I‘VE ALWAYS ADMIRED THIS HOUSE three blocks or so from mine. The salmon-beige paint with the red brick looks terrific, I think. On Monday, I grabbed my camera, took a walk over, and knocked on the door in true retro recon style — to find out the brand and name of the paint. They were home and happy to respond to this unexpected request from a stranger. Of course, I live in a small town so we identified a mutual friend within seconds.
The house has wonderful curb appeal — notice the stone retaining wall that brings the front yard onto the level on the sloping lot. In front of the retaining wall, the owners tend to variegated hosta and each year plant impatiens. I was able to see a little of the inside. Some of the features included knotty pine paneling in the living room … wagon wheel lighting in the kitchen … plaid carpet in the mudroom … and it was reported there is a pink bathroom with green trim. The house actually qualifies as one that may be near perfect in our continuing search. There are three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a mudroom that connects the garage to the dining room/kitchen area…all in a small footprint – one likely smaller that this ranch we spotted a while ago. Remember, we want all of these features in as small a footprint as possible. This house may be it! I would LOVE to get the plans….
The body paint is Wal-Mart, Copper Haze.
The door and shutters are Sweet Potato.
A lovely, well-tended 1955 house in a lovely neighborhood. Thanks to the owners for sharing this treasure, and for clearly putting so much love and care into it.
Kitty Jackson says
My grandparent’s 1950’s ranch house was painted in this same Salmon pink. My pop-pop pronounced it Sal-mon not Sa-mon.
Ellen says
Annie B. The conical shrubs look like Taxus to me. Yews-deer love to munch them though. They are slower growing than arborvitae, which makes them more expensive, but don’t break open under snow loads like them. Yews shear well, take shade or sun. Different forms have different shapes- taller, weeping, etc. Hope that helps!
Retrocat says
I think the house looks wonderful. Another alternative to this color would be more of a light taupe/gray color and paint the eaves and shudders black. Black is a wonderful contrast color and really looks rich.
Jeanne says
I love the subtle difference of the Copper Haze and Sweet Potato, very nice! My whole neighborhood is red brick with white trim. I just emailed you some photos, Pam. I’m amazing not more houses added or changed color over the years since the neighborhood was built in 1952.
Kristin says
We have this same issue: Red brick veneer with white details. It is soooooo bland and a majority of the ranches in the neighborhood have this color combination (or lack of!).
I couldn’t pick any exterior color that reflected this pink of the home featured because my husband would go ballistic. We are looking at the sage in the Sherwin Williams Suburban Modern palette as an option, but I keep wondering what some tone of gray would look like.
pam kueber says
Kristin, I used Benjamin Moore’s Platinum Grey for much of my paint. I’ll post a pic later this week. Seems like this is a topic on everyone’s mind. I think I’ll go driving around and do more retro recon of red brick houses and their color combos….
romegril06 says
Benjamin Moore’s Platinum Grey is a wonderful exterior color and is very durable. Our first ranch was painted this color with wine shutter and white trim (no brick). Our current home is brick with barn red and white trim. I thought about Platinum Grey for our current home; however, really like the retro color!
pam kueber says
Sumac Sue aka Judi, I think your house is wonderful!
sumac sue says
Oh, I said in a previous post that we weren’t happy with our 50s ranch and wanted to move. We looked at a few other 50s era houses over the weekend, and decided we are pretty happy here after all. We could see we would just be trading for a different set of problems — maybe the dining area was bigger, but, the bedrooms were smaller, for example. And do we really want to trade our 1.5 tiny bathrooms for just 1 bigger bathroom? So, we’ve decided to stay here and put our personal touch on the place, such as the owners of the house featured here have done. (I think I’d rather pick out a new color for the front door than start packing boxes, anyway.)
sumac sue says
Hey, I think I spot an eagle above the garage door! Love that colonial touch. Our house also has too much red/white going on, and one of these days, that’s going to change. Thanks for a good example of what can be done with color.
Annie B. says
What a great house! What are the conical shaped trees in front? Cedars?
Arborvitae? Thanks for sharing!
MidCent Keith says
My neighbor across the street from me has a similar red brick house with white trim and red siding on the gables – I’ve mentally repainted this house many times in my head (too much red/white going on). Another red brick ranch in the next town over has a warm taupey gray trim color – a really nice combination – I think I need to do more photo recon Pam