Trapped By Yellow Bricks
15th Sep. '08 • Exterior Color Schemes • Tags: brick, color scheme, color-dilemma, exterior, yellow
Authored by Barbara Jacobs
Today’s color dilemma:
I am really struggling with this - trapped by brick around the lower half of my house (yellow-beige with almost no variation in the brick) and dark brown vinyl window frames. Currently the siding, doors and trim around the windows is painted dark brown as well. We would like to go lighter on the siding but are really stuck about what might fit with the two “set” colors. Most of the neighborhood is 1960’s muted - whites, taupes, grays. Both of our neighbors have mostly white houses. Any ideas?
Barbara suggests:
Try something earthy but not of the same color family as what you currently have that can’t be changed. Perhaps a gray-green-something mossy or sage type. Maybe it could be just a little deeper in color than the brick. It’s hard to say exactly, but this could be a color direction you might try.
Another idea in a different direction: Rust type. But as I often say, it’s hard to make a recommendation without seeing even a picture, so you will have to test,test,test, on large areas, and view the colors at different times of day on different areas of the house - to see what looks good.
Suggestion: Use Tru-Hue test boards or poster boards, at least two of each color and at least 24 inches square for your testing.
If you use poster board prepare them just as if they were the actual siding by starting with a coat of prime. If you use the Tru-Hue test boards they are already prepped so you can skip the Prime. Then roll two or three coats of your color.
You will be able to move them around, tape them to the siding, etc. Do NOT do little brush strokes of colors on the side of your house, it won’t give you a true idea of the color and just leads to being more confused.
