Shutters Shatter Traditional Color Combinations
September 6, 2011 § 4 Comments
This house has a color combination I wanted to share with you. The taupe siding has the most interesting pink, almost purple, undertone that changes the way we see the house color depending on the light. The color can go from brown to mauve to gray over the course of the day. The trim is a combination of painted creams and vinyl off-whites (I wish they had picked one color or the other, honestly). But the real surprise (we’ll ignore the green front door) is the majestic blue shutter color. I would never think to pair the mauvey taupe with a royal blue but somehow it works. Black shutters would have been the easy choice, but someone had the bold idea to step out of the ordinary and into a new color combo. New to me anyway…
Shutters provide another opportunity, along with the front door, of course, to express some individuality for your home’s exterior. Although it is customary to work within the neighborhood in terms of palette, if you feel like breaking the mold, go for it. Just be sure that your home’s personality does not overpower your own. It’s no fun to make excuses for a paint job that went haywire. In other words, if you don’t like it, paint it over!
In the meantime, have another spin of the fandeck and see what paint color combinations work for you.
Do You Love Citrus? Adding happy color to your home
August 11, 2011 § Leave a comment
I just wrote a piece for Joelle Spear’s “Life in Metrowest” blog about how to add warm, bright colors to your home. Thought you might like to check it out.
http://homesmetrowestma.com/2011/bring-warm-colors-home-written-by-guest-blogger-barbara-meglis
Grabbing Attention at the Front Door: How to Pick a Door Color
July 25, 2011 § 12 Comments
Red, yellow, and blue are primary colors that attract attention. Used alone or in combination, they will definitely grab your eye. So it’s no great surprise that this house with its pale yellow siding, royal blue door, and red foundation plantings made me slam on the brakes for a quick photo.
The first color you notice is the royal blue. That shade is what many would consider to be the definition of “blue” and with the white trim around the door, it pops. And that is precisely what a front door should do. There should be no mistaking the front door for the service entrance (I just love saying that… you know what I mean … usually the door into the garage).
The front door does not have to be a primary color, for sure, but it should stand out significantly enough from the rest of the house to be a welcoming entrance, and there should be a clearly defined path leading up to it. Front doors that, despite their color, are obscured from view behind a large bush just do not function well. I’ve been to some houses that were so confusing that I ended up walking around the house into the back yard looking for the way in… (this happens primarily when there is no sidewalk or stone pathway to follow — the subject of another post).
If you have two doors on the front of your house, be sure to let people know which door is preferable. Plantings, lights, and a visible doorbell or knocker will guide your guests to the preferred entrance and prevent your greeting partygoers in the mudroom. I suggest painting your main entry door the accent color and the other “service” doors the siding color. Then your guests will not be forced to choose between red doors, numbers 1, 2, or 3.
These are little points in the grand scheme of curb appeal, but I just thought I’d mention them anyway.
Curb Appeal: Go Big or Go Home
July 22, 2011 § Leave a comment
When it comes to landscape plantings, you don’t need contrasting color to make an impact. Look at this green house — not a single pink annual in sight.
What makes an impact is the scale of the plantings like the big hosta and the white hydrangeas all in various shades of greens and creams — in front of a green house! Who would ever think!
If you want a big bang for the buck (as they say), use large blooms (hydrangeas, peonies) and big leaves (hosta in various shades) to enhance your home’s summer curb appeal with minimal fuss.
Choosing Siding Color (or Colors) for your House
July 19, 2011 § 4 Comments
If your house has an architectural feature — maybe a porch, a large portico, or a distinctive garage — consider using an accent color for the siding instead of the color you’ve chosen for the house.* The effect is obvious. The accent color will stand out. This color technique is perfect for large houses that might look too massive if they were all the same color. Dividing up the exterior color gives you an opportunity to highlight the design of your home and make a large-scale house a bit cozier.
Speaking of a massive house that could use a little visual down-sizing, maybe we should consider accenting the architectural detail on the White House with a little color! … (oh, forget it… we’d get into that red state/blue state thing — no wonder the place is still white!)
Anyway, color can be used creatively to re-scale a large structure and add visual interest.
If you want your house to look bigger, however, this technique is NOT for you. Dividing up the exterior color chops up the house and calls attention to small areas. If your small house currently has a multi-colored siding palette, consider painting it all one color and using the accent colors for doors, shutters, furniture, flowers, and other accessories.
*The construction of the Doyle Center in Leominster, MA, is really interesting. Here’s a link: http://www.thetrustees.org/what-we-care-about/climate-change/green-buildings/doyle-conservation-center.html
Crown Molding: A Crowning Achievement or a Hot Mess
July 15, 2011 § Leave a comment
If lighting is the jewelry in the room, the crown molding is like a proper hem — no stitches showing. Crown molding covers the seam between wall and ceiling and adds weight and architecture to the room. And by drawing the eye upward, crown molding can create the framework for painting the ceiling something other than white. But done improperly, crown molding will lead to painting miscues and a hot mess.
I ran into just such a situation today on a high-end new construction job. The carpenter had “built up” the molding by using a couple of inches of wall between the crown at the top along the ceiling and another cheaper piece of finish molding along the bottom edge (photo shows how it’s supposed to look). The idea was to make the finished unit (crown + wall + smaller molding — all painted trim color) look like a giant (read: expensive!) piece of crown molding. What happened was that the carpenter did not finish the edges at the doorway leaving wall space exposed. The painter then came along and, not having a finished piece of molding to serve as the starting point, he (or she) drew a LINE on the wall with a pencil and started painting wall color on the other side of it. Oh…my…gosh… and this was high-end construction??
So two warnings:
If you are using crown molding, make sure you get an experienced carpenter who has the sense to finish edges. If you’re putting it up yourself, do your research first and know how you’re going to go around corners and finish edges properly.
If you are painting a wall, you must have a piece of architectural molding or the wall edge in order to move from one color to another. Never draw a vertical line on the wall to separate two colors unless you’re painting stripes. That’s it!
Phew! ‘Nuf said…
The “Accent Wall” is Back!
July 7, 2011 § 2 Comments
Maybe it never really went away for some people, but for others the thought of an “accent wall” just screams ’80s. But you know, honestly, they’re not a bad idea… in some cases. Accent walls (I should dream up another name!) can take a large room and create a cozy nook, or a di
ning area. Like this kitchen. The walls were a gray blue, and half of the large space was dominated by white cabinets and a slate tile backsplash. So we pulled some of the orange out of the tile and created an “area of interest” on the other end of the room. The color is Tucson Red (1300).
Using an accent color on one wall is also a great way to warm up a loft or other modern, non-descript space that needs instant architecture. We call it “color blocking” — yes another term from the high-fashion ’80s (I’m dating myself) — but it’s a terrific way to take a neutral, often white, space and add large pops of color. Instant focal point!
When an accent wall doesn’t work is when the room is too small or too square. Painting one wall a different color might just chop up the room too much. But if you have a long narrow room, painting the far wall a warm color will bring it forward visually and make the room feel less like a bowling alley and more like a well-designed, pulled-together space created by you.
Can I Paint My 1960s Ranch?
June 21, 2011 § 3 Comments
The answer is yes! With the growing popularity of the spray-painting technique for painting houses (not just lawn furniture anymore), it is becoming easier to paint over rough, textured surfaces like brick and get a good result in a reasonable amount of time.
Check out HGTV.com for some great before-and-after brick house projects. In one show, “Curb Appeal: The Block,” the designer John Gidding takes a paint sprayer to an old ’60s ranch and brings it into the new millenium.
Check with your paint store first, of course. And you might want to hire a professional painter to avoid over-spraying into your neighbor’s driveway (not a good thing…). But if you have a brick house with a) zig-zag-patterned brick; b) really obnoxious brick colors; or c) just tired, run-down plain old red brick, then get inspired! Paint will give your house a fresh new look!
Update Your Backsplash to Sell
June 17, 2011 § 3 Comments
Honey onyx mosaic tiles — love ’em! We switched out the old ceramic backsplash in a “modern” kitchen (still had Formica counters with oak trim) and updated the look of the whole room (okay, we changed the cabinet knobs too). The white melamine cabinets, Formica counter tops, and linoleum floor all stayed! It was a wonderful transformation for a minimal cost to the homeowners who were updating to sell.
We chose the onyx for its variety of warm colors (would blend the oak trim nicely), its scale (the small tiles would add interest to the plain white cabinets), and its ease of installation (mosaics require fewer cuts!). The biggest benefit? These tiles came from one of our prominent “big box” stores so the homeowners did not pay a lot for materials. A bonus when you’re preparing your home for the market!
Kitchen Decisions
June 15, 2011 § Leave a comment
And you thought picking a paint color was hard? Try a kitchen renovation. The number of decisions that have to be made seemingly all at the same time is daunting to even a seasoned renovator. What kind of cabinets? What color? What style? How many? Where to put them? What stain? What knobs? And that’s just the cabinets! Okay… before I get carried away, here’s an example of how the homeowners and I managed the decisions on their renovated kitchen.
The first decision was to pick the cabinets: white painted wood with a shaker-style door. They knew they wanted white because it was classic and would brighten up their small kitchen. Pewter knobs would be the jewelry. They also picked out their appliances: stainless steel. Next came the counter top and that’s when they called me into the project. We discussed concrete, honed granite, and soapstone and settled on soapstone as it had a nice finish and seemed appropriate to the age and style of the home. Shiny granite was out!
The next decision was what to do with the floor. They had hardwood in the adjoining living room but considered tile for the kitchen area because they had heard that it was easier to clean and was okay in wet areas. All true. But I convinced them that carrying the wood all the way through from living room to kitchen would widen the entire space and give the area a more continuous feel.
The backsplash was the next item and both homeowners wanted color. They just could not agree on what color and which material to use. I warned them that glass might be a little trendy for their brick-fireplaced kitchen and suggested they look at
slate. The colors are natural and earthy and very appropriate for a slightly more rustic look in the kitchen. At the same time, the white cabinets really make the wonderful palette of earthy colors pop off the counter! The slate also looks terrific with both counter top and stainless!
Lighting was next with some recessed cans with LED fixtures around the perimeter and under-cabinet strips for task lighting, a couple of pendants over the eating areas, and a creative track system of lighting above the island. Track lighting is back! In a big way! And its flexibility makes it appealing — you can maneuver the spots anywhere you’d like them and you can change them too!
Wall color was last on the list of decisions. We went with a rich red-orange accent wall on the other end of the kitchen by the dining area — to create a warm dining space and give the homeowner the red she craved. The rest of the walls are a gray blue that picks up on the tile and coordinates well with stainless and white.
Kitchen done. Just in time for a relaxing summer!
Your Home & Color Coach 