Help with Exterior Color Scheme

9 years ago

This is the mock-up of the modified elevation I'm planning on using. I know forward facing garages are a sore spot for some, but I live in Minnesota and snowblow my driveway myself (small woman with LARGE snowblower) so that point is not really negotiable. I do like the look of side-facing garages but I'm trying to be practical.

I need to do stone or brick on the lower portion of the elevation on the front if I go with vinyl siding. I also plan to extend the brick or stone accents so it would be the bottom 3' all the way around instead of just the small amount shown. I'm really struggling with the color scheme though. The homes at the end of my street all seem to be various shades of beige although there are others farther down the street in darker shades (brown, grey shingles). I don't want to go too dark but I don't want to do another light beige house either. Suggestions for a good color scheme for my simple little house are most welcome.

I'm also debating how consistent the outside needs to be with the inside. I'm planning to do dark wood floors with white trim and white cabinets in the kitchen and baths.

Comments (5)

Annie Deighnaugh
9 years ago
A few comments. I know I'm diverging from your original question, so forgive me. We have a forward facing garage door, but we designed the front facade so the front porch is most prominent and the garage recedes. In your case, it's almost hard to find the front door. If there is any way to make the front door more prominent, I think it would be a good thing.

Personally I'm not a fan of the brick/stone waterline on houses, esp on ranches as to me they only cut the facade even more making the home look squatter. So you might want to try an elevation without it, just for fun. Maybe stoning or bricking the whole gable instead of just a water line.

If you do choose to go with it, then pick the brick/stone first and pull the rest of the colors for the house from there. I'm in NE and we selected NE fieldstone for our front facade as it looked appropriate to our area and blended with the stone we pulled out of our foundation which was used in our landscaping. I'm not sure what stone would be native to your area, but you might consider letting that be your guide.

I don't think the inside and outside have to color coordinate, so I'd be less concerned about that. If you haven't gone to houzz.com, you might and search on stone or brick exteriors. I'm sure you'll find some non-beige inspirations there.

I'm attaching a picture of our front facade so you can see how our wall colors blend with our stone, and our front facing garage. (The house has since been finished, but this pic seems to show the colors best.)
katmu
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you Annie. Your post was very helpful. I do wish the garage was a bit less prominent. The plan I was oriignally looking at had a porch which this one does not have.

The most common stone that people think of here is Minnesota Limestone. (If you've ever seen the new Twins stadium on TV it has a lot of it.) Other types of stone are found here too - fieldstone, sandstone. Granite and marble used to be mined here but I'm not sure how much that is true these days.

I also am not a fan of the stone/brick waterline. I would consider doing the gable similar to what you have on your home.

I'm posting my current floorplan just to get some feedback on what might be possible with the front.
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katmu
Original Author
9 years ago
This is a local house, it's really a gate house on a large estate. I believe the stone here was reclaimed but I love this look.
katmu
Original Author
9 years ago
Last pic for today I promise.

What about making the gable more like this so the front door is more prominent?
Annie Deighnaugh
9 years ago
Love the little gate house you posted.

I think if it could be done to pull the front door opening proud of even just the bedroom it would be a good thing. Note though that the style of home in the 2nd pic is very different from the first...the 2nd has a distinct craftsman flair to it.

But I'm not an architect...maybe one of the other more talented folks with step in...esp if you ask the question specifically about your front facade.

On another thread, there was a discussion about a garage under as a possibility of limiting the size of the garages on the front facade. We did that and put one garage under so the upper only has a 2 car garage to deal with. If you could do that, you could put a more substantial front porch on the front to emphasize the door.