Curb Appeal

Curb appeal has never really been my thing.  Kind of related to my disinterest in gardens.  It's not that I don't like these things, it's just really, I'd rather put my money (and energy) into interiors than exteriors.

Last fall, we realized that the siding on our house had possibly never been painted.  So we had to do that.  Somewhere along the way, my husband decided to build a couple of modern adirondack chairs. And a few weeks ago, we had a photo shoot here, and I actually put a little time and energy into sprucing up the front.

The lesson?  It didn't take much to take our house from bland to charming.  (Well, except for the painting--that was time/money/work.)

Here's the house when we moved in-ish:

And now.

I love how the paint colors took the look from contemporary but sort of bland to more of a modern cottage vibe.

And nothing cheers up a front exterior like a pair of flowering trees!

Of course, now the leaves are changing and my pots will die.  But I will have the planters for next year.

Bottom line?

I'm a total convert.

When you have to replace your siding....make lemonade.

Yes, I am mixing up that metaphor, but life may have given us lemons and I am staying positive.

A small piece of siding came off the front of the house, just under a window, and when my husband got some repairman types out to take a look, one of them thought we might need to replace all the siding on our practically new house.  Why?  Because it came primed but was possibly never painted.  Replacing the siding is worst-case scenario, painting the whole house and garage is best.  Still a whopping expense that we weren't expecting quite yet, but hey, it's a chance to change the look of the house, right?

Here's the current color.  Sort of bland and unassuming, but also neutral and modern in feel.

At first I was thinking there weren't many options, but of course that's not true.  There are lots of elements to consider: upper and lower s, house trim, window and door trim.  The more monochromatic, the more modern.  The more different colors, the more traditional.  Let's play, shall we?

First step: tweak the color (warmer, greener), add contrast trim.

Next up, add a second tone to the bottom half of the house.

Or how about using the darker tone up top?

Different color palettes start to evoke different vibes, too.

Modern cottage

Coastal

Or cabin in the woods.

If I had my druthers, I would probably paint the house black.  Did anyone watch American Dream Builders, Nate Berkus's new design show?  There was some controversy over the choice to paint the exterior of a beach house black in the finale, but I personally loved it.  Lauren Liess of Pure Style Home recently revealed that she had gone dark with her home's exterior, and it is pretty fabulous.  

Here is mine dressed all in black, or with high-contrast trim.

Only problem?  As a teardown/ new construction, our house is already out of scale for the neighborhood, and painting it black would be like giving our neighbors the finger.  And we like our neighbors.

I'm not sure what we will do just yet.  I let my husband play around with the paint tool, and here is what he came up with.

So.....There's that.

What scheme do you like?

Exterior Colors

This week is all about progress with ongoing clients.  I worked with a client on a whole-house (interior) paint palette as well as a design framework and some specific furnishing and rug selections, and they get so many compliments on the colors, they asked me to tackle the exterior.  Which of course I was happy to do!

I love the balance of bringing green against the orange brick, whether with dark olive trim

 Or light trim and deep, burnt orange mullions.

Pale green walls with ivory trim is a brighter take on the scheme, with charcoal mullions for contrast.

But green was a no-go, so we had a go at grey, another nice compliment to the orange brick.

In the end we went with a lighter/ brighter approach.

It is the least "different" from the existing house colors, but it gives the best hint at what's inside (like aqua living room walls!).  

What do you think: should the exterior of a house give some hint to what's inside?