More playing with house painting

[hrj]

Cut because of the graphics.

As requested, here's the current version of the house. Well, ok, not the current version, which involves a lot of scraped paint and sanding marks. But the original version of the picture being photoshopped.



And here's another variation along the "gray with purple trim" theme, but with a much darker color for the siding.



And as another just for fun, here's a variant in blue. (My neighborhood already has one house in similar tones of blue. And I'm not at all interested in having a blue house. But just for fun.)

Comments

[lferion]

I like the darker grey, and wonder what it would look like with the #3 purple from the first set.

This is fun!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Unless I actually have both files open and sample the colors from one to the other (and then set the brightness and saturation levels by number) I have a hard time duplicating the colors from one file to the next. The above purple is a touch brighter than I want, so what you're imaginging is more in line with what I intended.

I'm trying to plant a seed in C.H.'s brain about looking into doing this sort of thing as a service for housepainters. (Not making them do their own color-fiddling -- but setting up a template from a photograph and then providing variations based on some preliminary color-chip selections.)

[brooksmoses]

I think I'm liking the two purple and darker-gray ones. A bit of a preference for the #1 picture in the previous post, compared to the middle one here, but I do like them both. (The one here is just a little too dark, and the value contrast between the walls and the trim is a little too low. It still looks quite good, but washed out compared to the other.)

What I do like about this one is the really strong purpleness of it.

[cellio]

I'll bet gray (or grayish) siding wtih maroon trim would look striking. Something redder than your purple but not brighter in hue. (I like the blue, but I realize you only did it on a lark.)

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

It pains me to say it but the purple really is the thing - never thought I'd hear myself say that with conviction, but there you go.

The current scheme is too pale, your house really needs something bold.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that the current scheme was a bit brighter when it was new, 15+ years ago!

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

It's not brightness, it's contrast.

[ermine-rat.livejournal.com]

I have bopped around pretty neighborhoods and snapped pictures of color schemes I like. That might help. I also was looking at 3-color schemes, that might open some possibilities for you.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

It actually is, technically, a 3-color scheme -- there's also some plain white in various places (mostly the main entrance doors). The problem with trying to do a more extensive 3-color scheme is that the underlying woodwork doesn't naturally sort out that way. There's basically the siding and the trim. (The house next door to mine, which is what mine looked like before extensive remodeling, has more variation in the woodwork and would take a 3-color job very nicely.) I've tried to take inspiration from some of the more elaborate "painted ladies", but it comes down to the bone structure. And, for me, if the paint scheme doesn't emerge naturally from the bone structure, then it just feels unnatural. (I had a long discussion with a neighbor yesterday about possible paint schemes, and it rapidly became obvious that we had no overlap in our esthetics. She was stuck on subtle earth tones that played with the different planes of the structure (and no emphasis on the trim at all), whereas for me it's all about something bold and striking ... but not clownish. And earth tones are for stucco, not for wood.

[brooksmoses]

Well, one option that I could see for a three-color scheme that would fit with the structure of the house would be taking the front "tower" bit -- the projection with all the windows in it that goes from ground level up to the roof peak -- and doing its walls in the third color. And there's the projection under the gable on the side that would go in the same color. And possibly also the front stairs.

For something like that, I think you'd want the third color to be a variant of the main wall color -- something a bit lighter, perhaps.