So here’s our house. It was originally wide cedar stained the color you see on the fascia. Narrow cedar is going up. So:
Is this any particular architectural style? I’ve heard it described as “California Ranch”
Are there any colors that would be inappropriate for the style? What about a semi-transparent green stain? Would that look bad with the warm toned bricks? Would stayin with red/brown/yellowish look better or be more appropriate?
The old soffits were box soffits. Would sloping soffits be inappropriate.
California ranch is a good descriptor. Single story with a gable in front; 4:12 roof pitch.
I wouldn’t worry about the soffits. Do whatever you like. As for color, I’ve seen almost every tone in the rainbow. Personally, I like earth tones unless you really want your house to stand out. A medium-dark green would look fine with the bricks.
The Harvest Gold seems very dated to me, like from the 70’s. Maybe it’s so old it’s new again. As for the green, I prefer the somewhat darker Woodland Green to go with your bricks; Seafoam is, I think, too close to the color of the grass, I’m afraid your house would sort of disappear. California Rustic is ok, but I generally prefer greens to reds on the outside of houses.
This is all just my opinion, I’m not a decorator of any sort.
Drive around and find a house which has the colors you like. THEN get color samples and walk up to that house and match the color. You will be surprised at the actual color - might need to make several trips to the store to get additional color samples because it is a different color up close than you thought.
And the opposite is true, you find a color in the store you like, then paint it on the house - then it turns out to be a different color than you thought it would be. Weird things happen to colors with inside store lighting as opposed to outside sun light and viewing at a distance.
This is just a WAG but deck stain has to have properties that allow it to be walked on and get 16 hours of direct sun (on the deck floor) and not look like shit after a week. Siding won’t catch the same kind of sun or be walked on so it doesn’t need to have those properties. Possibly it’s less “sturdy” than deck stain which allows it to be more bold in color or something.
Excellent advice. Don’t be shy, though. Unless you live really close to this house, chances are the owner will tell you what the color is-- if they know what it is. I’ve done this successfully several times.
I heard that called a Ranch Bungalow before, but California Ranch sounds better. I don’t think it’s what people usually think of as a bungalow anyway.
You have a lot of trees around the property, you should think about whether you want the house to stand out from the background or blend in.
I assume the existing soffits are ventilated so look to see how the eave joint is ventilated underneath the box soffits. Box soffits will reduce heating and cooling losses.
I’ll suggest some kind of treatment down at the bottom of the walls to make the house stand out from the ground. Maybe white gravel on the ground or a walkway of some kind all around.
Another question, would metal soffit and fascia be correct for the style of house and look OK? It was suggested that it would reduce the maintenance required because the fascia has no protection from the elements like the overhang will provide for the actual siding.
