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eve_fairbanks

What patio colors would look good when viewed from our interior?

Eve
5 years ago

We live in Johannesburg, South Africa and our TV room has a wonderful set of glass doors that offer a full-length view to the backyard. Problem is, the backyard is a little harsh--cement steps, a rock wall, a gigantic indigenous rock, and the former apartheid-era "servant's quarters," just a big cement shed. (The colored pots in this pic are gone now.)


We need to repaint the cement building, which has a couple of other perpendicular walls outside the picture frame. I thought the colors below looked nice in swatches in the light. We can't paint it too light a color (no white), or else the punishing sun makes the area extremely hot. Do you think these colors would look good? Make the view softer/more inviting? I'm not sure my eye for color is very good, and I tend to go too saturated.


I will add plants around the cement building at some point, but color-wise those'll be limited to large succulents like aloes or maybe a red bougainvillea.


For reference, at the bottom is another room in our house, which has a lot of red kilim carpets. The room overlooking this view is dominated by two red carpets.


VIEW:
















Comments (14)

  • Eve
    Original Author
    5 years ago

    Oops--the pic of our interior room (not the one that looks out on this view, unfortunately) is here.


    Or would the rich brown color compete with our giant rock? Perhaps the brown rock should be offset by duller colors like these?





    We also have Greek heritage and I love the look of some of the islands. But I don't know if anything resembling those colors--as in the below--would work with this landscape.





  • Eve
    Original Author
    5 years ago

    Thanks! Just to clarify—you can only change one at a time in the Paint program? or according to a design principle?


    I’ll try to take a second pic today, but I’m wondering if a mixture of similar colors on this cement building would break up the monolithic feel.

  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    5 years ago

    In Paint, you can single-change a color endlessly. The drawing has a finite size but you can probably fit several copies on a single Paint "sheet," on which you could compare several colors simultaneously. You can enlarge or shrink the image to adapt how many copies you want to fit on a sheet. You could start a new sheet with many more copies with different colors. You'd want to block out/paint the colors before you make multiple copies as it is the time consuming part. Once that's done, changing the color to anything else is virtually instantaneous.

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    5 years ago

    Personally, I'd be inclined towards the greener tones....and maybe even a gray green like a sage color (rather than the yellow greens in your color swatch). Earthy tones tend to be too warm to me in a hot and very sunny climate and the gray green is cooling and soothing. And it blends well and compliments both plants and rocks!!

  • Eve
    Original Author
    5 years ago

    I don’t think I can access Paint as I don’t have a Windows device. But here were a couple of crudely done mockups on the Glidden Paint Visualizer:

  • Eve
    Original Author
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    peachy tone (I only did one wall):




    peach + sand (would be on different walls):




    'dark brown:



    pine:



    pale blue:



    dark marine blue:




  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    5 years ago

    Just my opinion but of those, I care least for the blues. Peach and sand seem too light. "Dark brown" and "pine" seem to have the most promise in terms of value, but I think they are a bit strong on color saturation. I would grey/taupe-tint them more.

  • gypsyrose17
    5 years ago

    A sage green might go well, I noticed there is a greenish grey in the rock work. You probably want to pick a color that will not make the building stand out. A sage may soften the harsh lines and blend it in with its surroundings better giving it a 'been here a long time' look.

  • groveraxle
    5 years ago



  • groveraxle
    5 years ago

    Are you trying to make it disappear?




  • tartanmeup
    5 years ago

    Yup, "go away green". :) Look at your mockups: pine is the most successful. Play around with those greens. Good luck!

  • Eve
    Original Author
    5 years ago

    No, I wasn't trying to make it disappear--just look harmonious with the wall. Looking at the brown, I'm actually wondering if a green or a slate grey would be nicer. It was grey before it was white, though, and that looked terrible.


    What about the idea of painting the walls different colors to break up the block?


  • groveraxle
    5 years ago