Friday, October 7, 2011

all the greys and whites of the rainbow


Choosing the external paint colours is one of those things that you should take some time over.
It is an expensive exercise and if you don't like the end result you will have to live with it for a long time.

There are many houses I have admired over the years in our suburb - I have photographed a few below but on a cloudy day so none of them look as lovely as they do in real life:









Some of the features that they all have are neutral colours and symmetry. I wanted to retain the symmetry in our house by maintaining the verandah on three sides. I also predictably wanted to keep the house white, but when it was painted as part of the "first" renovation the trimmings (gutters and verandah balustrades) were a dark heritage green. I wanted to update this colour scheme a little by having grey tones.

Again I had good intentions but quickly became overwhelmed by the enormity of choice available. In the end I selected four colours, painted them on a large piece of timber and decided that they looked fine. The exterior painting is still a work in progress but it's almost finished.




We ended up choosing Lexicon Quarter for the windows and verandah railings, Lexicon for the exterior walls, Simone Weil for some of the battens, and Leadman for the gutters and balustrades. All are Dulux colours.



windows and French doors downstairs still to be painted





4 comments:

  1. Very nice, I bet you can't wait to get in there. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Jenny! We have been away for three weeks and just got back yesterday so there have been a lot of changes. Will post some updates soon. We are hoping to be back in the house in mid December. F

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks fantastic. What interior colors did you go with?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Everyday Girl! Our interior colour for all the living areas was Dulux Vivid White - it looks really crisp - our painters painted one undercoat in Lexicon Quarter as they told me it had better coverage due to the tiny amount of black in it - and then two coats of Dulux Vivid White. I love the look but white walls are high maintenance - I think we are a reasonably neat and tidy family, but no matter how careful you are, the walls end up with marks. I spent an hour yesterday on the walls with the sugar soap - after only having moved back in 4 months ago! There is a great post by A-M about whites here:http://thehousethata-mbuilt.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/theres-white-and-then-theres-white.html

    ReplyDelete