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jlc102482

Trim and front door color question

jlc102482
11 years ago

We are toying with the idea of doing some of the trim on our house a different color other than white, but we are pretty limited with choices due to the bright color of the house. The dentil around the windows, the storm windows, some porch gingerbread and maybe part of the corbels all seem like good candidates for a third color. The front door also needs help, as it has about 10 layers of paint and looks horrible.

My question is, would a third color be too much with the bright blue color of the house? If not, what color would you choose? Also, should we keep the front door white or would another color look better? I'd love to hear any suggestions you may have. The bright blue is really stumping me.

A note about the ugly storm door - it's outta here soon and will be replace with a wooden Victorian door that will show off the front door more nicely.

The house:

The colors in the front door's glass:

Porch:

Comments (8)

  • antiquesilver
    11 years ago

    JMO, but I think a 3rd color might be too busy; those windows are fabulous in their own right & another color might detract from them. How about staining your doors mahogany as an accent?

    I've said it before but I just love your unique house.

  • karinl
    11 years ago

    It depends a bit on whether you are a period purist or not... because many colours could work by relatively modern standards. I could see, for example, a pale silvery lilac, a yellow, or a red of some sort.

    There are even a lot of greens that look good with blue. In fact, I'm looking at a piece of fabric that is a blue, white, and green plaid with almost that shade of blue in it. The green is a sort of a sage/pale olive.

    Find a paint store with a colour person in it - someone who gets undertones and shades, and take in a swatch of your blue or a photo of the house. It would be important to get the right shade in any case.

    Karin L

  • karinl
    11 years ago

    I looked at my fabric again and found the green is more of a granny smith apple green. Kelly green might also be an interesting option - but it should not be as intense a shade as the blue.

    Karin L

  • sombreuil_mongrel
    11 years ago

    Rookwood red (or darkest cherry red) on the sash.
    Casey

  • VictoriaElizabeth
    11 years ago

    I am utterly in love with your house. I had to go back to re-read your question, I was so distracted.
    I have a blue Victorian, but my color is courtesy of our crazy PO, and not what I would have chosen. Yours is the perfect shade!

    I think an accent color would be charming. A shade of slate grey. Or even a bright green would be so pretty!

    You could always just do the door. My husband and I did the Society Hill home tour in Philadelphia two weekends ago, and it seemed like every door was a different shade. It was really appealing... all those old homes with unexpected doors. I took a bunch of photos, if you're looking for some inspiration...

    Here is a link that might be useful: Old house door colors.

  • grenvale
    11 years ago

    Beautiful house! I would like to see the door incorporate one of the roof colors.

  • columbusguy1
    11 years ago

    Jlc, still love your house--wish you would post a pic of the left side and back! :)
    Don't go crazy with a third color, at least not where you suggest--most of your trim is fine as is--it is doing its job by the use of light and shadow to bring out subtle detailing...your dentil molding especially would be a disaster done in a third color--dentil means 'teeth' in Greek, and if you draw that sort of attention to it, you will seem to have lots of them taking bites out of your windows!
    I like the idea of using one of the roof shades for the porch gingerbread, but I would limit it to that, and maybe the center section of your corbel fronts.
    The doors could be a nice color, or stripped and stained--but those storm doors actually need to go--they are cheap metal and can't really be doing much to keep heat in or cold out.
    For the window sash, a dark red, Pompeiian or Indian, would be great!

  • jlc102482
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Wow, I love the idea of slate gray/roof color. Here I am trying to think of bright colors - it never occurred to me to try a neutral. I really like the idea of red doors but I was afraid the house would look like it was permanently decorated for the 4th of July - is that silly? :) I guess if I stuck to a darker color, it would look less "festive". The green suggestion is interesting, because there is an old coat of dark forest green paint visible on the edges of the storm windows. I'm not sure how old it is or if it was ever green and blue at the same time.

    Thanks for your ideas, everyone! I can't wait to start getting paint samples.

    columbusguy, these are for you: :)

    Back:

    Side, sort of:

    And a shameless closeup photo of the arbor roses, because I love them so much ;)