Reader Laurie has been hard at work fixing up her 1966 ranch house. She’s been working to get the interior painted and clean up the yard and even found new mid-century style doors at Lowe’s and had them installed. Now Laurie is ready to pick paint colors for her front door and trim. She has a few ideas, but wants our input and help to decide on a color scheme so that when painting weather rolls around this spring she can get right to it. What colors do you recommend?
Laurie writes:
My house was built in 1966. I bought it last year and spent time painting the interior and fixing up the yard so the house didn’t look abandoned. I need some help choosing proper paint colors for the exterior. I bought new doors at Lowe’s that were just installed a couple weeks ago and the weather is such I can paint the doors soon. The trim will have to wait until spring, though, I think.
I was leaning towards white for the trim and blue/green (not turquoise) for the door.
The shrubs in the front will grow to be three feet tall and stay green all year.
I just painted the inside this fall. Tackling the outside next. This house has been a lot of work for me the past year. It’s coming together though. Thank you for your help.
Laurie
Readers — what colors would you choose for Laurie’s mid century brick ranch exterior?
Laurie already had some ideas on how she wants to paint the trim on her house. The mock up above is my guess at how Laurie is envisioning her house will look after she paints all of the trim white and the door a “blue/green (not turquoise).” Did I get the door color right Laurie? To get a better idea of how the new paint will look in summer, the snow on the roof and yard was minimized using Photoshop and larger shrubs were added where Laurie already planted some that she says will get to be three feet tall.
Kate’s solution: Retro cheerful
My look for Laurie’s exterior is retro, playful and full of cheer. For the trim on the soffits and most of the porch columns, an earthy peach blends nicely with the orangey brick without being too stark of a contrast.
My color suggestion reminded Pam of a house color scheme she profiled back in 2009, painted with a combination of Copper Haze and Sweet Potato. The same colors would work well on Laurie’s exterior — using Sweet Potato for the trim and soffits and Copper Haze on the six squares on the porch columns. This would make the decorative squares stand out a little without screaming too loudly. For the door, a medium aqua tone really pops off the color of the brick and makes Laurie’s new door the focal point of the front of the house. Adding some fun accessories like a hot orange bullet planter from Hip Haven that could be filled with anything from flowers to decorative grasses and the retro oval metropolitan collection house numbers from Home Depot really makes it feel like 1966 again. To add even more happy to the front of the house, brightly colored flowers like Black Eyed Susans or Zinnias make the entry feel even more inviting. Once the front porch is fixed up, Laurie is going to want to sit out there more often, so finding a comfortable patio chair or two like these vintage Homecrest rocker chairs from Etsy seller Moderninspiration should also be high on her list.
Pam’s solution: Front porch focus
What a lovely house you have, Laurie — and it is lucky to have found you as an owner! Looking at your house, my key idea is to really play up the front porch and particularly the front porch columns, which are keepers. Their geometry actually reminds me of breeze blocks.
#1 — Add square-diamond trim to the front porch columns: As you can see, I suggest you add a second layer of square trim to the front of each of the three decorative squares on each column. You know those square toppers they put on wood fence posts? You might just be able to buy those and screw them on — that would sure be relatively easy and inexpensive. Something like this (I found this at Lowe’s) — but not too dinky — you may need to look at the larger ones, okay? You want to pretty much fill that square with a diamond, I think:
#2 — Slate blue for the front door and diamond trim — As for paint colors for your new diamond trim pieces and for your new front door, Kate and I played with her Photoshop until I found a shade of slate blue that I thought I looked good with your brick. Not too neon… toned down, greyed out a bit. As you can see, I selected this color for the door and the decorative fence cap.
#3 — Outline the diamonds in the roof color — See how the diamond trim has a bead on the outside edge? Kate and I even put a DIFFERENT color on that bead — to “outline” the diamonds and make them pop. Try the roof color grey-brown from the fascia trim for this color — you may need to darken it up a bit to “see” it on the diamonds from the street — you’ll need to eyeball this.
#4 — Color for the fascia trim — Use the roof color: For the house trim, I wanted to see what it would look like with the roof color painted onto the fascia — that’s what the trim right under roof edge is called. I think my idea here was to keep the line of your house overall long and lean and to not call excessive attention to the trim along the roof line.
#5 — Color for the frieze board and porch trim — Use the color of your concrete porch with the sunlight hitting it: Okay, so now I know that I am sounding like Mrs. Blanding choosing paint colors, but that’s how it works. For some reason, on this house, I think I would not use Super White for the trim. Because the house is relatively small and not tall, I am thinking an off white with a hint of gray-brown ala the roof color. So, I had Kate copy the color of your porch at a spot where the sunlight hit it.
#6 — Decorate the porch — I found two vintage Homecrest patio chairs on ebay that might look good on the front porch. I liked the upholstery because it played up your colors… and because it added some 1960s flair to the area. Be careful not to overdue the decorating, though, or the small front porch will start to look cluttered.
Thanks for sending us your Dilemma, Laurie! Be sure to send us “after” photos!
Laurie says
I’m sorry, had some issues with my photos.
Try these links.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_1837_zps61a8818d.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_7205_zps535ef419.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_1839_zpsb23a28af.jpg
Diane says
Laurie,
The last two photos did not show on photo bucket. I was so hoping to see them. We are in a similar dilemmna with our 1950’s ranch that we are trying to brighten up.
Thank you,
Diane
Laurie says
Sorry Diane, had some trouble with my photos.
Try these links.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_7205_zps535ef419.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_1837_zps61a8818d.jpg
Laurie says
I got the front and side done today. 🙂 I love how it looks.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_1837_zps63cc84f5.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_1838_zps63dc6d7e.jpg
Laurie says
I am finally painting the house! The prep work took forever. I’m doing two sides completely then will finish the other two sides. I need to see some progress with the paint or I go nuts!
Here is what I got done today. Those posts took forever!
I still need to to the diamonds, but I want to finish painting everything else first.
The lighting wasn’t the best when I got to this point. I’ll post a better one when I have the entire front done.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_1831_zps309cd27f.jpg
I got my flag up for a bit today too. 🙂
http://s245.photobucket.com/user/ElfEars_photos/media/IMG_1835_zpsce55bea7.jpg.html
Thanks so much for all the help. 🙂
Laurie says
I was way off in my thinking of how long exterior painting would take. Way off!!! I am still working on the house and have the garage almost done. I went with a paint very close to the brick colour for the garage and am doing the same color scheme as the house for the trim and doors. It is looking so much better! Everyone loves it.
You can see here how it ties into the house now (for the first time ever).
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_1619_zpsbf9d0ca1.jpg
The west wall is finished except for the door. I think I will paint it the same as the house doors, but not sure. The north wall needs one more coat of the terra cotta colour. One more wall (east side) to do.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_1863_zps21ee0813.jpg
It is amazing at how much warmer and inviting the yard feels now. The blue grey colour was very cold and didn’t go with anything!
pam kueber says
It looks great! I really like how the garage matches the house!
Laurie says
I have not forgotten about this. What a crazy winter we had! Thought spring would never get here, but it finally has. 🙂
I plan to start painting in a few weeks. I think Easter weekend…..
Yolonda says
I would paint the porch-posts gold and the door navy or emerald.
Laurie says
I’ll need to get out tomorrow and take a photo with everything cleaned up. I wasn’t able to get one today. The garage looks better now too. I’m going to paint it to match the brick. I can have them color match my brick. I found one in the yard from when the house was built. Forty-six years after the house was built I found a left over brick. What are the odds?
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/ElfEars_photos/IMG_6916_zps3250699e.jpg
I went to Lowe’s to pick up the squares and found out that I have to order them in the 6×6 inch size.
Laurie says
My roofer’s wife is having emergency surgery tomorrow so my roof is getting put off for a bit.
I have a question on the diamonds. I was at HD today and they did not have what I need, but was able to see what Pam is talking about. I will go to Lowe’s soon… My squares on the porch trim are about 10 inches square. Will the 6×6 cap work, or do I need to go larger – as in make my own?
pam kueber says
buy one and tack it up there and take a look to see if it works / see how it looks
you might also be able to add extra molding around it to expand its size
be creative!
Courtney J says
Your house is coming along well, and I love the front door you found. We live in a 1956 ranch that has a very similar shade of orange brick. While the trim is currently chocolate brown (yikes! And has been since the 60’s), we are leaning toward a grayish taupe, because it coordinates with the brick and mortar color. Don’t discount the color of mortar used, since it’s there between each brick. 🙂 We also went with the Caribbean blue for our front door, but I toned it down by glazing it. Good Luck!
pam kueber says
Yes, using the mortar color is often a great idea.