whiter and an off white might be just right. There is a wide range between white and brown that you can consider. You should be doing sample boards that you can hold up against your house on all four sides, at different times of the day and under different weather conditions to see how they look and to make sure you get the undertone right. If those are storm doors on the front door you should get full view storm doors so the actual front door is visible. The color of your storm door should match your front door. Urbane Bronze might be a good color for your front door and garage doors.
jukoziol thanked kandrewspa
jukoziol
Original Author
last year
@kandrewspa I really like those color suggestions, and the sample board suggestion, too. Thank you! Those are not storm doors in the front, just our front doors. They definitely need to be painted.

Still struggling with soffit/fascia/gutter colors.
jukoziol
Original Author
last year
@BeverlyFLADeziner Thank you for doing that mock-up! I love the look of the painted brick homes, but not something we want to undertake at this time (and then have to maintain over time).

I like the larger lights and agree we need more landscaping. We just planted this landscaping last year after removing all the overgrown stuff so it will need time to grow in (plus it needs more plants). I wish I had your mock-up capabilities to try out a few different designs!
kandrewspa
last year
As palimpsest said, gutters should blend in with the house as much as possible because they're not a feature to accentuate. I would use whichever off white you choose on the fascia. Since those aren't storm doors I would look at getting new doors. Is it me - it doesn't even look like the two doors have the same window shape? You could get one door with sidelights instead of having double doors if you're interested which is a more classic look. If those are the original doors they have lived a long life already. :-)
jukoziol thanked kandrewspa
littlebug Zone 5 Missouri
last year
last modified: last year
A lovely home. Except, of course, for the front doors. No offense meant, but they look cheap to me, whatever was available in the clearance aisle at Cheapo Depot.

A more suitable paint color would go a long way toward making the doors look more appropriate for your fine brick home.

Just one wreath makes the doors look odd. And faux whiskey barrel planters are inappropriate for your house; you need something much more sophisticated. IMO of course.

I think you’ve done a good job with your landscaping so far. Hopefully those shrubs aren’t too close to the house.
jukoziol thanked littlebug Zone 5 Missouri
jukoziol
Original Author
last year
Thank you @littlebug Zone 5 Missouri @kandrewspa! I get it, everyone hates our front doors :) We will replace them eventually, but for now painting is on our list. I will give Urbane Bronze a try. The boxwoods are about 5 feet away from the house so I think we should be all good there.

Even though I've been staring at the exterior for what seems like forever, this board made me realize our windows run right up into the fascia/soffits (cut into them) with no brick separating the two. Why would they do that! My thought is that that makes it even more important to match the window and trim colors so I don't highlight this unfortunate feature!

We are looking at doing Pella fiberglass windows which only come in 3 color options - white (definitely won't work!), brown (which we'll likely go with especially in light of how the windows run into the roof), or black so I guess that makes our color options for soffits/fascia VERY limited