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Design Dilemma Paint Exterior

seeking exterior paint and curb appeal ideas

thatseventieshouse

last month

I have a 70s ranch/mod kind of house. The exterior from the street side is just not my thing. I am seeking ideas for paint and trim colors and techniques that might help it to be more “normal” and also tricks and tips for minor/medium interventions that might help some specific problem areas. To me those are (a) the awful long endless low-slope garage roof; (2) the horrible off center triangle+rectangle windows and weirdly wide trim around them; (3) anything else you think is dating it! I once tried Brick + Batten and got a pile of poop from them. Also over the years have asked various pros working on the house - an archi and an interior design team punted. My contractor punted. But I still absolutely hate it and am planning to paint the house anyway since it is time for a refresh. I am hoping maybe you guys have better ideas for free 😆.

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Comments (6)

thatseventieshouse
Original Author
last month
Some closer-ups and scribbles of ideas I was having. But ignore me, give me yours 😁
Yvonne Martin
last month
One thing to consider is to change the white accents to a color the same intensity as the bulk of the house. A four-car garage is pretty hard to de-emphasize, but getting rid of the white would help.
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@decoenthusiaste Thank you for your input! I was struggling to identify what style house this is - and I now agree it is a bit French country farmhouse/contemporary. This house is a true “farmhouse,” as it is located on our farm yet, looks nothing like the farmhouses in our area. Interestingly enough, in the early 80’s this home was made from materials (repurposed bricks, shutter wood and beams) of a 75 year old church that was knocked down. We have a few industrial buildings behind it so I am trying hard to make our home feel more welcoming/ “pop!” when guests drive down our lane. I hate to take away too much of the character of the home but at the same time, we are really looking to move forward with a clean and crisp look. I’ll have to take into consideration having shutters and beams made from cedar and make an effort to maintain them by upkeep of staining them. Do you or anyone else have any experience in light power washing of cedar shakes? I think that will be a big help in the design but I am unsure it’s common practice since many homes with shakes I’ve seen are this color, over time... I’d love to hear more input!
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I think some kind of trellis or screening structure near the HVAC equipment or at the front edge of the roof as others suggested, could obscure the view. This is required in my area for commercial buildings with rooftop equipment. . In the "improve curb appeal" area, I think a lot can be done with your front yard. The side photo showing a glimpse of the neighbor's iron fence shows a walkway, a green shrub, and some grass. Your front yard could use some attractive landscaping. Or, if time or money is limited, put in some hard scaping - cover the dead lawn with a rock or gravel pattern and have an interesting center piece or two in the middle. Just something to make it look not-abandoned. Also, I think what looks like a chain-link gate to the left of the garage could be spruced up. Compare how it looks to the neighbor's redwood (?) or redwood colored wood fence on the other side of the yard. The wood fence looks attractive, the chain link gate looks scruffy. Good luck.
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What is your neighborhood like? Do people walk and pop in for a visit? If so, then building a nice sized porch that would accommodate some chairs and a table where people could come for a drink and cookies would not only look nice, it would be neighborly. Along with that, you could adjust the size of the porch columns so that they weren't so spindly looking. You can also have a nice decent width gently curved walkway from the street. You can also improve the landscaping in front of the house, keeping in mind not to plant too too close to the house so you don't damage the foundation when you water. I am a big fan of window boxes and I would put one under each of the kitchen windows. In between the kitchen windows I would put BIG brass house numbers. (Nothing worse than driving back and forth three times before I figure out which is the right house!) Most importantly, invite DigDoug into this thread.
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Your house is adorable! What kind of look are you going for? I like the siding color with the stone and the door color as well. If anything stands out to me, it's the wood posts as they don't relate to anything else. The updated landscaping you are planning will go a long way!
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thatseventieshouse
Original Author
last month
Thank you - I was having a similar thought about the triangle windows, that the extreme contrast to the trim is emphasizing them. Forgive me for basic questions: is the intensity value something you can look up with regard to a given paint color? Are there places/sources where I could find advice like, “oh here’s a good pairing of paint and trim color in a similar intensity level”?
thatseventieshouse
Original Author
last month
And yes it’s a weird/large amount of garage bays! We use one as home gym area and another as “hide away” tv lounge kind of situation. And for our pets.
cat_ky
last month
The house has some mid century look to it. I would play up that. Nothing wrong with the garage, except for the white around the doors. As to the triangle windows. They add to the house, not take away from it, and the wider trim around those windows looks pretty much like it should. Wider trim is very popular these days. I would never replace those windows with square type. That would spoil the look of the house.
thatseventieshouse
Original Author
29 days ago
Yes I’m trying to counteract the mcm characteristics - I hate them! But maybe that’s my problem 😆

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