Morning all! As I continue to obsess about what goes INSIDE our house, Mr. Bug obsesses about the things I consider to be a bit more boring… air filters, caulking, all that sort of thing. One of our new projects has met happily right between our separate interests… deteriorated siding, meet paint color selection!
Our house is mostly (pink) brick, but there’s a bit of siding here and there – almost all of it is on the back of the house…
Sigh. That whole pool area is a giant can of worms, just waiting to be opened! These pictures are pre-sale – we don’t have any furniture out here, this stuff belonged to the previous owner. I’d hoped to cleverly wait to get nice wood chaise lounges and such with end of season sales. I didn’t count on the crafty retailers, who have already mostly run out and it’s only mid-July. I don’t think there will be any great sales, come late August, because there will be no good lounges!
But I digress. In the 2nd photo our chimney is visible – see how the siding goes all the way to the ground? Well, the combination of crazy Masonite siding + sprinkler system + shrubberies = bad siding. Behind the holly, the bottom three or four pieces of siding are falling apart and need replacement.
This has been driving Mr. Bug crazy, but neither of us were really sure the right route to take. Our thought was that if we start messing with the siding, it will need to be painted, even if it’s just a small repair. And once we paint the repaired spot, we’ll really want to paint the rest of the siding, which is badly in need of such treatment. Mr. Bug painted our house himself in Minneapolis, but he really doesn’t have the time, tools or inclination to do that again, plus, how to fix the siding?
It’s the sort of thing that gnaws away at his mind, although I’m completely incapable of ignoring – I mean, it’s outside, after all – I don’t stare at it every day!
I finally decided to grab the bull by the horns the other day. Part of our problem is that we’re in a new city, and don’t know who to call. So I joined Angie’s List.
I flipped through painting contractors and called the first three in our area with a bunch of good reviews. I thought they’d be able to recommend a handyman sort to deal with the siding, but it turns out painting contractors deal with the siding themselves! They all were happy to replace, and even came up with the grand idea of replacing with a more water impervious material (Hardiboard) so I can keep the shrubs (Mr. Bug’s been threatening their continued existence) without our house falling apart from the moisture.
Turns out the siding used on our house (and a lot of the houses near me) is no longer available, so we’d have to pick out a new, non matching style anyway. OR we could re-side the house, but all three contractors, our inspector and ourselves agree that we aren’t in need of a full siding job. Just a few new boards!
So, the hard part. Colors. In Minneapolis when we repainted it was an easy choice – I wanted something crisp and a bit unusual, so we went with a very warm, dark grey (BM Silhouette) with a bright white trim (BM Gardenia) and a darkish red door (BM Caliente). The colors were neutral, but crisp…
With our new house it’s not quite so easy. We ended up getting a rather rosy pink house, after all. What colors go well with pink brick??
One of the contractors, rather charmingly, was very supportive of my house, BTW. Every time I said something about the pink brick, he’d chide me “Ohhhhh… don’t call it pink…. call it ROSE.” Like the house might overhear me and get its feelings hurt!
The brick on the exterior is the same as the fireplace brick…
So… I spent the night before last searching the interwebs, playing with Photoshop, color scheme generators and the paint chip deck one of the contractors left with me. Every single one of them is a Sherwin Williams guy, which is new to me as I’ve always used Benjamin Moore and am more familiar with those colors. I was REALLY stumped before yesterday – the first contractors really wanted me to go down the red door route again, with cream paint. It was nice, but I wanted something more in the grey family and was having a hard time coming up with options OR inspiration, as a lot of the photos I could find of brick were of the more red variety.
Lucky for me, though, the last contractor who came through seemed to have taste more like mine. He suggested Sherwin Williams Manor House (SW 7505) for the door and Sticks & Stones for the trim and siding (SW 7503) – these colors are MUCH more in the grey family and made me happy! Here’s his color scheme (I color matched the pink color to stand in for the brick!)
[The Grey on Grey Scheme]
I photoshopped up these colors to see what I thought…
The first contractor had suggested this color scheme (the dark red for the door, the creamy white for the siding)
[The Fireweed Scheme]
While I like the darker grey door a lot more, I’m not sure on the siding color from Grey on Grey scheme – I think I might like a much lighter or much darker color more. Maybe this?
Here’s the photoshopped version – not sure it’s doing it any justice…
Harumph. The contractor I liked best has a VERY cool feature through his website – he’s plotted his finished jobs onto google maps, and named the maps with some of his favorite color combinations so we can drive around to see the different colors in real life! Nice use of technology AND totally helpful in this sea of brick homes I find myself living in!
So… any suggestions out there? I haven’t paid all that much attention to color schemes with brick homes, since they’re so unusual up in Minneapolis. This is sort of a whole new realm for me! I watch the curb appeal type shows on HGTV occaisionally and I usually like when the trim get painted darker, but I think I like colors that are darker than my current options. Thoughts? Anyone? Anyone?
Oh! Just remembered where there was a before and after of a brick house I like…. Before…
After…
[images Cote de Texas]
Hmmmm…..
I don’t know how pink your pink brick is, but I have a pink brick house. The previous owners installed shutters that I would call a deep magenta. They are definitely not barn red, which to me is deep red that leans towards orange. To me, our shutters are deep red that leans toward purple. I think this deep magenta color was a great choice.
The other sample the contractor left me was ‘raisin’ which sounds exactly like what you’re describing! I like the door color, but he paired with a light taupe I don’t really like!
I grew up in a pink brick house and we had a brown wood door– maybe brown?
Also, (not that you asked) but I had to ask around a few years back, and everyone loves seems Southern Painting. They were professional, and their bid came in under others. I don’t know your exact area; but you might check them out. I promise this is not spam!
Southern Painting was one of the bids I got! They were WAY more than the 2 others (Carnival and a one-guy shop sort of thing.) In total (for exterior and full 1st floor) they were closer to $7K and the other two bids were between $5K & $6K! I liked the contractor I linked to, he was a bit less than Southern, he played with Lucy (always important) but mostly, he’s based out of Flower Mound, so is very, very familiar with the area, construction, etc. There’s a bunch of jobs he’s done, even on my street!
Patty– I thought for sure I’d get an email if you responded! I’m so glad you found someone, and I’m glad to know that Southern was a bit of an outlier in price. I’ll keep your guy in mind if we ever do any painting!
OH! And if we were going to splurge, I’d really like a rustic wood door – but for now paint is the order of the day, and I’m not sure how I feel about painting it a ‘wood color’…. although those tones are the ones I like!
Just be careful if you have an HOA. They are very powerful in Texas and in general squash any creativity.
No HOA here! That really was quite an adjustment for Dan and I!
Hi Patty! I’m loving the house progress. One quick thing, as a Texan, I can attest to the fact that there can be crazy Home Owner’s Associations in these neighborhoods. You might double check with them to make sure there aren’t designated colors you have to use. It happened to a friend of mine and she had to repaint! Crazy, I know, but better safe than sorry!
Hey! Funny – when we first started looking for our TX house we were like NO HOA!!! Then our realtor showed us a few neighborhoods without an HOA and we were like MUST HAVE HOA!! (for those who don’t know, some of the non-HOA ‘hoods are a bit overgrown. With vegetation and mysterious machinery in the yard/driveway!!)
We ended up buying in a subdivision that has gotten rid of their association, so we’re free to do whatever. Lime green, here we come!
What a great find!
I like the grey on grey scheme best out of these. I like the darker trim on that other house you have pictured. You only show lighter colors for your trim options.
Not sure I can help much … I actually kinda like the white you have now, with the raisin or gray for the door. We’re in the process of buying a light red (more orangey than yours I think, but also on the light side) brick house that is in desperate need of hardiplank … also a bit stumped on the color. (Right now the wood is cedar — warped, with a touch of wood rot … ew.) I’m considering a light moss green, as well as the standard play-it-safe creamy beige that more or less matches the light tones in our brick.
Having recently been through this myself, I can sympathize. Choosing a colour when you have a couple of factors that lock you in is tough! With your house, I’d be tempted to go with some darker colours to avoid a monochromatic look.
Flesh or light brown can go with the pink brick.. Or maybe ash gray can look good too! What is important is your taste, you and your husband. It’s your own hub, you have the only right to choose your own color..
Thanks for every other wonderful post. Where else could anyone get that kind of info in such an ideal means of writing? I’ve a presentation subsequent week, and I’m on the search for such info.
You will need to focus on a wonderfully smooth surface to start together with perfectly painted partitions or even woodwork.
Thank you for posting. Your thoughts on the matter are very timely and helpful to me right now.
I am curious what your decision was! I would also love to see a picture or just have a description of your finished project. I am choosing siding this month for our Texas home, and your pink brick is very much like mine.
Hi, I was searching for paint colour combinations and came across your website…we have brick that I would refer to as ‘salmon’ colour- definitely not quite as light as yours but in the same colour family. We used a ‘teal’ colour (para paint P2115-03 “HURONIA”) ..that is almost dark green historic colour. (Looks WAY less green than on the strip) for our front door and garage door and our facia and soffit are tan. I really love it. I think it is important not to go too pink in the ‘tan’ or it revs up the pink in the brick. I’d be glad to email you a picture of our house….PM me if interested ( I tried to attach a pic it this post but it wouldn’t let me). Here is a link to colour. http://www.myperfectcolor.com/en/color/293172_Para-Paints-P2115-03-Huronia
(I live in Canada, so this paint is only produced here but I know that here I can take in a colour swatch from a competitor and the paint store can find an equivalent colour in their line up.) Good luck!
Renovations also increases your home’s value when you decide to sell it.
We have the same brick as you and we went with an iron door painted with a copper/bronze color that kind of touches on the tone a little, but there are a couple houses in the neighborhood that have the same brick with shiny, black doors that look very good.
can I send you a pic of my salmon house? I have changed my mind 3 times
What’s the final result? I also have a pink house. Thinking about going with Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze & a tan/cream color. It looks a bit like grayish/blackish dark brown.