3.13.2008

re:paint

we have gotten quotes (within $750 of each other) from two different painters for the exterior of our house, which we're hoping to get started on at the end of this month. they will strip/scrape/sand as necessary (not down to bare wood), prime, caulk and paint - one coat of primer and two coats of finish. the quotes were good and both painters come highly recommended, and we're excited to get the house painted - and not worry every time it rains about our siding & trim & new windows.

our problem is deciding what color to paint the house! right now it looks like we're going for the camouflage look...



from upper left, the colors are by sherwin williams: connected gray, svelte sage, avocado (off historic preservation palette), ancient marble, and some brown color i forgot the name of (also off the historic preservation palette). the two trim colors are alabaster and classic white (the creamier color on the right). the window is painted urbane bronze on the left and the bottom right corner is also alabaster.



originally we were thinking a two tone (top half of house painted a different color from bottom half, since we have the trim band that divides the house) - connected gray on top and svelte sage on the bottom with cream trim and bronze windows. we put those samples up and it turns out to look almost exactly like our neighbor's house. so we negated those colors. so we're testing some more colors, but not sure about these either...

avocado w/ classic white (cream) trim & urbane bronze windows:


ancient marble w/ alabaster trim & windows:

(need a 2nd coat of alabaster to make it look whiter like photo above)

we tried out the ancient marble because we thought about repainting the house white, but the four houses across the street are white, and our neighbor's neighbor's house is white also, so we didn't want to go white. ancient marble is a couple shades off of white, but the white (alabaster) trim still pops against it.

the avocado comes off sherwin williams historic preservation palette, and the chip looks olive, especially against other greens, but it looks really green on the house! it's a very cool/funky color, which i like, but i worry that it might be a bit much on the entire house.

so, we're confounded. what color to paint the house? do we do a two-tone? try more samples? any thoughts/opinions/inspiration pics would be greatly appreciated!

10 comments:

Jen @ RamblingRenovators said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jen @ RamblingRenovators said...

ThirteenEleven blog is also painting her craftsman house. Here's some pics she's using for inspiration:
Houseblogs flickr pool
They may help you too!

Bunny @ 86n It said...

I love the 2-tone.
If could have had any color for our house, it would have been choco brown w/ orange trim. A house around the block has this and it looks amazing. But we have this stupid red roof and our neighbors house is brown.

Anyway, I'd go two tone and something more earthy maybe?

sandra said...

bunny - got any pics?

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna go walk around the neighbor hood with my phone taking pics! right now.

Anonymous said...

ok I just emailed some really bad quality photos to your comcast.

Jennifer said...

Totally the Avocado!!!

Anonymous said...

I like the avocado too!

Jen said...

Me Three on the avacado. I like the details above your porch, what ever color you paint, those details should pop.

ciaobellon said...

My vote is for the avocado as well!!!! Looks great with the creamy trim. Kitchen looks awesome! Very clean, crisp, & contemporary.