Hey everyone, it’s Whatever Wednesdays again. Sorry about the lack of a post on Medicine Mondays, been kind of busy with organizing stuff for Home Improvement. Today we’re going to talk about “Choosing House Paint Colors”.
Choosing House Paint Colors
So basically a lot of things began happening at once. My deck/lanai guy and my painter guy both recommend each other. So they are kind of doing a combo deal on my house. So it kind of started happening pretty quickly — faster than I thought.
So, I was feeling a little rushed on choosing a paint color for my house/deck. This is something that really shouldn’t be rushed. That said, I did my best to do my own research on house colors. My wife and I had already had discussions previously on which color(s) we were considering. In general, we wanted something that was pretty classic and conservative. There are a few reasons for this.:
One is that we want the house to look nice, but not have a stark contrast to the other houses. Two is that our HOA does have some limitations on housing colors which they describe as “earth tones”. However, if you really wanted to you can ask for an exemption as there are other houses that are blue, which are not technically “earth tones”. The third reason is that in the event that we needed to sell the house, we wanted something that would appeal to a wide variety of people so as not to limit potential buyers.
Hmm.. seems a little too conservative…
This last reason may seem like overkill, but you never can tell when you might end up moving. You can’t plan for it and having the wrong color house can dissuade potential buyers. Then they have to add in the cost of repainting the house to their liking, etc. Whereas if the house has a reasonable color scheme that at least isn’t strikingly bad to the buyer they can “live with it” for a few years and then repaint it later.
For example, my house when we bought it was a pale green house, which was one of the more standard choices for the community back when it was originally built it seems. However, as time has gone on, there are fewer green houses. If you had asked me before if I would have bought a green colored house, I would have said no. That said, the “bones” of the house itself was nice enough for us to buy and decide to repaint later —- which is now. Over the few years, the green has grown on me a little since we can just tell people, oh it’s the green house. While the house itself doesn’t necessarily need to be repainted yet, we’ve saved up some money to do the deck/lanai renovation. Instead of painting just the deck, we felt it was a good time to do all of it together.
So then… on to choosing colors…
Yea.
Choosing colors is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Our painter uses Sherwin Williams, so he gave us all the swatches to look at it. Like I said, my wife and I had a certain color in mind, but there are like a million variations of the color we thought we would like.
We kind of did things in a hap hazard fashion — out of order. I think if I had to do it over, I would have done it in a more step-wise fashion. This is of course, under the assumption that you’re using Sherwin Williams. If you’re not, substitute for your paint manufacturer of choice.
Step One:
Sherwin Williams has an application called:
There are Android/iOS versions as well as a web version.
Just to get started with the colors, I would use their photos, something similar to your own house and just go through the different colors. The reason for this is because they have already created the outlines for color switching and you’ll get a very good idea of how the colors will look.
After that, you can upload your own picture and try your best to match the colors. This is more difficult than it seems. Before you try, make sure the picture you have your house is in the best possible lighting with the least amount of shadows. By doing so, the software will have an easier time picking up the color you’re trying to switch — but will be significantly more difficult if there are shadows or the lighting is dim in certain areas.
Step Two:
Choose a few color combinations that you like. If you are unsure, it might be worthwhile to get the color a tone above and/or below the one you like as well. You’ll be amazed at how the color will look different on your house versus on the computer/tablet versus on the swatch.
Step Three:
If you’re early on then you probably don’t have a painter yet, just clean a side of your house and do some painting. If you already have a painter they may do it for you, with the understanding that they will be painting the rest when you’ve decided on the color.
If possible try to paint on a surface that gets good lighting because you’ll want to compare daytime versus nighttime.
Step Four:
Be confused at how the color looks on your house.
Look at other colors again. Use the Color Snap Visualizer App again. Just keep doing all these things until you really decide on the colors you want.
It’s hard.
I think everyone will go through stages of which colors they think they want and then it changes.
However, for my wife and I, I think we were able to decide on the color(s) we wanted. It was actually a tone lighter than we expected for the house color and a tone darker than we thought for the deck/lanai. The trim color of white never really changed though.
Step Five:
Make your decision and sleep on it. Then look at it again to confirm everything. When you’re ready, let your painter know and lock in your choices.
(This is where I am right now)
Step Six:
Watch them paint your house. Then when it’s all done, look at your new house and hope it’s what you were expecting… if not, consider changing it again in like 5 years. However, who knows, it may grow on you.
TL;DR
Choosing Paint Colors for your house is serious business.
It takes a lot longer than you might think.
Take your time, do your research, do some painting.
Try to make the right choice.
-Sensei
Agree? Disagree? Questions, Comments and Suggestions are welcome.
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