Coordinating Brick House, Siding, and Roof Colors
January 9, 2013 § 651 Comments
In this brick house example, the dark sandy grout color was used as a siding color, and it coordinates beautifully with the earthy shades in the brick. Even the roof is tied in although black would have worked just as well. Contrast that with the pink brick and lemon yellow siding example below right. Yikes.
Sometimes there’s just no way around ugly brick except to paint it. And the results can be stunning. Not only have you made your house bigger visually by blending in the brick with the siding color, but also you have added texture to the house without the busy look that highly variegated brickwork can create. A great compromise and an updated house.
Your Home & Color Coach 
Hello,
I am considering purchasing my grandma’s house that was built in the early to mid 60’s. It is a tri-level house with yellow brick and white siding exterior. Currently it has very yellow shutters and doors. The garage doors are white and yellow too. It’s rather awful!
My wallet says that the brick must stay. So, I would like to paint the siding and the doors, but this is where I get lost. What color will actually make yellow brick look good?!
Thank you,
Sarah
Hi Sarah,
For the brick to stand out less, you need to blend it in with the siding color. I know you’re not crazy about the yellow, but until you decide to paint the brick, I would go with the same color that’s on the brick for the remainder of the house. Once the house is unified, THEN you can distract the viewer with nice black shutters and a shiny black door. You can paint the garage doors black too. The black will really make your grandmother’s house look classy and you’ll be happy too.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Baraba, we are looking at a house to buy, and I was wondering what color shutters would you suggest for this house with this color brick?
to see a picture go to
http://www.rvar.com
click “find a home”
enter mls # 725565 (top right hand corner)
Thanks!
Becca
Hi Becca,
What doesn’t work with this house is the dark brown sidelights around the door. They should be white to match the window trim and make the dark door stand out. If that problem is fixed, the house will look better even without shutters.
But if you want shutters, I would match the roof color on this house. Either really dark chocolate brown or black (hard to tell from the photo). And just keep front door and shutters the same. Of course, a little landscaping wouldn’t hurt either, but you know that…
Good luck with your house-buying!
-Barbara.
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
Thanks so much for your help! The roof is black/gray…I agree that would look great. Oh and the door- I completely agree- the brown is too dark! I think this would be a great house with a little sprucing up!
Thanks!
Becca
Barbara,
I am purchasing a home that is about 27 years old and the style of that time frame shows. It is cornbread yellow aluminum siding and has a redish-orange-yellow brick face. I attached the website so you can get an idea. I don’t want to have to paint the brick when I side it but am not sure which color I can pull out of it. I tend to like neutral warm colors. Help!
Teresa
http://www.starkhomes.com/vp/ListingServlet?SITE=STARK&ScreenID=LISTING_DETAIL_P&EXCEEDLIMIT=Y&totalFound=0&showMap=N&cd_MLS=300634
Hi Teresa,
From the photo, I really don’t have a problem with your golden yellow and brick house. But perhaps it looks better on the computer than in real life. You can always go with a more neutral warm camel color for the siding. That should go fine with the brick. Don’t forget to paint your garage doors a color that’s in the brick so they will blend in and not pop out so much. And you also might want to pull a color out of the brick for the shutter color or just go with black, my favorite brick house shutter color.
Good luck with your new purchase!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I really hope you can help me. I am researching what color(s) we can paint to update our recently purchased California Ranch home. We don’t feel that the color of the house coordinates well with the brick, although in these photos it doesn’t look half bad.
The color of the house feels more yellow and mustardy. There are lots of wood slats on the house and everything is painted the same color except the shutter (there are more in the rear of the house) and the front door which are black. I feel that the front entry looks very dark. We are also, replacing the concrete driveway with paver stones that will coordinate better with the light concrete to the right of the driveway.
Any suggestions for updating this house and eliminating some of the yellow blahs? Would white be an option and then what about the trim?
http://web.mac.com/sdewilde/Home/97_sullivan.html
Thanks!
Sara
Hi Sara,
Go ahead and take the shutters off your house. With your type of window (and the variety of sizes), shutters really just don’t work. You’ll be amazed at how much better your house looks without the shutters.
Then, I suggest you paint the house a gray green to blend with the roof and make the house appear larger. Nantucket Gray (Ben Moore) is worth a look.
As for the door, I would warm it up with a brick red — pick a color right out of your brick. The front door area is going to be a bit dark under the underhang, but the warm color will attract attention.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I love those suggestions – Thank you! One more question – is your suggestion to leave the house all one color – including the trim? I can’t tell what to do with that… I think it gets tricky because there are those wood slats…
thanks in advance,
Sara
p.s. I will send a post-paint picture when we get to it!
Hi Sara,
Your house has lots of odd-sized windows and asymmetry. I would just leave the trim color the same as the house to avoid calling too much attention to the different sizes and shapes.
Good luck..
-Barbara.
Your Home & Color Coach
I’d love your advice on our house:
http://elb.typepad.com/home/external-pictures.html
We’ve replaced the windows since this picture was taken, so they’re now white. The question is what to do with the front door, which is the same muddy light brown/taupe that the windows used to be. (There’s also a set of french doors in the back that are the same color.)
If you can’t tell from the pictures, the brick is multi-colored — at some point, someone randomly painted different bricks different colors.
I was thinking dark green, or possibly yellow. My husband was thinking blue or red.
Hi Elizabeth,
I suggest a rusty brick red to tie all the brick color
and siding together. It’s a great way to punch up
the front door without adding yet another color
to the house (since the brick is multi-colored already).
Hope that helps.
-Barbara.
Your Home & Color Coach
Enjoy your website. My husband & I are remodeling the house his parents built in 1954. It is red brick with a dark almost deep burgundy roof & white siding. What color door & shutters would work on this house?
Hi Sheva,
If the roof is truly a deep burgundy color, why not try a really deep eggplant (almost black) for the shutters and door. That would be striking.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
We have a 1950’s split level that is mostly red brick with a tan grout but also has white siding on the top 1/3 of the front section of the house that sits above the double garage (also painted white) There are two windows on this part of the house and they have burgundy red shutters (against the white siding…not the brick). The white is so boring and it looks like everyone else’s house on our street. Any color ideas? The roof color is pale grey. The front door is burgundy red and there is also a picture window that is trimmed in white and surrounded by the red brick.
Thanks
Hi Trish,
Try the grout color or a little bit darker (kind of a taupy tan) and see how that works with the brick and the burgundy. It will kind of blend with the roof color, but that’s okay. The real focus will be on the brick and the shutters/door. It will definitely be better and warmer than the white.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I am building a new home. The whole front is a light brown
brick with a grey mortar. The roof is black. There are alot of windows all done in white. Now I have to pick siding for the other three sides. Most homes chose atany brown clay color, it looks alright but I can’t stand the color. Do you think I could use a pearl or ivory siding, and would it be too much contrast. I would then make the front door that color too, should I leave the garage doors white or ivory?
Hi Randi,
How about a soft pearl grey. That would go well with your black roof and blend with the grey mortar highlighting the brick front. The white windows will also pop against the light grey.
You can choose a darker color for the front door if you want it to stand out. A dark, rich mahogany brown would be terrific.
I would paint the garage doors the house color so they blend in.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara
I am trying to find a more interesting trim color to complement the brick and alder front doors (which I love!). More on the french country, what do you think about the washed out sage green on the trim, and leaving the shutters dark, dark green? There is a lot of trim, and I’m not afraid of making the house look smaller, it is a good size. Picture to follow.
Thanks!!
Nancy
Hi Nancy,
That sounds fine. Sage is wonderful with brick and a nice way to surround your solid wood door. Are you planning on French country (rustic) shutters or are you not going all the way French…
-Barbara.
Your Home & Color Coach
I am purchasing a 1956 brick rambler and need to replace the roof. The brick is a deep pink (kind of mauvey). what color roof would you suggest? The existing roof is a white color. The shutters are black and the fascia is white.
Thank you,
Cathy
Hi –
We are replacing windows on a 1926 brick tudor colonial house. Can we aesthetically replace painted cream-colored iron casements with white Anderson casements without losing the integrity of the house? We know it will be brighter-looking and more substantial – we are worried about ruining the look of the house.
Thank you.
Hi Cathy,
Sorry for the delay! I would go with a dark charcoal roof. That will be great with your black shutters and pink brick. Much better than white.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Laurie,
Well, traditionally we see dark windows (often brown) on the older brick tudors. But if you already have cream, then white won’t be much of a stretch. You might want to check out going with brown, though, just to see what you think. I know it’s custom-order, but you might really prefer the look for your historic home.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thanks. It’s been a hesitation because new, white framed windows will stand out against the brick – – – – if you think the white Andersons will work aesthetically though, we’ll go forward. We are not thrilled with the darker window look but would have rather found a less abrasive white … do you think we’re OK then?
Hi Laurie,
It should work okay as long as you add a little white somewhere else. You didn’t mention your trim color, but if it’s not white, you might consider changing it to white. That way, the windows won’t stick out so much.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Front door color.
My home is a 2-story country estate type home with 3 doghouse dormers on the main portion of the house. The front side flanks of my house are a dark burgundy brick with black shutters and white clad windows. My 30′ front porch is medium grey siding with 4 floor-to-ceiling white clad windows and black shutters straddling a white storm door. My porch is finished with 6 white columns and white railing. The dormers are grey vinyl with white clad windows. My question is what color could I paint the front door. Currently it is the same color as the brick which makes it look like a dark hole. Suggestions???
I was wondering what color siding would be best if I have alot of brick on my house and wish to change the white siding to a color?
Thanks for your help, Barbara. The old white roof has been stripped off and just the black paper is showing. Believe it or not, it already looks better! ha. Black was the right choice. I went with a Tamko brand, rustic black. Thanks for your help. I can breathe easier now.
Cathy
Terrific, Cathy. I know you’ll be pleased with the result.
Hi Davine,
Since your front door is under the overhang of the porch, let’s try lightening the door up a bit. You already have burgundy, grey, and white, and I hesitate to add a fourth color to your palette. How about a shade or two lighter than your grey porch color. A lighter grey will contrast nicely with the white trim and the black shutters but will be light enough to see from the street. You might want to add a big pot of burgundy colored flowers on the porch or a wreath for some color.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara.
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Becky,
Try another earth tone for the siding, hopefully something pulled right from your brick. It might be a taupe or tan or it could be an historic olive green (look at Ben Moore’s historic colors like louisburg green).
Just avoid colors like blues and bright colors. Stick with earthy natural tones and you’ll be fine.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I have to decide on the color of the vinyl siding for my cape cod/brick house … right now we have: the brick, light grey roof and white gables…(we just added two doghouse dormers in the front and a 20 ft dormer in the back)
For the new siding of the dormers and gables, I was thinking of an ivory color (which seems to have a tint of yellow) or a pearl (which my husband says it looks like a dirty white!)… just because I’m sick of the tan colors in the neighbourhood and I want to change the “white”, any thoughts? Thanks
Hi Anita,
Why not try a grey green that would look terrific with your grey roof. Something that approximates Ben Moore’s Nantucket gray (HC-111). I’m not sure the ivory (with its yellow tint) will look so great with the light grey roof. Grey green is also wonderful with brick.
See what you think…
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I have to decide on colors for my newly purchased home.
see linkbelow
http://www.trulia.com/property/1051711323-421-Giesler-Rd-Jasper-IN-47546
I think I want to keep it white, but want maybe a different color for the doors and shutters. It also has that little bit of yellow on the front porch. I am also getting a new roof (as of now unsure on the color I want), so I was just wondering if you had any good color schemes in mind for this. Thanks!
Love your site. Wondering if you can advise me about color on the exterior of my ranch house–it’s kind of a ranch and a half–brick on the bottom and white siding with two dormers on top. Light gray roof. Black shutters. I’m thinking of painting the brick white to match the white siding on top (don’t like the two tone look) or redoing ALL the siding in a nice natural color. But then it might highlight the drab roof! Any help would really be appreciated!!
Jocelyn
We have a similar situation to Becky and Elizabeth where we have a multicolored brick rancher and boring white siding. I see a theme in your suggestions, pick a color out of the brick to use as the main color, use a cream for the trim, and a dark color for an accent for entry and garage doors. Do you see anything special in our situation here that might help liven up our house. Could we do a shade or two lighter at the top of the gables where the siding runs horizonally or will that be too busy? Also what to do with the posts and railings. Just paing them the main trim color?
I’ve posted two pictures at volleydude.wordpress.com
Thanks for your input!
Jim
Hi Barbara,I have new french doors in my kitchen that leads out to our patio. We are going to paint our kitchen and wondered if leaving the doors white would be alright or should we paint to match the walls? Our window trim is white.
Hope to hear from you soon..thanks
Bobbi
Hi Ashley,
I like the black shutters with the white, but you can definitely paint the door a more dramatic color. Just about any color will work as long as it’s in nature somewhere. The only colors to avoid in your area are teal and peach. But any other bright happy color would make a great door.
As for the porch, I would paint over the yellow with white to make the house look more pulled together. And as for the roof, you can certainly go darker with more of a charcoal.
After you pick a door color, use that as inspiration for either a couple of chairs for the lawn, a planter with annuals, or other spring plantings, and you’ll have a terrific house and yard!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Jocelyn,
What often goes well with a light gray roof is a slightly darker warm gray with crisp white trim. So when you want to do all the siding over, that would be a place to start. In the meantime, painting the brick white would help solve your two-tone problem. Okay to stick with the black shutters. Just add a little color in your yard.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Volleydude,
You’ve got it. As long as you pick colors from the brick, you can use them in a variety of ways to add pizzazz. Going a shade or two lighter on the horizontal siding would be fine. And you can replace the blue trim around the windows with a darker shade out of the brick, if you wish. Sticking with earth tones gives the best result. Make sure the paint colors are greyed down and not too bright (historical paint colors work best).
Cream for the posts and rails will accentuate the porch. Otherwise go ahead and select a color that will blend in with the brick. Either way.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Bobbi,
Yes, leave the french doors white. They will stand out against the newly painted kitchen walls and look spectacular.
Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Babara,
My house was built in the 1950s and here in West Texas, apparently pink was the “it” color for brick. It is almost the color of cooked salmon. I was thinking about painting the shutters and front door black but I’m not sure about color for the trim and masonite siding we recently installed on the back of the house (it used to be dark cedar wood). What can I do to tone down the pink in the brick and not make my one-story rectangular shaped house look tiny?
Your help is much needed as I do not have a good eye for these things.
Thanks,
Tara
Hi Tara,
Black is perfect for the shutters and front door. I suggest white or off-white for the trim (depending on just how much you want the trim to stand out against the pink brick) and then use the grout color for your siding (kind of a sand color, I suspect). Everything will blend except for the black, which will make the house look finished and terrific.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
We love your site! We too have been struggling with a brick/siding/window color decision for as long as we’ve owned the house. Here is the deal…we have a traditional colonial with brown brick that has tones of black, kinda earthy. We currently have a yellowish-off white siding that we NEED to paint any other color. We would love some advice on this before we plunge into the project of replacing the windows and painting the aluminum siding. We have pictures but we couldn’t find a way to attach them. We would really appreciate some advice, thanks in advance for your time.
Hi Barbara,
The shutters are working, with the hooks on the side to hold them open. They are not that rustic. Did a picture ever come through? I am #20 above. Didn’t realize you had answered, fabulous site!
Nancy
Barbara,
Here is the link for #47
./Users/nancyburke/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2007/HOUSE (ALVERMAR RIDGE)/IMG_1097.JPG
Hi Sandra,
I suggest staying on the earthy side for your siding. Check the grout color and see if it would make a nice siding color. It’s usually a sand color. Using the bricks for your color palette will make the whole house color-coordinated. Since your brick is mostly brown, you can choose a rusty red for your door, a rose red, or another warm color that will compliment the brown. But I would stay neutral for the siding.
Hope that helps. You can drop a photo link into your next note and I’ll have a look.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Nancy (from #20),
I couldn’t access your photo (I think the URL was incomplete), but I’m so glad the shutters are working out for you. Keep me posted.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi!
We live in a Split level home with red brick on the bottom of it. We will be adding on a 2 car garage with a master BR (dormer) on top of it. We will be continuing the red brick on the garage, but will be putting siding on the top front, the dormer & the side of the addition. I would love to do a porch with white trim in the front as well. We love color & would hate to do a boring tan color for the siding. We thought of doing a soft yellow with green shutters or a bue-grey with black shutters. Any thoughts on this would REALLY help!! Thanks!!
Christina
Hi Barbara-
Your site is fantastic! We recently purchased a home that needs quite a bit of love. It’s a red brick home with a dark brown roof and an attached garage that has brown siding. Also, the window trim is brown. We are thinking about updating the existing brown shutters with another color. Unfortunately, we have no clue what that color should be. Do you have recommendation on a color that may complement this brown scheme? Thanks so much!
Hi Christina,
How about a sunshine yellow with black shutters. Red and yellow are a great color combination and the black shutters dress the whole look up a bit without adding yet another color. If you like color, I think you’ll love that combo.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Trina,
Have you considered leaving the shutters off the house? With the brown trim, you have a dark accent color already and you may not even need shutters.
Have a look.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thanks Barbara! That sounds nice.
Christina
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for the advice! I hadn’t thought about removing the shutters but am going to give it a try!
Thanks!
Trina
Barbara-
My 1916 colonial house is in need of a little “curb appeal” and I am struggling a little. I really like the current color of my house, mid olive with a darker olive trim, but I thought I would love to pop a little eggplant purple-y color to add a little pizazz. There are so many windows (26 windows per floor), so I think to do all the trim in the eggplant would be too much. So I was considering the front door, although I am not sold on this either because there is an enclosed front porch and all the windows have white trim, it wouldn’t flow because all the white trim on the porch windows. Perhaps the risers and the platforms leading up to the front door. There is red paint peeling from the steps now, so I really want to cover it up. Can you advise?
Thanks-
Pam
My 1916 colonial house is in need of a little “curb appeal” and I am struggling a little. The current color of my house is mid olive with a darker olive trim, but I thought I would love to pop a little eggplant purple-y color to add a little pizazz. I think to do all the trim in the eggplant would be too much. So I was considering the front door, although I am not sold on this either because there is an enclosed front porch and all the windows have white trim, it wouldn’t flow because all the white trim on the porch windows. Can you advise?
Thanks-
Pam
My wife and I are looking at purchasing a older home to rent out. The main reason we have not purchased this house is that it has mauve colored brick 1/3 of the way up. The siding is white with a slight pink tint and the trim is pink. We are really not fans of pink. What color combination would you recommend to us. This link is to a pic of the house.
Barbara,
I have a 1970 colonial with old red brick on the bottom half of the house and white siding on the top with black shutters. The front door is a double door painted white with glass and brass sidelights. The front porch area is covered. I would like to paint the front door a more interesting color. I’ve considered black but am afraid it would be too dark on the 2 doors.. And suggestions?
Thanks!
Liz
Hi Pam,
Sorry for the long delay. I love the eggplant idea, but how about painting all the window trim eggplant as well as the front door. Then the rest of the trim, including the door frame, side/corner trim, and other trim boards/fascia would be the darker olive. If you don’t have shutters, the eggplant trim is a nice way to add some contrast to the window areas.
If you think that would be too much, then I would stick with all white window trim (porch windows and all others) and then paint the front door eggplant plus the porch stair risers. The other thing to do is make sure you plant a nice lilac bush in your front yard and have spring irises around the house as well. Your house will be a knock-out!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Joe,
If you plan to keep the siding color, then you can go with a cocoa brown trim (medium tone) to give you some contrast between the white roof and the white siding and outline the house a bit. I definitely would paint the wood siding on the porch to spruce that up and spray paint the ironwork to black. The pink brick doesn’t bother me at all, but the pink trim, unless you’re in the Florida Keys, might be a bit much.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Liz,
I like black, but if the porch is covered, it will be dark. How about a dark brick red (brownish, not pink) to go with your brick and warm up the front door area? Just err on the side of a brownish rusty red, not tomato or maroon. Then you’ll be all set.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
thanks for the info! Im thinking of changing the white siding too. Any ideas?
Hi Joe,
Since you might change the siding, I suggest either a warm medium gray and white trim (to contrast with the light gray roof) or a medium taupe with the cocoa trim I mentioned earlier. The chimney and the brick facade are tied together. Believe it or not, the roof is a bigger factor than anything else.
You could also go with a grey-green for the siding (and use the same color or a slightly lighter tone for the trim).
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We are getting a new roof, and cannot decide between a light weathered wood shingle or a dual black shingle. We have a traditional brick house with white pillars in the front, white trim, black shutters, and a small amount of white siding on one side of the house. Any help would be great. Thank you!
Hi Mark,
I think you’ll be really happy with the traditional black shingle. Especially with your black shutters and white trim. The other light weathered wood is nice but it just doesn’t have the punch of the black on your house.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I love your site and would really appreciate your help with my house! I have a red brick front cape with new neutral/warm med. brown siding, old black shudders and a freshly painted shiny black door.
I think I need to change the roof color and lose the white screen door. Should I paint the brick a more neutral color or multi-color? I’d like to replace the screen door, but what color? Black? I was also going to replace the black shudder with new panel-style black ones.
I would appreciate your thoughts!
http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk15/mrlektn/
Hi, Barbara, our newly-bought older home has a brick color similar to Tara – it’s an odd shade of orange with a neon pink tinge, like orange sherbet mixed with Barbie doll hot pink and the mortar is the exact same color. The roof (in great shape) has camel shingles.
We want to try repainting the trim, but don’t like the white usually seen with most orangey brick and the black shutters/door idea really accentuated the brick/roof color clash when we tried it (using Photoshop). The trim is long and low, like a straight line around the whole house. I really want to use some color, but I can’t find any shades of darker red or green that work with this brick – it’s such an odd shade, as if the batch had been mixed up wrong back in ’61!
I feel like painting or staining the brick may be our best option. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Mandie,
I would go with a dark charcoal roof — very traditional — for your style of house. Then get a black screen door, and you’re all set. I would keep the brick as is. The shutters should stay black, but any style is fine.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Jill,
Well, that is a tough one. What surprises me is that the grout color is the same as the brick. Almost like the whole house has been painted that odd color. Hmmm… in your case, you might want to look into having it painted since the standard color solutions have already been tried, and I don’t think any shade of red or green is going to help the situation.
Usually when you want a color to kind of go away, you use a version of that color to blend trim and siding and in your case make the roof stand out. But I don’t think more of that color is going to make you happy.
Paint or stain sounds like a viable solution. I would talk to the experts at your local paint store and see what they suggest.
Hope that helps a little.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thank you!!!
Here is a link to a house plan that is being built. My ugly photoshop job shows that there will be
two dormers at top, a porch to the left and a window on porch.
The front A-Frame will be brick as will the bottom of the house. The rest of the house will be vinyl siding.
What kind of brick/shutter/shingle color combo would go well with silver(kind of gray) siding? Thanks for your help!
http://api.photoshop.com/home_2fb5a77c31ec44f19c6908941b3de254/adobe-px-assets/812333442d5d402a8e162c1255c65634
Hi Barbara,
My family and I live in a ranch style home that is like all the others on the street. Because we cannot change it structurally and that it is in need of new siding and we are getting ready to choose siding for it. My father is an architect and has suggested that we use two different colors of siding, giving it a distinct look and separating it from the other houses on the street. The two colors are granite and a light tan color. The granite gray would go from the bottom of the house to the bottom of the windows. At the windows, we would next put wood trim around the perimeter of the house and also flank the windows; we would paint it a coordinating color. Then we would put the light tan on top.
I have two concerns with this; the first is that I just cannot picture it, the second is that we do not plan to live here for more than 4 or 5 more years and want the house to appeal to as many people as possible and I wonder if this is too different.
Please, if you have any suggestions or advice, I would love to hear it. Thanks
Krista
Hi Barbara…we are building a new house (and very excited). Anyway, our biggest dilemma so far has been brick and siding colour. I have added “renderings” of the front and back of the home on our blog: http://jewittfamily.blogspot.com/
Anyway, we were thinking we would put white vinyl board and batten siding and red brick. We would have white windows and white garage doors. Do you think this would look ok? As you will see, there are 3 dormers (1 in the front of the house and 1 in the back). Could you suggest any other colours? We have seen red brick with tan siding but we are not sure it would look ok with the white windows and white garage doors. Any input you have would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Laura
Hi Barbara —
I love your site and was hoping you could help with a couple of questions. We’ve been in our house about 6 years and are finally ready to update the exterior .. new roof and siding (shutters and front door). Do you have any suggestions ..all I know is I’d like white trim and need to work with the white garage door. Also we had the idea of extending our porch .. as you look at the house, to the right, to the end of the house. We live on a cul-du-sac which our kids constantly play on so we think we’d use the seating area plus add some curb appeal??? Thanks so much!
Hi CLO,
Nice house plan! Are you already settled on the gray siding — is the brick already up? If you have the gray siding picked out and that’s it, then you can go with any brick that has black in it. Then I’d go with black shutters and a dark charcoal roof. That should pull the look together.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Krista,
That kind of two-tone look works best on Victorian style homes with high, steeply pitched roofs. I’m guessing yours is not like that if it’s a ranch. Personally, I prefer to keep the house all one color. It unifies the house and makes it look as big as possible. Also best for resale.
When you move in 4-5 years, then you can revisit your Dad’s ideas about color. Tell him to hang onto them a bit longer.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara ..here’s pictures for my post – 76.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jgnospeliuschicago/HousePhotos?authkey=1f2tNRyJRlk.
Thanks!
Hi barbara:
We just moved into a 15 year old brick home – and I want to change the color of the shutters and the front door. They are currently dark green – which has no connection to the brick color at all. I have posted a photo of the front of the home, and a close up of the brick which has some rust, and gray tones running through it. Do you have any ideas for me?
I have a dark gray color that I am considering, and also a rust color – but I am not sure how either will look. Also, there is almond trim around the front foor, and the garage and siding is almond as well. Should the door be the same color as the shutters – or almond as well?
http://www.flipdrive.com/eimin/
eileen
Eileen
Hello I have a ranch home 19 years old white in color black shutter and cute landscapinf i need a new roof i want artictural shingles i want o use black dual or else charcoal the roof isnt very steep but will be visable can i use these colors everything is clean and neat thank you
pollyk2@verizon.net
Hi Laura,
You didn’t mention what color your roof is, but you might consider a camel color for your dormer as well as the garage doors. It’s okay to have white windows. But the white dormer and garage doors will give you a lot of contrast between the white and the brick and you might like to smooth out the look by going a bit warmer with the siding and doors. That way the roof and brick and dormers will blend a little better and make the house look less chopped up (and more grand).
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Jennifer,
The sky’s the limit in terms of choices and combinations, but what about going with a nice soft olive green siding color which would look terrific with your brick. White trim is fine, but I would definitely paint your garage door to match the siding color. It’s really white at the moment and very prominent. You can paint metal doors — I did mine and it’s weathered fine. Just make sure you clean the door really well using TSP before painting.
I would stick with black shutters and dark gray roof.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Eileen,
I know you want to use the brick color for your shutter inspiration, but the colors in the brick are very subtle and when you stand back at the street, the roof and brick blend quite a bit giving an overall kind of gray house. With that in mind, I like the idea of black shutters and a shiny black door. You have so many wonderful windows– black gives the house that dressed up feel. I think so many rust shutters might be a bit too much and dark gray will blend too much with the brick and roof.
See what you think.
Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
I am very excited that I found this website. My wife and I purchased a ranch built in 1978 from the original owners that needs updating inside and out. As you will see in the pictures, it has board and batten siding, dark brown gutters and downspouts and a tan roof. The shutters on the house have been removed and will not be replaced, the house looks much better without them.
Our question for you is what would be a good color for the house to compliment the roof? As you can see in one picture, there is also some stone on the front of the house that has an orange tint to it. We are thinking of painting most of the trim, except for windows, porch posts and gutters the same color. We would prefer not to paint the house beige, but we are having a hard time figuring out a color that won’t make the roof stand out. That may be impossible considering how much roof area there is because of the overhangs and garage.
Thank you very much for any suggestions.
I forgot to mention that we are in Vermont, and our neighborhood is a mix of new england style homes and colors. We would love to stay with that style.
Hi Todd,
Why don’t you try Benjamin Moore’s Richmond Gold. It will look great with your rock facade and may be okay with the roof if there’s enough contrast between the two. It will certainly lighten up the front and look fantastic during your Vermont autumn.
Hope that works for you.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
That looks like a great color. If we decided to do the trim a different color, would you suggest something light like the Sepia Tan or something darker like the Baked Pretzel. I plan on redoing the landscaping in front and like how the Richmond gold would provide a nice contrasting background to the green vegetation.
Hi
its joe again. My wife and I should say I as well, were hesitant on the idea of painting all of our white trim (including the huge Bay window) the same tan color as the garage. In reading more on this site, it says that the garage doors should be the same color as the home. What if the home is red/orange Brick? also, our shutters were painted black, and the front door was painted black, have you ever heard of the garage doors being black? We are so lost. Also, the black we had painted on the front door was a High Gloss, and I think it needs to be a “Tone” less glossy. Your thoughts on both questions. HELP….smile
Hi Joe,
Garage doors should be the same color as the home when the house is siding, not necessarily brick or stone. I must go back and clarify that point.
As for your house, you have a couple of options. It’s okay to paint the trim the tan color. It will certainly take away much of the contrast that you’re seeing with the white, but it might turn out a bit drab. The alternative is to paint the trim a nice soft cream that will soften the windows and the brick edges but still provide some contrast. Then you paint the shutters and front door a semi-gloss black. High gloss is okay, but as you’ve seen, it’s really shiny! Some people like that look and it’s fine, but you can bring the sheen level down.
As for the garage doors, if you have a huge double door that would be really imposing if painted black, then I suggest either the tan or the trim color. Either on a brick house is fine –you’re trying to minimize the garage door. Usually it’s not supposed to be the focal point — that’s reserved for the front door. But a lot of people paint the garage doors black on a brick house. It’s quite a classic look. Just surround the doors with the light creamy trim and you’re set.
I hope that helped to clarify.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
Hello, your website is great! We have a 1000 sf. ft. ranch, that is light pink brick. I want to hide the pink color as much as possible. We are painting the garage (siding) and the Fascia board, and also the front and side doors. We dont have any shutters, Although I would love to have shutters our light at the front door would be in the way of one… Do you have any suggestions on that also? What other colors other then black would go with light pink? I like sage greens but I’m not sure if that would look the best.
Thank you very much 🙂
response to posts 73 and 77.
I only have the block for the basement in place. I do not have any shutters, brick or siding yet, but will need to tell my building within the next couple of days. So, silver/grey siding is not a sure thing yet.
I wonder if it would look better to simply take the brick off the front of the house?
The house will have white trim, including the porch.
Dear Barbara,
I am hoping you can give me some guidance…I desperately need it! I found your blog when I was searching on the net on how to pick roof colors.
I have sent you an email with the photo of the house attached…
We purchased this house 3 years ago, and we now need to replace the 20 year old roof. It is presently an asphalt earthtone cedar colored shingle. I find the house looks very “blah” in terms of curb appeal. Could you give us some insight as to what we can do to bring it to life? I really like a historic and traditional/country look. We are looking at architectural fibreglass shingles which give it a bit of a “shake or slate” look…We can not afford anything more expensive. Would this look be fine or should we stick to the basic asphalt shingle… In terms of colours…greys, taupes, warmer browns, black, What do you think? Something darker or light?
We would also like to paint the front doors, garage doors and shutters this summer… What do you suggest in terms of colors?
All the trims are currently cream.
Please let me know what you think. I appreciate your thoughts and any guidance would be helpful.
Thanks so much,
Lorena Cyfko
Oops…I don’t think I was succesful at emailing the photo of the house…so here it goes. Please copy and paste the link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25670403@N03
Thanks again,
Lorena
hi we are in the process of siding our home. we picked a granite gray cedar impression siding for the front and a sterling gray for the sides and back. our roof color is black. we also chose a snow white trim. do you have color suggestions for the shutters and the front door thanks
Hi Mary,
I like black shutters on a gray house with white trim. It’s a very classic look. But for the front door, I suggest something really warm and inviting like a rich red raspberry. Then use lots of light pink and raspberry in your annuals and flowering shrubs. Terrific look!
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi again CLO,
That’s one solution — to take the brick off the front of the house. It’s not cricital, but the brick/grey combination is kind of cold for your house. Brick looks better with warm colors/tans/greens. I do like grey/natural stone with grey siding however. That’s a really nice look.
I’m not sure I’m helping you, but I guess if you would like grey siding, I would use stone instead of brick. If you want to keep the brick, I suggest an earthy color like camel or a soft olivey green.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Lorena,
I suggest a dark charcoal roof color, almost black, with very little variegation. You have a traditional brick so it’s busy and you don’t need more pattern on the roof. (A traditional shingle would do the trick and it’s cheaper too!)
As for shutters, I would get wider ones and black. The current shutters look a little skimpy for the size of the windows. And you have black lights so the black shutters will look great.
As for the garage doors, I would paint them the same as your siding color (tan). And I like the front door as is since it’s under an overhang and kind of dark in that area.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Kelly,
Sage and pink are nice together; however, the sage green is a complimentary color to the pink (red) so the pink brick will REALLY stand out. I’m not sure you want that.
As for shutters, dark chocolate brown is also good with pink as is charcoal grey. The neutrals are going to “neutralize” your pink better than greens and blues.
Is there room above the door to put a front door light so you can free up the space by the window for some shutters? The dark neutral shutters (black, brown, or grey) would really help to make your pink brick look spectacular.
Hope that works for you.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thanks so much Barbara!
You just confirmed what I was thinking…a more “solid” colored roof would look better with the busy brick.
As for landscaping… we are thinking of removing all those shrubs in front of the window. Any thoughts here? The spruce tree is huge…should we do anything with it?
You are very helpful….I am sure I am only one of many who appreciate your talent.
Lorena
Hi Barbara,
One more question…
In terms of new shutters for the large windows, is there a “rule” I should go with in terms of determining the ideal width? I have noticed shutters come in all sorts of widths, even up to and over 2 feet.
Also, should I stick to the louver type shutter, or panel type?
Thanks SO MUCH again,
Lorena
Hello Barbara,
I have forwarded images of the house to your email address. I possible I could use advise creating some curb appeal. The house was build in the last 1980’s. I’m guessing that the builder used all the left over bricks from the rest of the homes on the block to built this one. There are so many brick colors I can’t decide what to do! I am open to any suggestions. I have even considered painting the brick! I found your website while looking for advice regarding painting brick. However if there is anyway to pull the brick, trim & accent colors together, I’m interested. One accent color I have considered is to paint the front door a dusty teal paint & possibly add shutters but I have no idea what color shutters?!?
These decisions are totally out of my comfort zone!
If you could suggest a color direction, I would greatly appreciate your time!
Thank you!
Dee
Hi Barbara:
We purchased a 20-year-old home last year. The brick is pink and pretty uniform in colour. The roof is dark brown and relatively new. The siding, which other than soffit and eaves is only visible from the sides and back, is cream. The trim and door is currently painted teal green and the shutters are cream. Do you have any suggestions for how we could update the look of the house? It’s pretty boring and the green makes me crazy!! Is there somewhere I could e-mail you a photo of the house?
Thank you for your help,
Danielle
Hi Lorena,
Yes, great idea to take out the large shrubs from underneath the window. Since the tree is so big, you need to air out the entryway a bit. Fresh spread-out plantings will help immensely.
As for the shutters, your windows are extra wide, but getting the standard sized shutters will help. Usually the shutter width is one half of the width of the single window and even though you have extra windows up there, I think that width will be fine. Otherwise, you’ll hit the roof line with the shutter.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Color Coach,
We have owned our brick home for over a year and are still stuck. We have gray/white brick (Definitely not my first choice) with black “siding” (we can paint it), its horrible. The gutters were painted black when we bought the home. In attempt to liven the porch area we painted the window trim on the porch white as well as the front door. Our Garage door is white as well. What color should we pick for the porch area? I have considered a green with gray undertones and keeping the door, gutters & garage door white. Any suggestions would be great!
Thank you!
Hi Dee,
Yes, you’ve got lots of brick colors but they’re all great warm shades. The only real problem I see is that the yellow door color is too lemony for the brick. I suggest painting the door in the medium brick color, kind of like Ben Moore’s dark beige 2165-40 or whatever that medium brick color turns out to be. That will help to coordinate the house colors a bit more. I would not recommend adding yet another color to the house. I think you’ve got plenty.
As for shutters, no real need. But if you decide to add shutters, pick a color from your brick. That way the whole color scheme will look intentional.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Danielle,
You can drop a photo link into this blog or you can send it to my email at
bmeglis@yourhomeandcolorcoach.com
But in the meantime, yes, you’ve got to paint over that green door. Brown (as the shutter experts tell us) is the new black. So I suggest dark chocolate brown shutters and a dark chocolate brown door. You’ll be shocked at how much better your house will look. Then capitalize on the pink with your garden and landscaping and even door wreath. Your house will be spectacular.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi SB,
This is a tough one because I’m not sure where the brick and siding are located. Is the front of the house brick with black siding on the other three sides? Is the trim on the house and garage black (with the exception of the white window trim on the porch?).
I would love a photo if you have a digital camera and can send a photo to either my email (bmeglis@yourhomeandcolorcoach.com) or just put a link to the photo website here in the blog.
Off the top of my head, I suggest not painting the entire porch green but rather a color that’s already in the brick (light grey perhaps). Then paint your garage doors and front door a bold vibrant color that will add pizzazz to your very neutral color palette. And take off from there with accents in that same bold color: pots on the front steps, a chair or bench in the yard, etc. You don’t need to repaint the black as long as it goes with the brick. Just add colorful accents and you’ll have a spectacular house!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
Thanks for the quick response & suggestions to coordinate all the colors of brick #102. Your idea to paint the door is sure the simplest & easiest.
Great website!
Dee
I have a brown brick house with a lannon stone turret (1927). The trim on the house and the gutters are currently painted a dark reddish brown, and the roof is also a reddish brown color. Beneath the windows are rectangles that are stone colored.
We’re going to replace the roof and paint the trim. What colors would be best for both?
Thank you!
Hi Kris,
You might consider using the grout or stone color for your trim or just a nice rich cream that would compliment both the brown brick and the stone. As for the roof, how about dark charcoal gray that will add some contrast to the brown brick yet pick up the gray of the stone turret.
You can send a photo if you’d like more specifics but these are just some ideas.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
As per your suggestion (post 98), I have been trying to find a dark charcoal colour for the roof. I find it’s either the medium “harvard slate” colour which isn’t that dark (kind of medium grey), or the “fultone black” which is a very dark grey..almost black but not black black. It’s very nice, but would it be too dark?
Which would be better?
One more question…what about a very dark brown roof or taupey roof…you suggested dark charcoal grey, but I read elsewhere in your blog that for tan or beige brick, brown roofs are good. The brick is busy, and in the picture it might not show well, but it has creams, warm tans, and greys through it. (picture is on post 94) I trust you on this one. Perhaps the greys and blacks will work better and would offset all that warm-coloured brick. I am trying to picture the different roof colours….it’s hard to visualize.
Help!
Lorena
Barbara,
What a great blog! Can you please look at my pictures and help me to pick roof, paint and window colors for the home we purchased to remodel?
The current trim and gutters are painted dark brown. The house is mostly brick with painting only needed under the eaves and on the trim and gutters. The porch looks much too dark. The red door needs to be repainted because of a bad paint job.
We are considering painting the porch and under the eaves a cream/light tan and painting the gutters and fascia boards burgundy. The door would also be burgundy. What do you think?
For the garage doors – should they be the cream/tan or match the trim?
What color for the railing on the porch?
What color for the roof?
What color for the windows? We’re replacing all of them.
Obviously some landscaping will help too!
Thanks for any help you can give us.
http://www.dropshots.com/newhouse103#date/2008-04-01/12:25:43
http://www.dropshots.com/newhouse103#date/2008-04-01/12:25:45
http://www.dropshots.com/newhouse103#date/2008-03-18/16:43:40
http://www.dropshots.com/newhouse103#date/2008-03-15/15:56:31
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
I’d look at a dark burgundy brown for the roof — that will really look nice with your brick color. Just a solid color, not the new architectural style because you’ve got enough going on with just the brick.
The windows can be cream — that will lighten up the look. Same with the porch railings. I would keep a burgundy brown floor and steps as you would never keep cream clean.
The front porch area is really dark so make sure your door is framed in cream so that the door color shows up. A burgundy (as long as it’s in the brick) will work fine.
You migh also consider taking up the brick walkway and replacing it with something that isn’t brick, maybe large flagstones. Right now it seems like there’s just a little too much brick. If you do tear up and rebuild the walkway, I would move it out away from the house enough to give you some landscaping area between walk and house. That will really warm up the front.
The garage doors can actually be a medium tone from your brick to kind of blend them in with the house. No need to have them quite so prominent. But the dark burgundy brown of the roof will work too.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara! I am hoping you can help! We have a two-story colonial home in a plan. The main floor is a medium red/pink brick, the upper floor is a blue-gray siding. We currently have dark gray/black shutters & front door and the porch is painted gray.
We are getting a new front door and sidelights and I’d really love to put some COLOR on to our house, but with the blue-gray siding, I am not sure what options we have? I really like the idea of burgundy, hunter green or navy blue – what do you think? We are hoping to replace the shutters to match the front door (or not, as you recommend!). I am happy to email a picture if that would be easier.
Hi Dana,
Navy blue would be perfect for both shutters and front door. But I would only paint the front door. The trim and sidelights should be trim color (which you didn’t mention. White, I presume?)
That should look really nice.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
HI Barbara,
I think you might have missed my latest inquiry on post 112…I’m having a hard time visualizing!
Lorena
Hi Lorena,
Yes, a really dark brown will work just as well with more of a blending effect — less contrast with the roof, but I would keep the shutters the same color as the roof. Also, you can go with bronze metal (lights) instead of wrought iron. Cream trim and door.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
I am so happy to have found your site! Thank you for all the info so far. We own a lot of property and sometimes when we purchase the homes we don’t get our pick as to what condition or color choices they may be.
I have a problem house that we need to make more curb friendly. http://picasaweb.google.com/lisamarie1225/AuroraHouse
We are going to need to re-roof the house (currently has 3 layers) so the color can be anything there, and the brick on the front as well as the trim can be painted too. The only thing that cannot (due to budget) be painted at this time is the metal siding… which is a difficult color. Sometimes (in the spring, summer and fall) it looks grey or even white, but in the winter with the white snow on the ground, it has a blue hue to it! I don’t know for sure if the country blue trim is making the house look more “blue” or if the cedar colored roof is having that effect as well, but I really think that it doesn’t go well with the cream colored brick on the front. The garage is white or light, light grey at the darkest, and sometimes the back of the house (without the view of the brown roof) looks light grey or white too.
What are your suggestions for this house to help make it buyer friendly? I am afraid to get started in fear that it may make the house look even more clashing.
Thanks in advance!
Lisa
Great site! Hope you can help. We are building a traditional cape cod style home – three dormers, large front porch. We are in the middle of a 10 acre wooded lot without any neighboring homes.
I’m trying to decide on the siding, shutters and door colors. I’ve got it narrowed down to either Alside’s “Antique Parchment” (antiqued white) or “Monterey Sand” (a light tan). The Anderson windows will have white trim and garage doors (which will be a side entry garage) will be white.
I’m leaning toward black for the front door and shutters. A solid 6 panal door with sidelites and hopefully an elipse transom. I want a look that is classic and that we won’t get tired of.
I’ve looked at using dark blue, maroon and red for the door. But just not sure. Just need encouragement I guess.
We will have a “cypress” masonary stone chimney and wrap about the foundation.
Any suggestions would be so appreciated.
Sandy S.
Hi Sandy,
You didn’t mention your roof color, but it’s really an important consideration on a cape with dormers since you see so much of the roof. You might want to bump up the siding color just a bit to a slightly richer shade so that there isn’t so much contrast between the roof and the siding. That way, your house will look bigger (and not cut in half). It’s not critical though if you’ve already sided in the light tones.
As for doors and shutters, black always works and is the most traditional as long as you have a dark gray/black roof. Doesn’t work as well with a brown roof. You can also use black shutters and a red/rust/maroon door if you really want to add some punch to that area, especially since it will be dark up there on the porch.
Throw the roof into the decision process and feel free to write back if you’re still stuck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Lisa,
I really had to think about your dilemma. But here’s an idea. I would re-roof the house in a blue grey architectural style shingle (if the budget allows) as the house is pretty plain as is. Then definitely paint the brick in as close to the siding color as you can make it. The color won’t match no matter how hard you try because of the different material base (brick) but at least get into the grey tones and away from yellow.
As far as the trim, it’s okay to stick with the blue, but you might want to freshen it up with something like Ben Moore’s jamestown blue (HC-148). Make sure to paint the downspouts in the grey and not blue so they don’t become a feature of your house.
Also I would paint the window wells in the light grey and not blue. Just stick with blue shutters and trim.
You might want to remove the front door shutters if possible and paint that area the same light grey as the bricks. Then you can paint the front door in the trim color. It will show up better and with a full-view glass door, you’ll be all set to show.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Dear Barbara,
What a great site! I am wondering if you have any advice on the accent colors we can use on our brick ranch. My husband and I bought the house out of foreclosure. He has done a great job remodeling the interior, but the outside needs some help. It is a reddish brick 1970 ranch. This is our first home and though we are living in it, we are remodeling it to sell and doing the work ourselves. The house has some white vinyl siding only on the front exterior wall where the porch is and the same white vinyl trim around the windows and under the roof overhang. We may replace the vinyl siding on the exterior wall with wood siding depending on cost. However the white around the windows is here to stay. The house has three 8 ft. columns along the front porch covered with a a decorative vinyl too. We definitely want to recover the columns, paint the front door and shutters. What might go with the red brick and white trim? We want the house to look more up to date and stylish. It is in a very nice area. I’d love to send a photo, but am not sure how…
Thanks!
Julia
Barbara:
I need some major guidnace in deciding as to what I should pick for a siding color. The house is a 1976 ranch, mostly brick/WEEPING MORTAR,
siding in side the porch area,
siding around bay(?) squred windows
siding around the top of garage and other side of the house
I am going to use James Hardy. NOW whether to use the staggered notch edge or the select cedarmill.
The brick has red/orange and some very dark gray..weeping mortar is the usual gray. Since the house itself has some English/cottage thing going on I thought it best to step it up a bit instead of detracting from it…that is where you help me decide about the siding and the color.
The color would have to go with the fascia/gutters which are brown and we are not going to change that. The roof has some brown going on but more to the tan side.
I do like the mountain sage? woodstock brown;? khaki brown?
I would rather sit on a cheese grater than have ONE more siding guy tell me what to do..
I need help with creativity…not just go with what is a better price.
HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks for sending your message again. I would go with the Khaki brown only because it seems to go the best with your roof and brick. The green is not in the brick so doesn’t go as well and the woodstock brown seems to blend too much with the roof color but be slightly off. At least on my computer screen. Although the khaki may seem like a boring color, you have a lot going on architecturally so it should be just fine.
Hope that helps you.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Julia,
You can drop a photo in this blog or send it to my email at bmeglis@yourhomeandcolorcoach.com.
But for the moment, you might consider a taupe that is undoubtedly in your brick/grout. The taupe is really nice with white trim and is definitely an updated color. Also nice with black shutters and door (if not on a dark porch).
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I am repainting a house ….it is all white and I can’t take it! The kitchen is half brick and the rest is just white walls. What color would make the brick look good and open up the kitchen? Help please!
Hi Kristen,
I’m not sure if you’re painting inside or out but it sounds like inside if you want to open up the kitchen. Either way, brick is nice with camel, golden yellow, and even a nice warm olivey green. Cool colors recede, making a space seem bigger, so the green might be a way to go. There are lots of wonderful earthy greens out there. Just don’t go too bright –make sure the green is soft and dulled down and it will look smashing with your brick.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I am thinking about purchasing this home. Any ideas on how to spruce up the exterior? The roof needs to be replaced and you’ve mentioned in previous replies that you should try to coordinate the roof and the shutters. What do you think?
Thanks!
http://www.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?source=a15699&zp=48111&mnp=18&mxp=17&bd=5&bth=4&typ=1&sid=e5fd820f79424653b2a5f645f3f575c3&lid=1095103521&lsn=1&srcnt=3#Detail
Here is the website for the home I was talking about
Sorry about that!
Hi Stephanie,
Yup, it needs a little love. I suggest, since the brick is kind of cold-looking, that you go with a dark brown roof and possibly brown shutters, if you think they’re necessary with the new brown roof. The dark charcoal gray really makes this house look even colder and more stark than it needs to. I don’t think the traditinal black shutters will work on this brick house.
I would use a warm tan for the trim.
The next thing to tackle is the front entryway. It’s hard to find the front door. But I suspect you know that already. And of course some landscaping will help you immensely.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I stumbled across your website and would love to get your opinion on exterior paint colors for my home. We are just getting around to repainting the garage and front door of our new home. Our main catalyst for doing so is due to a shutter coming off of our house a couple months ago (as you will see in the house picture). The owners before us tried to incorporate green and maroon into the garage and front doors. We wanted to pick one color for both. I initially thought that we would just repaint the garage and front door a dark green to match the shutters. However, after reading some of your posts, I wonder if we shouldn’t be painting the garage a color that matches the bricks or siding? I’m also open to the idea of changing the shutter color, if needed.
I would be so happy to get your advice on garage door, front door, and shutter colors as they pertain to our home. As an idea of our style, we tend to be more traditionalists in our tastes. Love the colors of tan and black or tan and dark brown together. In an ideal world, I would love to install a beautiful medium-colored wood garage door. However, we aren’t sure that we want to invest in that at this point.
Sorry for the rambling post. I hope it’s ok that I’m sending my house picture to the email address you posted in earlier blog entries (bmeglis@yourhomeandcolorcoach.com).
Thanks so much in advance!
Hi Barbara,
It looks like I wasn’t able to send my house picture to your email. Here is a link to it:
http://picasaweb.google.com/khaiddinh/SammyWeek18/photo#5194451168000199474
Thanks and sorry about that!
Dana B
Hi Dana,
I would go with dark brown for your shutters and, in your case, the garage door. A really dark chocolate. Since your garage is essentially the ground floor of your house, the dark color makes some sense. But if that seems too dark, you can always go with the siding color. That will work for sure to blend in the garage and move the eye up to the shutters and front door.
As for the front door, same brown. It’s kind of dark on the porch, and the maroon looks like brown anyway. Uniting the accent colors into one is a traditional approach. Kind of like using black for everything. You can’t go wrong. Nothing too funky — just nice and traditional.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
PS I’ll keep clearing out my in-box for my email. It’s getting clogged. Sorry about that.
Reference posting # 115 & 116
Hi Barbara – thanks for the great input! You are amazing!
The current color is a dark gray on the front door and the garage door trim, the windows are vinyl so they are the original white and the front porch is a lighter gray. Can you tell they LOVED gray? LOL
Anyway, we are thinking of doing the garage door trim to match the shutters (navy blue) and repainting the front porch white.
Question – you suggested painting the front door navy and then leaving the sidelights and front door trim in white. This was my first choice but hubby is voting for the sidelights and door in blue and the trim in white. There’s also the option of the sidelights in blue with the front door in white – that would really “pop”, wouldn’t it? I’ve read that the front door shoudl be the focal point and the front of our house is the early morning sunny side – want to make sure I’m keeping it bright!
Thanks again for your help! I did send you two pictures.
Dana
Thanks so much Barbara!!
Hi Dana,
For some reason I couldn’t find your photos, but that doesn’t matter. Here are my thoughts on sidelights. Ideally they come as a unit (door and sidelights) and are often left in natural wood. Sometimes the whole unit is painted in trim color (door included). Occasionally the door is separated out visually to get a coat of eye-poppiing front-door paint, but the sidelights are still in trim color (option 1 that your husband wasn’t crazy about). Another option is to paint the door and sidelights in navy, treating them as their original unit, and leaving the rest of the trim white. That would be okay. But I wouldn’t paint the sidelights blue and keep the door white as that will draw too much attention to the sidelights instead of the door (your eye goes to color).
Hope that rambling helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara, how do I send along pictures to you?
Hi Barbara,
I have so many questions, by your website I think you may be the authority on all things home that I have been dreaming about!
This is the front of my house. This weekend we are removing the 4 cedar trees across the front of the house. We plan to freshen up the landscaping, we’ll probably start from scratch. We also have our roof being done in about a month. I have lost sleep over the colour of shingles to choose. And pretty much everything but the brick needs a fresh coat of paint.
I want a really classy and inviting home. My initial thought was to get a medium or charcoal grey shingle. (I really like ones now with the varying tones). My thinking was to accent the flagstone inlay and tie in with the grout. However, everyone’s helpful suggestions have gotten me nowhere but confused.
I would love to hear your expert suggestions on roof colour, window colour, trim colour, garage colour, garage door colour, and most of all the front door colour. My husband really wants a hit of colour on the front door, and I wouldn’t mind that as well if I had some suggestions. Also, do you think shutters would add to the front of the home?
Basically, I know I have a red brick house, that’s staying for sure, but everything else is fair game for change, I would love to do something wonderful for our first home!
Thanking you in advance.
Hi Stacey,
You’ re on the right track with the dark grey shingled roof. I would pick up on the dark bricks that you have on your house and use that color for the roof. Very classic. My personal opinion is that the variegated roofs are too busy for brick homes. The two large busy patterns (roof and house front) clash — at least to me. I know they’re very popular now, but they really look best on plain homes as they add some pizzazz. Your house has that already.
As for trim color, I would use cream, which is softer than white and picks up the grout. Then do a darker sandy color for your garage and garage door. You can choose these colors right out of your flagstone and grout. You don’t really want the garage to stand out so I would blend it in by using the neutrals.
Now, the garage door. For a classic brick house like yours, I like a shiny black door with a brass kickplate. Then you could replace the two black porch lights with brass. It’s coming back (anyway), but brass is always a classic look. With the cream trim surronding the door, I think that would really pop. Even moreso than introducing another color. That’s always a bit tricky since you already have lots of colors represented by your brick.
I don’t think your house needs shutters, but black would be the way to go if you decide you want them.
That will be a classic (and classy) look for your house. Nothing too contemporary or flashy. Just tasteful.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi, Barbara. I hope you can help me decide on paint colors for my brick house. Currently the door, trim, shutters and siding are all painted a dull brown, which I hate. The roof is grayish brown. I would like to paint the door a rich red and the shutters a deep sage-y green. (The grout is gray with a greenish cast.) The clapboard is on the sides of the house; the garage door is there too. I’m not wedded to the green; what I really want is your suggestions! Thank you, Barbara.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cathycosby/HOUSE/photo#5195033528644770482
http://picasaweb.google.com/cathycosby/HOUSE/photo#5195033507169933986
Hi Barbara,
I am glad I found your site. I was looking at siding and trim color options for our new house and was glad to find your site. We are building a new house in a community and our builder has asked us to choose the brick, siding (It is Hardie Plank) and trim color. Since this is a new house , the house would like this after it is built : http://picasaweb.google.com/carolynerose/House/photo#5196504636750458658 (There would be no trees around the house when it is built, it is a smaller lot). The brick we have chosen is what the builders call “Edenton”, it is a darker shade of red with some burnt black marks on it ( almost like the picture, but a little more darker). Could you please give us some ideas on the siding and trim color? I was leaning towards gray color for siding and off-white for trims and my husband thinks a tan color for siding with off-white trims would look good. Please help!
Thank You,
Carolyne.
Hi Cathy,
I like your ideas, actually. I would keep the trim as is because it blends with the grout. Then go with a rich orangey red (not pink-based) for the door. A deep olivey/grey green would be very nice for the shutters. You have a lot of colors going on, but it will all work together because you’re drawing from the tones in the brick.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Carolyne,
Although either color will work since you have the black in the brick (you didn’t mention the roof color but I assume it’s a dark charcoal), the tans and warmer tones are absolutely gorgeous with brick and coordinate beautifully with the grout (assuming it’s a sandy color). I’m not crazy about grey with brick because grey is a cold color and mixing it with the hard brick surface makes the house a little less welcoming. Although, like I said, color-wise, either will work.
As for trim, I would pick a soft off-white.
Beautiful house. Hope I’ve helped.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
http://www.agentsyoutrust.com/4sale/h68/h68.html
My husband and I are thinking of buying this home and fixing it up. My husband hates the green. I personally like it. What other color might go well with the brick? In person it’s an orange brick. I have no idea what other colors might go well with it. Any ideas would be more than appreciated.
Hi Erin,
With that color brick, I would paint all the trim a cream or even cameo white. Then use traditional black shutters to go with the iron work on the porch (if you’re keeping that). What a great project — I can’t believe the price on that house!! You can’t even buy an old garden shed around here for that!
Good luck with the renovation!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara –
We are building a new home and are using Cypress colored siding (color located here: http://www.certainteed.com/CertainTeed/Homeowner/Homeowner/Siding/Prodindex/Wolverine/American+Legend%E2%84%A2.htm) and White trim pieces. We are also having stone accent on the front as well. What color of stone would go best with the Cypress siding?
Hi Travis,
I like a mixture of whatever is native to your countryside, usually a blend of limestone and sandstone with grays and various shades of tan and brown. Very earthy and natural and a nice compliment to the cypress green siding color.
Just avoid anything too pink-based. The green in the siding will only accent the pink tones in the stone and I don’t think you’ll like that.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara!
I have been researching nice color combinations for my 1940 red brick home for some time now. It has a lot of character, but I want to explore different trim, sash colors for more distinction since I will be doing a repaint shortly. I recently restored the front door and finished it in Benjamin Moore “Bronzetone” which is one of their stock exterior colors. I like the new front door color so much, especially with brushed hardware. I will be doing a new roof soon as well, so I am not too concerned with taking the current shingle color into consideration.
here we go…
I was delighted to read all of your great advice on this site and hope you may have some some suggestions from your experiences on my trim, shutters, sashes, and maybe roof. I know you are probably asked similar questions all the time, but I really do appreciate any tips or help you may have.
Thank you for your time and advice!!!
Have a wonderful day,
-matt
hi was trying to come up with colors for my house it is a split level house right now it is an terriable chalky country blue with yellow bricks on the front . any sugetions. i think the bricks are called sandstone. thanks for any sugestions
Hi Sachi,
I suggest pulling a color from the sandstone brick and going a shade or two darker so you get nice contrast. Something from the brown family or even rust would work. Even a medium earthy (olivey) green will work. Just think earth tones and you should solve that color dilemma.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Matt,
You can certainly try a cream for the trim and a dark brown roof when it comes time, but what will make a HUGE and immediate impact on your curb appeal would be to pull out the (gasp) landscaping in the front of your house. All of it except the two large bushes on either side of the house. But particularly the bush by the front door and the ones on the right that cover the windows.
Replacing the traditional linear sculpted shrubs with a variety of new shrubs and plants that grow naturally in your area and offer a variety of colors, textures, and heights, and then mulching the new beds will update your house in a weekend.
Your house is so nice. Once it’s uncovered from the greenery, it will be smashing!!
Hope that gets you started.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Happy Day Barbara!
First of all, you are very, very generous with your advice and its obviously appreciated!! You’re awesome! Thanks for sharing your ideas. So… I hope you don’t mind if I add myself to the list of folks who would love your advice! 🙂
This is my first home and I’m quite proud of it despite my dislike of the outdoor colour scheme. It’s been one year since I’ve been in the house, and I’ve tossed around a hundred potential colour schemes. I’m just getting overwhelmed. First thing – the burgundy has got to go!! Ick! I’m going to replace the garage door… but what colour should I go for? I think I am going to stick in rounded posts (to replace the square ones)… but what colour? and I’m going to replace the door… likely one with no window… what colour door? Eventually I will replace the shingles, and possibly the remaining fascia/soffit.
Here are some pics:
Any advice you have is extremely appreciated!!!!! Thank you!!! Cheers!!
hello,
my roof is black, my bricks have black beige, khai, those sort of colors, window trim is black , but i am also will 2 change that if need be. i have a hoe from the 1950-70, real high ceilings 12 foot. a very long porch, my wall facing on the porch have almond siding, i have 4 long tall pole witch may be 4×4 what color should i put the 4 poles, the floor and the decking around the porch?
Hi Bonnie,
I like the cream trim on your house. It’s really nice with the brick, but I agree that the maroon doors and columns are attracting too much attention.
I suggest going with the roof color (brown) for the doors, both garage and front. That will tie the roof in with the accent color and put more emphasis on the brick and trim.
I think it’s a good idea to replace the square columns with more traditional, round ones, in cream.
Another idea? Replace the garage light with a rubbed bronze fixture or wrought iron. Something with a little more presence. You also might simplify your front steps area to replace the wood with all brick (or concrete) and remove the timbers from in front of the house. Doing that will make the overall look less busy.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Versey,
You might consider black for the flooring. And then try an off-white for the railing and columns. That should show up against the almond siding and compliment the brick. But it will stand out. Send a photo if you’d like more specifics.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara — Thank you. Your thoughts have been absorbed. I agree with fixing up the front (pathway, landscaping trim) and changing the light fixtures. I said burgundy, but I meant maroon… oops.
GLad to know I was somewhat on the right path.
Thanks again!!
Hello,
We have a 1960’s orange brick house. Currently, we have green shutters & front door, a brown roof and the trim is a cream color. We are replacing the shingles, shutters, and door, so what colors would you suggest? Thanks so much for your help!
Hi Melissa,
Dark charcoal gray shingles, black shutters and door work very well with orange brick and cream trim. The look is crisp, traditional, dramatic, and easy on the eye.
See what you think,
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
i need major help. we are adding a room onto our existing brick home. our house was build in 1969 and is an orangish/terracota color. Our roof is brown. what color siding would you suggest for the new addition.
Hi speisgirl,
I suggest either a camel (rich tan) or a caramel (warm medium brown) color that will coordinate well with the terra cotta and still offer some contrast with the brown roof. Also both colors are wonderfully rich and will compliment your brick.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Gissele,
I suggest balancing out the front facade by painting the white siding the same color as the brick. This is a little tricky– I would err on the side of a brown brick (not too red). That will give your house more symmetry from the curb. Then you can darken up the green to a dark olive if you wish or a dark brown (roof color).
Another idea for making the house look less country is to paint the risers on your front steps. White is very country. The shutter color will work or even the grout/stone color. Something that won’t call quite as much attention to how white the trim is.
Down the road, if you really want to take all the country out of your home, try replacing the white railing with wrought iron. Black is always a good color and iron is a great metal for dressing up a house.
Just a few ideas. Enjoy your new home.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Our home is 20 years old, blue siding w/ white trim and we need to replace the shingles. We also want to replace the 2 white garage doors and a portion of the blue siding near the garage. We have a large, flat front colonial with 2 kick-outs where the siding is on a diagonal around the windows. It’s a 2-story house and we are considering replacing the diagonal siding as well as the area near the garage doors with a shake style siding.
I need some help with shingle colors and a shake siding color that will go with blue. Our front door is currently burgundy. I was thinking a dark grey roof with a lighter grey shake siding.
We are the only “blue” (lighter baby blue) house in the neighborhood and it needs some curb appeal. Any advice would be great. thanks!
Hi lori,
I love the idea of shake style siding. And grey would be a great color with your light blue and white color scheme. Since you’re adding another color (grey) to the blue and white house, you might consider painting the front door a rich navy blue instead of the burgundy. There’s nothing wrong with the burgundy, but staying with a more neutral/monochromatic color scheme might give your house an updated look. Just something different.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Barbara
We have lived in our house for a few years and as a surprise my husband purchased some paint and started painting the house. He was trying to keep the same color scheme as the previous owner had but his color choices were not quit the same. (notice the top of the house and the porch are different colors)
Since we have lived here I have wanted to update the color scheme and get away from the 70’s look that I feel the house has. I would also like to brighten up the porch. I feel like it is somewhat drab and would love for it to be more inviting.
I would appreciate any suggestion that you could offer. Thank you for such a great web site and wonderful advice!
Kristin
http://picasaweb.google.com/KristinSC74/House
Hi Kristin,
Try Manchester Tan (Ben Moore HC-81) or another neutral tan for your trim color. I think you’ll be surprised at the transformation. As for shutters, porch, and door, since you have a black storm door, you might want to consider painting your front door and your shutters black. It will dress up the house and make it look a little more updated and avoid the black ring around the yellow door. Then to lighten the porch deck, try a medium rusty brown (like Fresh Clay), similar to your roof and brickcolor. It will blend with the brick better and not be quite so dark. Those changes should really update the house.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Barbara,
I was wondering if you could direct me as to what type of Garage door/ trim and shutter combo. you would suggest for a home with a black roof and red-burgundy brick? I was thinking to go with something along the grey/green lines like HC 104 copley grey or HC 106 (crownsville grey) both benjamin more colors? what do you think?
Hello Barbara,
I have no photo’s to share but I am hoping you can imagine… my house is brick in the front (half of the front) this area stands out against the creamy yellow stucco – it is actually a nice combination the trim is white and the roof is not an issue as that will be replaced at a later date. My question is about a color of door that would look nice with these colors mainly the brick but also keeping in mind the yellow I was thinking a black door originally but I want to brighten up the brick as tastefully as possible then I considered blue not navy but maybe a blue with grays in it or even something a shade lighter I also have a window box against the brick and I am wondering if this should coordinate with the door if we opt for a color any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you
Abby
Hi Adrienne,
A classic combination: brick with dark green. And I like the idea of getting away from traditional forest green and adding a bit of sophistication to the shutters. I suggest getting a little pot of both colors, but I think the darker crownsville grey will be a better balance to the dark burgundy brick.
But if in doubt, there’s always my personal favorite: black shutters or black with a touch of green in it to soften the color and make it look more aged. Check out green grove (2138-20) or southern vine (2138-10). A more traditional look with a twist.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi again Barbara,
I wanted to be more specific about the color of the brick on my house it is more of a “dusty coral” instead of a traditional “brick red” which is why it looks so nice with the creamy yellow stucco.
I hope this helps. Thanks again!
Abby
Dear Barbara,
I desperately need some advice. I’ve been in my first house, ranch style home for about a year now, and realize that the time has come to paint the exterior. The brick is smooth in texture, what I call a terracotta country brick (on the orange side with some cream and brown/black accents) with a dark gray mortar. The roof color is a variegated gray/brown. I also have a gray split rail fence in the front yard and a hammered copper door and copper yard lights. One friend suggested a gray color another suggested that brown might look nice; however, I have no idea about the body color and am even more confused about trim colors. Also, what color would look nice for the front door? Please help me!!
Shannon
Hello there,
What a great thing you are doing here, thank you.
We live in this 1918 Arts and Crafts semi. We would like a suggestion on trim colour, something classic and in keeping with the period of our house, perhaps even 2 colours? Red brick, charcoal roof and honey coloured oak door.
And should we paint the window trim? We think so.
Hi Barbara,
We are in the process of purchasing a house. The only problem is, the house has a red roof and we are not sure what color to paint the siding. The roof is brand new, so we don’t want to spend money fixing something that does not need fixed! But the house needs painted. What color siding do you suggest with a red roof?? Thanks for your help!
Angela 🙂
Hi Barbara,
Would love to have your opinion on what color of roof to choose for our bi-level ranch. The brick has many colors and the roof that’s currently on the house is the wrong colors, but I’m having a hard time finding what would best complement the brick. We’re considering painting the siding this summer after the new roof is put on. I can email pics of existing brick pattern and the house. Roofer wants an answer by tomorrow morning! Yikes!
~Diana
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for the reply. Below you will find a picture of the house (you need to paste it into the browser). Its a ranch style bungalow with that burgundy red brick with a black roof, shutters and front door. All the rest of the trim and garage door is white.
You had suggested Green grove (2138-20) or Southern vine (2138-10) would you still suggest those colors now that you can see a picture of the home. Also would you paint everything one of those 2 colors (front door, trim, shutters, garage door) or would paint the front door different from the rest?
thanks again for your help.
Wow, this is great. If you can stand one more cry for help…. we have a 1980-ish 2-story house, lower half that yellow-tan brick, upper half currently taupe siding. The prior owners painted everything paintable the same taupe – garage doors, other doors, window frames, gutters, all of it.
It has some pseudo-Mediterranean influences to the architecture – little buttress walls and faux arches over two of the windows.
Any color suggestions? I’m not open to painting the brick but the rest of it can go. I’ve been thinking maybe black on the windows.
Dear Barbara,
I’m so excited that I found your site. My ranch style home was built in the 90s. The brick, which I call a country brick, is smooth in texture and is terracotta in color (orange with hints of cream and brown/black) with a dark gray mortar. The roof is variegated gray and brown. There is a huge shade tree in the front yard and a weathered split rail fence. To add to my color confusion, the front door is looks like hammered copper and there are also copper lawn lights. I’m hoping to find colors that will remain to these accents on the house. One friend suggested that I paint the house a gray another suggested a brown. I’m confused with the body color. And you don’t even want to get me started on trying to choose a trim color. To add to the confusion, what would be a good color for the front door? Please help! I need some advice.
Hi Adrienne,
Thanks for the photo. Since you have an overhang that casts a shadow on the front windows, the crownsville gray would lighten up those shutters and coordinate nicely with the roof. (The dark green blacks will still work, but in the shadows, they will look very similar to what you already have, and I know you’d like a change.)
As for the door, is that a soffit above the garage door? I might try a slightly lighter version of the gray on that to blend it in with the gray garage door. But keep the trim on windows and roofline whatever it is now, either cream or white (hard to tell on my screen). The front door is also in a shadow. All you’ll really see is the storm door. If you’d like both doors to stand out, instead of just the storm door, keep both of them the trim color. I don’t often say that for a front door, but when it’s dark in that area, the trim color will lighten it up.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Abby,
I suggest white window boxes to avoid a busy look on the front of your house, with both the brick and the stucco. As for the front door, a soft medium dusty blue might be really nice against both the coral and yellow as it is their complementary color and should really pop. Then be sure to put some blue/purple flowers in your window boxes. Striking!!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Shannon,
I assume the brick is only on the front of your house and that you’re planning to paint the trim and the body on the other three sides? If that’s the case, I like the idea of a medium chocolate brown for the body. It’s in the brick and will complement it nicely. As for the trim, if your windows are white, then I would go with a soft white trim color. Not too white — more of an antique white. That color will go great with the brick and body color but not make the white windows stand out too much.
As for the door, do you want to replace the copper?? Sounds neat to me!
See what you think. You can drop a photo link into this reply box and I’ll give you more specific thoughts if you’d like.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Todd,
I like the idea of green somewhere on the house but I would go with a more period olive color, like either sussex green or weathersfield moss (both Ben Moore). Then use a red brown, something like toasted chestnut (2174-10) for an additional trim color to pick up on the brick and bring some of that color up to the gable.
As for the window trim, cream would be ideal with your color scheme.
I’m not crazy about the honey oak on the door. I would love to see that stained to a darker brown oak. Just a thought.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Angela,
A camel brown would look great with a red roof. Or even a light sage green (if it’s light enough, you’ll avoid the Christmas color look). There’s always tan. That’s the safe color. But try something new! Even a dark colonial navy blue with white trim would make quite a statement. All depends on how much of a statement you want to make. But a red roof is going to stand out so you might as well work with it and create a showhouse!
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi stahlyranch,
UH OH. I think we missed your contractor’s deadline. Sorry about that! If you still need help, just drop a photo link in this reply box and I’ll check later and see if we can get you some help before the roofers arrive.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello. I just found your site and I’m so glad there is something out there like this to help people out that are in a jam with home decor decisions!
My question is an exterior question. We recently purchased a 40 year old, (red clay) brick rancher. Here are the stats:
Exterior: Red (a light red) brick
Shutters: Black
Windows:
with shutters (small windows)
without shutters (lg. bow window)
Trim: White all around door and windows
Gargage door: on front of house–white
Lighting fixtures: Black iron (new)
Front Door: Ugly white with 3 squares. Very 60’s!
Roof: Light gray
We would like a get a new front door and perhaps purchase new shutters of a different color. I need help on colors and ideas. I’m usually good at things like this, but I would love to have another perspective on it. Please let me know your ideas. I think that will help guide our decisions better. Also, the inside of our entrance is vinyl siding which we’ll most likely replace in a tan color? Not sure yet. Please give me any thoughts. Thanks so much!
Jill
Hi Walt,
With some Mediterranean styling and the brick, I would use dark chocolate brown as an accent color, maybe around windows and other architectural features. The taupe sounds fine on the body of the house as long as it goes with the brick.
Send a photo if I can give you more specific suggestions.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I previously wrote with questions about roof and siding colors. While we did get a new roof (black) we’ve decided not to move forward with siding, instead we plan on having pavers put in were our concrete walk and stoop are, and we will be getting a new garage door. You had commented on the starkness of our white door, wondering your thoughts on a black garage door, giving the siding will be staying the same/white.
Thanks again!
Jennifer
http://picasaweb.google.com/jgnospeliuschicago/HousePhotos?authkey=1f2tNRyJRlk
Hi Jennifer,
I think a black door might be a nice change for your house since the siding is staying the same. It will certainly anchor the bottom brick story of the house.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi, we recently discovered your site and think it is great! We are updating the look of our house with new roof, siding and landscaping due to some recent storm damage.
I would like to change the color because it looks kind of blah (we are also removing the decorative pieces from the gables).
Our house is sort of a cream color, the house next door is white with a green roof and the other is taupe with dark grey roof. Most of the houses in our neighborhood have been resided in various shades of taupe, while this color happens to look great with our brick we need something different. We are just having a hard time coordinating a new roof, siding and trim color to go with our brick. Any advice would be appreciated!
thank you,
Patty and Chris
Hi Patty and Chris,
Have a look at Weathered Wood for a roof color, keep your current siding color as the trim color (a light tan — in the brick), and check out tate olive (HC-112) or crownsville gray (HC-106) (both Ben Moore) for a siding color. I think those earthy greens would look great with your brick.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi, love your web site and suggestions for others. It is time to re-paint my trim. My two stories house has dark grey roof and most brick with mixed colors of yellow, orange and some redish and blackish. I would like to keep my navy blue window shutters and door color. Except the light tan trim color I currently have, what other choices will work, too?
Hello,
Our house is presently sided in vertical cedar, the roof is steel in a greyed blue, windows, doors & garage trimed in a dark brown. I am desperately trying to pick out a lap siding that will work with the trim & roof and am getting no where. Can you suggest some colors, please?
Thank you,
Sharon
Hello Barbara,
I intended to leave the following: http://eyeswideopen.wordpress.com
Thanks,
Sharon
Hi Violet,
You can select your trim color right out of the brick. Just choose the lightest color (that might be the yellow) and go a shade or two lighter (unless you want yellow trim, of course). I would go with a yellow-based cream color that will look great with the navy blue shutters and door. See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Sharon,
I didn’t see any photos on your site, but I would go with either a light grey blue for the siding, natural cedar (what you have now) or a lighter neutral tan. But the blue will look great with your roof, and the brown trim makes a very soothing color combination.
See if that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
Thank you for your help. The link I gave you was in error, I am sorry. Could I ask you to look at the following: http://eyesopenwide.wordpress.com.
This house is a bit unusual and siding will be such a huge change that I am truly concerned.
I would be very interested to know if your advice may would change after seeing the pictures.
Thank you again.
Sharon
Hi Barbara,
Can you help suggesting a color scheme for this home (see website)?
We don’t like brown but we may have to wait to change the roof (currently medium/dark brown). What options do we have in regard to the window trims, shutters and siding? We are thinking white trim & white siding but are not sure if that goes. Also, what could we do with the garage doors?
Thanks!
Dana
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for the photos! I still think the blues and dark browns are the way to go with your roof color and windows/trim staying the same. What about these colors?
http://www.jameshardiecolorplus.com/color_palette.cfm
I like the evening blue, boothbay blue, chestnut brown, and timber bark. Are any of those colors available in your area??
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Dana,
Until you change the roof (if you need to) and actual windows (which appear to be brown), I suggest you stick with nature colors. You could change the siding to an earthy olive if you’re looking for more color on the gables and the side of the house. Or a darker taupe than what’s there now. But I think changing the trim and siding to white with the brown roof being so prominent is only going to make the house look chopped up.
You can put the siding color down onto the shutters (and garage doors) if you want too. I know the front entry is a bit dark currently. Another way to brighten up the front is just to remove all the shutters — you only have them on the first floor front anyway. Removing them would show more of the nice brick and brighten up the entry.
I know it provides shade on the deck, but you might consider removing the tree from in front of the front door. That will lighten up the entry as well.
Hope that helps a little.
-Barbara
Your home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
thanks for your excellent advice! Yes, the trees in front are going away, all of them. I will try the light brown shutters as you suggested (any difference between panelled or louvered?)
In an ideal world, or once the roof needs changing, what color roof, siding and shutters/garage doors would you use on this style house?
Also, do you have any thoughts on improving the front porch?
Thanks a lot!
Dana
Barbara –
I’m desperately hoping that you can help us. Our house is basically an orange brick rectangle. The front porch roof has two white decorative pillars that “support” the roof. The garage door is white, but is on the side of the house, so it’s not a focal point from the front. Our front door has a black screen door in front of it which we’re on the fence about keeping. We do enjoy being able to keep the front door open and have the crossbreeze, but it tends to limit our color options and we feel it is a little “backwoods” and dated.
The eaves and gables are wood and were originally painted a peach-ish color to try and match the brick. We hated the color and thought the whole house was too much of one shade (the shingles are a camel color). We wanted to brighten the place up and living in Florida, are a big fan of the Key West / tropics style of bright colors which is also the general theme of the inside of our house.
My wife picked out a blue color for the wood and the shutters. She steered away from a dark blue b/c the popular Florida Gators are just an hour away and we don’t want people to think that was our inspiration. Well, I just painted the wood 3 days ago and it definitely brightened things up, but I hate it. I thought it would turn out a light sky blue and it’s more like smurf blue. My mail lady actually asked if it was on sale!!! My wife still wants the shutters painted to see the whole picture to make up her mind, but even she admits it’s intense. The garage and pillars are going to be left white.
So, what color combo do you recommend so that I can try to convince my wife? I’m willing to do the work again just for the sake of resale and so that I can still wave to my older conservative neighbors (we’re the only 20-something couple on a street of retirees).
I really appreciate any help.
-Andrew & Allison
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for the color advice. My husband feels that there is already plenty of blue with the huge roof. We both agree that the Chestnut Brown would be very close to the cedar that we now have and like very much, but no, it is not available here. I like the Timber Bark somewhat but Daniel prefers the Khaki Brown. I think we will probably end up having the Hardie custom colored in something close to the Chestnut Brown.
Thank you again for your consideration and advice. Hats off to you for helping so many people.
Sharon
Hi Barbara,
We are planning to replace our roof soon and I would also like to change the peachy pink shutters and garage door. We recently bought our home from the original owners who built the house in 1952. Thanks so much for the advice.
Here is the link to our house:
http://funkelch.googlepages.com/home
Jennifer
Hi,
I have a gold color roof, taupe siding and a brick front on the front of the first floor of the house. The shutters are currently sage green but are faded. I was thinking of changing the color of the shutters. What color would go well with the house?
Thanks!
Donna
Oops! I forgot to mention that the brick has a combination of orange red, and burgandy red in it. I was thinking of trying to match the burgandy red for the shutters especially against the taupe siding, but want to be sure it is the right thing to do. Thanks for your expert advice!
Donna
We are going to be building a new home and can’t figure out what exterior colors to use. We are thinking of using khaki siding, white trim, black shutters, and black door…not sure what color roof.
We are thinking of using cultured stone on the exposed foundation walls…and maybe someday, putting the stone on the portico.
Do you think the colors we are thinking about will look good on our home?
The house we are building is very similar to this home…except we will have a room above the garage with doormers…
http://www.khov.com/Home/PA/PISC/ModelsAvailable/CLE/InteractiveFloorPlan.htm?InitialDisplay=1
Thanks for your help!
Anna
Hello Barbara, I live in South Florida and purchased a brick home. We have to replace the roof and we are in the process of doing so. I would love a suggestion on what type of roof to use. Currently there is red barrel tile but I was wondering if to use slate or something else and if so what color.
Many thanks, Samantha
Hi Dana,
Regarding your front entry, it really is more of a deck then a front porch. And since you have such a nice deck on the back of your house, you might consider transforming the front deck into a more conventional entryway.
One idea is to remove the hedges from in front of the deck, take down the deck, and replace with (perhaps) a flagstone walkway with azalea on one side and other plants on the other leading up to a set of steps and landing. Wrought iron would be a nice handrailing.
Just a thought…
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Andrew and Allison,
Oh, my. Smurf blue. What a visual!
Okay, I usually don’t say this, but in your particular case, I would paint the gables and eaves white. With the camel shingles and orange brick, the white will give some relief and allow those other colors to pop.
And as for shutters, I would go white with those as well. It will look very Key West.
The place to insert your blue is in the accessories: Blue lawn chairs in the front yard, a Blue pot of flowers on the front step, etc. Your neighbors will LOVE the transformation.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Jennifer,
I do like the brown roof with your brick. Perhaps a darker brown, when you replace it. And then dark chocolate shutters and garage doors.
If you go with a more traditional charcoal roof, I would use black shutters and garage door for a classic look.
When you’re really ready to update the house, I suggest removing all the plantings from in front of the house and replacing them with a mix of shrubs and perennials, which will really transform the 1950s house into the new millennium.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Donna,
Since your roof is a gold color, I suggest brick red/brown for your shutters. That will keep the natural palette going without calling too much attention to the roof color (black shutters would accent the different roof color and highlight it too much).
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi again Donna,
Just read your other note. As long as the shutter color is in the palette of the house already, using burgundy taken from the burgundy brick should be fine.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Anna (mgs08),
Yes that’s a very classic, traditional combination and will work fine. If you are going to put stone on, however, you might consider boosting the value of your house color up a bit to a darker khaki or a darker taupe. It will accent the stone more and will certainly look fine on such a big house.
The architectural style roofs offer many color combinations that would look good on your house. Check out the “color” weathered wood.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Samantha,
I agree with replacing the barrel tile if you can. It looks best on a stucco house, not brick.
Slate would be okay as long as it’s a uniform color and not variegated as that would make the look very busy. I know South Florida’s roofing requirements are quite different from the rest of us because of the heat so I would check with a reputable roofing contractor for suggestions as to other materials.
In terms of color, I would pick a medium tone right out of your brick. Obviously you cannot go too dark again because of the sun, but any light to medium gray/taupe/gray green/brown will certainly look good.
Hope that helps a little.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
Thank you very much for your advice!
We are going to go with the dark Khaki. I also think it will look good with the stone.
We are going to go back and look at the shingle colors…not sure of all the colors they offer.
Thanks again!
Anna
Hi Barbara,
We’re about to start a major exterior renovation on our house and we could use some expert advice on color coordination. We live in Salt Lake City and our house was built in 1927. The first floor of the house is brick, but the second floor addition was clad in gray aluminum siding back in the ’80s. It’s visible on the front gable in the following picture, and it also covers the (very large) gables on the sides of the house:
Our plan is to replace the roof, windows (2nd floor only), soffit and fascia, and siding. The predominant style in our neighborhood is a board-and-batton exterior on 2nd floor gables, and we plan to follow this pattern as well. At this point, we haven’t chosen colors for anything except the windows, which will be the same off-white color as the first floor windows. We’d greatly appreciate color suggestions for the following structures: roof, vertical battens (placed 2-4 feet apart on a stucco background), stucco, soffit and fascia. This house desperately needs to emerge from the 1980’s — ideally, we’d like to take it back to 1927.
Thanks very much for your time!
Mike
Hello Barbara –
We live in SE Michigan – our house is 36 years old. We are painting the siding to update (I have to get rid of that harvest gold/mustard trim!) and I am trying to pick paint colors. Our brick (visible on the front lower story only) is red (maybe a bit on the orangey side) with some smears of black on some bricks. We put on a new roof last Fall – a warm to medium sandy reddish-brown. The window frames are white.
Any suggestions on siding color and contrast color for the shutters/door would be great. What do you suggest for a siding color if I paint the shutters/door white? And, is it typical to paint the garage door the contrasting color, or the same as the main siding color?
I am feeling very out of my element with this project – afraid I may wind up picking house colors that are too bland. I also know how picking the wrong shade can look terrible! (My friend just painted her house a taupy color and it turned out looking pink!) Is there a place -website or store- where I can see brick and roof colors next to siding colors?
Thanks so much for your time and attention!
Lisa
Hi Mike,
Sorry for the delay. Busy weekend!
I know they didn’t use dark brown roofs back in 1927, but I still think your house would look really nice with one. The brown would really show off the brick nicely. For trim, I would stick with the cream you already have on the windows. Use the cream for the fascia and soffit. Then I suggest a taupe color for the stucco with and vertical battens. Because you have a lot going on already with the brick and the detailed fascia, I wouldn’t use two additional colors up on the gable unless you really want to call attention to it.
If you want to blend the gable in even more with the house, I suggest a darker red/brown stucco and battens. With the cream trim, that would look really nice.
Hope this helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Lisa,
I suggest painting your siding a nice rich caramel color that will look great with the brick and roof and wonderful with white trim. Try Ben Moore’s roxbury caramel (HC-42).
You can paint the garage doors the same color as the siding and outline them in the white trim. As for the front door, you might try a deep brick reddish brown, kind of like the roof color. White’s okay but it’s a bit blah.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello, Barbara:
I’m thinking of purchasing a brick home that will need lots of work, inside and out. The home is an older 1971 ranch that needs serious updating. For the exterior, I was thinking of the traditional black shutters, white trim to replace the “pinky peach” colors shown in the pictures, but of course there are two other houses with those same color schemes. Can you help me with some advice on how to really make my home pop. I’m looking for something traditional, elegant, and beautiful.
Hello, again, Barbara:
I forgot to add…the back of the house (as shown here) has an addition. I will be replacing all the windows and possible the “french” doors you see on the addition.
Hi Ebony,
You might consider sticking with cream trim and using dark chocolate brown shutters instead of black (to make your house a bit different from the others). Then use a dark rusty red for your front door or another earthy shade.
I would not add in the paint detail that is currently on the house (I think you already know this) but just paint the trim all the same color without the accent and the shutters all one color without accents. Your house is very pretty enough with just the brick. No need to add “visual clutter.”
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I am hoping you can help with some color choices for roof and trim. I have a small, one-story, brick ranch 1950’s home. The color of the brick is a terra cotta orange color. It currently has a brown roof and yellow-cream trim (I see why it was chosen as the brick has a bit of yellow in it). I do not really care for the brown roof and am thinking of going with a gray/charcoal color. What suggestions do you have for the trim and shutter/door color? I would like to do white and a sage green color. I’ve also thought about black for the shutters, but was worried that it might look too much like Halloween. Your input would be great!
Thanks,
Melissa
Hi Barbara,
I have a 1945 red-brick front cape cod, with a warm beige vinyl siding on the rest of the house. The window trim is an off-white, our roof is black and currently the shutters and front door are also black. However, I am so bored and want to liven things up, while respecting the look and era of our home. We tried a dark brown color on one of the shutters and it looked very drab. What other color(s) can I consider for shutters and/or door? (ps I am considering a I a wood door for lack of a good color choice!)
Thanks so much-
Hi Melissa,
If you want a classic look, then black shutters and even a shiny black door will look great. Not Halloween at all. I’m not sure the rich brick color will support a sage green door unless it’s on the dark side. Nothing too light.
The charcoal roof will be terrific with the brick.
I wouldn’t use green shutters on your color of brick or it WILL look like a pumpkin. So if brown is out, I would go with black.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Rose,
You have a classic color combination. I know it may be a bit boring, but I bet it looks really good. To liven things up, a solid wood door would be fantastic. The other thing to do is change out your lighting and other metals. Make sure everything is black and not shiny gold/brass. You could also change out the shutters to ones with hardware on them and match that hardware to whatever is on the outside of the front door.
Another way to update is to change out the landscaping. Take out all the big overgrown bushes and replace them with fresh, well-spaced plantings. Add a colorful bush.
Tons of ideas for updating without adding funky colors to your very distinguished-looking house. But go for the wood door. You’ll love it!!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi everyone!
I am so excited to have found this blog, because I think my house looks blah!
I am going to be redoing the roof, gutters, trim (and maybe the windows) as an alternative to moving, and I sure could use some help picking out colors! I have a red brick home in Denver built in 1938. When I purchased it seven years ago, the trim was white. I proceeded to paint the trim the awful color it is, and have lived with it for, well, seven long years! I am thinking about going back to white trim, but am not sure how to work this with color for the gutters and roof. What do you think? I would really love to get it back to what it would have looked like in 1938…I just don’t know where to start.
I’ve posted a few pics at http://greenhouseart.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/my-house/
and I can provide more.
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!!!
Karen
I need some help! I have a cottage style house built in 1947. It has a brown roof, creamy-yellow metal siding (that I don’t want to paint because it is metal) and a red brick front wall. It also has 50’s style metal awnings on two of the front windows. The trim is in need of paint and it is currently the same blah cream/yellow color as the house. I have tried, yellow, blue and green , both dark and light and can’t find a good color for the trim. What should I do?? Do I just go for the white trim?? I would like a fresh look and a bit of the WOW factor, but am completely lost.
Hi! We are considering buying this house.. it needs a LOT of work. What would you suggest to do to the house to update the colors? I love the muted green with brick, or cream. I HATE the white dormers.. they stick out like a sore thumb. What about the foundation on the side of the house? What color could that be painted?
We have a 1950 Brick house, you can see the photo at: http://picasaweb.google.com/pingboo/HouseColor we are in the process of replacing the Gable roof Front porch Siding with Cedar shake, we are thinking on painting Tan/brown color, similar to the Screen Door for the cedar shake, we will be replacing the windows shelters and roof as well in the later stage, we are not sure what will be the best color combination to match our brick house… We are also thinking on changing the Front door color, not sure what to go for yet. The front porch posts currently have a coat of primer still pending for the final coat we are thinking on remain white color. Needed a lots of color suggestion, Thanks!!!
http://marilynsfarmhouse.blogspot.com/
Hi! Here is a picture of my cape farmhouse. I’m finally committing to a new roof. We just painted the house this dark green with cream trim. I would like a brown roof, others think a tan roof is best. I want to stay away from any grays like I have on it now. Mission brown is what I lean toward. What do you think? And what is your color preference for gutters? Thanks! Marilyn
We newly own a small tudor brick home built in 1941. the brick is “wonderful”—applied in all different directions to give a European cottage look. The garage is detached and very visible from the street has a nice wood stained door, nice old trees on the small lot.
All of the trim and siding has been painted very dark brown and the house kind of disappears. The roof is a reddish brown shingle. No shutters; window paynes are white and diamond shaped
I would like to paint at least the trim and possibly the brick as well. Any suggestions on color?
Kate
we just put an offer on our first home.. ahh! A bit nerve wracking, but exciting too! It is a 1.5 story solid brick home. There are two dormers on the front, with white siding on them, and also an extension on the back that has white vinyl siding. The roof is greyish, and the brick has a reddish tone to it. I like a classic, clean look. I was thinking a greenish clay color, with black front door, and accents, but I need some help!
I would love to replace the front door with something more eye catching, and replace the front step to something more substantial, but I don’t know if it should be concrete or wood. I have no idea about door colors, if I should do shutters, and what to do about those awful white dormers.
The front door needs new hardware, lights, etc, and I automatically think wrought iron finish, but I just don’t know! Please help!! Thanks!
Dear Barbara,
I want to send you a picture of my house, but I don’t know how to!!! Anyway, my house is a ranch style house. The part I need help with is the section that used to be a garage. The previous owners enclosed it and did not brick it up, they used wood. My brick is a rusty red with deep dark gray brown bricks in places. My roof is slate gray. Right now, I have a light clay color paint on it and my door and shutters are black. My problem is is that the clay has turned almost a pinky brown color. I do not like it, I don’t mind the black, but not the clay. What do you suggest? I am open to anything. I have used the computer programs to help with color, but I can’t really tell what it would look like. So far, the two colors that seem ok are wild rice or winter oak by Behr. Thanks so much for your help!
Kristin
Dear Barbara,
I still can’t get a picture of my house on here, but if you look back at Kristin #165, that is the excat same color brick as mine. I read what you said to her, but I have a LARGE area to paint, I would say 1/4 of my house is the wood. Would that color do well for me also? Anway, I thought it was pretty neat that there was another Kristin with the same kind of brick as me~!
Thanks again,
Kristin
Hi Barabara. I’ve included a link to the house I’m working on.
HOUSE LINK
http://api.photoshop.com/home_2fb5a77c31ec44f19c6908941b3de254/adobe-px-assets/cac14991f96e44649d238ecdcacd9ca7
BRICK LINK
http://api.photoshop.com/home_2fb5a77c31ec44f19c6908941b3de254/adobe-px-assets/8465f1a08ef74e05b74f4dcf7c28f69f
My question is what color to place on the front door. I wanted some kind of dark red or blue, but I’m not sure if that would clash with the brick/mortar or not. Perhaps a grey door would work, but I wanted a splash of color on that front door. Thanks a bunch for all you advice on here!
CLO
Hi Barbara,
I’ve enjoyed reading your advice here and it seems your input is just what we need. We have a brick home in a mix of shades – red, brown, greenish and neutral. We need to replace the roof (currently light grey) and have been liking dark green roof, but that seems hard to commit to. The trim of the house is white but we’d eventually like to paint it a dark olive/brown and we also need to replace the front door. Any suggestions for roof and door color would be much appreciated.
Best,
Meg
Hi Barbara, love this site! I am at a loss with our brick house! It is the blandest brick I have ever seen. We are about to have all the siding and trim replaced with Hardiplank and we are having new windows put in. My hubby and I want to make this house stand out more. We live on a beautiful huge lot on a hillside and the house looks hideous!
I am thinking of painting the siding a darker color, maybe a taupe, with creme trim. I was also thinking of adding shutters in an accent color to break up the monotony. The mortar is the same color as the brick, which looks grey from a distance but when you hold taupe up to it there is a sandy tone to it. I love Benjamin Moore paint and I was looking at ashley grey and icicle.
Can you offer color suggestions for the siding, trim, shutters and windows?
Thanks,
Kelli
Hello: a guy that needs colour help. Lighter shade of red brick, white shutters, dbl car garage that is white, red faded interlock both in the back and front of the house, deep red fence and I need help for the trim. It is currently white but I would like to change it. The roof is brown with specks of gray and black, (at night time it looks charcol grey)
any help would be appreciated, I keep going back to cream and or taupe when I vision it.
Thank-you
Hi Barbara,
I have a small cape built around 1948. I’ve e-mailed you pictures separately. I’d love to get your opinion for colors. The roof is new (dark gray). The upper half is aluminum siding and the bottom half red brick with tan grout.
I plan to paint trim, siding, shutters, front door, rod iron and porch.
My brother wants to paint the siding gray to match the roof but I do not think that would go with the red brick and tan grout. I thought a light cream for the siding and white trim with a dark burgundy door and black shutters and black rod iron. Or perhaps a light green for the siding.
Any advise would be helpful.
Thank you very much.
Ken
Akron, Ohio
Hi Karen,
Sorry for the long delay. (vacation)
I would move toward a black or dark charcoal roof, much more common in 1938, and pair that with a cream trim color. I think that will provide the contrast that you’re looking for without the starkness of white. Then if you can get off-white windows, all the better. Otherwise, white will work fine.
You also might consider some additional landscaping in front. You have a lovely home but adding some plants that were particularly popular in the early 1900s (perennials like hosta, etc.) would really add to your home’s character.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Glimmer,
Have you tried dark chocolate brown? You already have a brown roof and if you’re not crazy about the current yellow trim (it blends in too much), then the brown will accent your home and provide contrast. You have brown, yellow/cream, and red as your color scheme so I would not add another color. White will certainly work if you feel that dark chocolate is just too much. But either one will add some pizzazz to the house.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Dawn,
Sorry for the long delay. I could not access your house photo link as part of it got cut off. If you are still interested in my suggestions, just embed the link in the blog reply or send it to my email address and I’ll be able to access it.
Thanks, Dawn.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Wendy (229),
Have you considered keeping the cedar a natural color? That would really update your house. Then you could go with the dark brown for screen door and shutter color. Your front door would look great if painted a rusty red to match the brick. With the white trim, the combination of colors will look terrific.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Marilyn (230),
I like the mission brown for your roof since it is so prominent on your house. It will balance the dark green and make the cream trim (and all the architecture) stand out. The tan roof would offer too much contrast and cut the house in half.
Good choice!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Kate (231),
It sounds like you’ve got a classic (see photo on this site flickr.com/photos/elissacorsini/210024374/).
Before painting either the trim or the brick, I would check out the neighborhood (and possibly even the neighbors) to get the sense of whether or not you should even consider painting. I know you feel like updating the look but there are other things you can do to brighten up the house and make it feel newer or more you. Consider redoing the landscaping (with the exception of that nice tree) and adding more color to the front yard. A flowering tree or shrub and wonderfully colorful perennials might really do the trick.
Probably not what you wanted to hear but hope it helps you with your decisions.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Dawn (232),
I like your ideas for updating your house. The green/neutral for the siding will look great with either white or off-white trim. Then black for the shutters (will go with the gray roof). I would use either black or a brick red for the front door and definitely wrought iron for a railing on your new concrete steps. Wrought iron for all the other accents and you’ve got a classic.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I need some serious help! We have a summer place that suffered damage last month in the midwest flooding. Green siding, ivory trim, RED roof. One repair led to another, and now that the roof has been replaced (brown, Certainteed Heather Blend) and the landscape started, the painter says he can come Friday, or in September (when I can’t be there), so the rush is on. I am trying to minimize the brick, and create some curb appeal! The neighbors on either side have ivory/lt. beige houses.
My property includes a boathouse, a separate garage, and the house, which has 2 distinct styles. On the street side, a ranch with a cedar addition over one side, flush with the original building, which is a multi-colored brick: tan, peach, butter, and
RED. On back, a contemporary with lots of glass. The roofer was to match the mortar/window ledge color for the trim, but used an almond, which turns out to be the buttery yellow in the brick. The windows are white, so I would like to use white trim instead of the current cream color. Can I have the painter match the fascia to the gutters and paint the windows white? I’m thinking of Ben Moore bleeker beige, which blends well with the brick, but that’s 3 colors, and the gutter color might only be around the roof trim! The brick is not an issue in the back, and doesn’t appear elsewhere.
The front door to the house faces the side, so can be any color. The simple 1-car garage is most visible, and the boathouse has new white windows and doors that I prefer not to paint and a chimney that needs painting. No gutters on either the boathouse or garage. I would like the 3 spaces to go together, not necessarily to be identical.
Can you help me? I will try to attach photos.
Thank you!
Barbara,
Thanks for sending the website; those houses are very much like ours and you are right, the brick should not be painted. My landscaping is good; old azaleas, rhododendren, dogwoods and redbud. Short old brick walls.
I may whiten the whites on the triim as it has yellowed. May change the brown trim just a bit.
Have ordered a stained wood garage door and will accessorize a bit ie a light over the garage door, address numbers, large urns for plantings, etc. The front door is painted red and I may pick a different color for it as well. Thanks for urging me to put my paintbrush away.
Kate
Hi Kristin,
You can try sending a photo to my email address if embedding it in your reply box doesn’t work. It’s bmeglis@yourhomeandcolorcoach.com
Otherwise, I would not pick such dark colors for the body of your house (unless you meant those as shutter and door colors, which would be okay). I suggest picking a neutral tan/taupe for the siding that will complement the brick but not compete with it. Then the dark shutters and door will really pop out.
See if that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I sent photos to your email. Also, I think my description was a bit unclear:
The roofer used the creamy almond on the gutters, not trim, so I feel committed to that color to avoid wasting money having them painted (since the color does appear in the brick).
The house is on a lake, so I’m hoping the white trim will look fresh, which the streetside really needs. I don’t have photos with the new brown roof, but it doesn’t make a huge difference, as the house has architectural issues!
The garage (to the right and perpendicular to the house, door faces left) and street side of the house can be seen together, and the back of the house and the boathouse as well, but the garage is not visible from anywhere but out front, and from the front windows. That’s why I wondered if the 3 needed to be identical, as the boathouse might not look good in the taupe color ( if you agree with it!) but it only needs to look right as you face the house from the lake.
Too much for an amateur to figure out! Sorry so confusing, but I hope you can get a vision from this description.
Thanks (so much!) again,
Laura
Dear Barbara,
We are considering purchasing a house that needs a lot of work, starting with the exterior. The brick is a peachy color and I’m having a hard time finding any tips on what colors would go with this brick. We will replace the roof. What roof/siding/shutter color(s) would you suggest to fix this house? Below is a link to the house’s website.
Thanks,
Christina
http://www.utahrealestate.com/761192
Hi CLO (#235),
A red door will look great (dark blue won’t show up because the door is under the eaves). But make sure the “red” you choose is more of a burnt orange than red so that it will go with the brick. Just take one of those spare bricks right to the paint store and you’ll be all set.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Meg (#236),
With your colored brick and plans to add an olive brown to the mix (I assume that color is already in the brick), I think I would bypass the dark green roof in favor of something like “Weathered Wood” (you can google that) which seems to have some olive green in it and would be a little more neutral.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Ken (#237),
I like your idea better with the tan or even camel-colored siding, white trim, black shutters, and red brick-colored door. The black wrought iron railing is fine, but can you remove the awning and keep the railing? You really don’t need the awning and the house would look a lot better without it.
I know what your brother means about the gray gables on the gray roof. But you might as well feature the gables and you can do that best with the tan or camel (grout) color.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara.
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Kelli (#237),
If your brick has some tan in it (though it looks gray from the road), you might consider a browner taupe like Ben Moore’s davenport tan (HC-76) with something like litchfield gray (HC-78) for trim. That gray might bridge the color gap between gray and tan and really bring out the color in your brick. Just a guess. Send a photo if you can.
I do like cream trim but not so much with gray siding. I prefer white or light gray.
Choose your house color and trim first, then pick a window color (either cream if cream trim, white or sand if not using cream trim).
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Don (#238),
I like the cream idea for your trim, but you’ll have to change everything that’s currently white over to cream. Not sure if you want to go through all that.
If you decide to keep the white trim, you might consider painting your garage a taupe color that will punch it up a bit. Keep the white trim around it.
Also you might want to move the red fence into the neutral category, either white or taupe if you go with that color scheme or cream if everything goes that way.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Laura (#249),
I did not receive the photos as I think my email memory was full. If you want to try again (I apologize), that would be very helpful. I’m not sure I followed all the color locations on your three buildings (house, boathouse, and garage).
BUT I can say that you do NOT have to match the three buildings. Especially since they’re part of a more relaxed summer home. I would use colors that are in the brick to tie the whole color scheme together (contrasting colors will accent the brick), but I wouldn’t worry about matching. I would stick with white windows if possible as they are crisp and summery (although at our cottage the spider spots and webs are really annoying). But as long as your colors are all related in some way, you can have separate body colors with no problem. I prefer that, actually. As your question was about trim color, though, a photo would certainly help.
I will look for one in my email.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi again Kate (#248),
The changes you propose sound absolutely perfect for your house!! Thanks for following up.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara, another question about my Tudor home.
We also have a small guest house on the property which needs to coordinate with the garage and the house.
Usually garages match the house.
Our garage is freestanding and not old like the house. If I painted the garage, guesthouse and only the trim on the old house, all in the same colors (a greenish medium brown and white accents) do you think that would work? Leaving the brick on the old house unpainted? All roofing is the same.
Kate
Hi Christina (#251),
My big suggestion (ouch) is to replace the black windows with white, cream, or bone. The black totally overpowers this house and that’s pretty much all you see when you look at the house. If you replace the windows, the color scheme even as it is now, will start to make sense.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I can’t believe I found this site just at the time when I need it most! My husband and I are at a stand-still about what colour to choose for our exterior house trim. We are purchasing new windows and are not sure if we should keep the same colour we have now, or make a change. It’s scary because whatever we choose will be permanent, since the PVC windows will have a coating applied in our colour choice that can never change!
Our house is a mixture of creamy coloured brick. A small part of the second floor is white stucco. There are wooden planks on some parts of the stucco that is a dark blue/grey. All the window trim and garage door is the same grey. The roof is black. This colour scheme may sound strange, but it actually looks nice. The grey ties in nicely with the black roof. So, we are thinking are staying with this colour. Many brick houses in our neighborhood that are the same colour seem to have more beige/taupe/or brown trim, but we fee this is kind of boring. Also, unlike many of these houses, our roof is black, not brown or beige. We will not be replacing the roof for a long time. Please help! What colour should we choose for the trim and also the front door?
One other thing we can’t decide on is the feature window on our second floor. It is currently a large square with an elipse-shaped window above it. We are wondering if we should change it to one single window in the same shape or keep it as it is? Also, we can have it sandblasted, or have a design sandblasted onto it? Any suggestions? I could email you a photo of our house if you think you can help us.
Thanks!
Hi Melanie (#261),
You’re right. It’s a big decision. Send a photo if you can so I can see exactly what you’re describing. I’ll check back later.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara!
I sent the photos to your email again– hope you got them!
In the pic of the boathouse, you can see the main house in the back. I’m thinking of using a creamy Sherwin Williams off-white for the trim against the berkshire beige, including the gutters. (I can’t live with the roofers’ mistake, so I’m using just two colors and hang the extra $$).
Latest question: can i leave the boathouse white and just paint gutters/trim the beige? It is white siding that doesn’t actually need painting, so flip-flopping the colors is a simpler, cheaper alternative. Or should I just match them, or tie the two together another way?
Again, I appreciate your help!
Laura
Hi Laura (#263),
I’m waiting for the photos to pop into my mailbox, but from your comments already, I would say to keep the boathouse white and just flip-flop the colors. That will look fine and believe me, simpler and cheaper are great alternatives these days.
And just remember that, at least on Lake Ontario, people are very understanding of creative paint ideas when it comes to summer cottages and outbuildings. These properties evolve over generations, and sometimes, the quirkier, the better. It just adds character.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We have a split-level house built in 1972. Currently it has cedar greyish siding and we want to replace it. It has reddish brick. The soffits, gutters, window trims, garage door are all white.
Our choice is from the range of vinyl siding from Grand Junction: linen, cream, silver, tan, almond, tumbleweed, champagne, hazel, dune, saddle…. and darker colors. I am not so keen on the darker colors.
Can you please advise? I am not going to invest a lot of energy to rip off all but would appreciate a good advice from you on the siding. I am looking for a change from the greying/bluish.
Thank you,
Simona
Hi Simona (#265),
I like the warm tans/browns with brick. Something like saddle or tumbleweed. Anything too light will just make the house look chopped up. I would stick with shades that are the same value as your brick to make the whole house look bigger.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara…
We have a raised bungalow that was built 8 years ago (we have owned it for 2 years). The workers that sided the house did a lousy job – ie not nailed properly, pieces to short, facia falling off, siding is wavy etc. We are wanting to reside the house. The front portion of the house is grey/white brick (about 2/3rds) and the siding is a greyish blue (rest of the house) with white trim and the garage door is white.I really don’t want to go back to the greyish blue but am not sure what would set the house off.
Any suggestions? Please and thanks Barbara.
Judy
Hello Barbara,
My wife and I are having trouble picking a new roof color. We have spent the last three weeks looking over the Tamko and Timberline websites and driving around town trying to figure out the correct color to go with. What would you recommend? We are willing to paint the shutters and trim and will be changing the wood siding to vinyl in a year or two so consider all options with exception to changing the brick color.
The colors we had in mind were the following:
1. Tamko – Weatherwood http://www.tamko.com/DesktopModules/BizModules%20-%20UltraPhotoGallery/Exif.aspx?alias=www.tamko.com&Id=36&Src=http://www.tamko.com/Portals/0/UltraPhotoGallery/718/5/Downloads/950_Her_Clas_2.jpg
2. Timberline – Mission Brown
http://www.gaf.com/General/GafMain.asp?Silo=RES1&WS=GAF
3. Tamko – Aged Wood
If you provide your e-mail I can send provide the link to my Kodak Gallery where my house photos reside. I am not sure how else I would be able to post them to you.
Regards,
Stephen
Hi Judy,
Have a look at the Hardie plank colors like Monterey Taupe, which would go nicely with your brick and the white trim and would be a real update from the grey-blue.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Stephen and Jennifer (#268),
You can put a photo right in the reply box as you did for the other two links or send it via email to bmeglis@yourhomeandcolorcoach.com
If I may, I will then put a photo back in the blog so others can benefit too.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I tried sending you an email with a photo this morning but it bounced back due to e-mail quota limitation. The photo is not too big around 1 MB. Can you please advise if I can try to resend?
Thanks in advance.
Simona Rollinson
Hi Barbara,
I’ve stumbled across your site while trying to look for ideas on what color siding to add to our house. My husband and I currently have a one story rambler that is a multi-colored dark and light red brick. We are adding a second story and have decided to go with Hardi Shingle siding. We would like to paint the brick to match the siding. New windows will be in white. We live on a street with all brick homes most are various shades of brick and a few are painted white. We were considering going with a Kacki Brown shingle, a dark gray roof and white trim. Do you think this look would pull the painted brink and the shingle siding together nicely? Do you recommend a lighter or a darker color? Any advice you could give would be appreciated.
– Karen
Hi Barbara,
I wanted to see if you could give me some ideas for colors on my house. I am going to be painting or replacing the front door, sidelights and shutters. I would also like to possibly paint the garage door in hopes that it makes the house itself look bigger. If you can’t tell in the pictures the trim, gutters and windows are white and the siding is gray. Thanks for any help you could give me to get me doing. I just email you the picture. Thanks again.
Hi Simona,
I purged my trash. It should work okay now. Sorry about that.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Karen (#272),
I suggest keeping the brick and siding color the same which will give you some texture on the bottom but a monochromatic colonial from the street. That’s fine. And khaki brown will look terrific with the dark gray roof and the white trim.
Just keep the body of the house all one color and you’ll be fine.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Jeff (#273),
I haven’t gotten your photo yet (others as well) –I’ve purged the trash so hopefully it will come through.
But based on your description, I suggest painting the trim around the perimeter of your house a shade either darker or lighter than your siding color to make your whole house look bigger. Then paint the garage door the same gray as the house color. For the front door sidelights, stick with white and replace the front door (if budget allows) with a solid wood. That will really update the house and maximize visual size.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
It has been a while since we’ve been touch. I had asked you for help with picking a roof colour, and you were kind enough to look at the link with the roof shingles samples and provide a suggestion. Unfortunately, we had to give the roofer a hasty decision and I didn’t get your suggestion on time. You had suggested the charcoals (driftwood ultimately), I was partial to the browns, and my husband didn’t like browns. My head was swirling with different colour options, and I let my husband and roofer go with a colour that now I am so disappointed with – a VERY dark charcoal/black. It has taken me a long time to get over the disappointment, or maybe I was just used to a very dull and light roof.
Barbara – I need your help. What can we do to salvage the exterior of our home. Don’t you think the roof is too black? I guess nothing can be done about it now, but what can we do to pull it off? We would like to paint the dormer windows a different now (I don’t like the colour of it at all now against the roof). Also, can you suggest paint colours for the garage, trim, front door? And the shutters…do we replace them at this point and in which colour, or just get rid of them?
Any suggestions will be great.
Please find the before and after pictures of the roof at the following link. Remember, the tan roof was before. The dark after.
Thanks again….Lorena
Hello Barbara,
I appreciate this site and hope you can help our overthinking. We have a 1958 brick split level (email pix). We are limited in finances and have decided to only paint the trim and not the whole house (which was our first choice but with only a lmited budget we want to use the rest of the budget on updating other areas – such as entrance, landscaping, etc.). We are leaning towards a lighter coffee for the trim; dark chocolate for the shutters; and a Frank Lloyd Wright red on the front door.
What do you think? And by all means give us the alternative if you see a better way.
Thanks!
Peter in Decatur
Barbara,
We are redoing our siding, windows and roofing. We have a colonial with brick (black, tan, reddish orange) on the lower level front.
I have chosen the Natural Clay siding, cream trim for corner posts and windows, and black shutters. But I’m having a very difficult time choosing the roof color.
We live in an area with lots of trees and all the homes in our area eventually get lots of mold on the roofs – so I think darker is better than lighter.
I think that a black roof will look great, but hestiate becuase of the added energy losses due to the radiation effects. The Weathered Wood/brown/gray roof colors just don’t have the punch of the black roof. Any advice?
Thanks,
Susan
Hi Lorena (#277),
Not to worry. The house will look fine. Consider these options:
Capitalize on the richness of your brick to bring that color up to the gables. Look at Richmond Gold (Ben Moore HC-41). That richer color will balance the dark roof better than the light tan that’s there now.
Then, you have to bring black into the facade. I would do that with black shutters. You already have wrought iron as a metal for your lighting so it makes perfect sense to go with black. That too will balance the roof color.
For the front door, choose a nice dark brick red that will really stand out in the shadows of your entryway. Take the darkest color in your brick and go a couple of shades darker. That should work.
As for the garage doors, paint them Richmond Gold too with the cream trim. The trim color is perfect everywhere. Don’t touch it!
Your house will look FABULOUS when you’re done with the painting. Not to worry at all!!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Susan (#278),
I’m not an engineer so I can’t speak to the energy requirements associated with a dark roof color, but it sounds like you live in a warm climate where air conditioning costs are high. In New England, dark roofs help keep us warm in the winter.
My guess is that the dark charcoal (not quite black) and the weathered wood will not be that different. Aesthetically speaking (much more my area), I agree that the darker roof will look better with your black shutters and the rest of your color scheme. I vote for at least dark charcoal to maybe even black.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Peter (#278),
I haven’t rec’d your photo via email but based on your description, I like your color scheme. I assume the siding is a darker coffee color (that’s why you’ve chosen a lighter color for the trim?). That sounds just great. And chocolate shutters with a rich red door will really update your look.
You’re smart to put your money where the real impact will show — the landscaping and entry.
Good luck with your project.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
You are always so sweet and reassuring!
Just a question about the front door…What do you mean by a dark brick red?
There are quite a few shades happening in the brick…do you mean take the
“rustiest” shade and go darker, or go for a warm red?? Can you suggest some BM colors just so I can
have an idea?
Thanks SO MUCH, Lorena
p.s. Just some more info…I had a bunch of BM paint chips here with me,
and just held them next to the brick… I do like richmond gold and it goes
nicely with the brick (a lighter shade than the brick). Greenfield Pumpkin
(hc-40) and Marvyville Brown (hc-75) seemed to also go nicely but darker.
Our brick colour kind of falls between the lighter richmond gold and the
darker greenfield pumpkin. I think the final product will look rich and
harmonious. I am looking forward to salvaging the exterior!!!!! Can’t
wait, and I will send you photos after it’s all done.
Hi again Lorena (#283),
I would certainly try all three of those colors for your siding. I like all three — it’s worth getting some sample pots and checking them out against the brick. One of them will be perfect. You might prefer one of the darker colors.
As for door color, it’s hard to tell on the screen, but something like aGeorgian brick (HC-50) or Cinnamon (2174-20) might really warm up thefront door. See what you think.
Good luck, Lorena. It will be over soon.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
I have a 1910 red brick colonial in Alexandria, VA, with white siding on a 1940’s family room addition. We need to replace the family room siding and are stuggling with color and style of siding. Shinges or planks? White? Beige? Olive green? I am probably going vinyl rather than hardiplank siding. The roof is a sandy color, which will someday (no time soon) be replaced with gray/black shinges and the shutters are black. Any suggestions would be MOST appreciated.
Thanks,
Page
Hi Page (#285),
With your brick house, I would use planks as shingles may appear too busy next to the brick. As for color, I would get away from white as it’s altogether too common (although there’s nothing wrong with it, of course). A nice earthy olive would update the house but if you want to stay more traditional, beige or taupe will not upstage the brick. With black shutters and eventual roof, you have TONS of color options for that addition. But just keep it natural. No blue!
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We recently bought a colonial house. Though the house is perfect for us from inside, we just don’t like its curb appeal. It somehow dates the house a lot even though the house is almost new. We were wondering to add a brick siding in the front of the house but only half of the front uptil the ceiling of first floor and change the shutter colors but we can’t decide the colors. Most of houses in our subdivison has brick siding in some quantity. We just don’t know what direction to go.
The picture might be blured, so just wanted to clarify that the shutters color is bottle green same as door.
Thanks for your help
Hi Megha (#287),
I would definitely not add any brick to this house as I think that will date the house even more. What you need is some pizzazz in your shutters and front door color. Since the house is pretty much white with white trim, you can do anything from a nice rich blue for both shutters and front door to black shutters and a bright red door. Very classic. Then put some elbow grease into the landscaping with a flowering tree and some annuals. You can really add lots of color very inexpensively.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We purchased a 1937 Cape Cod a year ago, and it’s need of a new roof. (It’s been about 20 years since the house has had a full tear-off.) The current roof is your standard flat, black shingle, and we have black shutters as well. The house is a combination of light-gray and traditional brick. We’re not looking to update the siding and shutters at the moment, but we probably will sometime in the next several years–maybe a light shade of taupe or something else kind of neutral. What neutral shade would you recommend for the roof, so we have some options for the siding and shutters? Would you go with a slate or weathered-gray? Or would that lock us into a color scheme?
There’s a good photo of the house’s exterior on my blog under the inaugural post: http://carrie-almostdomestic.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html
Thanks!
~Carrie
Hi,
I have a brick colonial that has a connected foyer and attached garage with a room above it.
We are building an addition (a family room) on the left side of the house. The chimney will be in the middle of addition and main house.
I ABSOLUTELY HATE the brick front. I am a fan of clapboard like the rest of the neighborhood. All the other homes look nice and pretty… then there is our yucky brick house. I would love to side over it with even vinyl!
My question is, is it okay to do this addition with a different siding? I really would crumble to continue with the brick. Would white or dark tan siding look silly on a big house with lots of brick?
Barbara,
I have enjoyed reading your comments. I would love to have your comments on trim color for this brick building. There is also a concrete wall, not visible in photograph, that is currently raw concrete. It is a real eyesore, but painting it the trim color may make it more pleasant.
Thanks in advance.
Barbara — we are painting our Queen Anne Victorian. The bottom level of the house is wood siding. The second level is a combination of wood siding with stucco with half timbers in the gable. We are planning to paint the wood siding a medium tone blue/gray, the window trim and moldings white or off white, and the sashes charcoal. The question is what to do with the stucco and half timbers. We want to keep the house unified, but at the same time we want the white trim to pop. What do you think? We originally wanted to leave the stucco white, but then the windows in the stucco gable become completely washed out, and we also don’t know what color to paint the timbers (we thought charcoal, but would that be too much contrast?). Alternatively, we are considering possibly neutral tans for the stucco and timbers. The tans complement the blue, and give it some warmth, but it seems to split the house into two levels too much. Or should we give up on the idea of having all the window trim white? I tend not to like Victorians where the windows on the different floors have differing treatments, as I think it looks too jumbled and disunified. Thanks much.
Mark
I am including a couple of pictures of the house. Wondering what are my otions for exterior color. Right now is dark grey and very light grey with white vynil windows, Thank you. Marcia
Hi Barbara:
What a great site. We have a house built in the early 60’s. The brick color is kind of an orange shade (ugly). We are using it for rental property. The roof is kind of an brown with shades of the rusty orange. It now has white wood trim. We are getting siding and shutters. Any help with color selection would be so appreciated! I have looked and picked out a dune/sand color siding and black shutters but would like your opinion. Thanks again!!
Hi Carrie (#289),
Sorry for the delay — computer issues this week.
As for your roof color, I would keep it at least a dark charcoal. Whether it’s slate or shingle, either will work, but I would avoid too much variegation in the coloring since you already have brick. When there are too many colors in the roof (like the new architectural shingles), they really clash with the brick. I think you should have some leeway with shutters if you stay on the dark side (so to speak).
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi there Barbara.
My wife and I just bought this house and we are not to fond of the white siding on the second floor:
http://tours.tourfactory.com/tours/minitour.asp?t=416714
Can you suggest a siding and color that would compliment the brick on the main floor.
Many thanks,
-mike
Hi Barbara,
Great site! I’ve been reading over the previous posts for ideas for a door and shutter color for our new home. Somewhere down the road, I’d like to get a darker siding color (tan or maybe olive), but that’s not on the immediate agenda. I have a REALLY hard time picking out colors from paint swatches. For the door, I’ve been considering some kind of redish brown color to blend with the brick , but I just can’t seem to find a good shade. Any suggestions on an actual shade? I also love black doors, but I’m just not sure if it would go, considering the color of our roof. What do you think?
I also want to get a new full length glass screen door. While I think a cream would look nice, I don’t think it would go with the white siding. What would you recommend?
You can see a pic at: http://klmphotos.shutterfly.com/634
Thanks in advance,
Kelly
Barbara,
You give great advice! I am interested in your input on my dilemma. I need to choose a color for new siding. I would like to get away from the current light-beige. I am thinking white siding with cranberry or brown shutters and new front door.
You can see a picture of my house at http://picasaweb.google.com/kwiatkowski/House/photo#5235503668567230162
What do you think? Thanks!
-Tim
Hi Michelle (#290),
It is absolutely fine (and quite customary) to do an addition in a coordinating neutral color as it’s almost impossible to match a weathered brick anyway. I would proceed with your addition — choose a color that goes with the brick (the grout color or taupe or tan) and not white. You’ll be much happier with a rich color alongside the brick part of the house.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi CT (#291),
You might try a warm cream for the basic trim since it looks like your windows are white. The cream will blend with the brick and warm the whole building up. Then use a dark chocolate or a rusty dark red/brown for the accent panels, kind of what you see in those upper two gables.
If your windows are not white, your other option might be to go with dark chocolate on the trim and a sandy color for the accent panels.
I think either option would work, but I would definitely paint over the light blue. See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Mark (#292),
You might try a lighter version of the same blue/gray for the stucco which will unify the house and make it less chopped up. But since the half timbers really define the house, I would go ahead and paint them either dark charcoal or dark brown (the natural wood timber look) — there will be a lot of contrast but that’s traditionally how the timbers are treated. Your white trim and windows will pop off the blue/gray with no problem.
You might consider yet a third color for your sashes, something that will really accent the windows. But I would decide that after painting the stucco and half timbers.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Julie (#294),
It sounds like you’re going to side over the brick so the roof color is the critical factor. I like the sand color with white trim since your roof is brown/rust colored. And the black shutters will be fine. Just make sure you use black somewhere else (since your roof is brown). Like mailbox, porch light, etc. That will tie the shutters in with the house.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Picture above, you say “This brick house is spectacular”. Do you know what color it is?? I really want to use the same color scheme??
We are building our first home and I am very challenged when it comes to choosing colors. We are going with Tilson homes and the house we are building is the Marian, elevation A. Our brick is the color brown marble & mortar color is Gray (standard). The roof is a dark color called Weatherwood with Elk manufacturing. We are needing to decide on up to 3 colors for the shutters, doors, chimney. I am leaning towards dark browns, do you think this would be okay? I’m also open to black. I don’t know if they should all be the same color or should we use a different color for the door.
I am so glad I found this site & look forward to hearing back from you, thank you so much for your help.
Cissy
Hi Mike (#296),
I suggest a tan or taupe that will pull out your grout color. That will make the house look less chopped up and will look sharp with the white trim.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Kelly M (#297),
Have a look at Ben Moore’s Georgian brick for both your shutters and front door. If you keep white trim, you can go ahead with a white full-view door (regardless of what siding color you eventually go with). I would also paint the garage door a warm sand color — kind of like the grout/roof color — to make the door less prominent.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Tim (#298),
Personally, I think a richer taupe taken right out of your brick would make the house look bigger and more updated. Then I suggest black shutters for all the front windows, both on the siding and the brick, to go with your lamp post and other metals. White trim is fine as is. You probably could safely remove the post on the front step to open that area up and paint the door a nice shiny black. Although it’s under the eave, a colorful wreath on the door or pot of flowers next to it will add color. You could also go with a rich red door.
But I think you’ll like a deeper tone on the siding. White would give you the same effect as you have now. Kind of chopped up.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Interested in Painting (#303),
I don’t know what color it is but I can see if I can find out. No guarantees, of course. From my fan deck of Ben Moore paint colors, I’m looking at Livingston gold (HC-16) as an approximation but it may be a little too green. I’ll go hunting. Stay tuned…
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Did you forget me?
Hi Barbara:
Wonderful site! I’m purchasing a home (photo was emailed) this week that needs work, beginning with a new roof. I’m leaning toward medium brown for the roof (it seems that brown is the new black), but would love your opinion.
I also am stuck on what color to paint the siding and front door. Oh, and I also plan to add a portico, possibly with cedar inside the triangle as that seems to be the trend in this neighborhood.
I’m open to any and all suggestions. I’m especially stuck about the roof. (And yes, I plan to clean up the bushes.) Thanks a million!
Meg
Barbara:
Addition to entry 310: I emailed a better photo, but here is a link in case that’s easier:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/14453969_zpid
Thanks!
Meg
Hi Marcia (#309),
I answered your original question posted over on the “Stone and Blond Brick…” blog post. Hope you find it there. I posted my reply yesterday. Sorry for the mix-up.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara:
Meg (#310 & #311) again. Sorry to have this broken into separate questions, but you’ve got me thinking … . If I do have a medium brown roof, I was thinking about changing the shutters to cedar. A house around the corner has cedar shutters, and they look really nice.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/14453969_zpid
Meg
Hi Meg (#310,11,13),
You’re doing your renovation the right way by starting with the big-ticket items first. In this case, the roof. I love your idea of a medium brown roof (especially since you’re in the South) and the cedar-lined portico with possibly some cedar shutters. I only see one set of shutters but there may be room on the right side of the front door for another set and certainly there’s room over on the addition.
As for siding color, you’ll really want to play up the cedar so you can go with just about any color that will accentuate the wood tone. That could be anything from sage to a medium blue to taupe/tan/camel to even red (although it looks like your neighbor may have gotten there first). I would stick with white trim as your windows are white.
As for the door, I would decide on that after you do everything else. The front door is the cherry on the sundae and based on your siding color, you can venture into exciting territory — dark grape, rusty red, chocolate brown. But first things first.
Hope that helps to get you started.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
OMG, you’re wonderful. Where can I make a donation to your site?
Meg
Hi again Meg (#315),
You’re very kind. I’m glad to help out. (I’ve put a little PayPal donate button on the bottom of my “About Me and My Blog” page and that seems to be helpful to both clients and bloggers — thank you!)
Good luck with your house plans!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara! What a great site!! Your advice seems right on, so i’m curious what you would do with our house…
We are about to replace our roof with Timberline Architectural Shingles and had decided to go with Heather (a brown shade), however now that we’ve seen it on a few homes, we are afraid it is too light and don’t care for the contrast amongst shingles.
We have a reddish-brown brick front home with siding on the sides and back…of course we plan to paint the siding and trim once the roof is done…..so my question is- do we go with the blackest, most solid shingle color?? based on the shingle color, what would your suggestions be for shutters and siding/trim?? thanks for your help…someone also suggested painting our trim in a different sheen than the siding, but i have no experience w/ this!!
Thanks for your help!
Hi Lou (#317),
I think you’ve made a really important discovery by driving around to look at roof colors. The architectural shingles with their variegation do not look so great on brick homes. There’s just too much going on — the result is busy.
I suggest you get a solid shingle color and black is fine. But you could also go with a dark charcoal or even a dark brown. The key is just keeping the roof a solid color. Then you can move on to the siding and shutters.
If you go with a black/gray roof, I would stick with black or nearly black shutters. If you go with brown, then a really dark rich brown for the shutters. As for the siding color, just keep it an earthy color, like camel/olivey green/warm gold/something you would see in the fall in New England. Any of those colors will look spectacular with your brick and your roof.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I am replacing the roof on my 2nd home, a 1964 one car garage with light/medium gray brick. Siding is a slate gray. I want to make the replacement roof black but husband thinks dark brown – what would look best? It’s a small house – about 950 sq so roof is just a basic triangle. Thanks.
Hi Malinda (#319),
I would go a little lighter with the roof, how about a dark charcoal, to blend with the siding and make the house appear bigger. Black is okay but charcoal would be optimal. I’m not crazy about the brown/gray combo.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi,
My husband and I just bought our first home. The house if 57 yrs old and as you can see from the pictures, it is obviously outdated and in need of serious change. The only thing I am sure of is that the awnings must come down. Any advice on how to improve it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
http://www.rockyou.com/photos/photo_view.php?instanceid=12749702
please let me know if the link works.
Hi Mildred (#321),
Yes, taking the awnings down will help. You also might either remove the green iron rod by the front door or paint it black. You could also replace the green on the front step with black/natural concrete color. (Not sure if it’s a mat or paint.)
The rest is really landscaping along the foundation. A variety of plants/shrubs/bushes will soften that hard line along the bottom between foundation and siding.
Also, I noticed your neighbor has the terra cotta tiles along the roof line too. Is that something that’s popular in your area?
You can paint the front door a shiny black or a brick red (to match your brick — not too red).
Hope that helps you get started.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi again,
Yes, the green on the step is just a piece of material. As for the terra cotta tiles on the roof, every house in our neighborhood has them. I’m assuming they were popular when the houses were built.
I was wondering, if we paint the door, the step and grill on the step black, should we keep the trim at the top and bottom of the house and around the windows white?
Also i’m thinking about putting up shutters instead of the awnings. Do you think that will look ok and if so, what color should we go with?
Thank you so much for all your wonderful advice.
Hi Barbara!
I need some advise on my home. I love your site! We bought an older brick in the country and I cant seem to get the colors right. My husband wants to go for the rustic/lodge look but its hard with the pinkish/mauve brick. We have acreage w/a mtn view- we’re not in a neighborhood. We added the front porch and are in the process of putting an upper deck with railings on top of the sunporch (right of pic). Up close the porch looks okay but from a distance its just too dark. What can I do to make it right and still keep the lodge look he likes? We will eventually replace the roof- possibly metal and the front door. Can you give me a good color palate/style for the roof,front porch/ upper deck/ front door (along with style) bay windows- really any advise at this point! should I also paint the front sidewalk w/ concrete paint? The porch is stained with the semi-trans to show the wood grain but I’m open to any changes it may need. Thank you for all your help!!
http://s408.photobucket.com/albums/pp162/mouldertwo/
Hi again Mildred (#323),
Yes, keep the trim white. You don’t really need shutters because your windows are different sizes and shapes and the shutters will call attention to that (also the brick is quite busy), but if you decide you want shutters, I would go with either something neutral (like the grout color) or black.
Make sure you put a shiny metal somewhere, either a light fixture or a mailbox (or both) so that the house is not too matte. The shiny metal, either brass or nickel, will add a little sparkle and dress up the house.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Lynn S (#324),
I think the problem with the current color scheme is that there are too many colors. I really like the porch color with the brick. It’s a warm butterscotch. If it’s possible to use that color for window trim, it will warm up the house quite a bit. A dark brown metal roof will be fine for your lodge style. The front steps really show up currently. It wouldn’t hurt to darken them up with a concrete stain. You’re trying to make all the elements look as natural as possible (like wood and stone).
As for the front door, a natural wood door with windows will add light and coordinate well with the rest of the porch. Right now the door looks a little too colonial.
To brighten up the porch, I suggest painting the rocking chairs a brick red or if that isn’t bright enough, a cream color to pop off the dark brick. Then some green (and maybe red) pillows to accessorize.
One solution to your dark porch area is to train a small flood light on the porch for after the sun goes to the other side of the house. The light will really highlight your fabulous porch style and help visitors find the front door. Just an idea.
Hope my suggestions are helpful. What a view from your house!! Magnificent!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara!
Thank you so much for the advice!! I’m so thankful! I want to be sure I get it all right- you know your stuff! As far as painting the windows the butterscotch color- do you mean both bay windows on bottom and also the dormers up top? The dormers have siding and trim- do I use 2 different colors? Also the sunporch area-(on right) the capping around the windows butterscotch? The upper deck above the sunporch- when thats done- should I stick with the same as the lower deck pad? Dark brown posts like the front porch is, black spindles and butterscotch deck floor? What about garage doors?
I know I’m asking so many questions- I just want to get it right and I value your opinion!
Love the front door, rocking chair and flood light idea!
Thanks!
Lynn
I need advise for a new roof color. The house is red brick with mint green siding/ forrest green shudders that faces the street. One day the green will change but for know the roof needs to be replaced. What color do I choose? I’ve seen several roof with streaks from near by trees and we have several trees near the house. Do I go with dard/light. Thanks in advance
pam
Hi Pam (#327),
I would stick with a traditional roof color, like dark charcoal or nearly black since you have a lot of color already. Definitely dark to contrast with your siding. Even if it changes, you’ll still need contrast.
You might consider trimming some of those overhanging branches so that you can minimize the droppings from the trees and dampness that leads to mold/moss.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Lynn (#327),
I would paint the bay window trim the butterscotch but leave the dormers the way they are now until you change the roof. They’ll be fine. But the bay windows need to blend better with the brick.
As for the new deck, I would follow the same model you’ve done so far with the front porch and other railing. The garage doors can be dark brown or butterscotch (I like dark garage doors as they ground that area).
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We really need your help. We are doing the trim on a 1912 tapestry brick house with a terracotta roof and lots of ivy. The trim is currently a cream color that looks OK but we would love to spice the place up with a bit of color. Other than the idea of using the grout color as a jumping off point (and maybe a butterscotch front door) we are stymied.
Last time we painted, we tried various colors on the windows and even contrasting rafter tails, all to no avail. Everything seemed to clash with the tapestry brick. In the end the brick, with all it’s texture and colors won out, and we settled on two shades of off-white, and although we were happy with the result we were disappointed that none of our color choices worked out.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
-Philip
You can see pix at:
http://s531.photobucket.com/albums/dd352/pclendaniel/
Hi Barbara,
I have a 1970s brick colonial house that I’m trying to update on a budget. The top half is Benjamin Moore “russet brown” stain cedar shingle with organgey brick on the bottom half. The trim is white (vinyl so it can’t be painted) with white shutters (metal I believe). The door is country redwood and the roof is light grey.
A painter is coming to paint peeling wood trim that is not vinyl. After reading your site, I’m going to try and take the shutters off to see how that looks. Here is my question:
1) is there a more modern brown stain (or other dark stain) that might make the house look more updated. The painter said he could restain for a reasonable amount.
I would love to prime and restain the shingles a lighter color but that is not in the budget right now. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated
Thanks Barbara – the roof color is currently in the dark grey so I will follow your advise for a darker color. I will let you know how it turns out. I am looking forward to the outcome.
Pam
Hi Philip (#331),
You have a classic house. The problem with trying to fight the busy pattern and color in the brick is that the house might end up looking like a fraternity house –lots of history but not a whole lot of class. I know you would like perhaps some different colors on your house, but the house really has tons of color already by virtue of the multi-colored brick and the terracotta roof.
I recommend warming up the window trim to either a bone white or a creamier cameo white (you can go richer with both of those colors but then there would be less contrast between brick and windows). You can certainly try a butterscotch door but it’s not really in the brick. I would rather see you do (uh oh, he sighs) a glossy nearly black door. With cream on your portico, the black will really complement the house.
The ivy on the front of the house is pretty, but you might consider removing the trellis right in front of the door as it blocks the view of the entry. But training the ivy to go up and over is okay.
One solution for your color craving is to add brightly colored pots (like the blue in the door color) and other accessories to your front step and yard. That may help the desire to add some pizzazz to the house without altering the beautiful historic facade.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Carolyn (#332),
One idea is to paint the brick to match the russet brown. That would unify the house and make it look bigger and less chopped up. I think the white trim and redwood door would look great on an all-brown house and the look would certainly be updated. I have no problem painting 1970s brick houses — only 18th/19th century brick houses. So go for it!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
We were recently involved in a mild tornado with wind damage. The house sustained minimal damage, but enough to have the insurance pay for some of the damages. The house was built in the 60’s, so it has the old aluminum siding. The insurance company had mentioned that our roof is old, and they don’t make t-lock shingles anymore. We are getting a new roof, and we are paying for vinyl siding and gutters etc. The color of the brick is black, the old siding is white, and a black roof. I am not sure what colors best would go for the house, grey’s, beige’s? Please let me know, I’ve also got some pictures of the house in the storm, where you can can see the brick and siding together.
Thank you,
Violet
Hi Violet,
Taupe is a great color for siding as it is a greyed-down tan, not too yellow, and it goes well with black. But a warm grey would work okay too. You’d just have to add some color on your front door to warm up the house.
Hope that helps get you started.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
i have a cape cod, built in 1946. i’ll be having an addition built in the back of the house, and want it to look integral with the existing house.
we’ll likely change the roof, and have the added to match, probably a darker charcoal. i’d like to echo the look of the colors in your photo above (the grout), with a taupe or muted green siding for the addition. Which parts of the house should be painted, and what do you recommend? (shutters, siding on the dormers, garage door the same color, window trim, gutters downspouts white, perhaps?) i had also considered redwood or especially cedar siding for the addition, but can’t picture how to integrate that with the existing house. there are two doorways in front, one i’ll have to have custom made to fit the arch of the breezeway. i’m struggling about whether to have a natural wood look (dark cherry), or painted. i want to dress the house up a bit. thanks so much!
ellen
I understand the concept of unifying the colors on a house. I have not seen a suggestion of red to unify red brick. Do you think painted brick red is outdated?
Hi Cathy (#338),
Painting anything red really calls attention to it. So either painting over brick with red or trying to match the red of the brick to paint the rest of the house will call attention to the end result. I would rather see painted brick in a calmer neutral to draw less attention. That frees up the homeowner to use color, like red, to focus on other architectural features or accessories.
See if that makes some sense.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi ellen (#338),
Great idea. You can certainly pick the grout color (sandy/taupe) or an historic green (from the brick) for your addition siding and stick with white trim. Yes, I would side all the parts of the house that aren’t brick. That will unite the existing house with the addition.
Since your brick is very nice, I suggest a clean painted look for the addition and breezeway instead of a busier natural wood look. The brick is really the star of the house and we don’t want to upstage it.
For the garage doors, I would go with the house color or a shade darker if you prefer. The trim on the garage will be white. Gutters: white. Shutters and front door: I would leave those choices until after your siding is done. See what the house calls for at that point. White will always work, but you might want a darker color.
Good luck with the renovation.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I was wondering if you could give us some advice. My wife and I just bought a tri level home and are considering repainting, but really have no clue about the color scheme. It is a brick and frame building and currently the wood siding is painted dark red with white white trim. (here’s a pic http://www.mcclean-cooper.com/housepic.jpg).
It’s a rather shaded home and was wondering whether a lighter colour would work for the siding? with perhaps a brick red trim? Or do you think a shade of red siding works better with the lower level brick?
Thanks,
-Valentino
Hi Valentino (#342),
I suggest painting the entire house, even the brick, a warm neutral tan or even a richer camel that will complement your red/brown roof and your dark brown windows. If that’s just too boring, you could go with a blue-gray, again neutral, but a little more contrast behind your wood fencing out front.
Painting the whole house will lighten it up and unify the look making it more contemporary than its current mid-70s motif. I would eliminate the shutters from the front since only two windows have them anyway. Shutters work best on double-hung windows, not so great on casements.
Painting the whole house will also make it look bigger and less chopped-in-half.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
My wife and I purchased a 1950s bungalow, and we need to choose a siding color. We want to coordinate with the brick, and it’s a tricky one to work with. It has a variety of tones, ranging from a muted yellowish-creamy color, to a medium clay color (sort of reddish-orange).
We’re thinking of trying to match either the light or darker color for a small existing addition on the front, which is soon to be resided with board and batten. The single attached garage will eventually be re-sided with board and batten as well. We will use either a solid or semi-solid stain, and one color that matches the darker tone is called “potters clay” (Benjamin Moore).
For trim, we are quite certain it will be ivory. The roof will eventually change and could potentially match the darker brick tone. It’s currently mint green (poor choice by previous owner).
Choosing the darker tone will contrast the trim better, and will likely end up being the same as / similar to the roof. The lighter colour would not contrast the trim as much, but would contrast the roof. Any suggestions are welcome.
Another small item: What is typically done when purchasing vinyl windows, but the desired trim colour is not white? For interior look, we want white. Would white, single-hung windows look okay on the exterior of our house along with some ivory trim?
Your thoughts are appreciated.
Hi Andrew (#344),
Many of us have white windows and cream trim. It’s not a perfect look as it highlights the white windows, but you can get away with it by adding more of both colors to your landscape/accessories to make the combination look intentional and not accidental. Ideally, the windows will be ivory on the outside (and white inside if requested), but if that’s not meant to be, don’t worry.
As for the addition color, as long as it’s in the brick it won’t matter whether you go light or dark. I suggest standing by the curb and looking at your house. Does the brick look light overall or dark? Do you want the addition to contrast with the brick (may make the house look chopped in half if it’s small or scaled down if it’s a big house) or do you want the addition to blend with the brick (to make the whole house look bigger)?
The curb test should tell you.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We just recently moved into a side-split 1955 red brick bungalow, which has a section of light grey siding which covers about half of the right (higher) half of the front of the house.
Currently, the front door is light grey and matches the siding. The house numbers, outdoor light fixtures and mailbox are black, and the door hardware is bronze.
We want to repaint the front door and replace the house numbers, at a minimum, and are open to replacing the light fixtures, mailbox and door hardware if needed. The siding is vinyl and in good condition, so we won’t replace or paint it. What colours would you recommend for the front door and house numbers for a polished look that suits the style and age of the home?
Thanks so much!
Simone
Okay, so my husband and I are doing some minor outdoor home repairs and re-landscaping and need some advice on what colors we should choose for the window trim and front and side doors.
We have a brick house in an orange color, but the bricks are multi-colored. There is some red and some black as well. The previous owners put on two additions. One on the back in the same brick and one on the side which they sided in a yellow color. They also added a 2-car detached garage in the same siding as on the house.
The vinyl windows on the house are a taupe color while windows on the garage are white. I don’t know why they made them different, but they did and they are fairly new so we are stuck with them for awhile. I am looking to paint the window trim which is aluminum (leaving the vinyl windows their original taupe color) and is currently a light powdered blue color. I also want to paint the front door which is a weird bluey-purpley color. I would also like to paint the side entrance which is on the siding side of the house.
I also wouldn’t mind doing something to the garage which has a white garage door with a normal entrance door painted in a color that matches the vinyl siding almost perfectly. The garage is trimmed in all white.
I have added pictures of the house below.
I have been thinking of painting the trim and doors with the green family. I picked up a few paint swatches at Sherwin Williams and am interested in colors: SW6423, SW6424, SW6425, SW6426.
Your site is really great. I blame you for my lack of sleep last night. I couldn’t stop reading. Haha! Thank you in advance if you have time to respond to my comment. You are very kind.
Hi, Barbara;
Due to recent storms, my roof was recently approved for replacement by my insurance company. I’m thinking this may be the opportunity to make a change to an otherwise blah black roof, but am unsure of what would look best. I just feel my home needs a “fresher” look but I am limited with red brick and white siding. My door and shutters are dark forest green, but those can be painted… I’m just “stuck” on where to even start. My house was built in 2000 so everything is still relatively new – I hate to change too much, and as a single parent homeowner my funds are limited as well. Any thoughts or suggestions you may have to roof color, or any other suggestions? They would be most appreciated!
P.S. Here is a link to a picture if this helps: http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g286/gss0162/IMG_2252.jpg
Hi Simone (#346),
Since wrought iron is more historic, I would just change out the door hardware to match the light fixture (you still might want to replace that if it’s old — make it larger and it will feel like a real update) and the mailbox.
For the door I might paint it a dark rusty red to coordinate with the brick color. I thought about charcoal but you’ve had gray already. Since the gray is cold, the red will be a change and will look great with the new black hardware. You might want to add some gray/silver somewhere to tie in the siding color. You can do that with accessories. Silver bow on a holiday wreath or something like that…
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Sonia (#347),
I like your charcoal roof, but you might consider dark brown. It would coordinate well with your brick color and warm up the house. Then you could replace the shutters and front door with dark chocolate brown, the new black. A nice warm welcoming look.
See what you think.
I would not put a green roof on — stick with the earthy neutrals.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Amanda (#347),
Thanks for the kudos. Hope I can help you out!
Since your brick has so many colors in it already, I suggest picking a dark neutral for your window trim, something like SW 6103 Tea Chest, which is a brown with green undertones. It also looks like it might go with both your roof and your brick. I would use that for the trim and the garage door and maybe even the side doors.
For the front door, I would stick with a dark version of one of your brick colors like SW6342 Spicy Hue, which would call attention to the door (since there’s taupe around it) but would still coordinate with the brick. Using all colors from the brick will unify the additions, garage and house. I know you liked the brighter greens but I felt that with the yellow siding and all the brick colors, there were already enough colors in the palette.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We just moved into a 1967 ranch that has vertical siding and brick. We’re trying to figure out what to do to make it not look so dated (and better looking!). In all likelihood, we’ll get rid of the wacky lattice-brick walls (but keep the columns).
Our questions are:
Should we put on horizontal siding over the vertical siding?
What color should we paint the siding (either way)?
Should we paint the brick? If so, what color?
If we paint the brick, should we leave the columns unpainted?
Any guidance/insight you could give would be great. We’re very perplexed!
Thank you!
Doug
photos are at: dsmooke.photoshop.com
Barbara,
Great site! I’ve included a link to a picture of our house— can you view and offer a suggestion for garage door, trim and shutters, please.
Pete
Hi Doug (#352),
Had to ponder your house for a moment. I do like the brick color but since the house is split in half visually (and your roof is light), I suggest painting the brick the same color as the siding. That will unify the house and make it look quite a bit bigger and less chopped up. As for the light gray color, it does go well with the roof so I’m inclined to keep it. Horizontal siding would look more updated but with the brick painted anyway, I might leave the siding as is. Another option is to side over the brick as well for a unifed facade. The two-tone look is quite 70s, I’m afraid…
The result will be a contemporary (textured) house with great windows and brick accent walls/columns. To tie the whole look together, I suggest a brick red front door to replace the current blue. All the brick work will lead guests right to the front door. Another option for the front door: shiny black, but I do like the idea of a tie-in with the brickwork out front. Your red shrubbery will really stand out in front of the big windows and adding more orangey red in the garden will tie the whole look together further.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Pete (#353),
If you want to lighten up the overall effect (those are very unusually purple bricks — at least on my screen), have a look at painting the trim a Ben Moore Sail Cloth. It’s a soft beigey-white that’s not too stark. Then pick a coordinating color for the garage door and shutters. How about Nantucket gray (HC-111), which is a gray green that would complement the dark purple and lighten the house up a bit. If adding the creamy trim color is too radical, stick with the current purple shade and just go with the complementary doors and shutters. The purple/green combo occurs in nature and will be more serene than the purple/turquoise combo.
I would paint the entire garage door one color and not accent the embellishments. No need.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
The brick and trim are both dark brown’ish in color, not purple, as it may appear on the monitor- does that change your recommendation?
Pete
Hi Barbara,
Thank you very much for the advice!
We’re not so crazy about grey (we think it makes the house look old and tired)– we were thinking something that had more of a cream base to it. Any thoughts along those lines? If we went down that road should we use some kind of accent color for the trim?
To clarify, I assume we shouldn’t paint the columns? And do you think getting rid of the lattice walls is a good idea?
Thanks again– I appreciate it!
Doug
Hi Pete (#356),
I still like the calm nature colors (in the Nantucket Gray or other historical gray green) as a way to complement the dark brown and select colors from the immediate surroundings. Just an alternative to the turquoise. As for trim, you can either keep the dark brown for a contemporary look or lighten it to a version of cream for most contrast and an outlining effect. The lighter trim is more traditional.
Other option for the shutters and garage door: Georgian green. Although I usually do not like blue with brick, your brick is so dark brown that it might look great with a Buxton blue door and shutters.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Barbara,
Hurricane Ike’s winds damaged our Ohio ’50’s Cape Cod 1 ½ story brick and aluminum-sided home. We need help selecting a replacement roof color. The current roof color is light silvery green; the upper siding, trim, windows, twin front dormers, front porch and breezeway awnings, breezeway screen doors, and double-width front-facing garage door all are white; the front door is varnished medium-brown wood with a brass doorknob and a small leaded glass window; and the brick is a muted red with light tan grout. My husband wants a darker roof color to mask the algae that tends to stain the north side (rear) of the roof. We were thinking of a darker green architectural roof because we have a lot of green color in our landscaping and in our breezeway, but the sample our contractor showed us looks too intense for our conservative souls. Can you reassure us or suggest an alternative roof color? Also, the front door needs refinishing and I can either refinish it natural or paint it an accent color that you would suggest. I have sent you a duplicate e-mail with embedded photo of our home. We have approximately three weeks to decide on the roof color. We appreciate any advice you can give us. Thank you.
Hi Carolyn (#359),
You have a lot of brick, and architectural roofs, regardless of their color, tend to have a lot of varied color, making the combination of brick and roof quite busy-looking. I suggest that you stick with a style of roof that doesn’t have a lot of “variegation” in it’s overall design. In other words, a solid color. With your brick, a dark brown or charcoal would be nice.
Having said that, if you want to stick with architectural shingles, then I would stay in the brick/tan family and get something like Landmark’s Country Gray, which has browns and grays and tans and would blend with your brick better than green.
Does any of that make sense to you? I hope I’ve helped.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We are currently in the process of building a new home, and are picking out siding windows and doors. We have settled on a dark brown siding which we both love, and now we are trying to pick out a door that would look great and stand out against the dark brown. I love a fiberglass door, the ones you have to stain yourself that look like real wood, but my only concern is how will it look against the dark brown siding, will it stand out enough? I would love to know which would be the best option, a wood look door or a colored steel door.
thanks so much,
Joid
Hello. Great blog. We have an orange brick ranch, with an ugly light gray shingled roof. White garage door, white/full glass front door and white columns. We currently have white shutters, but think it’s too much white. What color shutters should we go with? I can send you a photo.
Thanks.
Hello Barbara,
We are considering buying a cape style home with tannish- brown roof. The siding is blue vinyl with tan shutters (they look yellow in real life). And there is a beautiful new paver front walk and patio leading up to the home. What color scheme would you suggest to bring this home out of the 80’s? I want it to feel more welcoming. You can check out a picture of the home at http://www.prufoxroach.com and type in MLS #5308345.
Thank you in advance!
Ryann
Wondering what color trim would go best with our brick home.
Brick is tan with bits of black, red, and orange in it. Most of what I have read suggests that a brown roof would look best. However, the previous owners picked a dark grey color.
I hate the color of the vinyl siding. It is a blue-grey color…very depressing to me.
The roof is brand new, and replacing the vinyl siding isn’t in the budget right now.
That leaves changing the trim, shutters, and door as the only options. Open to anything that will take away from the grey vinyl color.
Please help
Hi Jodi (#361),
A wood look door will look fine with your dark brown siding as long as you have a contrasting trim color around the door separating door from siding. Either option will work fine. Just choose a light trim color and you’ll be all set.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Jay (#362),
Have a look at Ben Moore’s Kingsport gray (HC-86). It’s a gray-green that will tie in the roof but add some spice to the orange brick.
Hope it works for you.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thanks Barbara. Never would have thought of that color. We were thinking more traditional black or a darker gray. The front cement patio is a dark gray. Not sure if that helps. Is there a way I could send you a photo? Thank you!
Hi Ryann (#363),
Anything but blue will work. You can consider a medium brown (Ben Moore’s Jackson tan) or an olivey gray-green (Copley gray) and just about any earth tone you can imagine. As long as it’s in the landscape, it will work with your house. But the blue is just too much contrast making the roof look orange.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Mary (#364),
Your best bet is white trim to brighten up the gray roof/siding combo. It will really look sharp. Then you can pick a punchy color out of the brick for the front door color. Either an orangey caramel or a rusty orangey red might work. Have a look at Ben Moore’s aztec brick (2175-10), cinnamon (2174-20), and golden retriever (2165-30). I would stay with black for the shutters since they will go with the gray and the brick and dress up the house.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I am in search of peace of mind. We are building a house and chose to use Timber Bark Hardie plank as our siding color, That color is a warm grey/brown color, medium to dark shade. We chose as our trim an off white color so the contrast would not be too much. The window frames are white with very few pane trim lines going through the glass. Since the window does not match the trim did I screw up or is this a common look? Everyone was doing the bright white trim and I just didnt feel good about that. Am I a fool-dont answer that.
Hi Lou (#370),
Not to worry. Although most houses will match trim to windows (white), there are plenty that go with an off-white trim to make the transition between window and siding a little softer. As a matter of fact, I have cream trim and white windows on my house. And I don’t mind the look at all.
The only problem is when you have different windows (some white, some another color). That’s when you run into trouble.
Not to worry.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Barbara…
We just bought a 1950’s yellow brick house that has a orangish/brown roof. The old owners added a double dormer at the top (big enough for two windows on the same dormer), but never finished the outside. We aren’t sure what to cover it with to match the house. Cedar, stone venner, just siding??? I can email you a picture if that would help.
Thanks!
Hi Mandy (#372),
I would love to see a photo. Just copy a link to a photo into this reply box or email it to me at bmeglis@yahoo.com.
Look forward to helping.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I’m about to replace the roof on my 1917 Brick Bungalow in the Midwest. The roof currently is a white-gray color. The brick is a very deep red with some purple and the grout is a light pink-peach. The house trim is white, and the front storm door is black (the solid door behind is stained oak). The house has no attic so I prefer a medium to lighter color. From reading through some of your posts, I see that I should avoid variegated colors and consider going to a brown roof (?).
The photo I’m sending to your email was taken late afternoon so the colors are difficult to see but in general it’s always hard for your eyes to pick out the actual front of the house because the porch is deep.
What color and type of shingles (or other roofing material) do you suggest? Shutters? Stick with white trim? Storm door should stay black? Some special Lighting over the front door would help?
Thanks for your input.
Hi Alicia (#374),
I have not rec’d your photo yet but have purged my email trash so there should be room now. Sorry about that.
Looking forward to seeing a photo before I make some suggestions.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Could you give me some trim color ideas for a dark red brick bungalow with green tile roof? I’d like to choose a color for the time period it was built – 1920 (Chicago Style Brick Bungalow) Thanks for your help! Penny Ezell
Hi Alicia (#374),
Thanks for the photo. I think your house would look great with a brown roof something like the Tudor Brown color here for Interlocking roof shingles:
The white trim is fine (cream would also look very nice, but there would be less contrast). I wouldn’t bother with shutters. The trim around the windows is substantial enough for the windows not to need shutters.
You can certainly go lighter with a charcoal roof color, but the brown is much warmer. Lighter brown will work as well. And yes, I would keep the roof color “flat” ( no variegation). That will avoid sensory overload as you look at the house from the street.
You could use two porch lights, one on either side of the front door. A white storm door would be preferable if you keep the white trim. Just keep the storm door whatever color the trim is and that will lighten up the entry area.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Penny (#376),
Have a look at an antique white for your trim. Much of the early trim was either dark brown or white, but I think an “aged” white would look more authentic and simply better on your house. The antique white offers that aged look and some contrast between brick and green roof without the trim looking too white.
Hope that works for you.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I ran across your site while looking for ideas on matching up brick color with siding. You have a wonderful site, with a lot of great ideas. So I’m hoping you can give me some feedback on our dilema. We have a brick home which had a screened in porch, that we have enclosed, making it into an office/family room. I’ve looked at the brick vinyl siding that is on market, but the colors are limited. So we have decided to go with vinyl siding. The brick is a clay pot color, like a flower pot, and it has been difficult to find a color which blends and the room doesn’t look like it’s been just stuck on. I would like to email you pictures of the brick and the outside, to get your thoughts/ideas on coordinating the color, if that will help….. Thanks for your input
Carrie
Hi Carrie (#379),
I’d love to see your house. You can email me a photo at bmeglis@yahoo.com. That address works better than the other one that’s usually full.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara –
This is a follow up to #374-377. I’ve been talking to the roofer and the shingle supply company – their company no longer makes interlocking shingles. Almost all the asphalt shingles they have are variegated in color. (I’ve driven by houses to check out most of the brown/charcoal options.) The most flat option is called “Heatherwood” – a reddish brown, in an architectural shingle.
They have a website that you can allows you to see roof options. My brick is probably closest to the very first brick option. “Heatherwood” is under the Laminated Shingle/Cambridge East section.
http://www.iko.com/RoofViewerV3/index.htm
Obviously the computer isn’t a perfect example, but could you give me your opinion? My roof is very visible from the street (slopes towards the back of the house) and I’m nervous about making a very expensive wrong decision!
Thank you!
Alicia
Hi Barbara,
I posted some months ago about the outside of my house (post 288). I still haven’t done anything, i guess we will do some work next summer. I have a question, can we paint the vinyl shutters from green to black or do we have to completely change the shutters.
Thanks
I will try to send you a picture of my house on your e-mail address.
Megha
Hi megha (#382,383),
You can paint the green vinyl shutters black. Just tell the paint store what you’re planning to do and they will direct you.
Even if you keep the green shutters (which are very nice), you can jazz up the house by just painting the front door and adding a couple of large colorful planters on either side of it. Doing that will add a lot of color at practically no expense. Sounds like an easy solution.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Alicia (#381),
I think the heatherwood will be perfect. It’s much warmer than the current charcoal color and will blend beautifully with the brick making the whole house appear larger.
Good choice!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Carrie (#379),
I like mayflower red (Ben Moore HC-49), a wonderful brick color that would blend beautifully with the rest of the house. For a little more contrast, there’s the grout color (something like litchfield gray HC-78), which would make the brick stand out more, of course. For a completely different look, there’s kingsport gray HC-86, which is a dark olive.
Hope those colors spark a color solution for you.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Barbara,
I’m glad to have found your site as I’ve been trying to coordinate new second-floor siding with my ground-floor brick and I’d appreciate some advice. The second floor of my a-frame brick house was expanded in the 70s and covered with white aluminum siding. I’m planning on adding an extension on the back of the house soon and would like to remove this cliched look at the same time. Unfortunately I’m hitting most of the same concerns that you’ve been addressing here.
I’m good with having white trim, white around the windows and keeping (or updating) the black shutters. And I’m bringing a line of the roof (which is charcoal black) to the front to add a gable to the front of the house. For starters, I’ve ruled out shingle siding feeling that this would be too busy and visually conflict with the brick below. So for the siding itself, I’ve been ruling out all the bold colors — even if it’s a great color, what makes for an attractive suit and pants would be a mess as a jacket with brick pants — and I’ve seen many, many houses that confirm this. So I’ve been limiting myself to lap siding with neutral earth-tones and while exploring the suburbs, I see some examples of good color combinations, although usually where the siding is for second-floor dormers and gables. I’m concerned that there may still be issues because of the amount of color on what’s basically the wrap-around drive-in movie screen that is my second floor. It seems that even these colors may overwhelm the brick on the house.
What am I missing? Is the goal here to find a color that will be as non-descript as possible, or is there a color either neutral or bold that can be a positive compliment with the brick. Or is white siding the safest choice again? I’ve sent two photos to the Yahoo address you’ve stated in the earlier post. Thanks in advance for your opinions. –John
Just found this site and love it and would appreciate help as we’ve been postponing painting the exterior of the house as we can’t decide on the color. We live in NJ and the house (colonial/custom with casement window) sits on top of a slope sorrounded by trees backing the woods. Therefore, we are inundated with cobwebs esp. at the back (south facing) and woodpecker pecking on the cedar shingle siding (back and both sides of the house). The house is huge, front side is brick (mixed: dark salmon, orangey, greenish-gray, charcoal grey) with grout in greyish-sandy color. On top of this, above the front door is an overhang about 3 ft. deep and 20 ft. in width with the same cedar shingle siding as the side and back. When you drive up the driveway is the 2-car garage and the left is the steps/porch and front door. All the siding is currently stained medium brown, trim is burgundy, door is off-white and gutter brown. We are thinking of either:1) paint the siding (including the garage) the color of the brick grout except the overhang which we plan to paint a color that will blend with the brick, antique white for trim, charcoal for shutters and for the door paint that’s 2 shades brighter than the overhang. Or 2) Instead of the grout color for the siding, use the overhang color for all the siding. We thought the 1st choice will give the house a more elegant look but the 2nd one will be a more practical one as the dirt, cobweb will not show that much. Which one do you think is a better one? Or maybe you have a better color combination/alterative? Thank you so much.
Hi John,
I just emailed you. Thanks for the photos. Hope I was helpful.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Myrna,
Since your house is big, I would go with the dark option as it is more practical and will not show the spider spots and dirt like a lighter color would. That camouflage alone will give your house the elegant look that you’re trying to achieve and the dark color will also highlight the brick on the front.
Go for practical — you can’t lose.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi there,
I am buying this brick and white house and would love your opinion on best color to paint it – I am thinking about a light sage green with cream trim OR tannish with white or a grey and white or cream trim. Would you have any ideas to give me that could make this house look updated? WE are planning on painting the brick. It has a dark red front door and grey roof. Thanks so much for your response. Kelly
http://www.reeceandnichols.com/Listing/ListingDetail.aspx?Search=e509e9e6-3696-40c5-bc01-4681c796bcfe&Listing=33306833&IRPAgentID=&Image=1&First=1&Last=1&pagesize=10&SearchType=&ListingDistrictTypeID=&FirstLetter=&Sort=6&Cookies=&UseColorBar=false
Hi again – one more thing – possibly I could paint the whole house a light grey with darker grey trim… Would this update the house? I also like mediterannean colors.. would love your advice.
Thanks, Kelly and Brian
http://www.reeceandnichols.com/Listing/ListingDetail.aspx?Search=e509e9e6-3696-40c5-bc01-4681c796bcfe&Listing=33306833&IRPAgentID=&Image=1&First=1&Last=1&pagesize=10&SearchType=&ListingDistrictTypeID=&FirstLetter=&Sort=6&Cookies=&UseColorBar=false
Hi Brian and Kelly,
I like the idea of staying either with a light gray with white trim or a dark gray-blue with white trim. I would stay in the gray/blue family of colors and stay away from tans and yellows, even greens as the gray roof is very prominent and will play a big role in the overall look of the house. But you’re on the right track. Painting the brick will make a huge difference.
Congratulations on your new house!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
My offer has just been accepted on this foreclosed home in need of a lot of TLC. All I am waiting for is the property inspector to give me (fingers-crossed) a good report, and then I’ll be closing before New Year’s Day.
It looks like either the previous owners or the bank began painting the siding – it’s half tan over white, and one window has plastic-y looking burgandy shutters.
This house is unique in a subdivision of mostly brick ranch houses, so I can’t really compare and contrast different paint and trim ideas with like homes.
I would like to get your opinion on how to make my (hopefully) future home as nice as can be.
Thanks!
Hi Mary D,
Congratulations on your new home. I’m not sure how much money you want to spend so I’ll give you some cosmetic suggestions and maybe one big one. First of all, I would remove the burgundy shutters from up on the gable. They’re not doing anything and the color isn’t right anyway. I’m not crazy about the roof color with the brick but you can’t exactly replace that until you really need to — I would go with a darker charcoal and not so green — at least it looks green on my screen. I do like the sandy color for the siding and would recommend you keep going with that on the siding next to the front door and the garage door. White is okay for window trim and eaves. I recommend a full-view front door so you can see your newly painted front door in a dark rust to go with the brick. Something like ben moore’s mayflower red hc-49.
When you’re ready to spend money, you might consider redoing your front farmer’s porch to be a more substantial front portico, all the rage in renovations these days. Changing the roof line and adding a pillar to each side of the new front door area will dress up the house a lot. The only other big change is adding landscaping which you can do over time. Foundation plantings and a nice decorative tree in the front yard will really add value.
Hope that helps you get started.
-Barbara
Your Home and Color Coach
Hello Barbara,
What a great find…this site of yours. 🙂
I need your advice on a siding color to go with my brick home. I have picked out: Concrete Thought by Dutch Boy, Stillness by Dutch Boy, and Abalone Shell by Valspar. I’m not sure if I am headed in the right direction but I think the white is to cold. Eventually we would like to change the windows so keeping that in mind what would we pick now for siding and what color of window trim should we get? Also, do I need to keep the gutters/trim the same color as the siding? And the shutters…I would like to paint them black…good idea?
Please visit our blog, thelongacres.blogspot.com to view photos.
Thank you so much for your time…you are so wonderful to help.
Hi Rachel,
Great blog! As for your house, I suggest a tan/camel siding color rather than gray even though your roof is gray. The brick will look so much warmer with a yellow based neutral, something like DutchBoy’s Basketweave (or one of the many others). You can keep the trim the same color as the siding and move to an off-white window trim. Or you can keep the white trim on the house and stick with white windows. Either way will work. It looks like you live in a warm climate, but if you have a chance to darken the roof just a little, that will help with contrast between roof and siding. But the pitch of your roof is so slight that I wouldn’t let the roof color dictate your house color. Go warm.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I am very excited to find this website! My husband and I are about to pick a color for new siding on our house. The house is a tri-level home built in the 60’s. Currently, the lower levels are a medium shade of brick (mostly tan’s and browns but does have a little bit of pink in the color as well) and the top floor has white siding. (The only siding would be on the top level and a small strip above the garage- the rest is brick). We have narrowed it down to a medium tan siding that coordinates with the brick OR a greyish green color. Our windows, soffit, and gutters are white. Which color would you recommend going with? Tan or green? Would the green look funny with the brick (that has shades of pink in it)?
Thanks,
Meghan
Hello,
I found your site and hope you can help. I have a 130 year old 3 story brick Victorian (a dream coe true). I am in the process of renovation and want to find the right color to paint the trim. The previous owner painted everything white (not bad), except they painted the limestone!!! Not good. The roof is gray.
I have a photo I can send you, but need to know how.
Hi Helen,
If you’d like a change from the white (which does offer the most contrast against the brick), you can try blending a bit for a warmer look. The sandy grout color makes a nice trim color as it softens the edges and makes the trim less pronounced. But if you really want that Victorian trim to stand out, white works great.
Don’t forget to pick another trim color, however, if you have architectural details to feature.
If you’d like me to take a look at a photo, just attach a jpeg file to an email and send to bmeglis@yourhomeandcolorcoach.com or embed a link to a photo site right in the reply box here in the blog. Either way should work.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Sure hope you can help me as well. The goal is make the colors flow with my brick. My home is 60% brick and 40% wood siding.
Siding – light shade of brown / neutral
Brick – traditional red
Shutters / Door – blanket brown
Roof – gray white / 8yrs old
What color do you suggest for red brick homes? Around town, I’ve only seen either white or green shutters with red brick. I’m a fan of color, so white hasn’t been an option. Green was there before, and we quickly got bored with it. Let us know what think.
Clint
Hi Clint,
Well, I’m a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to brick homes. I really like black shutters with the red brick, tan siding and gray roof. Black is not a color, but it serves to bring out the colors surrounding it. So the red brick looks better and so does the tan. If you introduce yet another color for the shutters (like green or something else), you just get visual clutter. (my opinion) But I would suggest painting your front door, either a brown-red to match the brick (a very nice, more contemporary look) or a shiny black to go with the shutters. I really think you’ll like the look. It dresses up the house and gives it stature and maybe even some history, even it’s not that old.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thank you so much…your advice is so appreciated.
May God bless you!
Hello,
Please help! We just had a new roof put on our brick house and the color of the shingles is terrible. Our house has earthtone bricks and beigh trim and windows. Our shutters and front door are dark green. The shingles we got are Timberline Ark 30 year in the color know as weatherwood. This color is awful with the rest of our colors. We are not able to paint our windows because they are replacement windows. Our previous roof was black and I wish we would have kept that color. I feel like everyone (including myself) feels like we have ruined the appearance of our house. Thank you so much for your expert advice on how to fix this problem.
Hi Lori,
See my response over on Brick House Trim Colors. Hope I can help you.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
This is Lori. I sent you the message about our roof on 1/17/09 and you responded on 1/19/09 stating that your response is over on Brick House Trim Colors. I have looked for your response, however, I am not able to find it. Please help me find it. Thank you so much!
Hi Barbara,
I found your response. I really like your ideas. Thank you so much!
Lori
Barbara,
Our college bound daughter will be moving into this traditional ranch house with red brick. Wants modern exterior color scheme. This website has a photo. Roof will be black composition.
Help.
Thanks,
Todd
http://loginlax.rapmls.com//PictureHolder.html?PictureFilename=http://medialaxg.rapmls.com/ccrmls/listingpics/bigphoto/035/148335.jpg?tsp=20081212092103&flag%20=1
I am so glad to find your website. I have a house buit in the early 80s. We are preparing to redo the siding, windows and shingles, but I do not want to until I know I will like the siding colors. I have cream brick, with some rock and currently shake shingles.I have really worried my siding will be to much like my brick. I am posting a pic on my blog, check it out and tell me what you think. Originally the siding was pink, then I changed to red, (which my siding guy says is hard to warrantee) I have even thought of doing all my trim and siding in white.
jeffkaraandkids.blogspot.com
Hi Kara,
You have a lot going on with the different materials on your house so I suggest going with a siding color that’s about the same as your brick. That will unify the house, make it look bigger and not so chopped up. Then choose a trim color that’s from your stonework, maybe a light cocoa (looks like your brick grout color would be good), and paint all trim and garage doors. I would pick brown windows to go with the rustic look. I love the roof as is — it’s perfect for your house style. If the budget allows, I suggest replacing the front door and sidelights with a solid wood (medium to dark) as the current set with oval window and brass kickplate is a little formal for the house style. I would play up the rustic nature of your house with dark bronze lighting. The main focus should be to blend and coordinate so the architectural features that are unique to your house are what’s noticed first.
Hope that helps you get started. Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Todd,
Well, this house is a bit of a stretch from modern, but I suggest removing the shutters to take away the cottagey feel and painting the brick the same color as the house. That will unify the house and make it look bigger. (With this style of ranch, I don’t think painting the brick will decrease the value.) The trim could then be painted a slightly richer color than the house color for some contrast.
There’s nothing wrong with cream and black for a color scheme, but she might want to paint the doors to match the roof. Then choose a bright colorful pot or urn with a big display of exotic grasses for right by the front door.
See what your daughter thinks. And good luck to her!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
thanks, love everything about your plan! Should I match the brown of the windows to the brown in the trim? If they weren’t the same would it clash?
Hi Kara,
You don’t have to match them. The windows can be dark brown. The trim can be a medium/lighter version of brown. Mixing it up will make your home more interesting.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Barbara,I’m so glad I found this site! I am having a rough time in choosing the right color for are home. I have been getting paint by the quart to color check being that I cant go by thoes little samples they give at the home stores. can you help? At the moment we have desided that antique chest was to dark. Are brick has differnt colors of reds. above in the website box is my Fliker so you can see for yourself. thanks a bunch :0) Amy
Hi Amy,
Sorry for the delay in processing your post. I’m back. I love the antique chest as long as you use white or slightly off-white trim. It’s a very warm color and really enhances both brick color palettes. I don’t think it’s too dark at all. Not sure you wanted to hear that, but I think you’ve picked a great color!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I have treid posting twice now here, I hope this one works. lol I have posted some pictures on the above website box. please help me with colors. Im having trouble picking a color that goes with our brick. I ve been buying paint by the quart. thank you for all you help {in advance}. Amy
Just bought a house and I need some help coming up with a color scheme for the exterior part of my house,(Shutters,shingles,siding)? It’s a tri-level home. The house looks alot better than that,we’ve done lot of work to it. It now has to garage doors on the right side of the house. I’m kinda stuck on what to do with the outside. Will try to send a picture of it. Would appreciate all the help you could give.
Thanks Lacey.
http://photobucket.com/Digglersgirl
Hi Lacey,
One idea is to paint the siding essentially the same color as the current shutters and paint the shutters black. Classic look that would make your house appear bigger because the bricks would blend with the rest of the house. Then I would do a dark gray roof. If that seems to extreme, I would still switch to black shutters on the brick and the rest of the house, but you can paint the siding a slightly richer neutral than it is now. Either way.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hey, I just bought a house, it’s a two story house currently with white siding. However, the siding is stained beyond cleaning over much of the house. So, I contacted Sherwin Williams and they have the paint I need to paint the vinyl siding. I want to go with a lighter color, so I was thinking a light grey. I need to replace the roof, but was stuck on what color to go with. All of my neighbors have white, grey, or black roofs, so I was thinking about going with desert tan (which is a mid level brown). I also want to go with white trim and black shutters. Do you think this would look good? A light grey house with white trim, black shutters and a brown roof? I think it would look just fine, but others I’ve talked to are skeptical.
Thanks,
Jason
Hi Jason,
You might consider more of a taupe for your siding color. That way, it’s a little gray and a little brown and should look great with black shutters, brown roof, and white trim. Have a look at something like Shaker Beige (Ben Moore HC-45) or Bleeker beige (HC80). That’s got a little green in it and will also look good with a brown roof. Or with SW, how about Craftsman brown (SW2835)? It’s darker than you might like, but I think it would look spectacular with white trim, black shutters, and your brown roof. And a two story house is big enough to support more color than just whites/creams/ light grays. Go for it.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
We are in the process of building a brick home. We like the look of a dark corrrugated iron roof but have heard that it is not great in terms of energy efficiency as the dark coloring attracts more heat. We may be rendering the house a paler color down the track. Do you have any ideas for a brick color and roof color scheme that would work- not green or blue- including a roof color that may also match a pale render? Thanks
Hi Sally,
A medium gray works with almost any house color, which leaves you options down the road. Gray also does not go out of style. The other option is a medium tan metal roof — that will work with all the neutrals/taupes/grays in a neutral brick or red brick, for that matter.
Send photos if you’d like me to be more specific. Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Barbara,
Thank you in advance for any information and assistance! My friend told me to check this site out based upon the great advice he received. We have a small brick house. that we are having a new awning and roof put on. The awning blew off in a wind storm. No great loss when you see it in the picture that I linked to below. 🙂
We are thinkinking of a darker roof color and a solid color awning. Any color suggestions would be truly appreciated. Thank you!
http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/usmc334/DSCF0234.jpg.
Best regards,
Bob
Hi Bob,
I suggest an awning color taken right from your bricks. Something like the Tan color (4614-0000) at
http://www.awesomeawnings.com might work. Charcoal gray for the roof color would allow the bricks and awning to be the focal point
instead of the roof.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi again Barbara,
To follow up on my original post, we are having a canvas awning put on the house to replace the old aluminum.
Thanks!
Hello, I have a 1950’s or so two-story brick capecod with orange toned brick. There is a dormer off of the back that needs to be resided and an out dated brown roof that needs to be replaced. We recently purchased new white windows for our house and the trim color we chose is walnut. Our question is 1: for the siding, what color would go well and also, would a shake or scalloped look be to much? 2: what would be a good color choice for the roof? An added note about the house is that there is a lannonstone design around the windows in the front of the house.
We really need your help 😉 Thanks alot for your input!
~ Samantha
Hi Samantha,
I would stick with a tan for your siding since you have walnut trim and need some contrast between window and siding color. Actually Vintage Wicker (siding color) might work for you. With your style of house, you can have many different textures and it will only add to the charm. Shake would probably work better than the rounded scallop though. As for the roof, weathered wood or country gray (Landmark roof colors) might complement your walnut trim and brick without overpowering the house. I’d love to see a photo before zeroing in on the roof color.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I have a redish brick home built in the 50’s. It has some tan and greenish hues in it. It has white gutters and white windows. I am adding a second floor that will be sided, I need a color of siding (other then white) to go with the brick and windows. Can you give me some ideas?
Thank You,
Fred
Hi Fred,
Have a look at a gray green like Ben Moore’s nantucket gray HC-111 — it looks great with brick. There’s always tan like Huntington beige (HC-21).
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Barbara! Thank you for the awning and roof color advice!
Here is the image of our house again.
We have since decided to reside the upper part of the house with a shake shingle like vinyl as pictured in this image.
What do you think about this roof color?
Thank you!
Bob,
Absolutely perfect. You’re all set to go.
Thanks for checking back in and good luck with your project!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello! We have a colonial style home that is about 40 years old. The previous owner replaced most of the siding, which is now gray and the trim, shutters, and doors are white. (Part of front porch has some brick.) Overall, the house looks a little washed out b/c of lack of color. We would like to replace the front door to one that has some glass and replace the shutters too, but can’t decide on a color. We would like to leave the garage door white. We were thinking of possibly black shutters, and possibly a black front door, but we’re not sure if that would look ok leaving the garage door white. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance for your help!!
Dawn
Hi Dawn,
Black always dresses up a house and looks great with gray siding and white trim. Your garage will not be noticed if left white, and that’s okay, but if you have the inclination, you can paint it gray or a shade darker than the house color. Add color with flower pots and landscaping. It’s a classic look.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I sent you an invitation from Kodak to view my photos. If this doesn’t work… Please keep in mind that the actual brick colors are redder/terra cotta -ish than it appears in the picture. Once again, thank you.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bn6tcu9.9b2bzwg9&x=0&y=mwupyt&localeid=en_US
Hi Barbara,
I wanted you to have a little background. We were advised HC 77 (alexandria beige) for the siding, but we are having second thoughts. We are afraid it will be too dark and dull? And our neighbor just recently had their siding done in the same color. What are your feelngs? We would like something in the greens or yellows(beige) but are not confident in our decision, plus there are so many different colors.
We did decide to do the shutters black and not too sure about the trim color. My feeling is to not do white, but something in the beige family.
I have read through so many of your comments and have confidence that you can steer us in the right direction. Many thanks,
Mary
Hi again Mary,
Since you seem to like green, have a look at Louisburg green (HC-113) and Wethersfield moss (HC-110). They usually look quite wonderful with brick and may work out great for your house. If your roof is truly gray (it looks kind of tan on my screen), then stick with the china white for trim. If it’s the slightest bid tan/light brown, then you can move to cameo white or linen white or another beige tone for your trim color.
The alexandria beige is a very contemporary color but if your neighbor already has it, then that’s an issue. If you move toward green, stick with very earthy mossy grey greens, nothing to bright and clear. Think earth tones only to go with your earthy brick.
Hope that helps to clarify.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thanks so much for your thoughts. I am going to get some samples of the mossy greens. What are your feelings about the yellow family with this type of brick?
Mary
Hi again Mary,
Yellows would resemble the cream you have on there currently. Again, I would not stray from the colors that are actually in the brick. That way you can’t lose. Any green should be earthy enough to complement the brick. Any other colors like blues and yellows and other clear, non-earthtone colors will simply chop up the house visually into three sections: two on the sides and one in the middle. Keeping with the brick will unify your house and make it look grand.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thank you so much. Wish me luck!
Hi,
I’m building a new home and seem to be struggling with the trim color!! The roof is a black walnut (mainly black w/a hint of brown). The brick is an “old world” brick, (it’s a red brick with touches of black, white, brown and orange). The front door is a dark stained walnut with rod iron over the glass. What would you suggest I paint the trim? Also, there are dormers that need to be painted as well….any suggestion?
Thank you!!!!!!!!
Hi Susan,
So you’ve got a palette of old world brick, cottonwood limestone, sandtone windows and gable vents, and a black walnut roof. How about Ben Moore’s China white for the trim (it’s a gray white) and maybe something like Alexandria beige (Ben Moore HC-77) for the dormers? It’s a sophisticated color that might bridge the gray/tan/brown colors in the palette. If that doesn’t work, just pick a neutral color from your brick that’s a shade or two darker than the other neutrals in your palette.
Would love to see a photo… good luck with your project!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Oh and I almost forgot …there will be some stone incorporated in as well. It’s a cottonwood limestone (very light in color)…and the windows and gable vents are a “sandtone” color. Hope that helps…
Thx!
Hello,
We are buying a homes that is about 20 years old. It is a red and brown brick structure with a brown/red roof. The shutters on the windows are a white/cream color. The trim is a coral/melon color. We want to change the trim and the shutters but not sure to what color combo to use. What do you suggest?
Thanks in advance.
Catherine
Hi Catherine,
Try cream trim (like Ben Moore’s Cameo white) and dark chocolate shutters (like Hasbrouck brown (HC-41). The cream will provide contrast with both brick and roof and the dark chocolate shutters will dress up the house. You could also use a darker brown, almost black, like Branchport brown.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
We are building a home in Lake Placid New York on a golf course. Typically, everything is built with an Adirondack flair.
We chose a dark brown brainstorm siding with some lighter cedar shakes and stone around the front door. Most people choose dark green for the roof shingle color of homes in that region. I have been focused on a dark brown architectural shingle but I am afraid it may all be too dark. Also, the shingle I chose is costing an extra $21,000. Most people are trying to talk me back into a dark green roof. What are your suggestions? Thanks in advance!
Lynn D.
Hi Lynn,
I don’t blame you for wanting to use something other than green (although
I do love the look) for your new house. In your wooded area, there will be
lots of green anyway. How about Heather blend (Certainteed)? It has both
brown and gray in it and would coordinate well with both your siding and
your stonework (I’m assuming it’s gray limestone in your area?).
You’d want to pick something with some contrast for trim color and windows
so your house won’t simply blend into the background completely. But a
color chosen from the stonework on the front of the house would tie the
whole look together.
See what you think. As for payment, you are certainly free to make a
donation on my About Me and My Blog page. Thank you! If you would like an
ongoing consult, we can work on-line (I set aside more time ($40/hr) for a
more detailed recommendation.)
Enjoy your new home (I’m from Watertown, NY, so I know Lake Placid quite
well.)
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We’re updating the outside of our split level 1960s-built home. We will replace the roof, soffit and fascia, windows and siding.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/k65Gg7cJD5WCx25yXdWqxw?feat=directlink
The brick is a light/whitish-grey, and the grout is a light grey as well (with a bit of a sand-coloured base, it seems). We’re going to replace the ‘icing’ trim on the porch with a more streamlined square column, and we are definitely moving away from the green trim. We may even go with a stone facade (although my husband wants to replace the siding with it and I think that will make the house look too ‘top-heavy’). I’m leaning towards siding because it ties in with the neighbourhood, but we have to decide before we install our new windows. As for the roof, we both agree on a textured shingle (‘Camelot’ or “Capstone” style). Do you have any suggestions for a siding colour and roof colour?
Thanks in advance!
Cathy
Hi Cathy,
I’m going a bit out on the limb on this one, but how about Jackson Tan (HC-46) for your house color. China white for trim and a roof like Painted desert (Certainteed). With your brick color, I think that combination sounds great. If that roof color is too light, check out Heather Blend.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color coach
Help! We’re getting a new roof and shutters for our 1971 ranch, which is half brick, half siding. The brick is a light pink/peach color with a sanded coating on it. The siding is a beige color. The roof right now is a reddish brown, which doesn’t look very good, and the shutters and front door are black. Here’s a picture:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoView.jsp?&collid=29222771303.759168080703.1238115989115&photoid=559168080703&folderid=0&view=1&page=1&sort_order=&albumsperpage=&navfolderid=2009
(The shutters have been painted black since we took that picture, but we’re planning to get new shutters. The front door is painted wood, so we could paint it any color.)
Do you have any suggestions?
I always thought we’d get a black roof but our roofing contractor is recommending we get a roof called “weathered wood” in the iko line because it will pick up some of the color in the brick. See it here:
What do you think?
We’re on a deadline because our roof is leaking so any help you could offer would be fantastic. Thanks!
Hi mcrouch,
I couldn’t see your house photo as I think it’s expired. Didn’t get there soon enough, I guess. I would love to see your house, but from the description, I think the weathered wood roof is a nice choice.
All your other choices sound terrific!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Oops! Forgot to tell you three things: we’re getting a “portico” over our front porch that will be made of brown metal that looks like copper. The shingles will be architectural in style. And we’re planning to get more upscale wood shutters.
Thanks!
Hi Barbara,
I am building a new ranch house and am wondering about using white siding, a very light sand colored field stone with bits of brown mustard colored tone also in it.
topping it off a red shingled roof. What color door do you suggest?
Hi Debra,
I suggest choosing a door color from your stone. Just darken up the color you choose so the “value” of the color matches your red roof.
That should work.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We have a house that has orange brick on the bottom and very light green siding. It is so light green that in the summer it looks white. Right now the front door, shutters, garage door, roof and rain gutters are all a matching orange. I would love a little contrast with the orange shutters on the orange brick but am not sure what color would look nice and what other things I should paint.
We would eventually like to paint the siding too, but for now $$ just the doors, shutters, gutters.
I’ve loved reading your other tips and hope you can help us. Thanks, Kara
Hi Kara,
You didn’t mention the rest of the trim color (orange?). How about painting the gutters the same as the trim (if white) or the very light green siding if the downspouts run down through that color. Then how about something like Ben Moore’s Dakota woods green for shutters and possibly the front door? Or you could use an off-black for shutters and door? The black will dress up the house and give it a little more classic look than all the orange. For garage doors, same black (or you can stick with the orange if you don’t want to call attention to that area). See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi! I was so happy to find this blog and appreciate any help you can give me with garage door, around garage door, and facade colors. I have a 60’s very non-distinctive brick rancher. We are planning to put a low pitch roof over the stoop, extend the stoop into a recessed porch with a shed roof, extend the carport out 6 feet and enclose into a single garage, also with a low pitched roof. The brick color looks red (until you put red next to it), or orangeish red (until you put brown next to it.) I don’t know what color it is! House has beige (yellowish) vinyl trim on the fascia boards and soffits and around the replacement windows which are the newer sandstone/taupe color. Grout is more tan than gray, roof is black. I don’t know what color to put around the new garage door or what color garage door to get. I have a “thing” about painting things that come factory painted, so would like to use one of the standard garage door colors. The color and style (but not the size) of the bricks can be matched, so will use that for the front of the new porch (landscaping will make it less noticeable) and maybe for the new side of the garage that is perpendicular to the house with a bricked corner on the other side. Shutters are currently a dark green. I plan to use black wrought iron for the porch columns and railing. Thanks!
Hi asmommy,
You can always match the shutters with a dark green garage door. Very classic look. I know many garage doors come in a dark green. The other option is a darker version of your window color. Kind of a darker taupe. But then you’d have to switch out the shutters to that color as well. As for the color around the garage door? Keep that your trim color as you have around the windows.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
We have a home that is half orange brick and white on the top with green shudders. I hate the white and green. We want to paint the siding and replace the shudders and our doors. With the orange brick, what colors would you suggest? The brick has brown and reddish specks in it.
thanks!
Shauna
IMG]http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj11/skatbeatty/100_1471.jpg[/IMG]
Hi Shauna,
How about picking up on your grout color. Take a look at Ben Moore’s Wilmington Tan (HC-34) and switch the shutter color to black. I think you’ll like how that dresses up your house. You can use either black or the brick color for your front door. See Georgian brick HC-50.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Stuck (for 5 years) trying to figure out painting aluminum awnings, wood trim on each side of front door way and garage. I have a small red brick bungalow with a light gray roof and white window casings. I just got through adding a similar gray roof to the garage (separate from house). The mortar is a light tan color and the bricks are seem to match up with Sherwin Williams “Firewood and “Red Bay” colors. I welcome any suggestions. Thank you so much.
Hi Paula,
How about something like SW Ivory Lace 7013 to coordinate with both your gray roof and tan grout colors. See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
Thanks for answering. I had not thought about changing the color of the shutters! They have been green for so long it’s hard to think of them any other color. That might be the way to go. The garage door green sample I saw looked more hunter green than dark green against the brick. Do you have any color suggestions for the shutters (anything but Ben. Moore-closest retailer is 40 miles away)? One last question. What color for the front door? Currently, it pretty closely matches the brick (whatever color that is!) It will be under the new porch. Thank you so much for your help!
Hi again asmommy,
I suggest choosing your new garage door color first. Something that’s rich and earthy and goes with your brick. Then
after you select that big-ticket item, paint your shutters to match. As for the front door, if it matches the brick, I really like
that look. Not much contrast but warm and with nice crisp trim separating the door from the brick, it should look terrific.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & color Coach
I am building an addition onto my house. I want to change the color of my shingles and windows,trim/soffit while doing the addition.
What colors would you suggest?
Here’s a pic of my house.[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/ck-2/2009_0216house0002.jpg[/IMG]
Hi Chris,
Look at Barkwood for your shingle color. Then you can use cream or a china white for your trim color. See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Don’t know if that link worked or not.
It worked Chris.
Dear Barbara,
Congratulations to your Dad on his 99th birthday! And thanks for a great blog with all the insightful advice. After reading your comments about brick homes, we would like your opinion on our 1939 whitewashed brick with wood siding on the gables. The front gable siding is beginning to rot and needs replacing, so we are thinking of changing the color too but need some advice. Pictures are here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=lrkkm17.7bfmdkjb&x=0&y=-fsyeia&localeid=en_US
Upon close inspection of the brick, it appears that over the years it was whitewashed with lime or another material, painted all white, then the paint sandblasted off – but not the best job. The primary color remaining is white with some deep red in the brick showing through, and there is still white paint peeling from the brick. The siding on the gables is painted a cream color, what was probably the original color of the grout (but now the grout appears white because of the paint). The trim and screened porch is white and the roof is grey. There is a recent addition on the back that’s cream-colored HardiePlank, the same color as the front gables. With all the white on the brick and the trim, the offwhite/cream doesn’t seem to be the best color for the front & side gables – but we would like your thoughts on that.
We painted what were dull gray shutters and front door Ben. Moore Pine Cone Brown and it brings out more of the deep red in the brick. We have considered painting the brick to a solid color and changing the gable to shingles, but not sure that would work okay given the lime, paint and other damage the brick has sustained.
Our Questions for the Color Coach:
• Would it make sense to replace the gable siding with HardieShingles (or cedar shingles), or should we stick with HardiePlank/wood siding? Stucco?
• Should we consider painting the brick and complementing it with shingled gables, or is that impractical given the leftover lime/paint damage from whitewashing and sandblasting?
• What color besides cream would be good for the gables if we didn’t paint the brick and left the trim white? Could we do a half-value of Pine Cone brown which would provide more contrast to the white trim?
Thank you for your input!
Katherine
Hi Katherine,
Your post got buried! My apologies! If you still have the question, here’s my answer. I like the brick! It’s very different. But I agree that the gable siding is the wrong color — too yellow. I would either paint the siding a very light version of the pine cone (maybe even less than half-value) or another tone from your brick. It shouldn’t have any yellow in it. More on the taupe/gray-brown side. You could also stucco instead of side, but that sounds like a lot of extra work. I think you can achieve the desired results with just paint. Don’t worry about the roof color. The gray in the taupe color will coodinate fine.
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Dear Color Coach,
We have a very very dark, rich chocolate brown brick house with taupe grout. The roof is also brown, but slightly lighter than the brick, and it has a touch of red in it. The windows and trim along the roof line are white.
The house has an addition that is covered in white siding. I know you would normally recommend painting the siding taupe, but I wonder if taupe would not complement the red tone in the roof color. Does taupe work for us?
I have also considered painting the siding the darkest brown in the brick to make the addition disappear. (The addition is much too prominent and visible.) Would it be crazy to paint siding such a dark color? And would it be too much contrast with the white trim?
Help!
John
Hi John,
Sorry for the delay. Either of your ideas will work. The taupe (light) color will hold up longer than a dark color on the siding, but the addition will definitely stand out as an addition. The darker color will blend better with your brick house and make the whole house appear bigger (any of the shades in the brick will do — it doesn’t have to be the darkest brown), but the paint may fade quicker over time. I would use the red in the roof as an accent color in your landscape and not worry about incorporating it into the house color. Before you decide on the siding color, I would check with the paint store and get their advice in terms of painting the siding a dark color. But as long as you choose a color that’s either in the brick or grout, then colorwise, you’re in great shape. And don’t worry about the white trim. It’s a classic trim color and will look fine especially if you have white windows.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi again Barbara,
Thank you so much for your comments in the past. I originally wrote you for help on March 16th. If you don’t mind, please see the picture of our home from this date. We have narrowed our search down to 2 colors, both in the green family. Louisburg green and Dry Sage from Ben Moore.
We like both and are having a difficult deciding between the two.
The picture does not show the roof color well. It it a subtle multi-colored roof – grays, brick color and gray green. Almost like an imitation slate roof.
We think that since the Dry Sage has brown in it, that it matches the earthy brick better. BUT . . . we like the Louisburg so much more. This is our problem. Do you think that the Louisburg is earthy enough? Too bright?? Any thoughts or advice would be so welcomed.
One last thing, we had thought to paint the shutters black. Someone else suggested a hunter green, which is what it is now. Any thoughts?
Mary
Dear Color Coach,
Our home is 34 years old with a white brick (it is actually a red brick with a white over it which has areas of the red showing through) on the first floor around the main living area. Then we have a dark brown board and batten siding aroung the double car garage and also around the second story. The doors, windows, trim, shutters, roof and updated lights are all white. The board and batten siding is deteriorating and needs to be replaced – in addition to we need a new roof. What color vinyl siding would you recommend to go with this “white” with a little red brick (from a distance it looks all white – only when up close do you see the areas of red in it)? We like a nice contrast and most of the vinyl has very light colors.
Also, what color roof would you suggest?
Bonnie
Hi Bonnie,
You might consider keeping white for your vinyl siding to coordinate with the rest of the house and then adding color to your doors and shutters. You have a nice opportunity to use a green roof if you like green with a couple of shades darker for your shutters and front door. Just one timeless option. There’s also red for your roof color. Again, with a white house, you have more options for roof colors. With a red roof, I would use black shutters and door and black accessories (iron) to cool everything down. Other than that, dark charcoal is a possibility. Then you could use a dark red for your shutters and door. So many options!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi,
I found this board while desperately searching for a siding color.
I will be replacing the aluminium siding to wood siding or wood shakes. I will also be adding new shutters, more trim and a portical.
I would appreciate help with picking a complementary siding color to the brick as well as a contrasting shutter color and garage color.
The trim will remain white, in order to match the windows.
Thanks for your help.
Hi Mayble,
How about something like Ben Moore’s Shelburn buff (HC-28) or even Decatur buff (HC-38) for your siding with the same for your garage door and black shutters? Choosing a color that is deeper than what you have currently on the siding will balance the house, create less contrast with the brick, and make the house appear bigger. See what you think…
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Last attempt to add a photo.
Thanks for your quick response. I love those colors. I actully have hc28 in my home.
However, how will it look with my grey roof. In the roof the photos appears darker than it actually is. It’s a light grey, almost silvery. Will that be a problem with Shelburn buff or Decator buff?
Thanks again for your help! I love your site.
Hi again mayble,
It should be okay. Your roof is really high and not that prominent. I would focus more on evening out the siding. Either of those colors should work.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
My house has about 3/4 brick (orangey, medium brown, salmon) in front and cedar shingles. At the top of the door is an overhang with cedar shingles. The garage (right side of the house, up the driveway) has 3/4 cedar shingles and brick; the upper part of the garage is an enclosed florida room with a wrap-around huge windows. I am planning to either paint the cedar shingles BM Georgian Brick or English Brown, trim would either be Navajo white or Shaker Beige. The window boxes by the garage the color of the trim; the door and shutters Wrought iron. My objectives are: 1) try to make the cedar shingles disappear as they look busy near the brick and in general b) highlight the bricks c) pick a good trim to highlight the brick, the new cedar shingles paint What would be the best paint for the siding and the trim? Should I paint the window boxes the same color as the trim or should I keep the same color (white)? Thank you so much for your help.
Hi NIna,
I would try out both of the color palettes you described — one of them will be perfect. Yes, you have the right idea to blend the cedar into the brick. Paint the window boxes either trim color or the new cedar shingle color. Not white.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
One word….help! We just bought this house. (It’s much better inside then out) But as you can see, the last owner loved blue. The siding on either side is bright white. There are houses in the neighborhood with the exact same set-up but vary with different color shutters including black, maroon, brown, white, etc. I’m not in love with any of the colors really. Would it help changing the color of the siding?
Thanks!
Jen
Hi Jen,
The siding can stay, but you might consider repainting the door and shutters more of an earthtone, like a dark olive green or even a medium taupe. The blue conjures up the Caribbean, wouldn’t you say?
Just a thought.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello,
I have a brick house with a tan roof and white trim. Currently i have green shutters and a white door. I want a red door, what color shutters should I use with the tan roof and white trim. I do not want red shutters, because I feel red shutters wont let the red door stand out. Also can you tell me a great place to get front door decorations like a wreath or something.
Thanks
Hi Lindsey,
Try medium brown shutters that match or coordinate with your roof color. Then you can paint your front door red. Youcan find door decorations at any home store — anywhere they sell accessories for the home — as well as garden centers.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I love your website. Please look back at my email to you from April 9th. Since then, the paint co. we hired called and wants to know which colors we have chosen so they could purchase the paint. We have chosen Louisburg Green for the siding and china white for the trim. We are torn between black or green shutters? What is your thought?? Also a door color is giving us some trouble. One thought was the color of the shutters, except their are shutters around the door, so we are afraid that the door will get lost. Another idea is cottage red (BM) or red rock (BM). I value your opinion. Thanks ahead of time.
Hello, I need advice on what color shingles and what color paint for trim, shutters and front door on our plane, red brick split level. Thanks
Hi Denalouise,
Charcoal gray is always a safe choice for a red brick house. So is black. I would avoid any color roof that will call too much attention to itself. Then I like cream trim and black shutters and garage. A classic combination. As for the front door, you can choose an accent color, like a rich olive green, rusty red to match darkest brick color, or a color that coordinates with something in your garden. Black will also work, of course.
The front door is the place to be creative with a brick house. But I would stick with the neutrals for the other elements.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi, I have a 1961 split level with two thirds of the face brick, one third siding. I am trying to choose a siding color and a roof color. We are getting ready to install Andersen wood windows with a cream white trim. The brick is a warm pinky/orangy/brown. It’s a very nice feature of the home and I want to choose a siding color that will present it well.
We have been advised to choose a warm, natural green/olivish tone for the siding and a roof that’s dark green/gray with flecks of the orange brick in it. What do you think of that?
We are totally open to any siding color and roof that will blend well with the the window trim and the brick. We can also repaint shutters and doors later–no constraints there either. Thank you for your help.
Hi Tamar,
I like the combination that’s been suggested to you. Another idea is to go with a medium brown/gray/green roof like Driftwood and a taupey siding color like Ben Moore’s Wheeling neutral (HC-92) or a sandy tan.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I’m so glad I found your website. We’re currently having our home built. It’s a red brick home. I’ve included a picture of our home which is not totally done yet. They still have yet to paint the garage door and the front door, and add the shutters and coach lights. I actually chose to have a black front door, shutters, and coach lights to match our roof, and have the garage door painted slate gray. I just didn’t want the white garage door to take away the attention from the brick. I would like to know if these colors would look good on our red brick house? I’m a little unsure about the gray garage door since most of the garage doors in our neighborhood are white. I would love to hear your opinion since we still have time to change our minds before our builder completes the painting of the exterior. Thanks so much!
Sheila
Hi Sheila,
Good strategy to paint the garage door something other than white. Slate gray is okay although I’m not crazy about gray with brick. The black shutters and door are fine. You might consider more of a taupe (sandy concrete gray) to really blend away the garage door into the grout color. That way the garage door won’t look like black that’s faded out to gray. Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
Great website! Here’s my dilemma, the home recently purchased has a blue green with yellow undertone siding (see picture link below) and portions of the home are brick…the windows are beige framed not white and the trim is all in this bluish yellow green color too. i’m thinking of changing the siding to a more grey blue or grey brown/taupe (not too dark) color….my roof is a fabulous black color…questions
-what do you think of my color ideas? Keep shutters black?
– should i keep the brick or paint?…maybe just have it cleaned
-what color should i paint the outside frames of windows? the same shade of beige?
-what do you think of matching the garage doors with the front doors (we were thinking of getting new ones that look more like barn doors in a redwood tone)
-Also i was thinking of making the columns on the front porch larger and have 3 instead of 4….
-Maybe add shutters to either side of the bay window to match the others?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
http://picasaweb.google.com/jkratty/Exterior?authkey=piHhslvrjak#5254065180131742706
Hi Kathy,
Yes, your roof is terrific. I would recommend keeping the black shutters.
I would keep the brick front as long as your color scheme incorporates the brick (earth tones — taupe — good choices).
As for trim, you can use either two shades lighter or two shades darker than the siding color for a nice uniform look. I would not use white.
Black shutters on either side of the bay will be fine but not absolutely necessary.
Three larger columns on the front porch would be better than four undersized columns. A little more grand.
Carriage style garage doors (with black hardware) are perfect for your house. Especially since they’re so prominent.
You might consider thinning out the foundation plantings in the front to expose your house more and make it more welcoming. A variety of shrubs in various tones and textures will really update the house.
Love the fence!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Dear Color Coach,
We are in the process of getting a new roof, painting the trim, and replacing the windows and garage of our home. Right now, our home is an orange color brick with some black and tan specks blended in. The grout is grey. The trim is tan, the shutters are almost a navy blue (dark blue), and the roof is a deep rust color. The front door is also a deep red. I had thought about changing the roof color to either black or grey and change the front door and shutters to black. I was thinking about white for the windows, trim, and garage door (I thought this might brighten up the house). Would it be better to stick with tan for the windows, trim, and garage door since it is already in the brick color? What do you think about black or grey for the color of the roof, shutters, and door? Thanks for your help. Tammy
Hi Tammy,
I would stick with the tan from the brick for your trim color. It’s not as bright as white but it will give you a more sophisticated look for your house. A charcoal gray for the roof and black for shutters and door will cap things off. Very traditional but timeless.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
We have a dutch colonial with gambel roof and screened in porch facing the street with two glass front frenchish doors. The bottom half of the house is clapboard and top cedar shake. We are putting on a new roof in slate grey or black.
House needs to be painted and is currently cream with dark green shutters. Previously it was white with white shutteres. I’m leaning towards white paint with black shutters don’t know what/if we should paint the trim or french doors, and interior door.
Also, are there whites that you can recommend over others?
I don’t know how to post a picture on line so I’ve attached a similar shape house:
Hi Natasha,
How about painting the house something like Ben Moore’s Silver Satin 856 with Super white trim and a dark Maple Leaf Red door 2084-20? That would look great with the black shutters and the gray or black roof.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We are building our first home and we are going with a dark gray blue color called Riverbend.(see page 6 of link). What would be some good color combinations for the roof, shutters and front door.
Thanks
Charlotte
Hi Charlotte,
Hi like GAF’s Williamsburg slate and Florida blend for your roof. Not sure what your budget is, but those combinations look really good online. Then you can paint the trim whitc, go with black shutters, and pick up a warm brick red color for your front door. See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi,
I am replacing my roof in the coming weeks and am also considering replacing the eavestroughs/ fascia. Somewhere down the line I hope to install siding on the sides and back of my house (it is now an awful “fake” brick shingle called insulbrick). Mercifully the front of the house is a medium red brick.
I feel like I should make all of these color decisions now, even if I only end up doing the roof.
here’s a link to house photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38285957@N03/
I am leaning strongly towards a charcoal grey for the roof. the eavestroughs now are brown (yuck). should i go with grey for those also? or black? white seems so….safe and traditional. My style is modern.
also, the shingles over the dormer window (which someone attempted to color match with the brick: bad choice). what color might give the house some character/sophistication? might this be the match to eventual siding?
thanks so much for any input. I’m making a 30 year commitment here ! : )
chris
Hi Chris,
Yes, charcoal grey is fine for the roof, but I’d make one significant change first. I suggest painting the shingles over the dormer a dark Tudor Brown (Ben Moore exterior color) which will really make the house look sharp. Right now, as you say, the the shingles and the bricks clash. As for modernizing the rest of the house, how about painting all the trim a light gray, like Cliffside gray (exterior color) and replacing the metals (llarger modern house numbers, lights, mail box, etc) with silver-toned nickel? And at some point, you might want to replace the wrought iron railing with something more modern.
See what you think. Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello,
I desperately need help! We are in the process of remodeling the outside of our home. We have clay siding and we are adding midnight blue shutters. We replaced our front door and back door and now I am needing to paint the doors. Our roof is a tan/beige color as well. What color would you paint the doors?
Thanks so much for your help!!
Hi Angie,
How about taking the midnight blue paint chip and moving up a couple of shades to a rich blueberry color? Sounds like that might be your best bet unless you want to introduce another color into the palette. (You can still do that with your plantings and flower pots.)
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Dear Barbara,
You’ve given such wonderful suggestions on here, I only hope you can help us, too. We just purchased our first home last summer, and we’ve been concentrating on remodeling the lovely interior… now it’s time to tackle the outside! It’s just awful. We plan to replace the siding, garage door, and shutters this year and replace the windows next year. We’d love to pull in some green, either in the siding or shutters, but there isn’t any green in the brick at all — it’s a very orange-y tone with some plum tones, which the previous homeowners put on the shutters, with tannish grout. Also, the bushes to the right will be coming out very soon, as will the awkward trellis thing. The front railing will probably stay as I don’t know what else to do with it. Do you have any suggestions at all, especially about color? ANYTHING would be greatly appreciated!
One caveat: we have a carved mahogany front door that we don’t want to paint, but I might be able to talk my husband into staining it a darker shade.
Thank you so much!
Hi Carolyn,
Congratulations on your first home! Yes, I have a couple of suggestions: the first is to completely remove the front railings and the lattice next to the front door. That will totally open up your front entryway and make a HUGE improvement without spending any money at all. Then beef up those foundation plantings (keep low though) along that farmer’s porch. Add a couple of front porch chairs and a little table and you’ve made your house much more appealing. As for color, the brick makes the house asymmetrical so I suggest balancing the color to the right of the door with the darkest of the brick colors (how about something like either Georgian brick Ben Moore HC-50 or Cinnamon 2174-20?). I think using any other color, including green, on the siding will only accentuate the awkward symmetry. But you can paint the garage door a coordinating neutral (tan or grout color) or simply replace the current door with a wooden version to coordinate with your front door. How about that??
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hmm, I like your ideas, Barbara! I hadn’t thought about taking out the front railing altogether, but that certainly would open things up.
About the siding, though; what color would we use on the shutters if we went with the brickish tone you suggest for the siding? I’m concerned, too, that we won’t be able to find siding in that deep a shade without custom ordering (something we likely can’t afford at the moment), and I don’t particularly want to paint the existing wood as it’s in poor condition. Would it still look unbalanced if we did a grout (tan/taupe) colored siding with a pop of classy color on the shutters? I love color, and a monochromatic house — or one all in tones of tan/taupe/black — makes me feel weepy!
Also, one last thing: what color would you suggest for trim and soffits? As you can tell, we’ve never done this before, and my husband and I feel completely lost!!
Thank you so much for your help!
Hi Barbara,
Your website is awesome! I’m so glad I found you! 🙂 I was hoping that you would have some suggestions on color choices for my family’s home that we just purchased. We have gone back and forth with shutter and trim colors, but we can’t decide on any specific combinations. You can’t see from the photos, but the roof is a dark charcoal. The siding is a light grayish blue. We feel that the white shutters, garage, and base of the wall get lost with the color of the siding. The front door and screen door are also white. I like the white window trim, but feel there is just too much white on everything else. I like the idea of black shutters, but I can’t decide which colors would look appropriate on the garage, garage trim, front door, and wall base. Please help! Thanks so much!
Randy
Hi Randy,
Well, I’m not sure if you planned to change the siding color, but I would love to see it a color that comes out of your brick instead of the contrasting blue-gray. A wonderful taupe (the medium brick color) would be terrific on your siding with white trim and black shutters. That would balance the house making it more symmetrical. As for the foundation, I would paint it a sandy gray to resemble concrete. You want to bring the least amount of attention to that area. The garage door might be a darker version of the new siding color to break up that solid wall of color.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We live in Louisiana ( humid weather ) in a 1960’s ranch house where the bricks are Salmon color. We are now replacing our roof which is tweed blend. Our windows are bronze color. We would like your suggestions on what color the replacement roof should be,also the fascia trim the shutters and the front door.
We are desperately in need of your help.
Thank you,
Geraldine
Hi Geraldine,
How about GAF’s Cool Weathered wood with China white trim (Ben Moore) to cool the house down a bit. Then paint the shutters and front door a cool taupey beige pulled from the roof color (something like Huntington Beige HC-21). See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi,
Thanks for all of your great advice – might be a little too late!
We just sided our house in Navajo Beige (James Hardie) and put on a new roof in Timberline Weathered Wood and White Arctic Trim. I am disappointed in the look/effect of this combo. I didn’t go with an “Autumn Tan” siding (although the color is in the roof color) because I thought it was too rich. But the pair I’m now stuck with is just so dry and blah looking.
Any ideas on what I can do to improve the situation?
Erika
Hi Erika,
You’ll be fine. Just add black shutters and either a black door or a solid wood door (if the budget allows). Then add black metal for your lights, etc. It’s a classic look. If that’s still too blah, paint your front door your favorite color. How about plum??
See what you think. Sorry about the inevitable delay. I can’t keep up with requests and keep my day job too…
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
I have a redbrick house with two front windows with long white shutters (very dated), a white front door, and garage door. I want to put new shutters on and am trying to decide on a color and I would also love any suggestions on the front door and garage. There is also a square space under the windows that is white wood and I was wondering if it would look good if I painted it one of the red’s in the brick so it doesn’t stick out so much. I love the classic cottage look.
Hi KC,
I assume the trim on the house is white as well? As long as you like the classic cottage look, there’s nothing like black for the shutters. You can even go so far as to paint the front and garage doors black as well for a really traditional look. And yes, it would be wise to paint the wood under the windows a brown/red to blend in with the house brick. I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about. It’s a strange design feature that I see a lot! Good for you for correcting it.
Hope that helps. If you don’t want black for the doors, you can always go with a darker version of the grout color. With a crisp white trim, that would look sharp.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thank you so much for your time and suggestions!! Will black fade really bad? Our house faces south and is sunbeaten most of the day.
Hi KC,
Check with your local paint dealer about using black on a southern exposure. Hopefully, the exterior paints have fade resistance.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We live in the Houston Metropolitan Area. After Hurricane Ike hit, we suffered minor damage to the home (lost a front column and a side door.) Both are being replaced primed but not colored. We would like to paint the exterior of the house at the same time we paint the replacement column and door. We are just at a loss as to what color.
Here are a couple of photos of our house:
Our challenge is finding something that matches the orange brick with the dark roof. We would like to paint the garage door, the porch, the shutters, and the trim.
My wife suggests a green color for the shutters and a light lemon color for the trim. I don’t know.
Would you please make a recommendation as to what would look the best?
Respectfully,
Scott
Hi Scott,
Sorry for the delay. If you’re still looking for a color scheme, how about something like Ben Moore’s Affinity Collection’s Jicama AF-315 for the porch, columns, and trim and Weimeraner AF-155 for the shutters and garage door? They’re variations on your wife’s idea of green/lemon with a sophisticated twist.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara, I hope you can help my husband and I. We have a 1950’s brick ranch that has some aluminum siding in the front entrance/porch area and also on the sunroom addition and the eve’s of the house. The roof is a light gray and the siding is currenly white with black shutters. We are having it re-sided but cannot decide what colors would look the best. The bricks are various colors from red to muddy brown and black. We do not like the traditional white with black shutters but can’t seem to decide what to change it to. Because the roof is light gray, I’m worried a bolder siding color would not match. My husband and I both like earth colors and were considering a darker brown/sage green or maybe a dark grey. I am also replacing a very large front door that has 2 sidelights. It is surrounded by the dull white siding now and after getting it replaced, we will have to choose a color to paint the door as well. Any help would be appreciated. I can submit a picture if you need.
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
How about something like Ben Moore’s Briarwood (ext. rm) or Annapolis gray (ext. rm) for the siding, white for the trim if you have white windows, black shutters, and a rusty red for the front door (Affinity’s Dinner Party AF-300)? That will give you lots of fresh color.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
I’m ready to freshen the exterior of my boring, suburban, white split-level house while replacing its near-end-of-life roof. The facade is a fake vinyl “cedar shingle” siding and white painted brick. I’m looking to replace the siding with a more natural tan or cream horizontal type, paint the brick, and add red or green accents (trim, doors, shutters). Should the siding and brick colors be complementary, or should they match? Also, a previous owner converted the outer-half of a two-car garage to an office, making the driveway/garage look awkward and unbalanced. How can I use colors/materials to make this look a little better? Any suggestions? Thanks!!
The picture is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott1974
(the thru-wall air-conditioners will be removed, if that matters)
Hi Scott,
Okay, here’s a new idea. Since your roof is gray, how about going with either a gray scheme (with white trim) or a taupe (gray-tan) scheme. I’m not sure a warm tan will look good with that roof color. As long as there’s some tie-in to the gray roof, the whole house will look pulled together. As for placement of color, I suggest you stick with one color to unify the house. You can vary the shades if you want to (darker on the bottom brick portion and lighter on siding) but I would not use two completely different colors on your house style as it will break it up.
Other suggestions: Consider adding a trellis or plantings along that blank wall that leads to the front door and remove or trim back some of the higher bushes in front of the bay window to call more attention to that area. The garage/office looks asymmetrical but the house is asymmetrical anyway so the addition does not seem out of balance to me. The real problem is the blacktop and the fact that the office door opens right onto the driveway without any kind of walkway or landscaping to hide the original function of that space, a garage. Not sure you want to tackle that.
Hope I’ve helped.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thanks Barbara. I guess I wasn’t too clear about the roof. It’s got to be replaced anyway, so I’ve got plenty of freedom in the color I choose. This is how I would go towards that warmer color. I’ve still got gray pavers forming the walkway to the front door, and a small gray-block retaining wall around a tree near the foot of the driveway at the sidewalk (both not visible in the photo), so your point about gray is well-taken.
Regarding the office door leading right to the driveway, I’ve thought about removing about three feet of driveway from that side and putting in a bed of plantings and a short walkway, but that might make it more awkward and uneven.
Good idea about a trellis on the blank wall next to the door! I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with it. Thanks!
Hi Barbara,
We just recently purchased a home with a log cabin type front with siding around the other sides that is a tan color. The roof is forest green however and just doesn’t go with the siding color, it matches nicely with the front however. What color would you suggest to go along nicely with a forest green roof?
Thanks,
Cassie
Hi Cassie,
Try a darker color for your siding, something like a darker caramel or Ben Moore’s Richmond Gold HC-41. Wonderful with dark green.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara-
We have a brick cape with a brick colored roof. The door is mahogony with an oval window. The dormers and trim are white, along with the garage and garage door. The shutters are also white. The metal accents on the house are black (lights, mailbox, railing). I like what I call contemporary traditional – its a very traditional look, but minimalist with contemporary lines. Something is still bothering me about the look of the house and I cant quite put my finger on it. I was thinking of adding white trim around the door and replacing the exisitng black wrought iron railing for a traditional white railing. Is that too much white? I also forgot to mention that we are having gutters installed. The installer had suggested white gutters with brick colored downspouts on the brick. I agreed as I thought that might help the gutters blend in.
Thanks.
-Nicole
Hi Nicole,
Yes, go ahead with the white gutters and brick colored downspouts. Perfect. Then, what about removing the white shutters? The white color is a bit country for your minimalist tendencies and you might just like the clean lines of a shutterless house.
As for the black railing, I would keep it. You might consider, at some point, painting the dormers and the garage a neutral similar to the grout color for some contrast against all the white trim. That would make the house look updated as well.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We live in a 1980s-built two-story home that has cedar siding. There is flat trim for accent and that’s it–no brick, stones, shuters, or anything like that.
We have white vinyl windows (with all front windows having white grids) and are going to be getting a new roof, new fascia and new gutters.
For the roof, we are thinking of going w/charcoal gray.
For the fascia and gutters, we are just getting white.
The house is now painted what looks like Pittsburgh Paint Manor Hall Exterior in “Ostrich Feather #413-3”; this color is a grayish white but I think the previous homeowner only used one coat so it looks more like a dirty slightly grayish white to me. The trim appears to be a slightly different color “Dogwood Blossom 521-1.” There is also some other more bright white used for some of the trim (mostly near the front door but also along the house). Front door is a rich burgundy like color.
Our short-term concern is whether the colors for the new roof shingles (charcoal gray) and for the fascia/gutters (white) will go okay w/what we have right now, and more importantly, will they be the “neutral” we need for when we repaint the house in several years. I think the new roof may make the house look a little more grayer. Hubby does not like gray much as it is too “cold,.” but we can put up w/this for a few years.
Would painting the house someday in a warmer color like a yellow be all wrong w/a charcoal roof and with white fascia/gutters? If so, should window trim be a different color or should it also be white because the vinyl windows are white? If yellow is okay, should it be more of a darker yellow so it doesn’t look washed out next to white vinyl windows, etc.?
I’ve been searching for a site just like this, so great thanks for creating it! I’m just looking for an opinion on which colors my husband and I should go with for our newly-acquired home. It’s a foreclosure, and I don’t know what the former owners were thinking when it came to anything with this house… the landscaping has been practically tortured to death and the house itself looks as though it’s never been re-painted or washed since it was built in 1961.
We’d like to just go with something that will look very nice with the brick. I’ve been mostly considering white siding with dark blue shutters. My husband seems very fixated on having blue on the house, so I’ve been trying to work that in. We also both rather admire a house in the same neighborhood that has that Tudor-like cross-hatching over the top of the siding… but their’s is in the more classic white with brown hatching and I’m not entirely sure we could pull something like that off in another color set. I’ve included a couple of pictures for you, because I’m certain I can’t describe it sufficiently. The color is atrocious and I’d like to change it before I even get started with the inside. PLEASE feel free to recommend any changes whatsoever, whether it involves ways to improve the landscaping, light fixtures, door, hardscaping, shutters, trim, siding, etc. Please recommend away! Thank you so much.
Hi Barbara,
I’m so glad I found this site. We just bought a fixer-upper which red brick on the bottom half and white painted wood siding on the top half. I think this was the style some years ago but I find it quite unattractive. Also the white siding makes the house look top heavy. We want to create a more unified, elegant look for the house but there is so much siding on top that I’m not sure if painting it the color of the gout will work. Please help us to find a color that will work with the brick. We also have to redo the roof and replace the windows.
here is a picture of the house
(We are willing to paint the brick if we have to).
Hello-
I am looking at different options for my roofing. I am thinking of going with metal roofing, and searching through different color options. My house is a ranch style, and is painted a rich chocolate color with off white trim. I am goig to have to paint my house soon, so I can easily change the color(s), but I really would like to keep the brown color on the walls. My roofer gave me a color chart with 11 options (specifically) that are “energy efficient.” Of course, the brown colors are not energy efficient. So, my question is – do you have any suggestion for another roof color? Would a light stone(tannish) color roof over bear my brown house? There is also white, sahara tan (a deeper tan), clay, gray, red, green/blue, and royal blue. I am trying to find pics of a brown house with different color roofs, so I can visualize these colors. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
dmbsmile
Hi dmbsmile,
Still looking for a roof color? Try the clay or sahara tan. Sticking with a neutral beige tone will help blend with the brown and will not overpower the house.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
Wow! This site is really terrific. We are searching ways to give color to our house. It is a small bungalow with rough light grey brick on the facade, windows with white trimmings, white siding on sides and rear. The roof is due to be replaced and is presently a light grey in color. A small balcony on the side also a small carport to the side. Landscaped front.
We would like to install shutters, but they can’t be too wide because the windows in the front are close to the main door. would like to change the front door with a solid one and have it painted. The stair leading to the main door are sage green and need painting, been holding off on that idea since we really want to give the hoyuse a really good make-over. In the summertime we have wooden flower boxes which were stained in a light woodsy color, that also needs to be painted.
Would love to have color ideas and ideas on adding touches of decor to bring out the house and make a statement. Right now all we notice is the shrubs and the trees. We would love a touch of Country Victorian. Can you please help.
Jaydie
Hi Jaydie,
When you replace the roof, I would select a charcoal color to add some contrast with your light gray and white siding. Perk up the white trim on the front of the house to a crisp white (not too gray) to again maximize contrast with the light gray. Then paint your flower boxes white and replace. For the front door, I suggest a wonderfully rich raspberry color that can then go into your flower boxes (with various pinks and purples). For the front staircase, I would paint it dark charcoal gray with white risers.
Make sure your landscaping is not too overgrown and add some Victorian shrubs like Hydrangeas and Peonies (pink). With a variety of greens in the front, you should have a fabulous bungalow. Oh, also add some whimsy to the front yard — some little creature in the garden that will top off the charm of your home.
Hope that gets you started.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
We have a wonderful mid century modern house with a low profile. Half of the house over the kitchen and double garage is flat; the rest of the roof is rusty colored. The house has lots and lots of lannon stone, actually about half of the front and side opposite the garage is the stone. It also is on the lower half of the back. It is beautiful stone with myriad of beautiful earth tones and stone sizes. The house was built in 1960. Currently the vertical wood siding is painted white. It needs to be painted, so now we have a chance to choose a more appropriate color. I am not totally opposed to the white, but feel that another color would give it a more vintage look. I have researched this for hours on end with no luck, and hope you can help me.
Barb
Hi Barb,
Take a look at some of the sophisticated greens in the Ben Moore historic section. Something like Kingsport gray (HC-86) or Ashley gray (HC-87). Teamed up with china white trim, the combination would really enhance your stone and pull the whole house together to capitalize on its period charm.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I am looking to replace my roof and am interested in your opinion for a color. Can I send you a photo?
Hi Vince,
Sure, you can insert a photo link into the reply box here on the blog or send a photo file to my other email (bigger): bmeglis@yahoo.com
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Barbara,
I am trying to fix up my house a bit but I am completely color un-coordinated. I have a pick brick house with a gray roof. First i would like to know what color brick edging would go best with this color house. I thought red but i dont know if its too much of one color. Also i would like to put in shutters in the near future so i want something that would go well with that too.
Hi Martha,
I suggest shades of gray for your brick edging. And black/charcoal gray shutters will be perfect.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
i meant to say a pink brick house.
Hi Barbara,
I’ve been searching this page for some information regarding color scheme for Soffit, fascia and eavestroughs that I want to replace on my 96 year old Yellow Brick house. It’s my first home and have moved in just 8 months ago. At the moment, it has very old and worn down, Black eaves and fascia, but would like to replace them with aluminum. There was an addition added on the back of the house that has a creamy yellow siding and soffit…etc all the same color. I don’t mind that color to continue on the rest of the house, but I’m wondering if I really have to and if not, what color should I choose? I’m thinking of either white, cream, or a taupe color. And I’d like to paint my front door a deep red! And the black trim around the windows I’d paint probably white!
Thanks
Tina
Hi Tina,
It sounds like you want to get rid of the black trim. You can certainly move to white — perfect for your house. I would stick with either white or brick color for your addition siding. You can always go a shade or two in either direction for some contrast. If your yellow brick is really taupey gray, then taupe would be fine.
A red door on a yellow house is terrific! It sounds like you’re all set.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
hey i have a question
Hi Jim,
What is your question?
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi we are building a house in Ohio. They are just finishing up the siding and there is brick down the front of the house (not the entire front just the middle) We picked a dark black roof, and the brick is also a dark brown. We picked the darkest roof and brick they had i believe. The siding is called sterling grey. It is a lighter grey and it is a lot lighter than we expected. When we drive around the neighborhood there are a couple houses with dark grey called granite grey and we thought would of looked nicer with the dark brick. There just seems to be a big contrast between the siding and the brick and I am worried that my brand new home won’t look right. The shutters and the front door is a dark blue, and the trim and garage is white. Any advice/suggestions/comments would be appreciated.
Thanks
Hi Shawn,
Not to worry. I think we can work with the lighter gray. If you feel up to it, I suggest painting the shutters black. That will tie the roof and facade together. Then you can paint the front door black as well (or if you need more color, pick a warm shade from your brick — Ben Moore’s Georgian Brick HC-50 usually works well).
White trim is fine, but you’ll want to paint your garage door either Sterling Grey or the darker Granite Grey to ground it. White garage doors just don’t work. Plus they show every little tennis ball mark…
You’ll want to add some large red/brown shrubs on either side of your house (where the brick isn’t) to balance the brick with the rest of the house. Shrubs with dark burgundy leaves or barberry bushes work well to add color.
See what you think. There are plenty of white houses with brick accents so your light grey cannot be that bad.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
My Fiance and I might buy this house but we hate the color of the door, shutters, trim, and columns. What colors do you suggest to make this house look beautiful.
Hi Julie,
It is a lot of peach. But I like the siding and garage door colors as they coordinate well with the grout. How about going grand by painting the trim white. Right now what really pops out are the chairs and the window sashes. Painting the trim and columns white will add the contrast and drama that you might like better. As for the front door, I suggest Georgian Brick (Ben Moore’s HC-50). It will really pop off the white door trim and sidelights. I would paint the shutters black. That’s a traditional look.
If you cannot stand going so traditional (and your roof is brown and not gray — hard to tell from the photos), then how about eggplant for shutters and front door (look at AF-650 from Ben Moore)? That will get you out of any conventional rut.
The house is beautfiful! Go for it!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Sorry here is the picture of the house. Please help I don’t think we can buy this house without some inspiration.
Julie
http://www.sibcycline.com/viewlisting.asp?mls=373774&b=NKY&p=RESI&s=SFRD&m=1&sender=SearchResults&a=7481-Sterling-Springs-Way-Burlington-KY-41005
Barbara,
My house is an ugly orangish brick with some black & white colored bricks on lower level, grey siding upper level, white grout on brick and white front door, grey but darkened roof which we need to replace. Unfortunately the brick stays, but roof and siding colors can change. Any suggestions? I see a lot of homes around that have such dark roof colors, and always thought the darker the less energy efficient and in our hot state of Fla. we dont need any more heat upstairs. I like the light grey, but seems to end up with dark areas and/or streaks over time. Your help will be greately appreciated. Thank you, Patti
Hi Patti,
You might consider architectural shingles that have a variety of color shades. I would stick with something light to medium: gray or tan would be ideal. But the varied shades will mean that the roof won’t get streaked (or at least you won’t notice it as much).
If you go with a gray roof, how about sticking with an off-white siding color. I RARELY suggest that, but in Florida it seems to make a lot of sense. You’ve already got hot-colored bricks to deal with. The white would be a relief. Then you could pick a neat third color for the front door and some flower pots on the front step. How about Sherwood Green (HC-118) or Kittery Point Green (HC-119) for the front door? Totally unexpected. Then you HAVE to put the color somewhere else around the house: pots, lawn furniture, yard “art” or something. I suggest that you switch out your numbers/mailbox to a silver metal to tie in the roof color. There’s a very sophisticated palette for your Florida house.
Hope it works for you!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
Our house is brick and stucco, with the front of the house being primarily brick and the back primarily stucco. The brick is a true red brick and the roof is a cedar roof. Gutters and downspoats are deep almost black brown, and we are in the process of adding wood trim (also to be deep black-brown) around the windows, garage doors and front door. We also recently inserted a warm grey, brown cultured stone feature. The question has now become what color to paint the stucco as we are finding the current color too fleshy for our taste. I’ve included some photos of the front and back of the house (in progress), noting that we have yet to stain the garage. Appreciate your help very much.
Thanks,
http://twitpic.com/a99uj
http://twitpic.com/a9a5h
Hi Shauna,
Picking up on some of the green tones in your stone, how about Ben Moore’s Alexandria Beige HC-77? It’s a very sophisticated color — not the least bit fleshy…
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Please help me with a color scheme for our colonial red brick home that currently has that light blue gray on the front door, trim, siding and shutters. We need to replace the front door and paint the house. Should we stay with the same color or if we had to go with a wood color (cherry or mahogany) door, what color should the trim and siding, etc. be? How many colors is too many when it comes to painting these other elements with a brick house? The garage door is white and the roof is that standard composite shingle that is gray/brown.
Thank you.
– Melanie
Hi Melanie,
The quick answer is anything but blue. I suggest, if you get a solid wood door, that you warm up the house with a Cameo White trim (a light cream). Then you can take it a shade or two darker for the siding if you wish and either a dark brown shutter or soft black, whichever seems to go better with the roof color. The garage door should be whatever the siding turns out to be — cream trim color or a tan.
Getting rid of the gray/blue will make a huge difference!
Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I desperately need your help. Our house is a 30 year old ranch style home. It is all brick and is an off white/creme color. Our shingles on the house have black and a rust brown color in them. Our garage door is an almond/off white color. I am trying to decide on a color for trim, shutters, and the front door. I wanted black shutters at first because I thought it would look good against the brick. And the window casings are black. If I went with black shutters I don’t know if I should paint the trim white or off white or maybe even tan. Since the brick is off white, I just don’t know. And what about my garage door. We are on a corner lot and the garage door shows from the street. Does the garage door need to be the same color as the trim? Or, should I just choose another color scheme? I am very confused.
Thank You,
Janet
Here’s an idea. If you’re hiring someone to paint (I wouldn’t want to do this myself), how about painting the window sashes Georgian Brick (Ben Moore HC-50), keeping the black window trim, and adding black shutters? Then you can paint your front door Georgian Brick with black trim and the garage door cream with black trim. That will accent the doors and windows and tie in the roof color. See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
While I like your idea, we don’t have window sashes. The house is all brick except for the trim around the top of the house. I also should have mentioned that the black around the windows is the metal/aluminum of the actual window. So, there isn’t anything to paint. And my garage door is metal, can you paint it? So, all I need to paint in the trim at the top, front door, and maybe the garage. And decide on the color for the shutters. So, what do you think I should do. Thank you for your help..
Hi Janet,
Okay, then I suggest the Georgian brick for the front door (that will tie in with the rust in the roof color). The black windows are fine. Yes, you can paint metal garage doors as long as they’ve been washed thoroughly and primed. The garage itself can match the brick color (cream) with black or Georgian brick for the door itself. The shutters can be black and the trim along the top of the house can be cream or a shade darker than your brick color. Did I miss anything?
Good luck.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara-
I’m hoping you can help me- I have a 1930’s red brick house. It is primarily brick except for the trim, windows, front entry, garage doors, side screened porch and some railings that form walkout sitting areas on the 2nd floor.
All of the above is already painted a bright white. (The house gets a lot of full sun throughout the day.) I plan to paint the shutters a green that is almost black. I also have copper gutters and down spouts that I would like to turn the aged copper verdi green color of really old copper. I also have two bay windows on the front of the house that I would like to paint in a verdi color to simulate the look of aged copper.
For the white trim my painter recommended Sherwin Williams Alabaster white. Do you think this is a good white? What shade of white is used on the trim of traditional old red brick houses like Monticello or Mt. Vernon? (Just curious).
Also, do you have a recommendation for the verdi color to paint the metal bay window roofing?
One last thing…I just had 19 windows replaced in the front of the house and the window installers did a sloppy job with the calking. It is bright white and they applied it so that it goes onto the brick quite a bit and it is globby and messy. The painter said it would be nearly impossible to scrape off. Is there anything you can recommend?
Sorry I have so many questions. Thank you for any advice you can give. And if you want to recommend specific colors, I would be so grateful!
Thank you.
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
Alabaster is a very pleasant aged white — very appropriate for your brick house. You just want to avoid any whites that are too chalky as they stand out too much and will not look like they came with the house. All the historic homes use whites that have an aged (slightyl creamed) quality that weathers well with the house.
As for the verdi green color, check out this link to a product that produces an aged copper finish. Sounds like it would be perfect for your house.
http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/536853
Regarding the glop on your brick, that’s really awful and that company should be responsible for removing it. (I suppose you’ve already paid them?). I would definitely call the company about this problem and at the very least get information on what solvent might remove the hardened caulk. If that doesn’t work, you might apply some careful touch-up paint onto the caulk (brownish brick color, more brown than red) to camouflage the sloppy goop from the street. It won’t be pretty up close, but nobody but you and the next buyers will notice. Hope you get some results. Good luck!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara-
Alabaster it is! You are right. The sample looks beautiful on the trim. Now I have another question regarding paint application if you don’t mind a segway in this direction. My painters have decided to tape off the windows and then spray the paint on. I like how paint that has been sprayed on has that enameled look indoors, but outdoors??? I just don’t know. Whatever happened to a nice trim brush and a bucket of paint??
Also, can you please recommend a specific color of blackish or very dark green to use on the shutters? Then what do you think would be a nice, exciting door color? On a home we had years ago in Wellesley, MA, I painted the front door a bright, dark raspberry (on a gray house with the same verdi copper and dark green shutter theme that I am repeating with our current house).
But I think the raspberry would clash with the brick on this house. Are there a couple of really fun, specific colors that you could recommend for the door on this house? A bright, chinese red maybe?
Thank you so much!
kathy
Hi Kathy,
I scrolled back but did not see your original house color to advise on the door color. A bright chinese red is great when it coordinates well with the brick. If you send an updated photo, I can help.
As for spray vs the brush, I know a lot of painters are spraying these days to accommodate their work load. I’m sure you can’t tell the difference from the street, but I’m with you. There’s nothing like a nice trim brush.
Essex Green (Ben Moore) is a nice dark green/black for shutters.
Hope that helps a little.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I have a red brick house with a few darker brown brick thrown in…we have white trim and a dark brownish roof. BUT, we have metal awnings that are white with red stripes. I am sick of the whole thing.
I want to do the trim a different color and do something with the awnings..my husband will NOT take them down. Can they be painted? Do I paint them the color of the trim? I have brought home about a 100 paint chips and can’t decide. They range from like a clay to a blue green to a warm brown wine.
I don’t know…I see up above on your picture that this house has kind of an olive drab or camo type color. Would this work?
HELP ME. Oh, it is a brick ranch.
Answering myself here…I just wanted to add that we are on a big corner lot and the garage door shows…what color should that be? The same as the trim and the awnings? I’m so confused. Also there are only two houses on our block..ours and then an alley and our neighbors which is the exact replica of ours…….same everything…THAT is why I want ours to look different! Would the olive/camo color work with black? We also have very ornate wrought iron on our little porch in front…what do I paint that? The same as the trim or a darker color? I am sick of white. Thank you for any help you can give and we really need to do this in the next couple of days as we have some help on hand. Thanks
Hi Joan,
You didn’t mention your window color — if it’s white, I would stick with white trim for the house. But you CAN paint the metal awnings a dark brown to go with the roof and brown in the bricks. I think that will dress up your house and make the whole palette come together.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
We have a smaller cape cod with 2 dormers and a single garage door. Dark grey – black roof shingles. We are getting new grey siding (hail damage) and I am leaning toward new black shutters and a brick red door but can’t decide on a trim color (currently teal!). I would need to paint the garage door trim (garage door is already grey), dental molding, and small column molding around the front door. The storm door is painted black and we have a black entry light and post light. Brick walk and brick chimney. Would white look ok with the other black we already have in place? Also – what constitutes “trim”. Where should I have the trim color besides the wood I already mentioned? Gutters – grey or trim? Fascia – grey or trim? Casing around windows – grey or trim? Aluminum facing along the roofline – grey or trim? I was guessing I would go all the same shade of grey for all the siding and aluminum and just paint the wood the trim color but I am seeing combinations of both throughout the neighborhood and am getting confused. Guidance please!
Hi Virginia,
I love the idea of replacing the teal with white. You’ll notice a huge difference in how light and fresh the house feels. Love the brick red door. Paint all the wood white and all the aluminum/gutters/fascia grey. Your instincts are right.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
That sounds great and along the lines of what I was thinking. I just was unsure about painting the trim a color so close to the color of the brick. I almost had myself talked out of the black shutters and was going to go with a shutter color that I could copy on the trim. But, I really want the black shutters so I am going with that. Thank you so much for your help.
Janet
Okay I will try again….our house is red brick…the trim now is red and white (windows white) red and white striped awnings and most importantly lots of ornate white wrought iron on the frong porch (railings..up to the ceiling). I didn’t get your reply in time so I started painting the windows a color called jazzy olive by Velspar…I really like it…BUT, chose a creamy white for the window casings and not sure if I like it at all. The white white might look better OR I was thinking a dark brown for like the sills???? Also WHAT ABOUT THE WROUGHT IRON? Do I do it in the olive green or the creamy white or can I do black? Thanks for your help.
Hi Joan,
And I thought I was on top of things this morning…
First of all, yes to the black wrought iron. Absolutely! As for the trim color, you probably won’t mind the creamy white if you plan to repaint the awnings a darker color (the olive or brown would be fine). And yes you could paint the sills either brown or olive. Part of the shock factor is that your awnings are still up and not repainted. Once you have your master plan with your new palette, just work away at one thing at a time. It will all come together at the end.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Colorn Coach
Hey Barbara,
Thank you for your previous answers to my questions. Of course, I forgot to mention that I will be replacing all the windows too! Do I paint the trim or stay with white? Then, of course I could not use the off-white for the siding color. Thank you for your continued help.
Patti
Thank you for your advice……..here’s what I decided to do..see if you agree with it.
The windows/screens and the casings all the jazzy olive…..just can’t get my head around that cream when the soffets, garage door, etc. are white white…and, then the black wrought iron for the decorative metal railings and gingerbread on the front porch and THEN thought of painting the metal awnings the black wrought iron and the big wagon wheels we have leaning against the house the black wrought iron color. And, painting my wood door the jazzy olive and the aluminum screen doors the black…would that look okay? I saw some black awnings downtown today on a brick building and they looked impressive. What do you think? Thanks so much!
Hi Joan,
Yes, you’re right to avoid the cream if soffets, etc, are staying white white. The black awnings will be very dramatic. Just make sure you use the right kind of paint so they won’t fade too fast.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
New Build
We have to decide on brick color and siding color by tomorrow and can make a decsion. what is in right now
Hi Patrick,
What is in right now with brick homes is “mixed media” (using different materials along with the brick, usually a larger-scale local stone for the entry facade and cedar shingles to side the gables/dormers). Using reclaimed materials is also getting quite popular. The look is more casual and comfortable. As for brick color? Whatever goes with the rest of your palette of natural colors.
Hope that helps a little.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
You are amazing… Just spent the last 2 hours reading every post to see if I could answer my own question without bothering you but here goes anyway…
We have a hi-ranch on Long Island having lived in our off-peach house for 2 years with a 25 year old roof– it is time to do everything over. I am having real trouble with colors. The only thing that is staying (as we can’t afford to do this over too) is the lower portion of one side of the front of our house which is light red brick. Our plan is to replace the siding, roof, shutters, building 3 “peaks” and doing the porch over. The man doing the work keeps pushing me towards beige with a red roof and light red brick porch with wine shutters telling me it will look fab because it all “goes” I don’t want to be locked into all this red (not my favorite color) just because I have to leave that portion of my facing red brick.
Any suggestions….
Thanks for your time!!
Lisa L W
HI I AM SO HAPPY YOU HAVE THIS SITE. I LIVE IN GEORGIA CURRENTLY NEAR SAVANNAH MY HUSBAND IS IN THE ARMY. WE JUST PURCHASED OUR FIRST HOME AND ARE SO EXCITED. THE HOUSE ON THE OUTSIDE IS VERY DARK EVERYTHING INCLUDING THE FRONT DOOR AND PORCH SWING IS BROWN. MY QUESTION IS WHAT CAN I DO TO GIVE IT A LITTLE POP EVEN JUST CHANGING THE FRONT DOOR AND SWING COLOR PLEASE HELP ME…THANKS SO MUCH LORI [IMG]http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h53/AALGLAS/58636_101_12.jpg[/IMG]
Hi Lori,
I couldn’t see you photo, but you have the right idea anyway. At the very least, change out the front door and swing. Pick something that really pops off your brown. How about Ben Moore’s Marlboro blue (HC-153) or Audubon russet (HC-51)?
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hey Barbara,
Well, sorry some things have changed and I want to give you this updated information. We are paving driveway with asphalt, and putting up board fence in front yard (about 2 acres) so now what with my colors? Roof needs to be done first. Thank you for your help. Patti
Hi Patti,
I can’t find your original post. Can you refresh my memory with a photo?
Thanks.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We are in the process of purchasing this house: http://www.fototime.com/inv/64C3F3A908EB666
We will be replacing the roof as well as looking to paint the shutters & front steps. The plan is to remove the awning and update the landscaping a bit. Being our first home, we are stuck and hoping for some ideas on a color scheme (roof, shutters, etc.) to really tie everything together. The siding is in good condition and will stay white. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!
Hi Tim,
I like the dark charcoal roof color as it ties in your chimney stone. But you can certainly add color with both the shutters and landscaping. You can pick almost any color for your shutters but tie that in with the new landscaping (I would replace the large shrubs in the front with a variety of sizes, shapes and colors — which will make the whole house look more up-to-date). Taking the awning down will help and you might consider an updated storm door.
But you’ve got a great start.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I’ve been reading your great suggestion and was wondering what would go with our house, I want something on the the shutters that pops more and not so blah. What do you think of Benjamin’s moore 2142-30 Mountain Moss, for the top peak and garage door and 2005-20 Hot Apple Spice for the shutters. Or should it be more of a blue like Philipsburg BLUE for the shuttes to contrast the orange. And what about the front door?
I want to update the house a bit and looking for suggestions.
Thanks,
Tonya
Hi Tonya,
A couple of ideas: to contrast the orange brick and make way for a color on the shutters, you really need a neutral on the gable (you’re locked into brown for window trim, I know). How about Ben Moore’s Bleeker Beige HC-80, Lenox Tan HC-44 or a similar taupe. Then you can use either another earthtone, like Alexandria Beige HC-77 or Philipsburg Blue for the shutters. The hot apple spice is too pink for your house but the mountain moss was nice.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi, Barbara,
I’d love your advice on dressing up the outside of our new house. It has gray aluminum siding, which is in perfect condition, if a bit boring, and black shutters. If we add brick trim, what color should we choose? Do you have other ideas? Here’s a link to photos. http://homesite.obeo.com/viewer/default.aspx?tourid=531477&refURL=direct&locale=en-US
Hi Carolyn,
Not sure where you are thinking of adding brick trim. You might consider stone in various shades of grays and tans (I would not add red brick — keep the color scheme more monochromatic). Then you can add a full-view storm door with a painted inside door (Heritage Red would look great — Ben Moore).
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I lost my husband 2 years ago to sucide and moved into another house. However, my daughter and her husband and child bought the house we lived in so we could keep it in our family. The house is a small cottage style house with a full length front porch with white post. It is light tan siding, but has a medium green metal roof which makes it hard to determine the right color shutters and door to use…right now the door and shutters are black but my daughter is wanting to change them…could you help us out with your opinion. The metal roof serves a problem to change but I know that there is something out there that would really be a wow factor on this small house. If anyone out there has a vision please let me know.
Hi Debbie,
A couple of ideas come to mind. One is to leave the black shutters as is and paint the door a nice rich dark green. THEN, add warm color with accessories: colorful pots of pink or purple flowers, a purple chair on the front porch, and some flowering shrubs along the foundation. Keeping the house semi-neutral will allow your daughter to switch out the accessory colors with the seasons or the holidays. Another idea is to use dark brown shutters (dark green will also work, of course) to dress the windows but not attract a lot of attention and paint the front door raspberry. Then tie the green roof in with plants and other greenery in addition to hot pink flowers and shrubs. You can substitute the oranges and yellows for pinks if you prefer.
See what you think.
Thanks for writing in. Hope life takes a turn for the better for all of you!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Jaylin,
Try a different browser and see if that works better for you. I don’t have any control over the formatting on this site since it’s a WordPress blog. Sorry you’re running into trouble — thanks for letting me know.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi, love this site. I have a quick question? I have a red brick (but on close look it has an orange tinge to it – clay look) house and I am adding an addition over the garage. We are using maibec siding. Our windows are new – white. I am looking for a siding color. I was thinking in the green tones because my grout is sort of a muddy color.
Hi Lynne,
Historic gray-greens always look good with brick. Go for it!
Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We have a white (painted over brick ) colonial that is getting new tan stained shingles that we are thinking of painting a rich chocolate color. The roof will remain black. But we are totally flexible on the choice of the shingles color if that makes more sense
Here’s the link to some existing pics
http://picasaweb.google.com/vidhya.anand.iyer/PaintIdeas#
What would be the best (& cost effective) way to enhance the curb appeal & bring out the interesting details on the brick masonry?
Regards
Hi Vidhya,
We’ve discussed several options via email but I think we’ve settled on a palette of various shades of green to highlight the brick part of your Tudor and not hide the rest of the house in the wooded backyard. Here are some colors:
Take a look at Abingdon Putty HC-99 with either Nantucket Gray HC-111, a soft gray green, or Louisburg Green HC-113, slightly greener. The combinations would look great with crisp white trim, black door and lighting.
Another palette is Carrington Beige HC-93 instead of the Abingdon Putty. It’s a green/beige with less yellow than the putty color. The Carrington Beige also goes with the darker greens mentioned above.
For a really cost-effective paint solution, you can leave the white brick as is and paint the addition a light Sag Harbor Gray HC-95, a gray green that provides less contrast with the white but enough to make the two areas distinct from one another. If you like less olive greens, look at Kittery Point Green HC-119 for the siding (keeping the brick white). Then you could have a striking front door, something like HC-51. That palette is fresh and contemporary and would certainly make your house quite a showpiece on the block.
Let me know if I can help further.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Help!
I bought a small ranch home last year, but the varigated brick is reddish in color, the siding and garage door are white, the roof is gray, and the shutters and front door are hunter green. Too many colors on this small house! I have the chance to change the roof color if need be, so I’d like some advice on which exterior colors to use on my home. I really need a color coach! Can you please help?
Lou Ann Bruce
Hi Color Coach,
I recently purchased a 1000 sq. ft. home to use as a boutique type store but to resell later. I am keeping the origianl cedar shake siding , thinking pale yellow or a soft olive or sage green and it also needs a new roof.
I am installing new windows and 2 french doors (off kitchen and bedroom) I like the window pane grills and I would like to keep the trim white. I was liking a cottage look and this is about how the front will look.
http://www.drummondhouseplans.com/house-plan-images/info/plancher/1001908.html
If you could please give me an idea of paint color and roof choice for the house as well as a front door color, I was thinking just white but am just low on ideas. I was looking at an Owens corning roof called Summer Harvest but am worried it will look to busy on a shaker small house.
Thanks, Robyn
Hi Robyn,
What a great project! If you go with a pale yellow (something like Ben Moore’s Hawthorne Yellow HC-4) I suggest a traditional dark charcoal roof color (Onyx Black from Owens/Corning) for maximum contrast. Yes, it’s dark, but the combination of the roof color, the siding color, and white trim with black lighting will be striking.
If you decide on a sage or soft olive (something like Sherwin Williams’ Sage SW 2860 or Colonial Revival Green Stone SW 2826), you might consider a dark brown roof, like Brownwood (Owens). Very earthy and more contemporary than the traditional black.
But I would avoid too much varigation in the roof color (lots of different tones) as I think it will make the roof look too busy and in combination with the busy texture of the cedar shake siding, it will be too much.
What I think you’re looking for is a clean classic Arts & Crafts look for the house and the traditional roof colors will help you achieve that.
Good luck and thanks for posting!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I was wondering if you could assist me with a siding/roof decision. We’re replacing our siding and roofing, and are pretty sure we’re going with Oxford Blue color siding from Certainteed (the Dutchclap style).
Click to access cts130.pdf
But we’re unsure if A, this will be a decent match with our brick color and B, which roof color we should pair with it. We have to choose from this selection of shingles, and are leaning towards the Natural Timber but are also considering Aged Wood or Virginia Slate.
http://www.tamko.com/ArticleDisplayPage/tabid/56/ControlType/articleDisplay/itemid/3615/Default.aspx
We will likely be keeping the white capping and gutters, and am guessing we should also keep the white shutters. I would be interested in your feedback on all of these matters…
I will email you separately pictures of the house and bricks for your review…
Thank you!
Erik
Hi Erik,
Thank you for sending the links of the choices you’re considering. I love the Natural Timber roof shingles with your brick! Very nice combination. Although there are some blue undertones in your brick and you’re certainly free to provide a contrasting siding color (blue with the orange in the brick), my first choices for siding would be Granite Gray and Silver Ash. Both of those colors favor prominently in your brick and the combination of roof, brick, and siding is very appealing. I find the palettes that draw from the actual colors in the brick are the most pleasing ultimately.
White capping and gutters are fine. But you might consider dark eggplant for shutters/door or a dark rusty red. Both colors would come directly from the brick. White shutters are best on houses in tropical climates — usually white trim is all we need for that color relief.
See what you think. The Oxford Blue is not a bad choice, but it will contrast quite heavily with the brick and roof. I would suggest getting a very large siding sample to prop up against the brick on your front porch. Then go back to the road and have a look at the house. See what you think of the sharp contrast. If it emits a little too much energy, go with the neutral from the brick. If you like the energy that the blue/warm combo provides, then go for it.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
We are about to start building a new house and we have considered going with a brown brick called Ole Cahaba, with buff mortar which is a tan color. We have picked out dark brownish black shingles, and are thinking of going with a light tan for the dormers. What other trim colors, window colors, and column colors would you suggest? I think adding white windows, columns, and a touch of white trim would give the house a nice contrast, but my husband is afraid it will stand out too much. Also, I would like to put dark brown shutters on to tie it all together. Please give us some guidance!
Pay Pall Confirmation 86M596900H9159737
Hi Barbara,
Hoping you can help me out in a pinch. My husband and I have taken on the task of replacing rotted lap board siding and then painting our 20-yr old home, which is 3 side red brick. He’s pressuring me to get the siding and trim painted on the work we’ve done so we can get the new trim put up ASAP. As you can see by the pictures – it’s “under construction” since we can only work on Sat/Sun.
I’m considering a cream for the siding color (not sure how dark) and am really struggling with the trim color decision. I have considered dark brown, dark grey (leaning towards black) or sticking with the cream family (but that sounds boring). Here’s my problem, the back of the house has a LOT of trim so I am worried the dark trim will look too busy on the back. There is also trim running along all the way up the house on all sides (X3) of the large jut out. One other thought to consider – we are getting ready to build a large covered porch which may help break up some of the trim. The porch will cover all the concrete you see, as well as an additional 10 feet of deck we will soon put in.
What do you recommend for the siding and trim colors? The front door could also be repainted if necessary, but I’d rather not if we can help it.
Thanks so much and I look forward to your reply. I’ll be buying pain tomorrow. Betsy
Hi Betsy,
Call me traditional (at least with your house) but how about the current white for the trim? Or a version of white like China White or even Bone White? Since you have white windows, the version of white will help to ease them into the house color which might be something like Brookline Beige HC-47 or Lenox Tan HC-44. One of those will balance the weight of the brick better than the current light gray or even cream. You can certainly keep your brown door.
Does that make some sense? I don’t think black will work as it’s going to look like eye liner around the white windows. Kind of heavy. I would rather see you put the more intense color on the siding and not on the trim.
Hope that helps. Thanks for posting!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I just put new shingles on my house. Cedar 2 tone. I am now planning on putting up new siding. Currently it is something like a lemon meringue pie colour, which I am not a huge fan of. I was hoping to go with a green tone of some sort. What colours could go well with my cedar roof?
Hi Meg,
Check the Historical Greens like Kennebunkport Green from Benjamin Moore and taupes like Curio Gray from Sherwin Williams!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I am so glad I came across your site as I could really use some expert guidance!
We are building a new home and have selected Glen Gery “Danish” (http://www.glengerybrick.com/GG/index.php/brick/detail/155#m) for the front facade, Timberline “Hickory” for the roof and the front door will be an antique bronze finish wrought iron/glass double door. The house will be a two story colonial with double bay windows on both sides of the front door and two colomns in the front. We are putting stucco on the sides of the house as well as around the bay windows and I am having trouble picking out the color. We considered “saltbox” or “oyester” from sonowall standard color palette (http://www.sonowall.basf.com/pages/color%20texture/standard.html) but would really apperciate your input. We also need to figure out whether to go with square columns and paint the columns the same as the window surround or go with round coloumns and leave them white. Also, is it necessary to introduce another color for the accent designs on the stucco, if so what would be a good option? I really do not want the house to look like a mismatched mess!!! Please help 🙂
Hi Avi,
I do like your choice of Saltbox for the stucco color but I also like the cooler Moonstone (a nice cool taupe) and even Picket (a green-gray). I’m not crazy about Oyster as it appears too pink. It goes well with the brick but I don’t think you want a pink house.
I also do not think you need an accent color on the stucco as your brick will supply enough variegating to make the house interesting. Too much detail on the stucco might make the house look too busy.
If white is your trim color, then use white for the columns. White will pop nicely off of the brick and stucco. You mentioned the window surround color… what is that if it’s not white? That too is an option for your columns but honestly on a colonial, I prefer white columns — a nod to tradition. Whether they are squrare or round is really a matter of personal taste. Round are more traditional; square would be more modern/angular. As long as the columns are beefy enough to support the front facade visually, it doesn’t matter about the shape. Send a photo though if you’d like me to be more specific and pick one or the other.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We just had new Hardiplank in a light sage color (“Mountain Sage”) installed on our small 1962 ranch house. Most of the front of the house is brick, currently painted an off white color, and we have crisp white trim, black shutters and a black front door.
We’re not sure whether to paint the brick off white, crisp white or a lighter shade of sage green. One idea I had was to leave off the shutters entirely and replace the front door with one that’s glass and stained wood. But even in that scenario, I’m not sure what to do with the brick. I’d like a look that is kind of modern and clean. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Jill
Hi Jill,
I suggest painting the brick in a color that comes from a stone palette — something like Annapolis Gray (Ben Moore) or Sail Cloth (maybe even Richmond Bisque). Keeping the brick neutral and not green will give your house more of an Arts & Crafts look rather than modern but the neutral palette and clean lines will certainly create that updated look you’re going for.
As for the shutters, as long as the window trim is beefy and not skimpy, it’s fine to leave the shutters off. Much cleaner that way and definitely more modern. The trim can all be crisp white.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I’m so glad to have found your site! We have just purchased a home that is a bit run down but in a wonderful neighborhood. I’m about to send you two pictures of our home to your email address. One is of the front of the house and the other is what you see as you approach from the right. In that side view you catch a glimpse of the garage doors being located on the side at the back of the home. All of the homes in this neighborhood are brick, although the coloring of the brick varies from home to home. We plan to address landscaping and somehow create a more inviting porch, but for now we are in need of color advice for the wood siding, gutters, trim, and door. With all of the homes being brick we want to be careful that we don’t just blend in with the rest. We want to stand out….but in a GOOD way 🙂
Thanks!
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer,
Take a look at Amherst Gray HC- 167 (Benjamin Moore) for the trim, gutters, and fascia. It’s a gray-green that should offer some contrast between roof and brick color. Right now the house is reading all one color. You might even bump up the color to Kendall Charcoal (HC-166) if you’d like even more definition. Then consider a warm tone from your brick for the front door. Look at Richmond Gold (HC-41). The current red door stands out but I would rather have you use the brick for the inspiration.
The siding color is really quite nice with the brick. I suggest leaving as is. The effect of the current color is to make the house look bigger/taller since the siding color is pulled from the brick itself. A contrasting color to the brick would cut the house in half. Not a great idea…
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thanks! I took a look at the colors you suggested on-line and they are wonderful. Before I pick up a paint brush though, should the soffit match the fascia color (probably going to go with the Kendall Charcoal; HC-166) or the siding color (which matches the bricks)?
Hi Jennifer,
Go ahead and paint both fascia and soffits the Kendall Charcoal. That will really make a major statement. (Having said that, if you do a small area of soffit over a window first and you do not like the light coming in the window — if the darker color changes the light inside — then go back to keeping the siding color on the horizontal downward soffit surface.) Does that make sense? But personally, I think the Kendall Charcoal will be terrific with your brick and it will make a nice finished look to the house.
Hope that clarifies!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hello Barbara!
I am so excited to have stumbled upon this page and I would be most appreciative if I could get your expert advice on something. My mom is having a house built and I am assisting her with the exterior look of the house. I was using a house of the same model and exterior (link) as my inspiration. I am actually seeking to duplicate this look. During selection time, I picked the lighter brick with a Victorian grey siding. After further thought, I don’t think this combo will work. This home is one of the smaller models in the community and I don’t want to swallow it up with a darker color.
The inspiration model uses a cream colored siding with the brick and I am not too fond of this look with the brick as well. I really like the look of the lighter brick with the lighter color siding and the black shutters and doors. I just need help with picking a siding color that will compliment the lighter colored brick which seems to have pinkish/peachy tones to it.
I believe the builder uses Grand Sierra Siding…here are the color choices..not a great pic.
http://stpaulroofing.com/Vinyl-Siding-Alcoa-Mastic-Grand-Sierra.aspx
Inspiration: http://i322.photobucket.com/albums/nn425/Regalroyale/photobucket-5953-1321969504154.jpg
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Ooops.. I didn’t see the payment policy and consultation fee. I will email you directly. Please disregard.
Thank you.
Hi, Barbara, I just paypaled you my payment and have a question regarding the front of my house. I will email the pic to you directly.
It is a red brick house and right now all the trim, door and cedar siding is painted a light beige/taupe. I don’t know if you could tell from the pic, but there is a copper roof over the front porch and over the cedar sided window box on the second floor. Should I have that copper cleaned and shined? It does not even look like copper anymore.
Anyway, we wanted to make the house look classy and gorgeous and change the beige to other colors.
Thank you! I appreciate all your help.
Hi Ivona,
Here is one option to consider:
Amherst Gray (Ben Moore HC-167) for window trim.
Crown Point Sand (Ben Moore HC-90) for the siding color.
Your existing trim color.
And a gold like Citrine AF-370 for the front door. (Sidelights existing trim color.)
See what you think
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
My husband and I would like your guidance on how to give our house curb appeal. We have been searching ways to add some color to our house, but we have had difficulties selecting the appropriate colors. I sent you some pictures of our house to your Yahoo email address for your review.
We would like to make the front entrance of the house the focal point, instead of our of our two car garage door. The door is the color of the vinyl siding, which is beige. The house has siding on the sides and back of the house and some on the front. The front of the house also has a pink colored brick. The roof has a rusty-gray-brownish tone. The gutters are new and are white. The trim on the window is an off white. The fascia also looks like an off white. The front door and storm door are the color of the siding…beige.
Could you give us some insight as to what we can do to bring our house curb appeal? We are willing to paint the brick, but we just don’t know what color to pick. The siding is in great condition, so the new brick color would have to match it. We are not changing the roof either…at least not for this year.
We would also like to paint the front door and garage door (should we get rid of the storm dorm or paint it the same color as the door or buy on that is all glass?). We are also open to painting the window trims and gutters, if this will help with the overall look of the house.
We hope you can help us. Thank you!
Priscilla
Hi Priscilla,
I don’t suggest painting the brick. It’s really quite nice. But here’s an idea: Look at Ben Moore’s Pismo Dunes AC-32 for your garage door. That will coordinate well with your brick and tie in the roof as well.
Then for the front door, eliminate the storm or get a full-view door (white), and then try Ben Moore’s Cranberry Cocktail 2083-20 for the main door color. (Or the darker Raisin Torte)
Although the door pulls from the brick, your eye should move toward that area instead of the garage door, which will now blend in with the grout.
You might also use the garage door color for your fence in the back to unify that with the house.
See what you think.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
Thank you for the information. These all seem like great ideas to improve the look of our house. It beats painting the brick! Do you think we should paint any of the trim? Any suggestions on the color for the accessories such as the carriage lights (we will be adding these), door bell, door lock, etc?
Thank you so much for your help.
Priscilla
Hi-I have inherited a big beautiful home which
Needs a little update. The things that will stay
Is the dark brown roof and chocolate brown
Brick (which I love). What color should I do
Windows,siding,garage doors,trim,etc?
Thanks so much
Emily
Hi Emily,
If you would like the brown brick to stand out, then paint the siding a coordinating color something like Ben Moore’s Hampshire Gray HC-101. The trim (window, door) might be Abingdon Putty HC-99 and then the doors could pull in the brown brick again by leaving them natural stained wood.
The overall look is earthy and natural. Send a photo to bmeglis@yahoo.com if that doesn’t work.
Thanks for posting.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I just stumbled upon your blog while searching for the perfect exterior colors for our new home. It currently has shades of sage and olive, which are okay, but seem kind of drab to us, especially since the interior is painted in vibrant shades of bright yellow, greens, blue’s and aqua’s (and we will be painting the finished basement playroom with an accent wall of Nacho Cheese from leftover paint from my daughter’s current room).
I love the classic dark shutters, white trim and red door look. But our roof is brown and has moss growing on it, which makes it look olive-y (and which is why I’m guessing the exterior colors are what they are).
I was hoping you could give me some insight as to what we should do. We definitely want a deep red/brick red door for cultural reasons. I was wondering if a Charleston green would work for the shutters (or another dark green)….or possibly a deep navy blue? And for the siding, a color to match the mortar? Some of the houses in the area have pure white siding and I think the contrast wouldn’t work as well with our brown roof. The siding is our main concern since there is a fairly large area of it.
http://i48.tinypic.com/ou6wiq.jpg (picture of the exterior)
Hi tkmom2,
You do have a classic house style with the red brick. But the first thing I would do is try to remove the moss from the roof. That will free up the roof from being such a focal point and dictating your color scheme. Then once that’s gone (remove any overhanging limbs that are causing the problem), then I would go with a neutral siding color (something like Lenox Tan). Then you can pick a more brilliant door color, maybe a navy, that will tie in better with the interior. Red doors on a red brick house need to be more brown than clear red or you’ll have a real clash on your hands. Red pots of flowers would be fine.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thank you so much, Barbara. We drove around the neighborhood today to see what everyone else did with their exterior and noticed that everyone had moss on their roof (it’s a tree heavy area)!! But we will definitely get that cleaned off as much as possible.
I just wanted to add that if you can think of another combination that uses a different color door, we could be swayed in that direction and incorporate red elsewhere (flowers maybe).
I have a ranch style cream colored brick home. It is need of siding under the carport, overhang/trim boards and soffits. It also needs new windows. I am thinking of a kaki colored overhang with and beige windows. I have hunter green shutters. The front door is a oak colored stain. What colors would you would you recommend I use and why?
Thanks, JD
Hi Joy,
Stick with earth tones — I like the khaki idea and the beige windows. All those cream/khaki/beige tones will go together. The oak door is fine too. What I would switch out is the hunter green shutters. Go with more of an olive shade, something like Ben Moore’s Fairview Taupe. Then the whole palette will work together.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
Can you help pick some exterior colors for our house? The section on top of the garage was built sometime in the past and has siding on its three sides. Mostly front is brick. The garage doors are new (almond). The house previously seems to have shutters and I am confused whether I should put them back on or not as well. Appreciate your input.
Thanks.
Hi TechpiperMB,
Try Mesa Verde Tan (Ben Moore AC-33).
http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/mesaverdetan
And shutters in either black or the garage-door almond will also look terrific.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thanks Barbara, I am thinking of painting the brick and siding the same color. Does that work? Trim and garage both would be almond.
Sure!!
Hi Barbara, sorry didnt post the link to the picture: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=ehghuf&s=8#.U95GE4BdWkU
Hi Barbara, we want to paint our brick and slump stone home. This is what it looks like: [IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/30iu8at.jpg[/IMG] What would you recommend for a color scheme? We were thinking something along these lines: http://twinsandcorealty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Front1.jpg or https://www.flickr.com/photos/68036562@N00/4626981112 or http://www.houzz.com/photos/7534797/Mid-Century-Modern-midcentury-exterior-grand-rapids or https://www.pinterest.com/pin/31666003601884344/ or http://www.houzz.com/photos/3429176/Decatur-Contemporary-Renovation-midcentury-exterior-atlanta.
What do you think? Any ideas or suggestions? Also how can we paint over those materials most successfully?
Hi krysticobell,
Your house image did not come through. (You can attach it as a jpg to my email if you’d like: bmeglis@yahoo.com). I do like all the color schemes on the dream home photos. But the scheme you pick really depends on the roof color.
Painting your home all one color will unify the look and give it the contemporary feel that you’re looking for. I support the effort, but I will defer to the paint experts at your local paint store for the type and method of painting your brick and slump stone home. Painting any stone or brick surface can add to the maintenance tasks — but the look is fantastic. I hope your local professionals can advise you on how to paint those materials successfully for the long term.
Hope that helps!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We have a complicated paint coordination question, I’ve paid via paypal, and I’ve taken pictures to help explain it the questions. I am going to post the pictures on my Facebook page Alan Levy. Is that the best way to get the pictures to you?
Here’s the question: We have a standalone garage with wood shingles on the sides. It was painted a pinkish color with brown trim and red garage doors. We got the asphalt shingles on the roof redone and picked IKO Cambridge AR Aged Redwood to go with the existing asphalt roof on our Tudor revival brick house. Only when we started to paint with a khaki green (Lowe’s Valspar Reserve Butternut) did we find that the roof now reads pink. The same shingle reads red/orange on our house and wasn’t particularly noticeable on the garage before we started to paint it green.
Since we can’t replace the asphalt shingles we need to review the choice of the side shingle color. Our goals in painting the garage: 1) Get rid of the pink 2) Have it blend in with the woods behind (that’s why our architect suggested green would be good in order to play down the craftsmanesque attributes that conflict with the brick Tudor style of the house (actually, the Butternut accentuates the craftsman feel of the shingles) 3) Find a color that makes the roof read black/red/orange rather than pink.
At one point in your answers you suggested taupe as a complement to pink. Would that work? Brown has also been suggested. Would we keep the red garage door or paint it the dark brown of the trim or some other color?
Thanks.
Hi Alan,
Sorry for the delay. Back from vacation now.
The best way to send photos to me is via my email address: bmeglis@yahoo.com
I will be sure to see them there. I am here all day and ready to help you with that color dilemma.
More soon.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Barbara,
I’ve uploaded the photos to dropbox and invited you to join the folder. I will also try to send a select few directly to you.
Hi Alan,
Without seeing the photos yet, I suggest going with a dark brown. That will bring out the true color of your roof and avoid the pink (green and red are opposites on the color wheel, and green will make the red redder — or pinker!). Then you can keep the red door if it looks good with the roof.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thanks, Barbara. The trim is a dark brown already. Would you suggest matching it or going slightly lighter to offset it?
Good morning, Barbara,
A couple last points. We are getting new windows in part of the house and they are Pella Brown on the outside so we are, of course, going to use that color for the trim on the garage and other trim on the house. The question we have at this point is whether we should paint the shingles on the garage the same color (which has been suggested but which my wife fears will make the whole garage feel too foreboding) or find a slightly lighter but complementary brown color to give some distinction between trim and the rest and make it seem less foreboding. Also, we’ve taken the basketball hoop off the front and would likely not put it back.
Thanks, again
Hi Barbara!
I’m loving your advice so far and hoping you can provide me with your opinion on a house I’m in the process of buying. The front of the home just needs something and FOR SURE a color change! Either shutters? Window boxes? A roof on the front porch? If you can’t tell from the pictures, it’s a tan colored brick with a rusty orange-ish color trim, siding near the porch, and window trim. I’m not sure financially if I can afford to paint the whole house, but any suggestions on changing the exterior would be helpful! Thanks!
Alicia
http://www.remax.com/m/search.html#details/246288471/photos/60420127?redirect=n
Hi Alicia,
You might consider switching out the orangey brown trim color to a more contemporary dark charcoal, something like Ben Moore’s Kendall Charcoal (HC-166) http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/kendallcharcoal OR Iron Mountain (2134-30) http://www.houzz.com/photos/623514/Iron-Mountain-2134-30-paint. Then use a gray stain on the railing. Just a thought. For the front door, you might use Cream. Switch out the lighting to silver tone as well. The overall transformation should give your house a more contemporary look (and get rid of some of the 70s color scheme).
Hope that helps
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara. I am not sure if I am too late for your expert opinion but please help if you can! Here is a picture of my house. I hate the red trim. What color would you suggest painting it? I was thinking navy blue. But the wooden fence is stained a earthy red and I am concerned my house will look too “4th of July patriotic.” I am also open to suggestions on painting the front door. I will be having the shutters removed before painting also.
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Westchester/1356-Highridge-Pkwy-60154/home/13311118
Hi Ashley,
Take a look at Fairview Taupe (Ben Moore) for the trim as it goes nicely with your stonework. Then Georgia Brick for the the front door — it coordinates nicely with the fence and warms up the house.
https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/color-overview/find-your-color/color/hc-85/fairview-taupe?color=HC-85
https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/color-overview/find-your-color/color/hc-50/georgian-brick?color=HC-50
Hope that helps.
Thanks for posting.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thank you! I really like that Taupe color. It definitely compliments the stone. I also like the Georgia Brick and it looks good with the taupe. I was wondering if there was any way to get away from the red without having to change the color of the fence. Could you suggest a color that is not in the red family that would work with the taupe?
thanks again for all your help!
How about this beautiful color!? It would look great. https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/color-overview/find-your-color/color/hc-156/van-deusen-blue?color=HC-156
Perfect! Thanks!
I see this blog is rather dated but I am looking for input on updating the exterior of our home & wondered if you were still answering homeowners questions. Please advise, thank you in advance.
Yes indeed. I am a full-time stager now, but I do continue to answer questions. Fire away. And thank you for your inquiry!