Choosing An Exterior House Color

When we purchased this house, I thought we'd be stuck with its color forever. Brown. Or maybe a more accurate description would be muddy taupe. I tried to make this color work for us by adding some sky blue accents...doors, pillows, seat cushions, flower pots. Anything to break up all that brown.

And then the painter gave me the news.

"You can choose any color you want. We'll be putting on two coats of Sherwin Williams Woodscapes solid color stain. Here you go."

And he handed me two fan decks of colors.

Oh, the possibilities!  We began biking through neighborhoods, looking at house colors and window variations.

There are a few things we quickly realized. For starters, you have to consider the color of your existing roof. As the painter explained, the roof is the hat, and that doesn't change. You have to find what will match the hat to make it a complete outfit.

Our roof is, no surprise, brown! But not a solid, true brown. More of a brown with a hint of a reddish cast to it.

I, of course, turned to Pinterest for inspiration and found this color combo that I loved!

A sage green with some warm earthy accent colors. My husband loved it, too. Win win!

We began to look at color combos in the fan deck. Maybe this?

Or this?

And then I gave them the true test by holding them up to our roof.

Hmm.

We stood at the sidewalk and tried to picture the house in these colors.

It just wouldn't work.

The fact is these colors would look lovely on an Arts and Crafts style home. But we don't own an Arts and Crafts style home. On our home, they just looked dark and imposing and not all together cohesive.

We stood back and looked at our end of the street. There's a lot of taupe around us. Taupe brick, taupe cedar, taupe taupe taupe. Mind you, I want our house to look as if it belongs in the neighborhood. But I also want it to stand out.

What about a nice cream with a hint of warmth to it? Something that wouldn't clash with all of the brown around, but would also stand out?

Navajo White, perhaps?

There it is, third from the top against our existing house color. Ooh. Much lighter! I think I like it!

And now for the roof test:

Better. Much better.

I began to picture this color on the house, paired with crisp white trim to set off the warmth. White porch railings, white pillars, white picket fence. And while Navajo White looks fine with our new blue door color, it would also look fantastic with other colors...a sage front door, or perhaps a wood stained door.

Today, if I were pressed to offer a final decision, I would say "Navajo White!"

Unfortunately, the painting will not get done for another four weeks. By that point, I may have changed my mind 27 times. ha ha ha!

Tell me...how do you think the house will look in this color? Remove the shutters, remove the blue, add in some crisp white detailing and lots of pretty flowers and landscaping.

Are you feeling it? Do you think this color will highlight the cottage farmhouse look I'm trying to achieve?