House Update #21: Choosing An Exterior House Color

Phew! Who knew choosing a color could be so hard??…I knew! Choosing paint colors has never been a favorite past-time of mine! As some people are expert taste testers and can call out every single ingredient or spice in a food, I tend to be that way with colors. From the undertones, to the hues, etc I can see it all and choosing a color can drive me crazy!!! (and my hubby!) We have painted so so so much over the years of owning 4 homes, however, we have never painted any major exterior space. So this is a first – and wow! Sunlight, clouds, rain, and snow sure change a color!

I should probably back up and explain why we are changing our exterior color of the house. It’s actually pretty simple. We just don’t love the beigey-brown-tan. It’s not a bad color, but on dreary days, I feel that it needs a little more pi-zaz!

I have done so much research on the house and in an old photo of it, you can tell that the house used to be a dark color.

Residence of Charles Eastman - 1886 Victorian home

I also climbed up onto the front porch and went next to the chimney, and on the brick you can see paint drip marks from over the years – most people would cringe at this, but I secretly love it because it gives me a glimpse of what the house used to be like! (*Confused about the chimney because it’s not in that old picture? The front received a major addition around the turn of the century – I think).

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We hired a designer to help us put colors together, but I wasn’t particularly keen on the colors – so, we’re tackling it on our own! We went from pastel to dark and rich. I tested 20 different colors on the house!

We visited the house and took photos at all times of the day and in every type of weather!

I took photos of the colors up close and far away.

Testing paint colors on exterior of home

We spent hours looking at photos of houses online, color matching their exterior colors, designing our own colors and then virtually painting our house.

This isn’t the color we are going with, but it gives a good example of what the house would look like darker.

I am super scared to go dark, but at the same time, I think that the house really calls for a deep, rich color. Victorian owners loved color and bold statements! So after much deliberation, we have chosen to go with the Behr color Mountain Pine, a beautiful creamy, rich green with hues of blue. It looks really nice with the cream and red that are on the house currently. Crazy how the color doesn’t even come close to looking like the sample!