Picking exterior colors

[sandhawke]

How should I pick colors for my new house?

It's currently painted in a fancy Victorian 6-color style, which is mostly pleasing, but incomplete in some places and peeling in others.

High-res pictures for anyone who wants to suggest a color scheme [possibly via photoshop :-) ] are here.

Comments

[moominmolly]

How whimsical are you?

[moominmolly]

Because I suggest something like this.

[sandhawke]

:-) So in lcohen's pics, you prefer the "not sedate" one?

[moominmolly]

Oddly, no! I like the "sedate" one. It's less ...pastel? something. :)

[penk]

I like the current scheme, I'd just freshen it up and brighten it a few notches.

Then again, the color scheme there is virtually identical the colors I just used in my living room. :)

[lcohen]

sedate:

http://victorian-houses.com/images/victorian_house/victorian_house_385x261.jpg

not sedate:

http://hookedonhouses.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Victorian-house-after-porch.jpg

the first one kind of takes what you have and reverses the emphasis.

[sandhawke]

Oh, I really like the sedate one....

[miss_chance]

One way I would suggest that you pick colors is to walk/bike around and look at houses that are similar in proportions and architecture, and see which ones catch your eye. In this way, you can get a sense of where your taste lies along a continuum from "classic" to "modern," and "sedate" to "playful." For us, we knew pretty early on that we wanted bright, festive colors, because most houses felt too drab to us.

Once you have a sense of what kind of color scheme you want, I can recommend/lend you some good books the might help you pick a specific scheme.

Looking at the photos, I imagine you'll be doing the roof soon, and roofing tiles come in far fewer color options than paint. Once you're down to picking the specific color of paint, it's a really, really, really good idea to put samples up on the exterior walls to consider in different lighting conditions. If the roof is done before you get to that point, you can consider the paint colors with the roof.

Congrats on the new house!!!

[sandhawke]

The roof will happen some months before the painting (ie first).

I should pick the roof color early next week. Any idea how to do that?

Your roofer will have a sample book

[drwex]

Actually I think we still have the one that our roofer left with us.

That said, the general advice I've read is that in northern climes you want a darker roof and the further south you go the more white it should be. We went with something dark blue-ish.

Color selections in roofing are much more limited than color selections in paint, afaict.

Re: Your roofer will have a sample book

[miss_chance]

Our roofing contractor left the sample board behind, too. I assume the colors change and vary by brand etc.

[kcatalyst]

I don't know what colors you should use, but I love the 6-color complicated Victorian look, so if I had a vote, it would be for for a 1-to-1 replacement system that keeps the structure of the original color scheme, even if other actual colors are used.