I seem to be having photo troubles. Giving it another go...

I know the Play on Gray looks as if there was little change from the white in the before photo, but the shot of the corner of the house tells a different story! Alone, it does not appear anywhere near as dark as the contrast photo. No wonder choosing paints is so difficult!

Thank you for your help in choosing colors! :-)

Oh, I think there is a huge difference! I love the after! Soft, light, just the right shade. Your plants look terrific also. :)

That looks great. The soft colors look great and I also think you picked just the right shades.

I see a big difference. I think it looks great.

Much better! It was so stark before.

Looks wonderful! :) A great choice for color! :)

I love it! You actually picked the perfect combo. The darker tones really softens and beautifies your exterior.

It looks great . Thankyou for taking the time to post the after photos

That is one thing about buying an ugly house--everything you do is a noticeable improvement. ;-) I hated those blinding walls from day one. You had a big hand in helping with the colors; it is great not to be on round five of sample colors. My wallet thanks you, too!
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We'll be painting our house "Play on Gray" this week. Excited -- I think it's a great color!

We had someone ring our doorbell to ask if we would share the name of the paint color, oh maybe about three weeks ago. That wasn't you by chance, was it? ;-) Still loving the color choices--no regrets.

Nope :-) We walked around our neighborhood but did not ring any doorbells! I read that you did Play on Gray around the garage door, too -- we are painting our garage door same as house, so need a different trim, so going with black around garage. What did you do for window trim and front door with your Play on Gray exterior?

It is a boring CA style home, with no real window trim. The brown/bronze-trimmed windows in the photo are the new double-paned replacements. The front door is currently also painted dark brown, but it was supposed to be a temp fix until we got new double doors for the entry. Unfortunately, other circumstances intervened, and we have had to put most of the remaining home remodeling projects on hold.

Life! In terms of boring CA homes...if you look at a post I made the other day, you'll see true boring: 1963 CA ranch. Yours has a nice veranda! We were going to do a fun green on our front door but just couldn't find the right tone that didn't lend a camouflage appearance with the Play on Gray and black trim...or clash with all the green grass in our front yard. So we've decided to just go with a black door for now. I can dress black up nicely with each changing season.

CA isn't known for housing style when purchasing in the tracts, is it? But with the prices here, it is a victory just being able to snag a home for most. Still, yours is a nice looking house, with a curve to the bricks in the landscape area that adds a lot of design potential.

Had to laugh about your going with black for the door, because that is what I wanted, but my husband nixed that choice. He did a quick paint job just a few days before a houseful of guests for Thanksgiving, so I had too many other things to attend to select a special color. Our entry sits in a 4' deep "hole shadow", so a lighter color would probably be a better choice for us. I like wood grain, so when we get there, we'll likely go with lighter natural wood door.

Thanks for the positive plug on our place! And yes(!) on being able to buy in CA. Our house was (still is) completely outdated and we snagged it for a steal in 2014 in order to get into the market as first-time homeowners. Former owner was second owner and had lived in it for 40 years. We've been gradually adding our touches around the place. If we sold now, even with few additional cosmetic updates, we'd get almost $150k more than what we bought it for. Most recently, we tore out a termite-ridden aged wood lattice fence that bordered the front of the curved-brick planting area you noted. I'll be planting CA natives in that space this month. Anything to help the curb appeal...

I love natural wood doors - a light one would look great on your place! Our door is also in a recessed space and the black door will likely appear the 'hole shadow' you mentioned. I plan to brighten by having some botanical wreath, etc. on it year round, a green welcoming mat, and maybe bring in some colorful porch planters to brighten it all up. I still lean toward color on the door but it will be black for now -- opposite of your situation, my husband nixed the green door and we didn't have time to come up with another color (red!) in time for the paint job this week. Someday!

lubeliac, if you can at all, I recommend you wait until cooler weather in the fall to plant the natives. Otherwise you will experience a much higher loss of stock while trying to get the plants established.

We waited a long time before purchasing a house in 2010, and our mortgage was only a few hundred/month over renting a smaller house then. Doubt we could afford to even rent a place here now. It sure is a great feeling to own and be able to make changes, isn't it? I always like seasonal wreaths, but almost never get around to actually doing them. Yours will be especially nice, because people should be able to see them from a distance.

This is an old photo of our "hole shadow" door. It is on the north side of the house, so is always dark. (The wall to the right is the part painted Calico Rock, so don't worry about Play on Gray being that dark.) Geez, that dark brown door sure make the entry look dreary. The red brick limits the color choices, but I really should get on coming up with some paint color ideas to brighten things up, since our door funding keeps getting scooted back due to fix-it necessities.

I see what you mean about the hole shadow - plus you have brick framing it which makes the dark door recede even further (I really like the brick). The light natural wood door you're considering would be great -- probably perfect because of the double doors. You're right, many colors would be difficult to match tonally with the brick. Green would complement, but the right tone is so difficult. I found a nice green (my husband wasn't quite on board with) called "Tradd Street Green," part of the Historic Charleston collection by Duron Paints (now owned by Sherwin Williams). There's an image from Southern Living floating around the web but the actual paint sample looks darker (bluer) than the door in the online image. No idea how it would look with your red brick, though. It seemed to coordinate okay with Play on Gray. Then again, green is a love-hate color--maybe not your cup of tea--plus with double doors, that would be a lot of green!

Thanks for the planting tip! I was worried about planting too late and risking loss by frost before being established. So, planting in October would be okay (I'm in Sacramento)? I planted very young Huechera, Euphorbia, and Stonecrop plus a couple other natives in planters in the front last October and they survived the winter surprisingly well but I thought that was due to controlling their exposure via the portable planters. The front of our house faces east and is very shaded. I'm only planting part-sun/dry-shade plants. I would prefer to plant later (my mom is coming to visit in October and she enjoys gardening)...so it'd be great if it's actually better to plant then!