My brother is visiting for ten days in August, and since he’s an 18 year-old farm-kid from Nebraska, we have no compunctions about putting him to work. In particular, putting him to work with a brush and a can of house-paint. Here’s the breakdown:
- Siding: dark gray (“Knight’s Armor” by Olympic*)
- Trim: true white (“Delicate White”, Olympic)
- Storm windows and screen door: black (“Black Magic”, Olympic)
- Front door: a light blue yet to be chosen (see how hip we are though?)
That leaves the porch floor, which is where we’d like some input – thoughts on painting it Delicate White? What about Black Magic? Or just a lighter shade of gray? That would be the most straightforward option, but I don’t know if we want to introduce another shade into the mix.
The east side of the house gets a full blast of sunshine every morning, and the paint is in rough shape. The siding over here is going to take more prep work than the rest of the house combined.
*Independently, we picked Knight’s Armor twice. It was the only dark gray we liked out of the entire Behr, Glidden, Sherwin-Williams, Olympic, and Valspar lines – all the others had too much brown or green or blue in them. But, to be thorough, we wanted to check at Menard’s too (Dutch Boy and Pittsburgh). “A-ha!” we said to the wall of Pittsburgh swatches – “There’s another gray we like!” Then we pulled it out to read the name and realized that Olympic and Pittsburgh use the same color swatches (which is weird, right? Are they owned by the same giant paint conglomerate?). In any case, Knight’s Armor was totally validated – out of the two colors we liked for the house, it was both of them.
I would paint it a light gray. Since it is on the porch, it will not throw another color into the mix. White is not a good idea…shows dirt. Black would be ok, extreme, but ok. I think a lighter color on the Knights Armor chip would look great!
Forgive my ignorance, but why one color for the trim and a different one for the storm windows and screen door? Or will the trim AROUND the windows be the true white, and the windows themselves be black?
As for the porch floor, I think what perpetualrenovator said above is right on. Nothing to add!
@Jason S. – storm windows and the screen door would typically be an accent color (so, red, if we were painting the house blue and white, for example), but we like black for a couple reasons. One is that we’d like the light blue front door to stand out, rather than compete with a second accent color. Another is that we both think black is underused on exteriors, so we want to do our part for a cause we believe in.
We have black windows with white trim as well. The previous owner picked the combo, but I really love the effect (though our house has a purplish-greyish body color—officially “Muffin Mix” which is actually a pretty good approximation of the shade—so it’s a bit different).
Agreed on white not being a good porch floor choice, though. Grey seems like the way to go; our porch floor and front/back stoops need more touching up than the rest of the house, so I often wish they were painted a color that didn’t show wear and tear quite as much. (We live in an area where red porches/stoops are traditional, so ours is painted a rust color—although thankfully not the bright red/orange that most of our neighbors have!)
Just make sure you get “porch” paint for the porch floor – it will hold up better than regular exterior paint.
I kind of lean towards a pale to medium gray also – but that is what I grew up around and then I married one. Both white & black will show a lot more dirt and marks than a gray will.
And are you going to do pale blue on the porch ceiling? I can’t remember if it keeps spiders or ghosts away – but it does make it feel like you have sky over you.
Can’t wait to see pictures of the finished paint job.
Your color choices sound terrific. I’ll be painting my house next summer. Any chance Kyle is looking for a trip out to Jersey?
I agree with those who’ve advised sticking with the lighter grey for the porch. And let me emphatically second Cheryl’s recommendation regarding porch paint…accept no substitutes. I’d also recommend that you give the current porch a sound sanding before painting. Porch paint is not so much fun.
Speaking of red porches and stoops, in my old house the orange/red color of the concrete steps was actually part of the concrete. A couple of times a year I’d scrape and repaint with a gray exterior flooring paint for concrete, but it would form bubbles after every hard rain.
What is it with that color for steps? Mass insanity at some point in the past?
That said, I am going to miss your true red trim, although the new colors look great.
Jason S.:
Painting the storm windows black is kinda like adding “mascara” to your house. I have seen it before and it looks great! I painted my rent house sashes black. We don’t have storm windows here in Louisiana.
Cheryl:
Painting the porch ceiling blue I thought was a southern thing. It is supposed to keep muddawbers, wasps and other pests from bulding/making nests on the ceiling. Not sure if it works. I think it is more a tradition and old wives tale more than anything….but, my porch ceiling will be painted blue next year…why not, right?