brown and red

What Color are the house to the right and left? It helps to know so the houses next to you don't make yours look bad or vice versa.

Good point. The one to the left is a light grey. The one to the right is a dark grey stucco if I remember correctly (or maybe it's dark green; can't remember -- we haven't moved in yet). Many of the houses in the neighbourhood are painted heritage colours. What's striking about this house is that it's shaded and very dark compared to its surroundings. Everyone thinks of it as the "dark" house. (This photo is deceptive. It has this kind of light on it for about 5 minutes a day.)

I sent three ideas for your exterior. All of them work well with gray or green on either side of you.
With the unique details of your house you could incorporate in a small way an accent color from your neighbors. First, do any of these colors please your eye?

All the images didn't come through so trying again.

Here is the third one.

Thank you! I really like them, the first two especially! I was thinking black and white for the trim would really bring out some of the details. Lovely. Thank you so much!

We did our last wood sided house in a colour called Heart of Bronze by Sico and trimmed it with Lancaster White....I did the veranda floor and accents in black....it looked amazing.

You can upload a photo of your home to http://ep.chameleonpower.com or redesign a similar home to see how different siding/colors will look.

Blue, with white trim. Pacific Blue or Heritage Blue.
There is a house in our neighborhood this colour and I admire it every time I drive by it.

Thank you, all. Your suggestions are all very helpful! Maria, not sure we can get the shingles back to original, but we're going to try. That, I guess, will also influence colour choice. I like soft colours like the green in pic you posted. : )

go for blue or green ,both will make this house stand out ...if you do not mind that!

Benjamin Moore Arbor coat Briar wood is a gorgeous taupe grey. We have it on our cedar siding and it looks great in all seasons.

Soft beach-tones like beige, pale blue and loads of off-white/butter will keep this house looking fresh even in the shade.

what color is the roof? In what region is it located?

I like a Williamsburg blue, or Historic Green with some black and white for trimming

I have a beach house in Ventnor, NJ, that was gray and dreary inside and out. I made it happy and bright. Notice that I painted the porch ceiling blue

I love maria's suggestion also. If you can't go back to the natural perhaps a golden brown would work. I would also suggest choosing the brightest green you can manage within that sagy color family as it will stay brighter with the lack of natural light. If you don't have enough pop in your color choices they will just get washed out due to the lack of natural light. I love the bright cream for trim also. White sometimes looks to grey without natural light but if you choose a cream with enough yellow it will glow.

Hi , lovely house , to get some light could you have an arborist do some selective pruning before you choose your color. Good luck , marianne

I would use a light olive green on the shingles, a cream color on the trim and facia boards and a dark greenish black on the windows. If the front door is painted, I would use a brick red with an orange tint.

It appears you have an historic home in possibly an historic district and would like to compliment the neighborhood. With that in mind, is there a preservation or historic society in your community who has historic color recommendations? And, often, house painters in the areas have access to the historic colors of the neighborhood.

A really nice up to date white, you can't go wrong then

Our home is similar to yours. This is a picture of the lake side. The door on the road side is painted the same colour as the underside of a purple heuchera leaf (coral bells)

For Craftsman-style homes, I think more saturated colors such as russet, dark grayish green, rust, barn red compliment the architectural features better. Shakes in colors that would naturally occur with weathering are best like brown, gray and tan.

Wow, what a fantastic response! Thanks all! Thanks for doing the photoshop, rinqreation! I do like those beachy tones and that would complement what we're doing on the inside (sea tones). The house is in Vancouver, BC, and, yes, there are a lot of historic houses in this neighbourhood. Marianne, that massive horse chestnut in front of our house is on city property. We can ask them to trim it, but that's about it. : ( We are having an arborist come to remove a couple of big cedars in the back. Anyway, thank you for all the suggestions. All ideas being considered at this point.

A pale yelow might look nice.

The color is really incidental. It should be dictated by what pleases you and modulated by its context, ie the next door neighbors. The key to developing a good color scheme is to first find the major design components of the house and their relationships to each other. The next is to figure out color placement in terms of value (the light to dark scale of color) Once you know how the color values work together you can punch in the same value in whatever hues you are contemplating.

The house sits up high so you want to act to bring it down and ground it. Start with the first floor and the siding below the porch. Make these the darkest value so the house has come weight. The next section is the second story and the gable. I would use a color a couple of value steps lighter than the base color for this. If you change hues make sure the two colors blend.

The next element is the porch and second floor balcony. Make the basic element of these items a light trim color: the posts, window/door trim, ceilings, railings etc. Paint the shake balcony element in the same color as the shake on the gable. You do not want it to jump out. It will naturally project but it is not an element that wants to make a major statement.

You should paint the eaves (soffits and rafter tails) in a light color so they will shadow and get noticed but you don't want to draw attention to them by highlighting them in a color.

Lastly to create a visual stop as your eye naturally goes up to the top of the house, paint the fascia of the roofline a dark Punch color. This will bring your eye back down to the interesting parts of the house. It would also be a good idea to uses a mid tone punch color for the knee braces and porch braces. You can see from these porch braces how using to dark a color makes them feel like they are stuck on the porch posts and could just be popped off. Visually these are essentially structural elements although they aren't actually and they should feel like they are part of the whole- so they want just a small degree of differentiation. The same is true for the knee braces.

Next: Color! This is up to you. You could make this a painted lady with strong colors or a quiet craftsman with monochromatic colors- or anything in between. It all depends on how you want you house to look and feel. Remember if you house jumps off the block it doesn't make you home look any better or your neighbors either and it also impacts your house's value as well. "Be outstanding with out standing out."

Love this Craftsman picture. Paint is BM OC-136 Celery Salt. And it would look great with the brown mullions.

Go to the Sherwin Williams website and try the color visualizer tool. You can find a house that's similar to yours and try different paint color combinations. It's very helpful. You might also want to drive around town and look for color combinations you like.