Choosing House Colors: Gray-Blue?

You do not have to look very far in nature to find a palette of coordinating colors from which to pluck your house paint chips. This time we’re looking at a glassy pond reflecting the blue of the sky. This blue, however, is not a primary saturated hue but rather a complex shade that has grays and greens in it as well.

So going to the paint store, you’ll want to move toward the muddy gray part of the fan deck and find your blue there. Stay away from the clear Crayola blues or you will end up with a house color that may in fact glow in the dark.

Look carefully at the colors around the pond and you will find your accent colors. Autumn red for the door, dark woody brown for the front step treads, crisp cloud white for the trim, and pops of golden yellow for your flower pots.

With nature as your color palette, you cannot make a mistake.

Choosing House Colors: Gray-Green?

Look all around your environment for color inspiration. Sometimes the most complex color palettes come from places we might least expect, like a kayaking trip, for example. Look at the different shades and tones in the water and sky. They evoke a calmness that’s relaxing to look at. Then the red kayak pops out of the photo — we know it doesn’t belong there but it grabs our attention.

What if we use this scenic palette for a house exterior! The gray-green of that water is not a color you would necessarily pick out of a paint store color chip lineup, but it’s a great house color. It’s muddy and dark and has a little bit of brown mixed with green and gray. Very complex — not a Crayola color, that’s for sure!!  But paired with cream trim, a brown roof and pops of red accents, the combination fits right into its environment just like the house was plucked from the shores of Maine.

Ceiling Drama

If your room has a high ceiling or an interesting shape or slope, paint it for maximum drama! This restaurant has creamy woodwork (molding, columns, and wainscoting) everywhere except the ceiling and the stairwell walls.  There, the paint color is a soft gray-blue. The effect is summery, warm, cottagey, and welcoming especially with the dark hardwood floors and accents.

Lighting is bronze, industrial on the ceiling and sconces for warmth along the wood walls. Mirrors double the width of the long and narrow space.

The food? (oh yah, that was excellent too!)

Choosing House Colors: Taupe?

When selecting the palette of colors for your exterior, use natural materials in the environment as your inspiration. This stonework has all the colors you need for your entire house, from the dark charcoal of the roof to the taupey gray siding and even the orangey brick walkway.

Tying your house color in with its surroundings “grounds” the house — it looks like it belongs there. A house that strays too far from the natural palette looks more like a spaceship that has landed on a foreign planet. Don’t do that to your neighborhood. Save your taste-specific color applications for inside the house.

Updating a Porch with Columns

When it comes to exterior design elements, if it looks too big up close, it’s probably perfect. And that certainly applies to porch columns. Spindly toothpick posts do nothing for the overall curb appeal of a house except add busy detail (Victorian houses with turned porch columns are the reluctant exception).

If you are building a porch or modernizing the one you have, select a few oversized columns with substantial girth. Resist the well-meaning but uninformed little voice that says the columns are too big for the house. They’re not.

Choosing House Colors: Lavender?

Looking for a versatile neutral? Ever considered lavender? There’s something really appealing about this color as long as it has gray undertones. In different lights, the color can go from blues to grays and paired with cream trim and dark brown wood accents, it has a richness that is refreshingly unexpected.

In Old San Juan, we see this color in, of all places, the blue tile bricks on the streets. But of course lavenders are found in nature in most climates so I would feel free to add lavender to your crayon box of house color possibilities. Just keep the shade subdued (nothing too purple) and like many other complex hues, lavender will be a head-turner in your neighborhood.

Choosing House Colors: Lime Green?

In many neighborhoods, the homeowners who chose this house color might be run out of town but not in this neighborhood where the color is prevalent in nature. The lime green (bordering on neon) fits right in! We see it here in the rainforest of El Yunque in Puerto Rico. What a happy, stimulating hue! And how appropriate to borrow it for a house color on that island paradise. It helps to pair this strong acidic color with a coffee brown or even black just to balance out the palette. But it works.

Use your home’s environment as inspiration when choosing a house color. But if you do not see the color in nature’s palette, then reserve the color for inside. Otherwise, your home might become a lighthouse beacon in the neighborhood. Great for identifying your house in the dark, but that’s about it!

Choosing House Colors: Turquoise?

Where on earth can you use turquoise for a house color? Answer: Where you see turquoise from your living room window.

In neighborhoods where rooftops are gray and the days are short, this rich blue-green color on a house sticks out like a bottle of mouthwash. But in the sunny Caribbean environment where the ocean is steps away, there is nothing more beautiful than the hue of the waves washing up on the beach. Splashing that color up on the house makes perfect sense as you want to spread the color around as much as possible. This house in Puerto Rico is a perfect example of how the homeowner chose a paint color from the environment’s luscious palette of blues and greens. Totally refreshing!

Christmas in NYC

New York takes on a special character during the holidays: strolling down Madison Avenue, walking by Macy’s window, and being part of the busy crowds of shoppers. All of that says Christmas like nothing else. The big, the bright, and the beautiful!

One challenge to decorating NYC for the holidays is how to make what is already glitzy even more noticeable and memorable. The answer? Big oversized displays and lights — lots of them — as we see in these photos.

Another challenge to decorating NYC is the scale. One example of a large venue that usually needs little embellishment is Radio City Music Hall. With its gilded walls, it’s already dressed for the holidays. But designer Thom Filicia and his team found a way to add drama to an already-dramatic lobby. They hung a white crystal Christmas tree from the ceiling — an imposing focal element as you enter the building. He documented the project on Christmas at Radio City Music Hall (an HGTV special: http://www.hgtv.com/radio-city-holiday/show/index.html) and after seeing the program, I checked it out. Even with all the crowds milling around the lobby, the decorations make a huge statement.

The take-away from this study in light and scale is something you can use at home. Go big with your wreath and other Christmas ornamentation or if it’s small (like lights), have a lot of them. If it seems too big from the house, it’s probably perfect from the street. Here’s a tip for decorating deciduous trees: wrap the lights around each of the branches and then the trunk. You will get a much more dramatic effect than simply winding the string of lights around the outside as if it’s a typical Christmas tree.

Enjoy your holidays!

Note to Bloggers

The worst problem about being hooked up to the world wide web is when you’re NOT.

As of today, December 10th, my  web-associated email is down. We are working on the problem.

To contact me: please use

bmeglis@yahoo.com

instead of bmeglis@yourhomeandcolorcoach.com.

I am continuing to answer questions, receive photos, make appointments, and help you with your color concerns. I am very sorry for the inconvenience.

-Barbara, Your Home & Color Coach