I adore bungalows and yours is a beauty. I don't know if this will help since it's not yellow, but I saved a photo of a bungalow that was for sale in Portland a while back. I just loved their paint scheme. If nothing else, it might help you see what features they accented.

Thanks, arlosmom! That is a great bungalow. On mine, the pillars are continuously shingled with the front skirt of the porch and the sides of the house, so there's no obvious way to detail them separately. It does seem clear from this and other bungalows that the brackets are a typical place to use an accent color. Perhaps the brackets and the little bit of trim at the tops of the columns and the porch floor could all be a darker accent color. Hmmm....

I,m a sucker for yellow houses with white trim and dark accents like really dark green ,plum or black . Really dark almost black plum would look stunning on your door . I don,t think I,d do it in green because it might look to much like your trying to match the neighbors house. Its really close.

Ooh, interesting ideas! I painted the front door at my old house a deep plum but found I had to go several shades lighter than I expected for it to read as plum and not black at a distance and in the shadow of the porch.

I think you might be able to get away with painting the top part of the pillars a contrasting color, although I'd photo shop first. My son lived next door to a Portland bungalow that was being painted about 5 colors. It was gorgeous.

OK, I put a few more picks on Flickr for further discussion. Here is a closeup of my porch, annotated with most of the bits that could conceivably be painted in accent colors. FYI, the door will be replaced with a period-appropriate wood one at the same time I do the painting, so I could do either stain or paint for that. The storm windows *could* be painted a contrasting color to the main window trim, but a few of the windows on the house have replacement screens with white vinyl frames that can't be painted, so it would be better to stick with white/offwhite for all the window trim so the screens don't stick out like sore thumbs. Also, my back door is white fiberglass with trim clad in white aluminum.

Right now, leafy green is appealing to me as a primary accent color:

I love the wall color in this bedroom with the green drapes:

I grabbed this pic for the dark, marine blue with yellow. I'd only consider the dark blue for small accents, but it's an idea:

Thoughts? Alternatives? I haven't in any way ruled out plum accents. That might be a practical choice for the porch floor, in addition to any trim elements.

When we painted our first 1914 clapboard bungalow, I bought a great book called Bungalow Colors Exteriors by Schweitzer. It has lots of great history and information about color theory, what accents to highlight, how to develop a scheme, etc. I really recommend it!

The book says to start with your existing roof color to narrow down body colors. It looks like you have a gray roof, though I could be wrong. The book says to exclude browns, olives, and tans if your roof is gray and go with blue-greens, yellows, reds, and grays. So it sounds like you're on the right track with yellow.

Sherwin Williams has a great Arts and Crafts paint collection. The book recommends many color schemes based on their paint with tons of real examples, which I found very helpful. My favorite yellow house in the book uses Birdseye Maple for the body, Fjord for major trim, Rookwood Red for window sashes, and Creamy White for accents. You could go the Sherwin Williams site and play around with the paint visualizer.

For a yellow house with green trim like you mentioned, the book recommends Birdseye Maple again for the body, but Audubon Green for the trim, Oxford Ivy for window sashes, and Gazebo white for accents.

A different yellow shade is Harvester for body, Roycroft Vellum for trim, Domino for window sashes, and Quartersawn Oak for accents.

A lovely green house with creamy yellow uses Rookwood Blue Green for the body, Classical White for the trim, Canyon Clay for the window sashes, and Birdseye Maple for accents.

I was thinking the same about the accent peices except the porch ceiling . I hadn,t though about that. It really sounds fun and suprising to go with a bold color up there. I also like the green on the curtains. Its a beatiful medium to dark shade. Becareful about the yellow and how much orange it has in it. I painted mine(before residing) Yellow and dark forest green and darn if the yellow didn,t orange out in the second year. This time I used Behr paint and its stayed true to color more or less. It did darkend up a bit. I found that out when I had to repair a area using the origenal paint it was a shade lighter than what the siding is now. But at least it stayed true to tone.

Madeyna, good advice about watching out for orangey yellows. Equest17, I looked at that book through preview on Amazon and am definitely going to get myself a copy! I do have a local Sherwin-Williams store, so I will stop by and check out their historical palettes.

I was thinking about Schweitzer as well...here's his website

Here is a link that might be useful: Historic House Colors

I stayed up way past my bedtime playing around with painting houses online. I used a Victorian sample photo in BM's online painting system because it offered the option of a different-colored pediment/front gable. I was playing around with madeyna's idea of plum accents and I think we may have a winning idea in here somewhere. I find these combos fairly thrilling. The question is, will this work on the smaller canvas of my house? And can combos like these live on my block, especially next door to a French blue/cadet blue house on one side, a nondescript gray house on the other, and bright periwinkle across the street?

Here are the most interesting results of my online painting efforts:

I love the yellow with the lavendar. As soon as I saw your bungalow I thought it needed to be yellow, and as I read down through the thread I see that is the color you are leaning towards.
In my last house the home across the street from me was painted yellow with cream accents and lavendar trim with a lavendar door. I just adored the color scheme. It has been since repainted, and I think it looked better the other way.

I love your home carinr! I'm a huge fan of crasftsman cottages and bungalows.

Thanks, polly929!

Paint store update: I went to the Sherwin Williams store and was deeply uninspired by their colors, especially the yellows and greens. I went back to the Benjamin Moore store and got a bunch of stormy-plum-type chips to contemplate before buying samples. I also picked up a large chip of Ralph Lauren "Chesapeake Sunset", which is a stunning yellow - subtly more perfect than any of the BM one's I'd been playing with.

Meanwhile, googling for purple house inspirations led me to this stunner. I hadn't been contemplating using red at all, but what *is* inspiring about this is the way the creamy color for all the trim works so nicely with two strong colors on the body. It's a nice alternative to highlighting different portions of the trim with stronger colors. I wonder what that red is...

I was hoping that someone would pop in and do your house . My husband had a strong negative reation to the lavender so you might want to fly that past yours if your leaning that way. I like the red but I think the yellow is a better match for your neighbor hood. And since I am from the land of never ending rain and cloudy skys I like the more cheerful feeling the yellow gives off.

I agree about the need for cheerful and the advantages of yellow, even though this is a sunnier climate. (I'm in DC.) I'm the only human in the house, so I have no one to please but myself, except for not leaving the neighbors with something they can't stand to look at. Happily, my house is the smallest on the block, so even a really bold choice won't dominate anybody's viewshed.

Back again. I spent yesterday evening painting sample boards to take my mind off the news in Boston. So far, I've done samples of several yellows (BM Crowne Hill Yellow, Yellow Squash, Mellow Yellow), several greens, all too bright, and a large board of Tropical Dusk, which is the shade between the two plums I was playing with in the online-painting exercise above. (I find I like a bluer plum rather than the redder ones MsJay posted here and at her post about exterior colors.)

Mixed results:

I am completely in love with Crowne Hill Yellow, but somehow it is not speaking to me for my exterior. I can't put my finger on it... I love its brightness, its warmth, but I'm just having trouble picturing it all over my house.

I am still drawn to the idea of green as the field color, but I'm having the dickens of a time putting my finger on the right green. Stem Green is a gorgeous color, but too yellow. I don't want kelly or teal or sage or olive or acid or.... I'm picturing a mid-green just a tiny bit more on the blue side than the yellow side, a little tiny bit grayed out but not at all drab, something that would go brilliantly with a bright-warm cream trim. Any specific suggestions gratefully received.

The surprise of the paint boards so far is how much I love Tropical Dusk. Even on a gray day on a north-facing porch, I find it strangely cheering. I don't think, though, that I can paint my house plum given the blue of the house next door. But I am back to reconsidering the slightly pinkish red + purple combo in the picture above.

Do I sound indecisive? Yes, yes I do!

Here is a link that might be useful: BM Tropical Dusk

Some samples on the front porch:

l-r: BM Crowne Hill Yellow, Tropical Dusk, Lemon Drops, SW Gecko (on tiny card on mailbox). (Ignore the red mat in front of the door; it's not a permanent decorative feature. The colorful mat under the table, though, might be fun with plums and the orangey red in the photinia.)

This one allows you to see the color of the house next door, plus the photinia starting to put out new growth:

You're in DC!? I used to live in a bungalow in Silver Spring! Have you driven around Takoma Park looking for color inspiration? Arlington also has some bungalow neighborhoods like Lyon Village that could be helpful.

I love the red bungalow you posted by the way.

Arlosmom - yes! In Shepherd Park, so right near Silver Spring/Takoma/Takoma Park. I spotted a couple of fabulous combos in TP this past weekend and definitely plan to drive around and look for more.

I love your home! It is so pretty and the mellow yellow is lovely. I vote for a crisp white for the trim. If you want another accent color I would go with black or a deep, dark green.

I think the problems with your color boards are they aren,t playing well with the color on the house now and of course thats hard to get away from. I wish I knew how to do it on the computer so we could all see the whole house colored. The color on there now is so drab that almost anything is probly going to seem to bright to you for awhile until you get used to it.

Madeyna, true! The current color is so disastrous with yellows and greens that they're hard to look at. I may simply have to put a coat of white over one whole side of my garage and test colors against that.

Here is the one I posted for you on my thread.

How many samples did you buy so far? LOL I did that also but now I bring the chips home and put them on the wall first. You may be surprised how many colors get eliminated like that. They look so different in the store sometimes and there are so many color choices that it is hard to decide!! Have you tried the Sherwin Williams chip it tool? it's a free browser plug in similar to the Pinterest tool. You can find colors in photos and get the matching color name from their line and maybe that will also point you in the right direction. Maybe? My grand kids love the selection I have of sample paints so having so many turned out to be a good thing!!

Good luck to you.

I like the dusky red too. Go for it!

OK, for those voting for red, I need to find a good red. Any favorites? A smidge on the pink side, a little subdued, but nowhere near dusty rose or maroon. Somewhere between barn red and radish red, I think.

The house on one side of you is blue and the house on the other side is white. Are you sure you want a red white and blue neighborhood;)

The house on the other side that appears white is actually distinctly gray with dark green trim. I think a true, flag red would not fit well in the block, but a more subdued (by my standards!) off-red like the one in the red-and-plum house from Flickr wouldn't read as flaggy.

If I haven,t mentioned it I really love your little house thats why I keep coming back to this thread. I really wanted something like it but we have horses so live in the country and you don,t find homes like that with acreage. I am still hoping some kind person with the skill will pop in and do a color change for you.

I like the cheerful yellow and would prefer it next to the blue house. It also would look better with your flowering shrub, the red will clash. The porch will be brighter too. I don't care for the violet door though.

Love the old homes!

I love red bungalows. We have several in our town. Most are trimmed with cream/white and the paint looks very fresh and crisp. I've seen some with a pale gold accent color. Red looks very good with gray roofs too. Still I love the green or yellow with the violet that you posted.

Here are some reds to check out:
BM Shy Cherry
BM Merlot Red
SW Habanero Chile
SW Enticing Red

When we were picking out colors for our cottage, We painted the side of the house with samples. And then we kept the colors on there for a couple of weeks to see which ones looks good throughout different light levels. We ended up with a medium smoky green (main body), sand (shingles on upper level), cream (trim) and purple (at the roof line). We have a light gray roof and it really needed a contrasting color at the roof line to make the gray look richer. We love it.
Diane

Thanks, Diane! Have you posted pictures of your cottage anywhere? I'd love to see it.

Next trip to the paint store I will get some larger samples of a few of these reds. I'd also picked out Sultan's Palace among the pinker-toned dark reds, so it will be good to compare that to orangey-er reds.

I have not ruled out yellow; I got a sample pot and painted a board with a match of Ralph Lauren's Chesapeake Sunset, which is FABULOUS.

When I've narrowed this down to a smaller number of choices, I plan to paint large parts of the side of my garage that I see from the back rooms of my house and live with them for several months before committing. We're pretty close to the season that gets too hot for good painting (and too buggy to have my storms/screens down for even a day), so painting the whole house won't happen till fall at the earliest, and maybe next spring. I have plenty of time to make a decision.

Just popping back in to say my copy of *Bungalow Colors: Exteriors* arrived today. What a great book! Thanks to everybody who recommended it.