Here is an over all pic of the house. You can see the paint colors on the far left. The roof is black shingle.

This post was edited by kam76 on Mon, Mar 31, 14 at 23:30

Can you take a picture in sun in a.m. You want to look at your colors in all lights, preferably in different seasons but you do not have time for that, so let's pretend this picture is in fall/early winter and the one you take when sun comes up in the morning is in spring/summer. What direction does your house face, incidentally.

P.S. You are going to have a gorgeous home!

This post was edited by patricia43 on Tue, Apr 1, 14 at 1:01

The front of the house faces mostly west, slightly NW so the back is East slightly SE. I will try to get a pic in the morning light, it is hard for me to get out there in the morning during the work week. I do notice it looks different in different lights. I painted a swatch on the back of the house and it looks lighter and greener, on the front it leans more toward the gray/brown. It is funny because to me it looks nothing like the swatch, so much so that I had to go out there and hold the swatch up to the painted house. Sure enough, you hold up the swatch to the front or the back of the house and it matches perfectly. So odd how colors change.

Another commenter on a thread about exterior paint in a setting similar to yours suggested a gorgeous color, Benjamin Moore Mountain Moss.

Or a creamy neutral, like BM Plymouth Rock, which has cool, brown undertones, so would go well with the stone.

This post was edited by Tibbrix on Tue, Apr 1, 14 at 9:13

Do you guys think the SW dove gray (seen here on right of the photo) is a good choice?

No, I don't. S. Sage, W. Skein and a gray is too many colors going on.

I can't find a SW Dove Gray.

S. Sage and W. Skein is 'somewhat' of a bold combo in as much as W. Skein isn't your basic 'off-white' kinda trim color. It has some heft to it. And that's fine. I think the two work nicely together but bringing in a third color for the shakes is a bit tricky.

Aside from the gray color not working into the scheme, I can see that it's also about the same value as S. Sage and W. Skein. The three together would be visually 'flat'.

If you're going for a third color on the shakes it needs to be darker. This is where I rely on LRV.

S. Sage LRV is 42
W. Skein LRV is 64
Contrast ratio is 34%

That's not a huge difference but it should be fine. FYI, the 70%-ish mark for a contrast ratio is the average guideline.

Because the contrast is rather tame between the body and trim, go for a bigger contrast moment with the shakes. But we can't go too crazy in a completely color direction like the gray.

The answer maybe SW Connected Gray with a LRV of 24 -- and it relates to S. Sage. Connected Gray is darker than the other two so it should bring some visual interest instead of feeling 'flat' and it will also balance out the stone. Because the stone has some visual weight, is darker too.

Thank you guys so much this is great and just the information I need! I am sorry it is SW Dovetail 7018 ...I get all these paint colors mixed up!

I was thinking about connected gray because it was the next color up on the strip from svelte sage thank you for confirming funcolors. I definitely don't want the house to read as flat or too many colors. It is just such a big space I want to be sure I am getting it right.

My other thought was maybe not add in the third color at all and just do the shakes the svelte sage as well. I just didn't know if that would be too flat or too plain.

Try one. If it works, have them proceed and do all of them. If you don't like it, go with all S. Sage.

I think the three colors will work.

I am going to run to the store and get a sample of the Connected Gray. I will try to get it up there today or tomorrow and get another picture. The shakes are so high on my shaky ladder and I am not the best painter. DH is freaking out that I am going to get paint on the stone. Lol.

Those are the colors I wanted to paint my house! I ended up with Grassland for the body and wish I had stuck to my guns about a darker body color, Svelte sage. I did use Connected Gray as a trim/accent color and love it! I see someone above suggested it. It's very nice and your house is beautiful.

Oh gosh, didn't know you're doing it yourself. Wonder if one of the construction workers would do it for you. Maybe you could offer to spring for lunch or donuts and coffee and avoid doing it yourself. :)

This is just my opinion, but because the stone runs the entire bottom half of the house, I like a lighter color for contrast . The gray and green blend in too much, especially the gray, and the beautiful stonework won't stand out. I think the gold/tan color in the stone might look nice.

Well I *would* ask them "Excuse me guy with the hammer- I am a damsel in distress please help me get this pretty paint up in those high places" and bat my eyelashes but there is no one out there this week. So frustrating because the HVAC guys cannot get our propane lines to hold pressure and they can't find the leak though they have tried about 4 times now (gives me nightmares thinking about slow gas leaks and explosions) so they are having to rip it all out and do it over. They can't schedule us until Monday because they have other jobs going I guess. So everything is at a halt. I was just trying to make some decisions so I felt like at least something was moving in the right direction. Plus I always feel this huge sense of relief when I can move on and check it off my list. I know to come to gardenweb to ask all you knowledgeable great folks before I make an uneducated decision and regret it. I know "you can always repaint" but who wants to do that if you don't 'have to?

tannatonk do you have a pic of you home? I would love to see it, sounds lovely!

joanieponie do you have any gold/tan colors you would recommend as a jumping off point?

I am open to try anything. I really want the house to be "wow that looks great" intstead of "yep, that's a house"

Here you go, Kam. My house is nowhere near the scale of yours and I am in Florida on the northeast coast so I'm sure the light is different. The body color is SW Grassland, shutters/accent is SW Connected Gray and gutters/trim is SW Nonchalant White. I do wish I would have put the Connected Gray on the body, but could not talk hubby into it. He wanted light and bright in this harsh sunny climate.

I will post another shot in a separate post. It's hard to get a good pic of this color. Too sunny!

One more that shows the colors a little better.

Kam, funcolors knows colors. I was so hoping FC would show up when I asked you about pictures for day and night, or morning and evening. FC is the resident color expert. If I should need a color help and FC comes by I take ithe advice but if I do not, I regret it. I then realize later funcolors was right.

Oh my stars, patricia43 thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated!

Kam is lucky that the stone does offer options for body color like a gold/tan. I think the only thing that might be in the way of that option is Wool Skein already chosen for the trim. Not sure how well it would work with a gold/tan. But that's what samples are for, right? :)

Talked to DH last night and he has his heart set on a "greenish" color so I think we will probably stick with the svelte sage. Maybe we will try a tan when we have to repaint (hopefully not for a long time).

I got the sample yesterday but couldn't make it out. I should be able to get out there today and paint and snap a picture. The connected gray looks very pretty in the sample jar. Again I really appreciate everyone's help, this is such an amazing group. Funcolors thank you for being willing to share your expertise.

Tannatonk thank you for posting your lovely home. How I wish I was in FL right now! I think the lighter colors are so nice in warmer climates. I was able to get out and paint today but the sun was.almost gone by the time I took this. On the right is sevelt sage body - connected gray on the shakes and i painted more of the trim with wool skien. Do you think it is enough contrast? I suppose I need to see it better in the morning. On the left is dove tail gray body- SW black Adler on shakes and wool skien trim (previous color selection attempt).

Just to see the colors a little better here is a sample I did on the back of the house. I didn't bother to get up on the shakes this time. Definitely see the contrast better here.

This post was edited by kam76 on Thu, Apr 3, 14 at 14:00

Does anyone have any opinions? I am going to try to get out there today with more light to take a better pic. It looks like the weather is going to be perfect next week for painting.

I put up a little triangle of sw eclipse in the far left corner there which is the next darker color on the strip. This pic is in bright sun.

{{!gwi}}

This post was edited by kam76 on Mon, Apr 7, 14 at 22:30

Hmmm not showing up for me lets try again.