Help With Exterior Paint Colors?

last year

last modified: last year

Hi all! :-) Looking for some opinions on exterior paint colors for our 1962 mid-modest ranch.

The house has been through at least one unfortunate all-neutrals remodel and I’m looking to bring back some era-appropriate color at the very least to the front (side?) door with maybe some matching flower boxes added under the front windows.

Right now, the front face of the house is comprised of brick and cedar shake, with brick and vertical siding on the other three sides. We are open to (actually leaning toward) removing the cedar shake from the front of the house and replacing with the same wood siding that we have on the rest of the house, I’d love to also get some opinions on that as well.

The only colors I don’t think I’d consider would be white, beige, another light to medium gray like we have currently, or black. Definitely not looking to ”modernize” what we have. I have thought about dark browns, potentially like Ben Moore’s Dragon’s Breath, but I’m just not sure on accent colors with the brick.

Photos below! Thanks in advance for any opinions you can offer up!

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Comments (5)

Lyn Nielson
last year
last modified: last year
SW Rain I would keep the shakes, but power wash and put on a clear sealer.

if the white trim(s) are looking good, I would leave that as is.

I am not a fan of flower boxes, but yes, if you are up to the maintenance. Is your carport the front elevation, seen on approach?

I like BM Dragon's Breath, but it it really dark for an already dark setting.
Leigh Bryce
Original Author
last year
Thank you so much, Lyn! I do like that color - kind of a muted aqua! And you make a great point that I hadn‘t considered regarding the darkness of our lot. Our neighborhood is older, with lots of mature trees that keep us well shaded- pros and cons to that.

The pictures do make it confusing (I grabbed the realtor’s pics from the listing and now I’m questioning why the previous owners had a picnic table at the front of the house…) but the first one is our front elevation. The driveway is just out of frame to the right, and drops straight down to the carport, which you can just see in back right of the photo.
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cat_ky
last year
Be sure to keep your roof in mind when you are picking colors. Right now, you have what appears to be a charcoal roof, and the colors seem to fight with that a bit. A brown roof, would probably have been a much better choice.
Leigh Bryce
Original Author
last year
Thank you Cat, that’s a good point! Luckily (unluckily?) the roof is just about at the end of its life as well, so we’ll be replacing it soon also.
cat_ky
last year
Then, I would be picking the colors right along with the roof color, so you get colors that go together. Your brick should tell you what color that roof should be.