I am so bad at getting ‘after’ photos for the exteriors that I consult on and I’m always so grateful when one of my clients voluntarily sends me one. Katherine from Burnaby hired me about two years ago and here is the final result.
Before
During
Katherine and her husband actually completed an entire facelift on this house as you can see, here is what it looked like (above) when I arrived to help choose the colour.
My clients appreciate the large colour samples I always use in my consultations.
After-Casings (BM) OC-21 Winter White, Exterior Colour (Pratt & Lambert 33-24 Durango)
My clients installed white vinyl windows so in this case I suggested that the casings be the same colour. White is crisp with grey and I think if it’s possible and works with your colour scheme, painting the casings the same colour as the window creates a cohesive and pulled together look and feel.
When choosing whether to coordinate the casing colour to your VERY white vinyl windows, the way to decide is:
1. If the colour of your house is grey (with a blue or green undertone) or is painted with cleaner colours (not muted and/or dirty tones).
The above house (see the entire post here) has white vinyl windows but the field colour is brown so painting the casings white would not have looked as good as the cream colour we chose.
2. Off-whites and creams generally look the best with browns, sage greens, pink beige and green beige undertones.
In general grays with purple undertones or clean blue or grey blues work with either white or cream because yellow is the complement of blue and purple. Blue and white creates a more nautical feel where blue and cream looks more like a heritage colour combination.
What colour are your casings?
Related posts:
10 Best Front Door Colours for your House
An Exception to Mixing Clean & Dirty Colour for Exterior
Grey for Commercial Buildings? Yay or Nay
If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me.
Download my eBook, How to Choose Paint Colours: It’s All in the Undertones to learn how to get colour to do what you want.
To make sure the undertones in your home are right, get some large samples!
If you would like to learn to how choose the right colours for your home or for your clients, become a True Colour Expert.
Great color choices, but what a difference a porch makes….entirely transformed the front of the home. Good job Mr. architect!
This is great information that people really need to follow. Plastic windows are cheap and look cheap and you do not want to draw attention to the fact you have them. Many people will have deep Victorian earth tones on their house and then bright white windows – a parking lot would better replace their house. For more info on windows visit http://www.oldhouseguy.com/windows
Thank you for that web-site; I have been reading this afternoon and have learned a lot about old windows. I’ll keep my old wood ones, thank you very much.
I do agree that white casings work with, as you say, gray or blue/green undertones. There is another factor that plays in here. If the window configuration is complicated and/or doesn’t make any sense at all with the architecture (wish I had a picture to show what I mean)….then it makes sense to paint the casings “out”–the same color as the body of the house. I just saw a re-painted exterior with orangy-beige body color, white vinyl windows and….
dark green casings–ugh!!! They didn’t ask me!!!!
Haha. (I actually did tell them I had taken your course months ago–before they chose the recent colors). O well.
I read your memos all the time and enjoy. But, in this issue you did not address what do you do if you have orangey red brick, white windows, blk green shutters and need to paint the front door or get a new one stained in nice walnut?
p
Great web site from old house guy and the short video is perfect, if not funny!! A must watch for everyone!
Love the house makeover! I used a very similar scheme on my Edwardian house: new stained wood door with stained sidelights, BM white dove trim around white vinyl windows (looks like all one color), and a custom gray-green stain on the shingles. I couldn’t find the right color in the Benjamin Moore fandecks, but that Pratt & Lambert color looks great.