Today’s Color Dilemma:

My house is the L-shaped ranch style. Therefore, my garage is out front. My brick has orange, browns, and cream. My roof is brown. My front door is a maple wood. My shutters are currently black and I think it is okay, but too much contrast. My garage and trim is currently cream. I have found a pretty dark brown that I thought about painting my shutters, should I paint my garage door that color too?  Should I paint the trim the cream or the dark brown around the garage? –Kristi

Kate Suggests:

I think that from what you share about the colors in your brick that brown is a good choice. If you think that the brown shutters will look great than certainly make the change from black.

I think I would also use the same brown the garage door and if the trim on the rest of the house is cream, I’d go with the cream around the garage also.

If you are repainting the trim here’s a tip to help you find the right color. Whenever a home has brick or stone work I look at the color of the grout and then find a trim color that has the same undertones and a similar value (darkness or lightness).

For example I would bet that with your brick color the grout may have more of warm undertone that matches the color cast of the bricks. If this is the case your trim color will look best if it too has the yellow undertones and is a bit more muted similar to the grout rather than a bright, clear cream.

Today’s color dilemma…

Hello, color mavens! Enjoyed the article in the Post. I wanted to ask a quick question – we are getting ready to paint the exterior of our house, and have been working on colors. We don’t have that much siding to paint, our house is mostly brick dominated in the front sadly by a protruding brick garage. Any suggestions for colors that would bring attention away from the garage while bringing some warmth to the house? Thanks, DG

Kate suggests…

Having a garage is great but having one that dominates the front of your home can be a design challenge.

The biggest mistake homeowners make is drawing attention to standard or unattractive garage doors. I’m glad you recognize that this is not the way to go.

Let me start by giving a few very general DO’s and DON’Ts for painting garage doors:

• DO paint the garage doors in the same color as the house itself and not the trim color or white (unless white is your house color). Painting the garage doors the same colors as the body of the house will make your home appear larger.

• DO paint the trim around the doors either to match the door or to match the trim on the rest of your home.

• DON’T paint the garage doors in the same accent color they chose for their front door or shutters. This draws too much attention to the doors and chops up the facade of the home.

• DON’T highlight the details of a standard garage door by painting the door in more than one color. There are historic or special doors where this may be appropriate but for the majority of garage doors this would not be the way to go.

In your case rather than find a color that is very close to that of the body of your home (brick) you may want to identify the color cast of the brick and use that as a guide for selecting a paint color.

The bricks in your home may basically be red but will have a cast of another color such as beige or gold or gray. Your best bet is to find a close color match to the cast color.

For example if your bricks have a beige cast paint the siding and garage doors in a shade of beige. This guarantees that the siding and garage door colors will harmonize with the rest of the home and give you nice curb appeal.

This will begin to make your home feel warm and inviting but you will want to continue to draw the focus away from the garage and to the entrance of your home by selecting a beautiful color for the front door.

You can also draw attention to you entry with lighting, colorful plants and flowers, or an interesting bench or other tasteful element near the door.

Resources:

• Do you have a color dilemma? Post it in the Makeover Gallery at RoomVues.com and you could be the next reader to have your color question answered on the Color For Your Home blog.