Eek! We have to pick a paint color for the Farmhouse tomorrow
THE FARMHOUSE
I’ve been dreaming of painting our Farmhouse’s exterior for years now. We’ve gotten a few bids and himmed and hawed over the years but never pulled the trigger, until now. The only catch - we have to have the pick the colors tomorrow. Eek!
I’ve always envisioned a white or off-white color for this country farmhouse. But which white? Do we paint the window sashes in an accent color? Is a 2 or 3-color scheme better? Our painter had a sudden opening so we’re scrambling to sort all that out right now and I wanted to share the colors we’re considering and all the inspiration I’ve been looking at…
Our Favorite Warm Whites
Our painter wrapped up with pressure washing, scraping, caulking, and fill today so Garrett and I put up some color samples we had on hand…
These are the white and off-white paint samples we tested at the Poplar cottage last year and loved (btw we’re still trying to decide if we’ll sway from our fav Simply White). Since we’re in such a time crunch I’d probably just go with our tried and true Simply White, but our painter is using Sherwin Williams paint and I just don’t like how they match Simply White. So we’re thinking about using one (or two) of these for the body and trim color. And on the window sashes, we’re thinking of a deep green (similar to what’s there) or S&W tricorn black.
Inspiration
A few color palettes that have us thinking…
color: f&b off white, source: Chris Small of Small & Associates, Inc, via palette home
SW dover white + SW tricorn black, source: Midtown Custom Homes, via
BM swiss coffee, source: Kindred Lifestyle
Historic Inspiration
Our home is 110-years old and I love using it’s own history as inspiration. Luckily we have a bunch of old black and white photos of the property so we colorized them to see what colors the house used to be.
I don’t know how accurate the colorized colors actually are, but in general it looks like the house was a warm white with dark window sashes. It’s hard to tell if the trim color is the same as the body, but if it is different, it’s subtle. A warm-white farmhouse with dark window sashes is a classic look that I love and that might just be what we pick!
A few other things I’m thinking about with the color…
Trendy vs. Timeless
White houses with dark windows is a color scheme that is definitely having a moment right now and I don’t want to fall down the “trendy modern farmhouse” pit (or any trendy pit for that matter ;). But that color scheme also seems to be a timeless look based on the historic photos above and painting the house’s exterior is an investment so I want to make sure it’ll fit the house and be timeless. So I’m asking myself, is it okay to paint our 110-year-old country farmhouse the same color as many brand-new modern homes are being painted? I think so…?
Considering dirt
We live in a very windy area surrounded by farmland with tractors stirring up dirt constantly. So is white a good color choice? I don’t have the answer to that. But I’m telling myself that most colors probably show dirt since the navy of the Porch House definitely does.
Here’s a picture from this spring of the front of the house in case you wanted to see the whole thing.
Any thoughts on color? Right now our favorite colors from the samples are SW Dover White and F&B Off White, but we’ll have a look again in the morning ;)
