This blog chronicles my life as I try to balance healthy lifestyle habits with my husband's penchant for pizza rolls and my daughter's desire to watch iCarly 8 hours a day. It contains a mostly humorous, kind, and somewhat spiritual look at everyday life and the people who live it.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Project Runway: Our new house color

Spring isn't just for interior painting in our house, oh no, this year we are going to paint the exterior as well.  We are going to paint 3 sides of it, at least, a professional will paint the back of the house because we don't have the equipment.

But what color should the house be?


This is how the house looks now

Steve doesn't like the current house colors.  He feels that the body of the house is too light and the shutter color is dated.  I agree, especially since the house across the street has the exact same color scheme as ours.  The problem is that my favorite color scheme is currently being worn by the house next-door to us and I don't think they'd appreciate us painting the same colors on our house - especially since theirs is vinyl sided so they won't be changing palettes anytime soon.  More than anything else though, we have to paint because wind, rain, snow, and freezing temperatures have left their mark on the house and we don't want to have water problems with exposed wood.

The east side of the house is the worst

My second favorite color scheme is being sported by the house on the other side of us.  They also have siding so once again, I'm thwarted.  What to do?  What to do?

I visited California Paints and Benjamin Moore and tried  different colors on my house and I have some inspiration to go with an olive green (similar to next-door but not exact) with white trim and a reddish-brown shutter color.   I like the idea of white trim because then I can do a white front porch.  Our front porch now is painted dark brown with cream trim that matches the body of the house.

Can't you just see a gorgeous white porch here?

If the porch goes white should we paint the deck white too?  Right now it is brown, a different brown from the porch, it is painted to match our fence.  So if the deck goes white does the fence have to go white too?  Oh dear, this may never end!

See why we're not attempting to paint the back ourselves...

Any opinions you'd like to express are welcome.  All I know for sure is...this is going to be a lot of work!

10 comments:

Karen said...

OMG, I love the back of your house! Our last house looked almost identical from the front.

I have always wanted to live in a gray house with a red door. If you can remember River Road from your days in Toledo, there is a house across from the river with that combination that I'm totally smitten with.

Anonymous said...

hmmmm.....white house with accent shutters and porch...I wonder???

Chellie said...

Love the white porch idea!! I don't think you have to go with a white deck. That would be so much more upkeep, too.

Sarcastic Bastard said...

Fuck the neighbors. Paint it what you like. I'd go with purple.

Beth said...

Karen, I love gray houses with red doors too. Our only hesitation has been our brown roof - however, there are so many shades of gray, some more brown than others, that your color combo is a definite contender!

Beth said...

Anonymous, could there be a more traditional New England colonial than the white house with black shutters and red front door? That color palette is classic, timeless, and gorgeous. Unfortunately, Steve doesn't want a white house...

Beth said...

Chellie thank you for giving me a pass on painting the deck. I will be so sick of painting by the time we'd get to it that I don't know if I would have it in me anyway.

Beth said...

SB you joke but I actually saw a taupe colored house with these dark purple-ish-brown-ish shutters that was really quite stunning so purple is not totatlly out of the question.

Sarcastic Bastard said...

Actually, I wasn't joking. My friend has a Victorian house painted purple with butter yellow trim, and I love it.

Marvin Mills said...

Something bold, perhaps? Or you can go with a lighter color for the house, and then go with something bold to complement it. Anyway, just painting one side of that place seems like a daunting task. Hope you get it done, and find a color for your home that you'll love!