Choosing House Colors: Taupe?
January 10, 2012 § 3 Comments
When selecting the palette of colors for your exterior, use natural materials in the environment as your inspiration. This stonework has all the colors you need for your entire house, from the dark charcoal of the roof to the taupey gray siding and even the orangey brick walkway. 
Tying your house color in with its surroundings “grounds” the house — it looks like it belongs there. A house that strays too far from the natural palette looks more like a spaceship that has landed on a foreign planet. Don’t do that to your neighborhood. Save your taste-specific color applications for inside the house.
Choosing House Colors: Lavender?
January 6, 2012 § Leave a comment
Looking for a versatile neutral? Ever considered lavender? There’s something really appealing about this color as long as it has gray undertones. In different lights, the color can go from blues to grays and paired with cream trim and dark brown wood accents, it has a richness that is refreshingly unexpected.
In Old San Juan, we see this color in, of all places, the blue tile bricks on the streets. But of course lavenders are found in nature in most climates so I would feel free to add lavender to your crayon box of house color possibilities. Just keep the shade subdued (nothing too purple) and like many other complex hues, lavender will be a head-turner in your neighborhood.
Choosing House Colors: Lime Green?
January 3, 2012 § 2 Comments
In many neighborhoods, the homeowners who chose this house color might be run out of town but not in this neighborhood where the color is prevalent in nature. The lime green (bordering on neon) fits right in! We see it here in the rainforest of El Yunque in Puerto Rico. What a happy, stimulating hue! And how appropriate to borrow it for a house color on that island paradise. It helps to pair this strong acidic color with a coffee brown or even black just to balance out the palette. 
But it works.
Use your home’s environment as inspiration when choosing a house color. But if you do not see the color in nature’s palette, then reserve the color for inside. Otherwise, your home might become a lighthouse beacon in the neighborhood. Great for identifying your house in the dark, but that’s about it!
Sporting a Patriotic Color Scheme
November 7, 2011 § Leave a comment
With all due respect to my international bloggers, this house sings America the Beautiful to me every time I drive by. This time, I stopped to capture its beauty and share it with you.
What makes this red, white, and blue color scheme work so perfectly is the balance of color between the candy-apple-red siding and the creamy white trim. Notice on the flag hanging on the door that, for the most part, neither the red nor the white stripes dominate. Both colors balance each other. That same effect is evident on this house — the exceptionally wide trim painted a soft cream keeps the red from overpowering the house. Just like the flag, the house is balanced.
Navy blue accents the doors — just like the small block of navy blue in the upper lefthand corner of the flag provides a contrasting backdrop to the white stars.
If you have an old farmhouse or an outbuilding on your property that you would love to feature, consider painting it red with creamy white trim and navy blue doors. Hang the flag out front. You’ll attract attention but go ahead. Be proud!
Bold, Beautiful and Blue Roof
October 1, 2011 § Leave a comment
Some houses whisper. Some houses shout. This house sings opera! What makes this house so melodic is perfectly obvious to everybody who drives by. It has the most incredible roof and door color: a rich sapphire blue like you’ve never seen before except maybe in the Mediterranean. We’re certainly not accustomed to seeing that color on a traditional burgundy brick colonial, usually relegated to browns and charcoals (not that there’s anything wrong with browns and charcoals — I love them too).
This house tosses conventional color schemes out the window yet manages to look both whimsical and classy at the same time. It peeks out from behind big shade trees making it even more alluring to passersby. Like a secret garden around the corner, the act of discovery is part of the thrill.
The door color alone would be quite a find, but the fact that the roof is the same rich blue makes this house an opera star I want to discover again and again. Big applause!!
Bold House Color Statement
October 1, 2011 § 2 Comments
Call it dark charcoal, call it midnight blue, or just call it black. It’s a knock-out house color that made me slam on the brakes when I drove by. What’s more dramatic than the pairing of opposites black and white, but who would think to put them on a house? Obviously somebody did and it looks spectacular.
The soft yellow chiffon door is perfect. More lemon? Too strong. More orange? Halloween. And although I’m not a big fan of white shutters, they make sense here. Another convention that was slapped in the face was the idea that dark equals small. You don’t even notice how small this house is because it is so well put together. From the gray roof to the brick steps and pops of floral color, this house is a winner.
The beauty of this bold house color statement is that it fits perfectly in any neighborhood!
Design Star 2011 Finale
September 12, 2011 § 1 Comment
Okay HGTV fans. This is it! The finale between Meg and Karl is on tonight. For those who don’t follow Design Star, it’s not too late to check in. Design Star has spun off several excellent designers (David Bromstad, Kim Myles) and like them or not, these designers influence TV viewers and their expectations. I see that all the time.
So who is it going to be? Meg has a lovely fresh preppy style and a bubbly on-air personality. Karl’s architectural background gives him a very professional, big-picture design. He nailed the small-cottage challenge!
Move over Candice. Here comes a new face on HGTV!
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
Southern Style Christmas Tree
December 7, 2010 § Leave a comment
When it comes to decorating for Christmas in the South, more is better. And bigger doesn’t hurt either. The Celebrity Holiday Homes 2010 special on HGTV featured Trisha Yearwood’s home decorated with big wreaths made from cuttings from her yard, a rainbow of ornament and ribbon colors, and beautiful hydrangeas perched between the boughs of the Christmas tree! Now that’s an idea that never would have occurred to me so I decided to try it on my own Christmas tree.
I hauled out some silk bouquets I had put away in the closet and selected the reds and creams for the tree. What a terrific pop of color — similar to oversized ornament balls but more textured and interesting. I kept all my other red glass Christmas balls and the children’s ornaments from Nana as well as the little plaid bows. But the silk hydrangeas really make the tree look special even way up here in New England. I’m hooked.
So for those of you who celebrate, y’all have a colorful Christmas!
Your Home & Color Coach 