Visualizing home colors

October 3, 2009 2:17 PM

So, it's time to paint my 100 year old house in Portland. How to choose colors? Are there any good online resources, in particular image galleries of homes painted specific colors? (i.e., "this 1925 craftsman is painted Benjamin Moore 741 Eggplant, with trim colors 219 Cream Soda and 987 Driftwood Sand")

I only have a couple of days to choose colors so the house can get painted before the rains roll in, and I have no idea how to go about this. It's a big beautiful old house in a funky neighborhood, and I really don't want to get this wrong. My only other idea is to walk around and ask owners of other homes, hoping they remember what colors they used. Any advice you might have about online resources or choosing colors in general is greatly appreciated, thank you.

posted by dacoit to home & garden (16 answers total)

i've used the Behr Colour Smart tool, and i think it's very useful.

you can select colours and 'paint' rooms with them, find accent colours, etc. there are several rooms to choose from, which is helpful.

(the main Behr site is here).
posted by gursky at 2:25 PM on October 3, 2009

Behr's website has some nice ideas and the site's pretty interactive. It might get you started, at least. www.behr.com

I would assume most of the major paint brands have something like this, although I've only looked at Behr's.
posted by fresh-rn at 2:26 PM on October 3, 2009

Sherwin Williams has a nice set of pamphlets with era-specific color choices (Arts and Crafts, Midcentury). I bet they'd be a good resource, too.
posted by scarykarrey at 2:42 PM on October 3, 2009

Just be careful with the online applications, the colors usually are not quite true on a computer screen, and even a subtle difference in color can really screw you up. Look at the physical swatches in the store and match up your colors (you might want to bring them outside and look at them in daylight) before you settle.
posted by Red Loop at 3:00 PM on October 3, 2009

I made the bad mistake once of thinking the swatch strips at Home Depot represented every possible shade in the world. They don't, not even close.

After a few mishaps, I enlisted a decorator friend and we collected strips from various stores. Any place that sells paint these days should have a scanner that matches colors- so you can bring a swatch from anywhere, or a page out of a magazine, or whatever into Home depot and they can match it. Pretty awesome.

My other big takeaways were:

1) As said above, a little shade difference can be huge. I think it's always good to go one or two shades "softer" (containing more grey) than your first instinct. I was choosing brighter colors that might have looked good on clothes, but when blown up to wall size they were a little much. A LOT much, actually.

2) Don't be afraid to ask for professional help, especially if you have any friends who do color-related stuff. My hour with my decorator friend (hi Greg!) has led to years of enjoying how my place looks.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:08 PM on October 3, 2009

In the UK, the National Trust uses Farrow and Ball on some historic properties, seems to be available in the US too, but searching for that I also found this US range, which seems to be based on houses from specific periods too.
posted by runincircles at 3:27 PM on October 3, 2009

Definitely go around your neighborhood and find houses that you like and either ask what color they used or try to match it with swatches.
posted by sulaine at 5:33 PM on October 3, 2009

How many colors? Usually you have 1 color for the clapboards/shingles, 1 color for trim, and maybe an accent color for the door, but if you look at San Francisco's "painted ladies", you can use many more colors.

What do other houses in the neighborhood look like? Do you want the house to stand out or not? Light colors or dark? How funky or traditional? What colors do you love or hate?

Check out ColorSchemeDesigner. For houses, I like colors that don't have extreme contrasts. I'm particularly fond of a house that's sage green with blue-gray trim, and a dark eggplant purple door.

I was looking at catalogs today, and loved the colors in this rug.
posted by theora55 at 6:50 PM on October 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

The Maine Historic Preservation Commission has a list of architectural consultants. They're professionals who would charge a fee, but perhaps you could get a local referral. I would urge you to find someone, perhaps just someone who's restored his own house, who could give you some pointers with a bit of local flavor.

It does depend on what style your house actually is, and 1909 is at the tail end of what is usually considered Victorian (she died in 1901). There were even a variety of Victorian styles (e.g. Queen Anne, Stick, Neo-Gothic), and with the 20th century many new styles began to emerge. At the same time simplified versions of Victorian styles -- "folk Victorian" -- continued to be popular. Find out what style your house is and stick that into Google image search for a first crack at what's out there.

Here's a resource with three books that a good metro library ought to have.
posted by dhartung at 9:11 PM on October 3, 2009

I recommend Benjamin Moore's old palette, the Classic Colors, which you can still buy a fandeck of and which includes their Historic Colors.

Be aware that daylight tends to wash out contrasts, so two similar colors (say, two sage greens of slightly different intensity) that looked like a great combination inside might not read as different colors outside, unless you're up close.

Sherwin Williams will mix custom quarts for $5 apiece of any paint company's colors, and you can use those to paint sheets of poster board to make sure about your selections. I highly recommend this, especially for the outside of your house. It's pretty much impossible to know what something is going to look like all over your house when you've only seen a 1"x2" square of it.

Be there when the painters are putting colors up for the first time, and don't hesitate to tell them it's not going to work. It's a pain to go back to the drawing board, but better that than looking at it for the next 10 years.

Your idea of a website that shows you photos of homes and tells you what colors they're painted -- maybe aggregating photos from decorating magazines? -- is a terrific one. I don't know of anything like that out there now, though.
posted by palliser at 9:13 PM on October 3, 2009

I just went through this and ended up with a lime green house when I wanted a color closer to the background of this page. Biggest tip I can give is that house colors tend to look a few shades lighter when painted on a large surface. Seconding palliser's recommendation to be there when the paint first goes up. That's what I intend to do during expensive round two.
posted by eeyore at 1:21 AM on October 4, 2009

Just to follow-on with eeyore's example -- if someone intended to get something like the background to AskMe: there's a significant amount of gray in the background to this page, at least as my screen shows it -- I'd say it's grayed-down and slightly blue-toned. That's one of the reasons I like the BM Classic Colors and Historic Colors: the greens and blues have some gray, the yellows have brown, which gives a softness. If you're looking for period authenticity, you want slightly browned reds, golds, gray-blues, forest greens. Not light colors, by any means, but impure colors.
posted by palliser at 6:33 AM on October 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Valspar has a wide range of colors associated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Also, a range of examples.
posted by Work to Live at 9:09 AM on October 4, 2009

Definitely consult with your house painter. I like the advice to find a house in your neighborhood that has the color scheme you want, and show your house painter so he or she knows what shades you are going for. From everything I've heard, it's really really difficult to pick colors yourself and have them turn out the way you hope on a wall, let alone a whole house. My uncle is a painter and he has had clients disregard his suggestions and insist on a color, only to be unhappy with the result and expect a color change for free. Painters know how to translate what you show them in a magazine or book into the right shade for your house (at least good, experienced painters, so hopefully you got recommendations for your professional). Good luck! I can't wait to someday get a house painted just the way I'd like.
posted by JenMarie at 2:48 AM on October 5, 2009

Please post a followup; I'd love to know what you decide.
posted by theora55 at 2:16 PM on October 5, 2009

These are some great suggestions, thank you! Yes, I will post some pictures here when it's done.
posted by dacoit at 10:49 AM on October 6, 2009