Sunday, August 8, 2010

Exterior Ideas

A few months ago we decided on what colors we wanted to paint the exterior of our house. We also started looking for accessories that would flatter the place so I thought I'd share some of our ideas.

I fell in love with two particular houses in the Atomic Ranch book last year and we've been using them for inspiration. We also really wanted to create some kind of perforated wood screen wall for the front of our place as a decorative element and for added privacy. During the Sacramento Mid-Century Home Tour we saw lots of incredible homes with beautiful outdoor screens so we wanted to incorporate that idea into our own exterior plans.

Eichler Inspiration

Eichler Inspiration

MCM Home


MCM Home (window detail)


Once again, we used the exterior Eichler color palette as a basis for our own color choices. We picked Benjamin Moore's Black Bean Soup for the ceiling beams/outside trim and we're planning on using Bear Creek for the main exterior walls. We also plan to use Shy Cherry and Super White as accent colors on the front door, between the ceiling beams, etc. I think these colors will work great with the Japanese influenced landscaping we're planning on doing.

Exterior House Colors

Recently we ordered some red house numbers and a red mailbox from Chiasso to add a little more color to the exterior of our house. I don't know when we'll be able to hang them up but I think they'll look great with our red door. Although the mail box was a bit bigger than I had imagined it would be. I probably should have studied the measurements a little more closely but at the moment our mailbox is too small so we need something bigger. As for the numbers, we plan to mount them on some white backing board so they'll really "pop" on the outside of the house and maybe figure out way to light them from behind.

House Numbers
Mailbox

For fun I decided to try out some of our exterior ideas using Photoshop. Obviously the "After" picture isn't perfect and I'm sure we'll make lots of changes before we actually start painting, but I figured I'd share the results anyway.

Our house now
Our House

Our house in the future (just one possible future)
House Plans

6 comments:

  1. Wow! Great colours and I love your house now! It'll look even better once it's done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! I should have also mentioned that the original color of the house was a dark brownish/gray from what we can tell. The inside of the garage has some paint on the walls that we think is original so we'd like to bring the house back to it's old form as much as possible with our own personal updates of course.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a difference that would make. I love the wooden screen. I have been looking for concrete block for a similar look but they are expensive and difficult to find. What a fantastic idea to make it from wood. I was at the Sac Home Tour so I should know this. Thanks for the idea. Love your home.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We saw some really nice modern wood screens when we were on the Sacto tour and driving around town that really surprised us! I love concrete blocks too but I'm not sure that they'd work in the area where we want to put up a privacy screen. And they do seem hard to get a hold of and pricey. I've been doing some more research on mid-century screens/dividers made with wood so if I get some more info together I'll share it here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I remember that first house from when I viewed the book. It really caught my attention too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That first house is amazing! I love the dark gray exterior with the red door.

    ReplyDelete

 

Mid-Century Living Original Content Copyright © 2009-2012 Blog design by Kimberly Lindbergs Based on a template by Ipietoon