How about a craftsman green color. Pick a green on the warmer side and slightly lighter in value than the brick.

Thanks for the suggestion. Does ”craftsman green” mean an olive type green? i have found examples of craftsman exteriors from sage to olive to emerald!

Can you find the original colors by scraping away layers, looking under the edges of trim, or other hard to access places?

This article has a lot of pretty pleasing color combinations appropriate to that era, many of which would look fine on a foursquare.

My first thought was a golden yellow…. thinking it would look something like the inverse of the colors on the first house illustration here: Old house colors

@rweigand Good idea to look for original colors; with siding over the old stucco this could work.

Some option for color

Midtown - American Foursquare · More Info

Your house is so handsome as is that I’m having a hard time picturing an improvement. That said, I also like the suggestion of a warm green from cpartist - perhaps like the sample on the left form Benjamin Moore.

I love the greens and appreciate the specific color swatches; so useful as I’m swimming in a sea of color options

Tomorrow I'll look through my books for what color I was thinking of.

Do you prefer Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams?

Thank you for the offer to look through your color books! We tend to use SW, but i think the painter could use either.

I tend to like greens myself, but I am not the person to ask on colors.

What a lovely home regardless if you change colors, or as others have said... not at all.

I love the Foursquare, and own one myself..

Interestingly, I looked into buying another Foursquare in February and had to explain to the realtor just what a foursquare was. He really did not know, and it was fun explaining the history of them to him so he could use that information to help sell the house he was tasked with. We were not interested in that house for various reasons, but I hope someone buys it and improves the place. But it still won't look like that gem that you have.

Congratulations on such a nice Foursquare!

Travis, its nice to meet another foursquare enthusist! we love this home and have done much to restore it over the years. the last item on the list is this current curb appeal project, hence the need for color advice. Can’t wait to share photos when its done!

Benjamin Moore

HC 160 Knoxville Gray

HC 122 Great Barrington Green

HC 113 Louisburg Green

Start with those 3 as ideas. The brick is dark, so I think you want to keep the stucco fairly dark too, but not as dark as the brick

I love the richness of Great Barrington Green.

Have you checked out this guy's delightful website - https://www.oldhouseguy.com/ Ironically by going back to an authentic original pallette, an old house can look fresher and in its own way newer than commonly used (and over-used) contemporary colors.

The "our portfolio" sections has many many pgs of befores and afters. Placement of colors, lights and darks, can be as important as color selection. What exactly is the color or colors plural of that brick - hard to make out. Is it possible to get a close up in good light.

Looks like upper story was originally stucco - with siding over it? No you wouldnt want to take it off, looks ike they did a good job, but Im just dying of curiosity what color might be under it - sometimes you can find these little spots where things dont completely join up where you can sneak a peak. In general prairie style would make use of same nature colors as its cousins craftsman and arts and crafts.

Debbie D - What a wonderful website with its before and after exterior paint photos - thanks! Yes, our house has siding over stucco. We are thinking of removing the siding and restoring the stucco, this way we can get the banding patterns like was on the original house.

Perfect as is.

Will be even more perfect when they replace the stucco and banding.

I wanted to thank everyone who responded to my request for exterior color advice for foursquare prairie style house. Your suggestions were very helpful!

As planned, we removed the siding and replaced it with stucco applied in the same pattern as original to the house (per old photo). We used the color "Calm Interlude" from O'Leary Paints, a local paint manufacturer for the base color, which is variably described as a dark, rich blue, slate, or green with blue getting the most mentions. We retained the original trim colors (Prairie Buff 2W18-2 is light color on the soffits and around windows, and Oxford Twill 2W17-5 is the darker "coffee with cream" accent on the first floor).

We were fortunate to have a master mason available to do the stucco, which was more work than was anticipated, but turned out beautifully in the end.

Gorgeous!

Beautiful!

Its beautiful. Good choice.

Lovely, well done!

Incredible! I love everything about it.