So we finally decided on a new color to paint our house and the results are going to blow you away!
Goodbye mellow yellow house, hello sexy black!
So, does anyone think we are crazy yet? The story behind it all is that a few months ago a friendly neighbor up the street who is a landscape architect sent me an email asking me if we would ever consider painting our house black and she attached a pic of a two story black house set in beautiful countryside setting as an example. Our immediate reaction was, wow, what a cool idea but we really can't picture this working for our house and our much smaller lot. We thought it might look too dark and overwhelming. So she then suggested using the brightly colored Scandinavian fisherman cottages as inspiration for a fun color, which I have always loved. We tried to find a bold color that we both liked for our house but nothing was really clicking for us. We then went back to our yellow house plan and after trying several yellow swatches of paint, finally agreed on just using the exact yellow that we previously had painted our house 12 years ago! I was also quite attached to the idea of having our yellow house back again.
Fast forward to last weekend, the painters were coming on Monday and somehow the idea of painting our house black got back into our mind set. There is a newly built house in a very similar style to ours the next beach town south that had been recently stained black. It was a perfect example that helped us see how good black could possibly look on our house. After a frantic weekend of finding black house examples online, grabbing black paint swatches and testing them out and then gaining an extra few bonus days to decide because rain on Monday delayed the painters, we took the leap to black and never looked back! Interestingly enough, black stained wood and paint is commonly used on Scandinavian country homes and is also quite popular on modern houses these days.
So now we can classify our house as a Scandinavian modern, farmhouse industrial, beach cottage!
We love how the white trim really pops out from the black and the overall look of it. It is not overwhelming and in fact looks quite stealth blending in behind the avocado tree. Next up, picking the color for the stucco areas of the house which will get a final smoother layer in the next few weeks. We are hoping to use a medium gray. We are also trying to decide on a fun color for the front door which will be painted tomorrow so check back for the results!
Come visit us on the Dark Side soon....
Wow...what a great change. Looks so classy...!
ReplyDeleteThanks Howard, wait till you see it in person! It will look even better once our wood decks are built and new landscaping along the driveway goes in. Getting close!
DeleteI LOVE IT!!! You guys did good! When I saw your yellow swatches I was secretly hoping you'd go bolder but also knew you really wanted the yellow.
ReplyDeleteWhen I switched our own house from yellow to a deep avocado, a neighbor said it would disappear with the yard. Boy was she wrong. Dark colors are so grounding and dramatic and look great with the white trim. I kind of like the gray stucco color in your pics. Thought that was the final shade. Maybe a gray would compliment the black and trim? Your tree and yard really look great against the house too. Hooray for you guys!
Thanks so much for the compliments Karin! We have had such an amazing response to the black, more people "get it" than we thought would. I think the new modern cottage style really is perfect for doing something a bit different. We were actually surprised how much we really like our house black! The stucco will stay gray but it's going to get one more smoother finish layer and we have to pick the final gray, probably something not too light and not too dark which we are currently stressing over! Can't wait to give you a tour of the house soon!
DeleteHoney told me you had painted your house black, too. We also painted ours black, too. But with red trim. We LOVE it! However, more than one plaint place tried to talk us out of it. That only made me want to paint in that color more. Your house came out great. Looks much different then when we were there. Hang in there with all that remodeling. It'll all be worth it in the end.
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