I bought a house in October of last year and it’s time to paint it.
Currently, the color is “Weathered 1969 Puke Green”. It’s got to go.
I’ve been trying to find good color tools online but none of them really can give me what I need since the lower half of the house (a ranch) is a deep orange brick. So while Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore’s fancy color choosing tools work nice, they don’t really give me a good idea of what my house could look like.
Here’s some specs:
Dark orange brick on the lower half of the front
white trimmed windows (no shutters but I’d like to add them)
Black paved drive
White garage door (would rather not paint it…)
White front door (willing to paint)
A clump of evergreen bushes and a 8’ tall evergreen tree thingy in front
There seems to be only 2 other houses in the neighborhood with the same brick setup as me - my 2 neighbors. One has a nice light gray/blue with no shutters, the other is white with black shutters. I don’t really want to have the same color scheme as them (although the gray is kickass).
My neighborhood is pretty low-key so I don’t want to stand out too much. There’s no historical homes here and I checked the city ordinances - there doesn’t seem to be a restriction on color. But the last thing I want to do is stand out
Does anyone with any artistic sense have some ideas for me as to what colors I should consider? I was thinking a tan but WHICH tan? And what would be a good trim color?
BTW I am not soliciting advice on “how” to paint my home exterior. I know how, thanks. Just color advice, please.
One tip, don’t paint it a dark color…our neighbors just painted their house a dark green. By day it looks great, but at night, it looks like it is black and it looks truly horrible.
You say you like the neighbors gray color scheme…how about using a variation of it? Do the trim darker/lighter and paint the house darker/lighter and maybe use a signature color on the door - bright red, or or install a real wood/glass door or something that will set the house apart from the neighbor’s.
If you see the house you have, and you like what they did with it, you would be silly not to try to rip off as much from the scheme as possible. And if I were your neighbor, I would take it as a compliment that you were following my color scheme/techniques. Actually, why don’t you just approach the neighbor, tell him/her how much you like their color scheme and see what other ideas they discarded…bet they had some good 2nd or 3rd choices as well.
I have a ranch with reddish brick along the bottom and white windows as well. I did a pale yellow more like gold for the body. White for all the trim and a hunter green for the shutters and accents on the front door.
The big difference was painting the two car wide garage door the same yellow as the house. It doesn’t stick out and scream GARAGE!
That’s a lot of brick you got there…you are sort of trapped unless you paint the brick as well. I would go for a lighter brick color, and then you could do the top part of the house almost any color.
If it were my house, I would paint the brick a very light grey (almost white), and then go with a washed-out yellow for the top part of the house (think walls of old buildings in Italy).
Otherwise, maybe do a Google search on 50’s homes and see what colors they used back then…somehow your house makes me think of Leave It To Beaver and Father Knows Best, so a 50’s retro look could also be a cool idea. It is a very cool, hip looking home…I see formica kitchen table and a basement bar with one of those bar beer ad lights that look like water is flowing…congrats on a neat-o home!
I agree with a warm cream to offset all. that. brick. It’s not too dark, and it’s a nice color, but I would lighten up as much as possible, particularly with the overhang of the roof shading parts of the house. Or cream with a grayness to coordinate with the shingles.
Congrats one the new place! it looks like fun and the brick expance does cut down on how much painting you’ll have to do.
How about white vinyl siding?
Not that I’ve seen a picture I’ll say again what I did earlier, think about painting the garage door the same color as the house. Keep the white trim. I did that and it made a huge difference.
Our house has the same kind of brick about halfway up the front. The stucco and wood siding are a pale yellow/cream and the trim is dark brown. I think it looks cool, but if you had dark trim you’d have to paint that garage door, and with your white shingles, white trim might just be a better way to go anyway.
I think a cream would create a little too much tension between the red of the bricks and the white of the trim and roof, unless it has some really warm tones to it to differentiate it from the white. A more orangy/tan color could look really homey and warm without making all that white trim look out of place.
I’d go for a deeper gray. But really, you should cruise some more neighborhoods. That’s how we picked our house color. I like colors that hide the dirt. Amazing how dirty houses get.
Looking at the picture, I agree with those who say to paint the garage door.
The shingles aren’t really white. They’re just…weathered. I think the sunshine made them look more white to my crappity camera.
Even Sven - that color you chose happens to be the same color as Mr. Slant’s old car! Weird.
I forgot to mention in my OP that my house is located squarely in the heart of “The Midwest” as in “we are people completely devoid of accents”. A suburb exactly 18 miles south of Cleveland and 18 miles north of Akron. While the ideas for the rich oranges are good considering the color of the brick, I honestly cannot think of one house in this area that is orange in any way. Like Mr. Slant said - if I go with that I’d definitely have a “pimp house”
I think I can go to the paint store and get samples of paint and put them on the house. However, the brick is ONLY in the front, so I can’t really leave paint splotches there for very long.
Regarding the new siding…that is on the 10-year plan. No way could I afford that now.
There’s a couple of good neighborhoods around here that are just like mine (houses from the same era, ranches, perhaps some with brick) so I will indeed check them out.
Right now I am digging the yellow/cream ideas with hunter trim. Also not into painting the brick. Too much work.
Any votes on wether to have a green or yellow/cream garage door? My folks painted their house tan and after years of having a dark brown garage door they painted it the same tan and it looks great.
