of all the paint choices to make, the most critical one is the exterior paint color. commiting to a color, means dozens of gallons of paint and thousands of dollars of labor. translation? you get it wrong, and it it going to be very, very expensive to fix.
like i mentioned in
this post, i will be painting the exterior of my house white. while that certainly narrows down my search a bit, it in no way makes it an easy one.
i want a warm white that is slightly creamy.
but not too creamy.
a white that is soft and a little crisp at the same time.
but not too crisp.
a white that will look great with the grey tones of the stone on the bottom of the house, and also isn't too stark to blend in with the surrounding houses.
after looking on houzz, doing a little googling, and staring at my paint deck,
i started the sampling with 5 colors:
**i always, always tell my clients to test the colors that they are considering for the outside of their house OUTSIDE. the direct, unfiltered light can dramatically change the way colors look! a color that looks soft and neutral inside may look washed out and green outside. it is absolutely essential that you paint a swatch of the color(s) you are considering and leave them up for a few days. you NEED to see the colors in different times as well....midday, morning, evening....the colors will shift and you may "see" that the white you thought might be perfect inside the house starts to look PINK at midday. (see below)
my thoughts so far:
#1
cedar key wasn't one of the samples i went to the store to get. the paint
guy accidentally mixed it up, and so i decided to try it out. it is a pretty color, but much darker than what i want.
#2
i LOVE the ballet white. it is a true "neutral" white. while if may look really dingy next to the snow, i am pretty confident that it will look crisp yet soft. it is my favorite so far, and once the siding is up, i am going to test it out (along with one more color) on a much larger swatch.
#3. maritime white.
i painted the samples inside the house, and originally liked maritime white the best. but as soon as i took the samples outside, i noticed it has some slight pink undertones. i think the undertones will be even more noticeable next to the very grey tones of the stone base.
#4
baby fawn is another really nice color. it is almost the same color as the dry wall that i applied the samples on, so it gets a little "lost"...but i think it is a nice option. i think it might look great with the stone.
#5
creamy white is just that. creamy and warm and really beautiful. however, in this hunt for the right white, the cream white is just a little too warm for what i am dreaming of.
here are the samples at different time of the day....
i asked my stone mason his opinion, and he was stumped. i think they all looked the same to him.
what are your thoughts?once i get the siding on, i will select two colors and get a large sample up, and then i will be asking for some more opinions!
