we want to be respectful of the house style. there is a 3 car unattached garage directly behind the house that we would follow through with the color scheme from the house. the barn is large with white trim on the windows.

What an amazing home. Gorgeous. I would definitely say white is the way to go, but I would stick with a black or charcoal roof as brown will really limit you as far as accent colours and future updated painting if you want to get more colourful. Here's one with architectural shakes, though I don't think I'd use them on yours. I'd keep the narrow siding and let the pretty details be the highlight:

This home reminded me a bit of yours:

An orange-red like paprika or cayenne from the bricks would be a great barn colour. Both house and barn could then have charcoal roofs.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us! I love both photos!:)

I would love a redish barn but we are using clapboard vinyl siding and my husband says the red will fade to pink. the barn is much taller than I had realized while on paper so making it appear smaller and less monstrous seems like a good idea but I am not sure. Love redish barns.

Yes, I've seen red vinyl siding fade to a very terrible colour :-/

Remember that if you leave the trees, with leaf cover the barn will all but disappear so you probably won't notice the height this summer.

It's a great property :)

Greek Revival…my all time favorite style of house. We have lots in New England. Enjoy this add: notice how all the attached buildings are one color.

https://vhcmagazine.com/2014/06/26/stunning-1830-greek-revival-house-for-sale-in-jamaica-vermont/

wow, beautiful greek revival. brown may be in the running now. thank you!

Lindsey, we love this beautiful place very much. we are leaving the trees and thankfully they will help hide the size.

thank you Judy Designs for the add for the brown revival. It is wonderful!

Here's my colors! Thistle, and driftwood shingles

I love the thistle(but my husband said greens are not a color he can do) This looks wonderful!!
what brand, style of shingle did you go with? do you have more photos of your roof? what a splendid place you have:)!

thank you for posting your build photo for me Heather!

We ended up with Certainteed Weathered Wood. They are supposed to be the equivalent to Owens Corning Driftwood. I'm sorry I do not have a close up.

Thank you Heather,
I was thinking weathered wood would be a nice brownish color for our home as well. Your home appears to be a new build? If so, have you enjoyed building it? I always thought I would enjoy building but just picking a roof, siding paint color for the house and barn siding has overwhelmed me. lol.

Heather, I noticed your garage doors match your side garage people door. They are beautiful. What company did you go with?

We hired a local guy. Yes I have enjoyed picking out different things. Just a little stumped on my kitchen. But once get my vent up, it might not look so busy. I didn't realize this chevron backsplash could be so tricky. I should have picked a white grout, but didn't want everything white. But now that's it's up, I should have maybe picked white grout???

Oh my husband would like that roof! He tried to convince me on getting aling lasting metal roof. I thought it would detract from the character of the house maybr. I was looking for something to look as it would have looked in 1840's. I was wondering if the octogons or slate /tile looking shingles would work well. would it be too busy? the dying shingles are flat black with no definition interestingly.

the abovecomment was for Beverly. thank you for the photos and ideas!

Heather,
I had white grout in my old home and now in this one:( Can I just say how not fun it has been. It gets dirty looking so fast after hours of scrubbing and bleaching. the darker grout had a different look, it has personality and ease of cleaning regiments. My experience with personality is that it gives a character we come to cherish even if it is something that at first seems not what we want. I now LOVE my tile kitchen floor(not the white grout, the white grout is on the counter top and black splash and looks dirty, always), when at first all I could imagine was a beautiful wood floor there. My perception now is simple character and the coolness in the summer on bare feet is wonderful:)

I would give it a try and see what happens. you can always redo it later if you hate it. It may become a feature you adore!
I like what it looks like in the small photo.
It may set a tone for bolder colored paintings or curtains which can add charm and character to a room as well.

hmmm, the photos are not showing up, nor did mmy first note saying we have the new roof on. yay! no more leaking. I will try again with photos.

Hi laura G, any updates on your pretty house?

Hi Lindsey, thank You for your interest:)
I was just thinking i should ask on Houzz again now that the roof is on for thoughts of siding colors once again.
You can see from the two photos I posted the roof appears to be a grayish brown. It is Owens Corning Duration. It looks very different than I expected even though I drove around looking at houses with the same roof. Trees, time of day, siding and trim colors all play into the effect it seems.
It is grayer than I had thought it would be. when it is wet it is much more brown
I am happy there are no leaks now:) I think it will look nice with the right color of siding and trim, what that is I am still trying to figure out.
I just put 8 Annabelle hydrangeas in the front and two Vibernums. We have many black walnut trees which produce a chemical that limits our choices a bit. the Annabelle are tolerant of it. Sadly the blue hydrangeas are not tolerant and die, so white Hydrangeas it is. I am so excited to see it with landscaping. the front was previously filled with vinca vines gone wild, weeds and poison ivy. We found out the hard way there was poison ivy. Not fun. We lived last summer and winter with black plastic over everything to kill the rest of the vinca, weeds and ivy we could not pull out
there will be a few more perennials added in blues and purples I think.
My husband has been focussing on the barn building for now. He is doing it himself and we are three years in now. It is quite a project.
I am pretty sure we will need to do lead paint remediation if we paint. We have talked about doing hardy board as we would not need to repaint near as often and avoid scraping lead paint as well. I have heard that doing anything but cedar, with it's need of painting it often, will devalue the historic aspect of the house. (It is not marked as historic. Additions have been added prior to our purchasing it, but it was originally built in 1840.) I understand vinyl cheapening it but I wonder if hardy board would as well. I can not tell painted hardy from wood on homes, at least from a distance. I am not sure up close.
It would be a seriously expensive undertaking to reside the house in Hardy board. I am not sure we are up for such a large investment just yet.

i have been painting the house in different colors on my tablet. It is great fun! I have played with pink, turquoise and other colors my husband or I would not really want on the house just for fun. A recent trip to historic Charleston inspired me. hehe:)
I will try to post some for fun.

Things I have noticed are that the lighter colors will show the greening on the north side. (we have a pond on the north side adding to the effect). It is not a good look.
I have loved the idea of making her back into traditional Greek revival farmhouse in white or slight offwhite/cream, but it would probably be a disaster with the wetness and the growth. I wonder if that figured into the last homeowners choices of siding colors.
the color is light enough to be bright but dark enough to hide dirt and green hues.
We put up some bright white trim and it needs scrubbing.
With paint instead of Hardy board, scrubbing could mean painting much more frequently because the paint will come off as cleaned and scrubbed. It is something to think about as I figure out colors.


The barn, which is only visible in winter, will be a barn red and is seen from the road as one looks at the front of the house, set back and maybe 20 feet off to the left. This as well is a factor in color choice.

i think I need to find some old house sites/blogs to review experiences of others with paint vs. hardyboard.

I will go take a current photo.
Cute little hydrangeas make me so happy:)
Welcoming thoughts and ideas here!

So much to process in your post, I'll have to wait until the kids leave for school lol.

Just one note, you don't have to consider the barn colour since it's red. A red barn is like a blue sky, the normal state of things!

Hi Lindsey,

At first we were going with a different color other than red on the barn due to fading to pink of the either red painted metal or red vinyl, but over the three years of construction the formulas for the vinyl have gotten much better for wear so we can now go with red! I am very excited about that!
you are right I really do not have to worry too much about the house and barn clashing.

Your home is so beautiful. Sorry to be a bit nosy, but any chance to get a pic inside? Especially the sunroom on the left, so lovely.

And do you have rooms upstairs with those windows under the roof?

pIaying with colors i have done on the ipad.

another color

a few mkre. one with the drawn in gallery. lol. dreaming girl.

Thank you Jen! I love it here!
Old homes are fun and fascinating. I am so curious about how people do their homes as I drive around. I guess that is part of why I love Houzz, we get to peak inside!
We found our home abandoned for two years needing much work. It is a lovely old place to live but definitely still needing much t.l.c. and we have done a lot already. The out door room and nature is fabulous and my dream come true of living in the country and nature! (My husband was already a country boy. ) I grew up in the city and have always longed for country. I got very very sick, so when we saw this house, it was a chance for a dream before anything worse happened to me. I could not have asked for more with giant trees, a pond and a hill with trails:) Alas I am somewhat in remission enjoying this amazing beautiful landscape as we work on the inside bit by bit. The reason the railing is off of that balcony is because it was leaking into the sunroom and needed major repairs. We are still in progress in there, water damage. the windows need some repairs as well.
The pipes froze and burst prior to our purchase so we had flooding in the kitchen, bathrooms and basement with subsequent wood damage. My husband is good at plumbing which made the purchase possible. He had nothing left to fix at our old house and was bored. He now has projects for the rest of our lives! lol.
I am happy to show photos but i had to give the scoop on how much we need to do before posting any.
I have visions of her being all fixed up, and lots of ideas from Houzz! For now, I am happy with liveable, not leaking, and no bugs flying in, no chipmonks (yes we had them and I think we surprised them as much as they surprised us our first night here!).
I will take a photo in the daylight tomorrow.
the amazing thing is laying on the twin bed in there looking at the snow fall, or the incredible green of summer! there is a giant walnut and oak tree in the view, as well as the neighbors pond.
I pinch myself quite often here! It is a dream, truly.

there are two upstairs rooms with two windows each on the front side of the house. They are very sweet with the window detailing. We just finished the guest room which us one of those rooms.
I will get a shot from there tomorrow as well.
thanks for your interest and comment:)

I love the blue on the second pic of the first group! And pink is a colour I would love on a house, but it would have to be just the right house. A cute cottage by the sea maybe...

Thanks for sharing a bit of your story, it sounds like putting this house in order has been very therapeutic for you.

Hi Laura,

Thank you for taking the time to tell us more about your home and the life you have there with your husband. I live in a little apartment so it all sounds so wonderful! I dream to one day own an old house with a little land around, altho I am thinking of something more modest in size! And I live in Australia so very old houses are pretty rare.

Anyway! Like Lindsey I love the blue you did above, it's a great match with the roof and the greenery around. I have done some more variations in photoshop, it's fun to do! I kept the white trims but it could be nice to paint them a different colour.

Will you add some shutters?

I was also wondering why the house has two front doors, do they open in two different rooms or both in a foyer/hallway? Maybe you can paint them red to tie up with the barn and with the chimney brick?

Different

lindsey,
It has been therapeutic and has lead to much growth and understanding of how much my parents went through, or anyone for that matter, as they renovate abd care for their house. I can not imagine renovations without the internet for information, videos and photos.
Pink actually looked awful on my house, but it was fun to try on as we use to go to a dearly beloved pink cottage on the lake as a child, so I just had to try it out.
The blue gray hint of teal you liked was suggested by my hairdresser and i enjoyed it, my husband did not. He ruled green out instantly. He is not a fan of Green on homes.
The search continues.

Jen,
How fun and cool of you to Photoshop and share, thank you so much!!
It makes a difference seeing actual shutters and clapboard.
these are all so fun. I love the different colors you used.
I like many of your renditions.
the blue and red is quite fun and would tie in the barn and Chimney. The front porch steps are red as well. alas they are crumbling and will soon need redone.

the home has always had two front doors.
there is a small partition between the two doors, then the rooms are open with a doorway to each other.
One door opens to the foyer, the other to the living room. We looked into making it into one single entry door but there is a middle support beam that can not be removed. My husband us 6ft 8inches. These tiny old beautiful wood doors are quite a hazard to his poor brain. We will be getting new doors he can fit through, eventually.
hear are a couple shots from the sunroom. It is mostly glass in there other than the bed and a table I am holding for our son. It is so incredibly hot and bright in there in the summer. It was a blinding pink in bright sun when we moved in. I wanted to tone it down but went to dark. It definetly quieted the brightness but I am thinking a warm blue in there, like the colors you and Lindsey liked on the house. I am also looking at traditional white for the room but not a bright white.



I lived in a tiny condo for years. We moved into a home in a new subdivision which had hardly any trees. I longed for

continued.... I longed for trees.
It was an odd story in finding this house. the market was horrible at the time. When the house would not sell, the owner abandoned it. It sat for years. The bank tried to sell it but no one wanted it as it needs lots of work. Thankfully my husband is a handyman and the price dropped into our range as we were looking that day. It had to drop a lot for us to even have it fit in our budget. The bank was so happy to be rid of it they put in the new septic, a new furnace and tore out the water damage for us. None of this we could have ever imagined happening, so I say to keep your eyes open if it is your dream, there are little gems out there waiting for someone who will love them! I hope you find a wonderful gem perfect for you! definitely post when it happens! Australia has always fascinated me. My friend from Bali tells me of her times living there:)

This is a large home but our adult sons hang out with us as one is in college, the other is figuring things out. We have had a few folks in need stay with us with plenty of breathing room. Family and friends from out of state often stay with us as well. There is a constant influx of folks here! Even though it has constant construction people say it is a cozy place to be.
It is a funny odd quirky home for sure.
The living room has seven doorways!, not one has the same molding treatment, and they are three different heights. Fancy and elegant it is not, but cozy and filled with love it is:)
My husband says it is perfect for Pet Cemetary, a Stephen King horror movie. lol!

I will post a couple interesting photos of the first deed on this land and a photo taken long ago here. The previous owner left it in the home when he left it, which was very kind of him. I have since talked with him. He was going through very rough times when he left. He loved this place as well and is happy we do too.

you can see from the old photo there is a change on the th side of the home. there was a fire at one point which lead to redesign on that far side. the burnt timbers of walnut which were roughly cut and made from this land were visible at one point in the basement ceiling. The bark was still on it in places.

Irene, thank you for the cool photo and swatch ideas!
I love seeing other Greek revivals! what a bright fun blue.

Jen, the trim is a cream presently. My husband is thinking of putting all trim in a product that will never need painting or decompose. It only comes in bright white, which is why I have stuck to white trim.
I am not sure he will use it. If we stay with wood trim, any color can be used.

another rendition.

That old photo is so fascinating, it would be fun one day to try and recreate it with your own family and pass it on to future owners!

I love the two doors, they are part of the house, I thought maybe there was a divide inside and at one point two households lived there.

Maybe you could make a part of the house as a holiday let. Lots of people would pay good money to stay in such a charming place and the money would help towards the cost of the renovation?

I like that last rendition,simple and classic.

Jen, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! I like the idea for funds for renovations!:)