Hello. Have you thought about painting the brick?

I've just been down to the paint shop and they said that I can't paint the weatherboard dark so yes, just starting to think about painting the brick up a light colour so that the whole house is one colour or two shades of something similar...

Can you give us a picture of the front of your house. The carport is blocking my creativity, Lol. Thanks

I think the mod barn thing would be best . . . are the windows paintable? If they must be white, since most of the trim is white, consider a barn red brown for the end gable siding - and to paint a different barnwood gray color on the sides and outside the gable edge -
Something to match the essence tone wise of the bricks http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/chestnut is a good tester . .. then the dark roof and white trim and windows will be great. Here's another one to test http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/harvestbrown or arroyo red . . . like or [houzz=]
You can work with a mid-tone gray like bm barnwood on the siding outside of the gable - so you go two tone there . . . . and paint the upper window sashes red to tie back . . . you could shift the lower windows and the end windows to a darker gray . . .

btw, i don't think this is uncool at all .. . . lots of neat character - love the way the corrugated galvinized metal is used . . .

Painting brick can cause real problems, especially in a damp climate. Aesthetically, I think it will be more modern to leave the brick exposed in any case. Diminishing the amount of contrast overall will help make it more sophisticated - try a couple of greys that are related to some of the colors in the brick, and get rid of the white if you can.

At the paint shop they said that I have to have a reflection value of over 40 which mean that the only colours I could use for the weatherboards are really quite light. I didn't ask about a red but I suspect that it would have to be fairly insipid and less bold than the pictures posted above. The window frames are aluminium so that can't be changed easily without re-glazing the whole house. It's currently single glazed so that will happen but not in this round. I had thought that the soffits are part of the problem and perhaps there needs to be some depth added on this end? This is the end that faces the road. It's the ugliest part of the house. At the other end there is a chimney up the middle that breaks it up. Thanks for the comments. Still not sure what to do... I brought home resene lemongrass today and painted up a piece of card with it.

Even painting the yellow parts a color that was found in the brick would help - there is a lot of contrast going on at the moment. Nonetheless, I don't know of any reason why you could not have the aluminum windows painted?

An impression -- of course the bottom half would have the brick texture, which alas I don't have time to do (and get right). You like? I like. Repeat after me: my house is not ugly.

yes I could have them painted but to retrofit double-glazing would then require me to have the new windows powder coated to the new colour. Probably easier to stay with something simple? But you are making me think in a more flexible way than I was which is good. The bricks have a number of colours in them close up will see about posting another photo.

the back is cool and will look great when the roofing (decramastic metal tiles) is painted a grey or dark colour rather than the brown.

fantastic Rina! how did you do that? I tried to use the resene software but it's a nightmare to learn. Awesome! Thanks:)

the other thing I was thinking was, would it look better if I had a different material on the front end - like painted shingle?

http://www.resene.co.nz/homeown/decorating_inspirations/551.htm here's the colour they suggested. And a darker shade on the bottom

Hi Shannon. I'm a simple-minded creature with no budget for software so I use Microsoft Paint, an old version. One has to fiddle with it a while to find out what one can do. If I have time later (probably when you're asleep) I'll try to use the lemongrass colour. It looks good to me. It's that for the siding, darker for the bottom half? The siding will take time to Paint; it's a tad fiddly. And I am on deadline for a client who thinks that by the end of the holiday period I will have done a small mountain of work. Warning: last time I picked up a suggested colour from the manufacturer's website the poster told me that the result on screen bore no resemblance to the colour. Ah well. Can but try.

lol thanks Rina - aren't you lovely!!! Yes tis off to bed for me now. 10.02pm here. Thank you!

Hi Shannon. I've just had some really bad news, so I don't quite have the oomph to finish this. You'll just have to imagine the colour continued to the two wings -- and it may, as I said, bear no resemblance to the real thing anyway. Here's one naked, as it were, and one with a flower box on that naked top window, just for fun. It feels as though it needs something.

Good luck. I suspect you're lovely too. And I know your house is. I'm so muddled, I hope I'm attaching the right pics.

If you use masonry paint, we could head in a warm greige direction for all of it - not so yellow . .. something that can give you a bit more contrast against the white windows and trim - even 40 does a lot for us . . . what about a blue green gray? You will get a coastal / mod vibe and it will relate to the farmhouse look .. .above bm silver mink http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/silvermink and below . . . gilbraltar cliffs . . http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/gibraltarcliffs

Shingle look siding on the side dormers would be neat to get that cottage mod. . . you can stick with yellow but I don't think it complements the roof tone. With the blue-green grays, the white windows and trim will really pop beautifully. . .

You can also go more neutral with a warm gray - greige . . . here's the siding tone http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/capemaycobblestone paired with this for brick - http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/graystone
potential future red windows . . .aluminum pits over time, so if you have just one side you want to try, you don't have to powder coat, you can take a small brush and just do them by hand with latex paint if they are 10 yrs old or more. . . one advantage to gray . . future see [houzz=]

Hi Guys,

sorry I have been away out of the range of the internet (still very possible in New Zealand - not sure if that's a good or bad thing). Rina I am sorry to hear you had some bad news. I hope you're ok now.

Rina I love how you added the window box to the top window - it makes a world of difference! I can't believe what a difference a small thing can make.

I'm not sure libradesigneye what you mean about the picture you have attached - isn't that cedar?

I am painting the roof also, so that gives us heaps to play with. If I paint the bricks, it allows me to go lighter on the top too without creating too much contrast. I can't really afford to add that at the moment though. I could get the painter to do the back chimney while the scaffolding is up and do the rest myself at a later date (waiting for back surgery this month).

What do you think? I really can't say how much I like that window box - I knew it needed something to make it a bit more multi-dimensional at the front. That really works. Any other ideas welcome! Thanks again everyone - it's really helping.

Shan

Also, I was reading what HEREdesignandarchitecture said about it being more modern by leaving the brick. I love your work and was wondering what you think you would do with it? Would you leave the soffits and fascias white or go some other colour? I'm not sure what is more modern...

I love this look maybe I could try to replicate those colours?

Shannon: To absolutely get the look you show above, I fear you need to wait for your next house. Once thing you might look at in your example is the fairly monochromatic color scheme. If you repaint the roof of your current home the existing brown, and choose a color for the weatherboards that is something reflecting the tonality of the brick, or perhaps just a tick darker, you might have more of the look you wish. I think the "wow" factor with this property is going to be things like dramatic hardscape, a jazzy landscape plan, landscape lighting, wraps around the carport posts, exterior light fixtures and the like. Where the heck IS your front door?

Hi Shannon. Welcome back. Happy New Year, all. Glad you like the window box -- it's one of the nicest ways to add a lift to a facade with minimum effort, if the house is right, and yours is. Coping with the bad news aspect of life, I guess, as we do. Thanks for asking.

hahaha the front door is inside the carport to the right hand side. It's cedar. Nwduck, what do you mean by hardscape? I'm not so optimistic as to think my house can look like that one but the colour scheme could work I think? I originally did want to go with the tonality of the brick but the paint shop soon put paid to those aspirations saying that I can't use any dark colours on the pine weatherboards.

What do you mean by wraps around the carport posts? I have never heard of that...

Rina, glad you got my message:)