Tai M I would use Connected Gray on bottom with Green Sprout on top. This shade of gray is darker and rather basic. For this reason I think it would look best on the bottom. Green Sprout and Connected Gray seem to have the same intensity, and I think they would go well together. I would use Muslim for both the porch and the trim. If you plan on using orange for your front door, there are four colors. I don't think you should use a fifth color.

I DO feel your pain!

If I recall, I posted on your initial thread about this. I understand how hard it is. Especially since all of your place will be painted. The beef of my place is the red brick, so I went round & round with sash & accent/trim colors.

If you can, I'd get some samples & try it out on the back of the house. No small paint chip will really tell you what it's going to look like.

But I do understand. Took me 5 years of trying colors...walking away for months...coming back...trying something new. It's hard & it is a big project & expense. Don't beat yourself up for not making a decision within a few weeks.

There is NO time limit. It's your house & your money.

One thing I'd like to add...if upper & lower have 2 separate base colors, do all trims everywhere in the same trim colors.

Meaning:

Color 1....top

Color 2...bottom

Colors 3,4 & 5...all other trims-upper and lower

Make sense?? :0)

I definitely agree about keeping the trim all one colour. You could otherwise end up with a complete mish mash (disclaimer however I am from England where our houses are brick, white or cream unless you live at the seaside, we don't really do colour on houses)

Tai M Are you sure you want to use orange for the front door? If you want to make a bold statement it would be all right because the orange goes well with your other colors. However if you decide to go with something more subdued, why don't you use Green Sprout for your door? That shade of green next to the grey walls would look nice.

From my uneducated view, you cannot improve on what you already have at the top picture, just splendid with the white stucco and the white or gray railings above.

Just paint your front door and spend the money on a larger tree.

cascio.offsite@gmail.com

Going to stir things up a bit. Your home looks somewhat like a Colonial to me. With that architecture I'm not sure that choosing those colors, which could go on any other type of home, are appropriate for a Colonial-style house. May I suggest you drive around areas which have Colonial houses to see what colors others are using? Why don't you paint the entire house (including the porch) a creamy white? Use black or very dark blue for the trim. If you used the dark blue trim, you could paint the front door a "maroon" color. (I have black trim with white front doors.) Just a thought.......

I agree with Cascio, I like it the way it is currently.

I like Kevin's 2nd photo best!!!

OK, keep all trim one color. Thanks, everyone! It's very helpful to have consensus on that question.

Bevier, thanks for confirming that Green Sprout and Connected Gray could work together. I like your remark about how they have the same intensity—that's a great way of putting it.

Not sure about the house being Colonial. It and the other houses on our street were all built in 1998 and I believe they are Craftsman-inspired. The house is a square box—almost like a foursquare—with full-length porches in front and a hip roof.

Thanks Cascio and Mmilos—though I have to tell you the house doesn't look so great in person! The stucco is an ugly pinky-beige and many of the shingles are blackened. I really long for some color. And Cascio, all the landscaping you see in the photo is now gone—I am going to plant a native plant garden (with a native madrone tree) after the painting is complete.

Kevin, thanks so much for playing with the colors, although the browns and dark greens are a bit too dark for me. I felt the gray-greens would be more cheerful.

I picked Spicy Hue for the front door since I want something fun and bold.

Bungalowmo—it's amazing how obsessed one can get over this! I have covered the outside wall of our garage with sample patches of color until it looks like a crazy quilt. At least I'm providing lots of entertainment for the neighbors, who enjoy walking by the house to see what the crazy woman in #201 has done now.

If you are in the US, most every state has a native plant society that is a wealth of information, periodic walking tours of wet areas and drier hilltops, plus nice folks to know. You can probable reach them on the Web by typing your state plus native plants. Good luck.

cascio.offsite@gmail.com

Tai M Love architecture and have given this even more thought. When you said you thought your house was of Craftsman design, I wasn't sure that was correct. Craftsman design is usually one-story and often has a pointed roof. (I grew up in Chicago where many Craftsman bungalows were built.) FYI you may want to Google Craftsman. However when we discussed this yesterday, I did think it might be Antebellum (rather than strictly Colonial) or architecture around the time of the Civil War. I Googled that and on one of the first sites, picture on left in second row appears to be somewhat like your house. Also you'll notice those homes are painted in white Our forefathers did not have access to all the colors available today.

Which brings me around to painting your house in a more colorful way using strong (intensity) colors. It seems you live in a subdivision where there are many homes on the block fairly close to one another. Painting your house in very strong colors may be jarring and take away from the serenity of the neighborhood and the good will of your neighbors. If other people painted their homes in various colors it could become a mixture of colors that is not very pleasing to the eye. Using the colors you have chosen, an idea might be to paint both top and bottom of the house in a lighter shade of grey using the lighter shade of green for the railing and other trim.

I think the suggestion to try out your colors on the back of your house is an excellent one.

I have both a friend and a neighbor (unknown to each other) who painted their two-story homes a medium shade of blue. In each case their homes are the only colorful ones on the block. If I hadn't seen my friend's home first, I would have been taken aback by my neighbor's house. Personally I rather like the color.

Bevier, thank you for your thoughtful reflections. I looked at the Antebellum houses you suggested and indeed, many do look like the ancestor of my house. Though I fear painting our house all white would make it look like...the White House!

My neighbor is the only other homeowner on the street who has painted her home, and she choose extremely pale green on the bottom, darker gray-green on top. It's the house on right in the photo—my place is on left:

So as you suggest, paler shades of gray and green may be the answer. Do you still think the darker color should go on the bottom? That is my impulse, though it would make our house an outlier, since all others have the darker shingles on top.

Honestly, I'm hoping that painting our home will spark a revolution of house-painting in the 'hood, bringing some more (hopefully tasteful) color into this bland street!

Less contrast is the answer. Currently it appears like you have two separate houses placed on top of each other. Why- because there is no connection between the two.

Shingles on one story and stucco on the other are fine but you need something to tie the two together. Your trim is key. Eaves, window casings, railings - they are all trim and should be one color.

Paint the eaves, the railing, posts, window casings one color or white they will tie the house together. Color placement is your problem.

I keep telling people that many of my clients would buy and buy - new doors etc which are merely distractions for a simple problem. Why waste money when color placement can really make a difference. It's not so much what color but what color goes where.

Tai M Glad to know you are considering some lighter shades of gray and green! I would suggest using a very light gray on the bottom and svelte sage on top with a very, very light grey for trim and door I think that would be just perfect! But...will the green on top be too much like your neighbor's? Do not reverse the two because then you will have to put a darker grey on top and we agreed you wouldn't be using dark colors. (I think a deep grey would be darker than svelte sage.) I chose the very pale gray for the bottom because her house is pale green on the bottom. But this leaves you both with greenish-gray tops! Maybe u should think of a different color scheme? This is something you need to give some thought to, but I'll check back from time to time and see how you are doing!

love gray as a neutral. darker on top lighter on bottom. the grays will compliment your brown shingles. the trim I would go a brighter white in order to make your grays really pop. have u thought of a brighter green on the door for a bit more wow? inspiration

Oy vey. I am getting a serious back-to-the-drawing-board vibe.

Old House Guy, thanks for the tip—no matter what colors I select, I will keep all trim the same color. And Londonvon, the color scheme you suggest is quite lovely, I'll give it some thought. (We will be staining the shingles whatever color we choose, so they won't be brown.)

Bevier, my original thinking was to steer away from very light colors because I want the house to recede somewhat. While it's not a huge house (1450 sq ft), it is tall, and the lot is very small. I'll spend some more time looking around and report back.

Great house!

Narrow two storey homes with oodles of white trim. Some are dark on the bottom, some not. The white trim does make everything pop though.

Thanks, Bette, great photos! My favorite is the second one down, the "Green House." It just looks so happy, doesn't it?

Tai M. Even before I went online I was thinking about what Old House Guy said about you having two separate houses, one on the bottom and one on the top. If you use two separate colors you will continue to have that same effect. I would like to suggest that you paint your house just one color with a darker shade (not too dark) on top, and then use white for the porch and all the trim. Paint the door the darker green (that is if you use gray). Let us know!