Exterior color - urgent advice required!

11 years ago

We are building a new home in Canterbury, Victoria, Australia, and are struggling with our exterior color. This modern bagged brick home is designed to sit comfortably with the Victorian homes around it, as it is single story, with a slate roof and wide return veranda. The veranda has American oak lining boards, solid slate colored pillars and a slate floor. The Victorian houses on either side are cream in color, and we will have an English style woodland garden. The big problem has been working with the aluminium windows that are in a Dulux color called Copper-Kinetic. This color works well with the American oak, but seems to look either greenish or pinkish depending on what you put with it. We are also unsure about what color to use for the shiny front door, which has a large semicircular bronze colored handle (that fortunately looks great with the Copper-Kinetic!) The builder is pressuring us to decide about this pronto!

Featured Answer

PRO

Lori A. Sawaya

11 years ago

Very wise to hire an architectural color consultant. Interior designer and color expert are not the same thing. Sometimes you need the focused expertise that only someone who works exclusively with paint and color can provide.

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Comments (13)

PRO
Cynthia Taylor-Luce
11 years ago
cathie, please please please contact a local interior decorator who does colour consulting. This is too important a decision to depend on us who are so far away and don't have the colours in front of us. Your house sounds wonderful and no doubt you've spent a lot of time and money on it. You should take that extra step for "insurance" and get a pro there pronto! :)

Cynthia
ctaylorluce@cogeco.ca
www.ctaylor-luce.com
abigailthecat
11 years ago
Light slate blue/blue grey siding and a shiny black door would look well with the copper color and the slate tiles/pillars. Do you have a photo?
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abigailthecat
11 years ago
Ops, sorry. You said your house is brick. What color is the brick ( I'm not familiar with the term "bagged" brick)
cathiej6
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks so much for your comments.

We have an interior designer working with us. She has suggested colors with a fair amount of black in them, that have a rather muddy, dead look about them that does not really appeal to us, and we think might not work well with our garden. Didn't want to risk offending her by getting another color person in, but it's probably not a bad idea!

No photo as yet. May be able to take some today. We obviously use different terms here - what is a 'siding'?

'Bagged' brick is brick that the bricklayer has gone over with a soft render-like substance which is applied before painting. You are left with a subtle outline of the bricks - much softer than a rendered finish, but more blended looking than just painted bricks. Hope that makes sense!
cathiej6
Original Author
11 years ago
Oh, and I should have said, the interior color palette is warm, so I tend to think the exterior probably should be too. Any further comments gratefully received!
blessedpkd2
11 years ago
siding is an aluminum or plastic material that is used on the exterior of the house. Although its called "siding", it is used on the front, sides and rear of the house. Its layered so that the top of each row is covered by the bottom of the row above or overlapped.
PRO
Cynthia Taylor-Luce
11 years ago
Cathie, since you have an interior designer already, you should be frank with her and tell her that you're not loving the colours she picked for outside. She should be able to give you some alternatives that you like better. Communication is so important in the designer/client relationship!

Also, the colours you have inside the house don't need to relate to the exterior. Outside, you're looking at complementing the neighbourhood and the landscaping. Inside, you can do whatever pleases you. Both are entities unto themselves. Good luck!
Toni
11 years ago
Go with your heart. If you want warm and not "dead" colors then try it. We started with cool colors suggested by a professional that just left us feeling empty. We finally ended up with a warm buffy tan that looks great in our dreary environment. Once I started painting the last color, I knew it was right because I couldn't stop painting.
zenhome
11 years ago
Some paint companies have websites where you can download a photo of your space (in this case your home's exterior) and view it with different colours. I know it is so hard otherwise to envision a new colour on the exterior from just a paint swatch.

Good luck!
cathiej6
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you all so much for your thoughts and helpful advice.

We have now contacted a color consultant who is going to advise us about the exterior, and colors for our home theatre and den, which we want to be richer and more dramatic than the rest of the home's rather neutral interior. We used this kind of service for one room we re-decorated in our last house. I don't know why we didn't think of this for our exterior color problem - we obviously needed a helpful prompt!
PRO
Cynthia Taylor-Luce
11 years ago
I'm so glad you've decided on a sensible course of action! I'm sure your house will look beautiful--just the way you'd hoped. Best wishes, Cynthia :)
zenhome
11 years ago
Great idea cathiej6, and good luck!