The Black & White of Picking Paint Colors

Painting, inside or out, is truly one of the fastest ways to totally transform your house. But to fully take advantage of all of that bang for your buck and achieve the transformation that you want, colors are needed that will pull everything together and make the materials of the building or space sing in harmony.

Sounds daunting, doesn't it?

It is really tons of fun, and one of my favorite things to do!!

A few months ago, I was asked to select the exterior colors for a client's house--you may remember the interior renovation of the same house I showed you a little while ago.....

As you can see, the house's facade had stone detail with BRIGHT white siding and black trim, which was stark and cold next to the earth tones of the stone. I was excited that they were going to extend the renovations/changes to the outside, and knew that we could achieve a much more cohesive and inviting look...

Using the tones in the existing stone, we worked to pull out the warmth and depth that was already there....

Even with new vinyl clad windows finished in bright white, I felt it was important to choose a different trim color for the other "white" areas of the facade (porch trim as well as window casings, etc.) that didn't just match, but rather gave depth to the bluish white of the new sashes. The warm white of the trim would smooth the visual transition from the new materials to the old in a subtle and graceful way.

It may be hard to see in this photo, but the trim around the windows is this warm white, which adds detail and richness to the overall look. Going with the bluish white of the vinyl would not have had the same results...

The door color was chosen by pulling out a dark grey green tone also found in the stonework...

& the same color was used for the garage doors as well...

Now that the colors and materials of the house's exterior are working together, the house has a more unified appearance and extends a warmer welcome to all!