Upon first glance, Kev and I both felt like one of the things we’d (eventually) like to change about our new house are the exterior paint colors. Or should I say- color. Right now, the whole thing is pretty much completely covered in one single shade of tan. The body, the trim, the underskirt, the railings, the doors…heck, even the actual windows are tan.
This is where I squirm a little, thinking to myself- “Self: what if someone reading this has an all tan house, too?” If so, please know that this is totally a personal preference thing. Kev and I seem to be drawn to blue/green/grays and a little more variation between design elements when it comes to exterior palettes- but we fully understand that some folks are more comfortable with neutrals and a tone on tone look. I definitely don’t think there’s a right or wrong when it comes to any of this stuff. It just boils down to what colors make your heart sing!
That said, Kev and I have found that choosing exterior paint colors can be super tricky and quite intimidating. Fortunately, there are several homes in our neighborhood that we can draw color inspiration from this time around. As a matter of fact, there’s a house on our street that may already be sporting the very colors we’ll end up using on our place. Check it out:
The body color is called Distant Mountain. It’s a very pale blue/green/gray. The trim and underskirt color is a creamy off-white called Cameo. The front door color is Artisan Brown. They’re all Glidden colors.
I (quickly) used Photoshop to see what that palette would (sort of ) look like on our house.
PS- I’m not chained to the back door color. I just kind of threw it in there to see what a different color looked like there.
Painting the exterior of our house will definitely not happen for a while though. Lots of walls to paint inside the house first!
I have to say that when I first saw the picture of the outside of your house I thought it was awesome BUT didn’t love the colors for that particular house. Can’t wait to see what you come up with 🙂
Where do you park? That’s quite a staircase! 🙂
LOVE the potential color choices. Looks much more “you!” (Me too!)
I love that inspiration house, especially the number 28 which is my family’s favorite number 🙂 I cant wait to see what y’all come up with.
I like the shade variant with tone on tone but the trim work, in my opinion, looks fresh when it’s substantially lighter on the colour palette. I also believe in having punch with door colours because they direct you eye to come into a home. You have brick in the house and landscape so my preference would be to stay within/complimenting that family or it would feel really off to me. Yes, even if it means warming the colours slightly (unless you plan to overhaul that too).
For instance, I sacrificed my brick colour for location so although I gravitate to cooler shades inside I ‘journeyed’ (aka struggled a long time to get it right) through the warm tones to make the exterior work for curb appeal. My 2 cents 🙂
I adore your house!!!
If it were me, I would be intimidated painting the whole house. I would be inclined to paint the shutters, trim and use a really fun color on the front door. It would be far less work and simpler thing to change down the road. With that said, you always do such a beautiful job, I can’t wait to see what you do!
What if you did an oak or maple finish on the door? Might look a little more cottage-y. I love super-light green houses with bright white trim and might or might not have one myself! ! 🙂
I l ove your new house! Until you are ready to paint the whole thing, I think you could even paint all the trim and shutters on your house to get a much better look…not that all tan is necessarily horrible. What if you took the trim and door color from your neighbor’s house and kept your current house’s main color? The brown tones might not be perfect, but it’d at least be some distinction. I guess with being the pro at photoshop that you are, you could totally try that out to see what the effect would be. This would probably be a quick/fairly inexpensive upgrade until you are ready to paint the entire house….or at least just paint the doors and shutters a different color!
Also, I would love to know where you park and where that side door comes in to your house. I don;t think that’s the one by the piano….plus I was really shocked to see the staircase behind the kitchen wall….not at all where I thought it would be!
I too was wondering where the side door leads to. Also, are those REAL shutters on the front of the house?! I love them! Your house is so adorable and cozy. You said you like green, one of my favorite color combos on houses is sage green siding, buttery cream trim, black shutters, and a red door. Our house has yellow siding, white trim, black shutters and a black door. I love it but I am always drawn to a red door too. 🙂
LOVE the possible color scheme! And that house is so cute. But why is the landscape always an after thought? Landscaping is an (relatively) inexpensive aspect of one’s home, but has such a huge impact.
To all of you DIY’ers: Dont forget the garden/landscape!!!! It really does make a difference. If the task is too intimidating and you don’t want to attempt it yourself, there are SO many AVAILABLEcompanies who can create something beautiful. Remeber, you should spend AT LEAST 10% of the total cost of your home on your garden/landscape.
Just sayin’ 😉
This is so cool. I am trying to close on a historic cottage right now. I have been thinking about all the things I wanna do to it. I might just follow your lead! Good timing!
Yes, I have an all tan house!!!! Ok, it’s stucco and doesn’t look that bad. I don’t care for the two-tone color around the windows for stucco. I love your exterior! It has so much character and I love shutters. Your new color choice is fabulous. I agree all tan for a house with such character is so boring. I know you guys will make it totally amazing! Congrats!
I just think its fantastically amazing that you and Kevin can AGREE on things like this! I envy that almost as much as I envy your creativity and skills!
You gotta make sure you have your haint blue ceilings above your porch! Keep the evil spirits away! LOL! 🙂
Yes, I love the blue ceiling on the neighbor’s porch! I never would have imagined that. Whimsical, but also looks right at home. I think these palette ideas are lovely, especially in the lake setting. I imagine it gets a bit hot there in the summer, and cool colors are perfect.
do you have any idea where that custom came from? Is it just a Southern thing, is it supposed to suggest the sky? I saw so much of it is Savannah & Charleston and always wondered.
Yep, the blue porch ceiling/awning paint color is done to simulate the sky so things like wasps will think they can’t build their nests underneath. (I saw a program on PBS that explained it.) There are probably lots of people that use the blue color just because it looks good though. Not sure if it’s just a southern thing, but I love the look of it too!
You are right on, Kimmeth!, It’s a Southern (or a South Carolina”Lowcountry” thing. 🙂 It originates from the Gullah people (descendents from Africa) who live off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. To make a long story short, they believed the “evil spirits” couldn’t cross water, hence the “Haint Blue”.
it’s to keep flys from landing on the ceiling
LOVE the house you chose color inspiration from…..those colors would look great on your new home. I adore your new house….it’s gonna be even cuter when you guys put your mark on it! 🙂
(((HUGS))))
I am weirdly excited to see you “new” house transformation. I think the your future colors will look great. I am living vicariously through you till we retire from the Army and finally settle into a home! So thank you!
Do you still live in Alabama? seems like i remember a post a while back that said that. i live an hour north of Birmingham! If you ever get an opportunity to visit a place called “The Village at Blount Springs”, I’m sure you could draw a lot of influence from the homes there. It is an amazing neighborhood.
http://www.thevillageatblountsprings.com/
I’m with you about not “preferring” the all tan pallet. It seems kinda 80’ish looking. I think the same with yellow homes w/ green roofs. I love the dark gray cement siding color that look like Cedar Shakes! I love the contrast with white trim. White risers on the front porch steps are a must! Your going to have too much fun finding all the color combos before you actually change it.
Liz
I work for a commercial painting company (all the way across the country 🙂 ) and we use the color rendering software from Kelly Moore. I’ve found it easier to use than Photoshop, and pretty darn accurate. The bummer is that it’s 50 bucks, and only Kelly Moore colors, but it is super easy to use. We use it constantly to help owners visualize what new colors will look like. Unfortunately, we only do commercial buildings so I never get to do the really fun stuff… just lots of gray and tan. Can’t wait until the husband and I actually buy a darn house so that I can play- the market is so competitive in our area that we’ve lost out on 9 houses so far. Guess I’ll just have to continue living vicariously through you guys for awhile longer!
Feeling brave? Go to Google Images and type in Lunenberg Houses. Some of the combinations are VERY exciting!
Layla & Kevin,
So happy for both of you! Can you feel my smile? I know you will choose colors that best suit you — that’s what makes a house a home, adding pieces of ourselves to it — and it will look even more beautiful than it does now. (The shutters look darker on my iPad screen.)
Your Friends,
Deborah & Thomas
Thank you, Deborah! The shutters are a little darker than everything else. It’s a tone on tone palette from top to bottom for sure! 😀
I am loving everything about your new home! It is nice to live somewhere that may not be to your particular taste but the bones and current style are lovely so when you get around to putitng your stamp on things it will make it that much better.
Even though I’m normally a white trim kinda girl, when I first saw the pic of your house I fell in love with it as-is…. it just looks “historical” to me or something 🙂 But I also totally understand where you are coming from on personal preferances!
I agree with Holly – when I first saw the house I thought, WOW! It is lovely. I guess because I am from an historic townm Annapolis, I like the historic color look. Usually I would like the white with a punch on the door and shutters but this house really appealed to me the way it is and the brick wall is stunning. As mentioned, I am from Annapolis and we always for generations had blue ceilings on our porches. It had nothing to do with evil spirits – God is greater – but I was always told it was to keep the bees away from it. *-* Whatever colors you choose, God’s blessings for much love and happiness.
I wouldn’t worry about offending someone who has what you say you want to change. They wouldn’t be reading your site if they didn’t like your design style. I like your photoshop redo – looks great.
Love your new color palette ideas…it’s gonna look awesome!
How exciting! Starting all over again …a decorator’s dream come true!
It’s very intimidating to completely change a house’s exterior colors. When we bought our cape cod style house 12 years ago it was stained a dark burgundy with hunter green shutters and trim. So NOT me! Within 2 months we had a family painting party (my dad used to paint houses in the summer – he was a teacher) and changed the entire house to a wonderful yellow with white trim!! We had people stop while driving by to say how much they enjoyed seeing the change in the house – brightened the neighborhood up a bit, too. We took a chance because it felt right to us. Yes, it’s LOTS of work, but so worth it in the end! Good luck and love the colors you’re looking at!
Oh – and would love to know the blue ceiling color in that porch. want to do that with my porch, too!
Our house colors aren’t necessarily my cup of tea either, but the exterior definitely is on my eventual list!
Love your new house . . . and without a doubt, the changes you make will be perfect. I don’t mind the color but shades of gray with charcoal and white would be my choices. Enjoy the journey!
My house is tan with cream trim, and an dark crimson front door – it wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it was a spec. house already under construction when we bought it, so we didn’t get to chose the exterior color. I like blues or grays, but can’t have those for my house, as we can’t paint our house the same color as either neighbor – they don’t want houses to all look alike.
I like the color you’ve chosen, but I understand about wanting to change the interior color, first!
I love the color scheme you’re thinking of using, but here’s my question… is it okay to copy a neighbor? There is another house on my street that shares a very similar trim and body color with me. That house has a beautiful turquoise front door that I had pinned months before moving into my house. I’ve been holding off on painting my door, because I didn’t want to upset a new neighbor by “stealing” her color scheme (even though I had pinned it independently). Do you think she’d be mad or flattered?
Wow, I love your color ideas! I can’t wait to see what you two do with this new place! I had to pin that white farmhouse, I have a soft spot for that style with a charming front porch! xo Kate
Thanks, Kate! That house is actually painted a pale shade of blue/green/gray, but it did photograph a little lighter that day! I agree with you about the style- it’s definitely one my favorite houses in the whole neighborhood, too! 😀
I love your new house. It is going to look amaz.ing. I can’t wait to see the progress :-).
We just finished painting the exterior of our house and we chose Marine Magic by Behr (740F-6). It’s a beautiful dark bluish gray, with a hint of green in it. It may be darker than you’re thinking, but we absolutely love it 🙂
Isn’t it fun to daydream?: )
I waited so long to paint my completely naked (I mean, totally unfinished) dining room chairs because I couldn’t decide what color – I finally settled on a dark, warm gray for four of them, and two are about to get their second coat of red (weekend project, yay!) They turned out great and I’m so happy that I trusted my gut and went with two red – they are perfect for our farmhouse style.: )
Ah yes, thats nice. I think u need a shade of blue for the door. or something bright and cheery to match the bright and cheery people who live inside the house. : )
I love your color choice. I was thinking white with black trim/door but really like the light green/blue. I totally disagree with the comment about going warmer tones because of the brick! =) I’m sure it will look gorgeous when you are done!!
Your house reminds me of Abraham Lincoln’s house in Springfield, except his doesn’t have a porch.
Can’t wait to see what you do.
Painting the whole exterior can be very intimidating! Our house was painted five years ago before the previous owners put it on the market. But they didn’t do a good job and we just had to redo it. We wanted blue but so many houses in our neighborhood are blue. We didn’t want brown or any variation of that. We ended up with…Basil with Sun-Dried Tomato shutters! YUMMY! 🙂 It is a bold choice but one we (and surprisingly all of our neighbors) love. WHEW! I think your future choice will look great!
we painted our brick a few years ago and i had david driving me all over montgomery looking at painted brick houses…especially over in old cloverdale! when i found “the one” i made him stop the car, i went up to the door and the man of the house came out…when i told him i loved his paint colors he said he was a house painter and had the colors still in his garage…so i was lucky enough to copy those down and take them to the paint store.
looking forward to all your “renovations”!
We bought an ALL tan house. Every single wall in the whole house inside or out was tan. I think the seller was trying to make it as neutral as possible for sale, but it was just a hideous bland mess! I have been de-beige the place ever since!
OK I SAY YES to the green/gray color!! 🙂 We put it on our first little house. I loved it & wish I had it where we live now. Yellow is cheerful tho! green/gray is just more me (:
We used SW Antique Marble it was just perfect for what I was looking for!
Looking forward to seeing your new updates!
blessings, barbara
Ooh! I LOVE Antique Marble, Barbara! One of my favs!
I love your new paint color plan. So casual & sorta beachy. I love it. I tend to like a bit of contrast on home exteriors too. I think it adds character. I am completely struggling with our exterior color choices we are making as we speak at our house. What photoshop prorgram do you use to make your changes???? I need to try something like that. Can you do that in Elements? I need to take a Shoot Fly Shoot class:)
Hi Carrie! You can toooootally do it in Photoshop Elements! I should’ve linked to their class in my post! 😉
The new colors look great, but did you ever think of doing the trim dark, like black or a deep shade of the actualy house color?
I grew up in a cottagey house ( all 900 square feet of her) and it was white with black trim, so I may be biased just a bit 🙂
Our home is all red brick-never my first choice, but we are selling, so we aren’t going to open up THAT can o worms( I love whitewashed/ painted brick).
Our next door neighbor has dark trim and it looks great! We’re going to go with off-white trim on our place…someday! 😀
I don’t blame you for not opening up the painted brick can of worms! That’s a big one!
Well I like both. My view is that the outside of the house should relate to the inside if possible. The front door color should be repeated in the entry and at least one other room and the outside should be compatible to the inside.
Exact-a-mundo! That’s the plan, Rebecca! Can’t wait to get started! 😀
Which is why doing the inside first makes sense.
Well dang it. No wonder my exterior bugs me. It does NOT reflect my interior. The exterior looks too Spanish (stucco and wrought iron) and as we’re redoing the interior we’re doing craftsmas style trim and very cottagy pallette. My front door is a brick red, which looks great on our house, but I don’t like bright colors in my interior. Maybe I can do some pillows on a chair or something. Thanks for the tip Rebecca!
Gosh, I really did not expect to see comments on my comment. Kind of a warm fuzzy.
I just think it makes sense and for more harmony.
I also like the rooms in my home to relate to each other with the exception of kids rooms. That does not mean they use the exact same colors but that there is a repeat of some color used in the adjoining room. Most of us do not have unlimited budgets but having a long term plan will help us spend our money wisely.
Kim, Maybe down the road the outside could be made a bit more craftsman with wood replacing the wrought iron. Or bring one of the inside colors to your front door.
Well Rebecca, this is the first time I have ever heard this thinking. It is interesting. I think I am doing this by coincidence at my new house (I just moved) and didn’t know it was something people actually plan to do. 🙂
I just painted the outside of my house this summer. It took me all summer, and when people asked if I wanted to go to the lake, I had to decline, because I had painting to do. But what a HUGE difference. I love the instant gratification paint gives and can’t wait to see your house transformed inside and out. (I can live vicariously and don’t have to paint more myself.)
HA! I am rolling on the ground, because my house is EXACTLY the same color and everything is painted out too! I know it was cheaper to paint it this way, but we hate it. Strong words, but the lack of personality is stifling. Can’t wait to see what you ultimately choose, good luck!
I’m laughing because exactly what you said about not wanting to offend the neutral/tan lovers is EXACTLY what I was thinking when I saw your house the first time – great bones, but did EVERYTHING have to be that one color/shade?! Honestly though it might have just been a quick fix-up trick from whoever listed the house. Neutrals are great but a little contrast in trim is essential.
I love the new palette WITH that door color you threw in there! I would even swoon over a dark muted purple door with that dreamy distant mountain color and I am extremely fond of white trim so I’m excited for you. The photoshop-ed color is a little darker then the distant mountain but I think I prefer it that way, just a little more body but still light enough that it sets off greenery and red/purple or white flowers very nicely. Have fun!
Your new house is gorgeous but of course, not YOU yet. We love being ‘in on’ the design process, but you are the expert; we are here to see what YOU come up with!
This house and neighborhood look so charming! I’m so excited excited to see what you and Kevin do. I’m thrilled for you ;). And it is fun to see the photos of KitKat and Max exploring!