How We Designed Our Home’s Exterior

It got to a really exciting point in the renovation process the day someone, other than myself, came to work on the house. When the framers finally came and started to make the modifications to the exterior, I took that momentum and shifted gears to working on the cottages curb appeal. For months I’ve been dreaming about what driving up to the cottage might be like so we got to work with finalizing siding and trim paint colors, restoring windows and making the selection for our decking & porch.

EXTERIOR PAINT COLOR

source via pinterest

I’ve loved this inspo pic since we bought the house 8 months ago, so I’m confident about how I want the overall look of the exterior to look like. What I really love about this home, specifically, is the creamy exterior and it’s rich wooden decking.

SWATCH HOUSE

One thing I’ve always know is that I wanted the exterior for the main cottage to be a shade of off white. When it was finally time to make decisions about paint, I swatched 6 off-white Benjamin Moore  colors directly onto the house.

It was really important to see each color at different times of day. I went to the swatch wall at morning light, at the brightest time of day and at golden hour to have better insight of their variances and undertones. 

Note: I did some research and learned that when picking a white paint color, especially for the exterior of a house, you want to pay attention to the brightness scale or LRV (light reflectance value) in the paint. The LRV tells you how much light the color will reflect off a surface (the lighter the paint color, the lighter the LRV)— a good white exterior paint color should have an LRV between 73-85.

Once I had a chance to observe the swatches at different times of day, I finally settled on White Dove for the main cottage siding. I went with this shade because it had a subtle green undertone that felt the most calming and muted. 

TRIM & WINDOW COLOR

Trim Swatches

Since White Dove was going to be the exterior base color of the house, I didn’t want the trim and the windows to also be the same color. I wanted to make sure there was some dimension and interest drawn to them, but in subtle way.

I started off testing Manchester Tan, Deep In Thought and Dove Wing but they were either too dark or not contrasting enough. I swatched two more colors and I found the PERFECT subtle contrast I was looking for in Grey Mist. This shade has the same green and warm undertone that I loved in White Dove.

For the windows I went with Black from Benjamin Moore. The only thing I went back and forth on was how we were going to finish the windows. Instead of only painting the muntins that separate the window panes, I preferred the substantial look of the entire thing painted including jambs. I also had to figure out how to make the front two windows look like one unit since the framers did them far apart, there was a large separation in the center.

Using a 6” board and putting it in the center, it defined it as a total window unit and made the black more predominant. Here’s an example of how they would like with all back center trim in comparison.

I am so proud of the restoration work we did on our windows. It was our first DIY for the cottage and little did we know that it would end up being three weeks of hard work and lots of learning. Check out the full restoration here.

DECKING

I wanted to echo my inspo picture by finding the perfect rich-toned wood that complimented the house. I am naturally drawn to the look of contrasting wood to a light colored house, but, I also wanted to honor the richness of the wood found in the houses interior. 

After sitting with various samples, I went with the Vintage Collection from TimberTech in the color Mahogany. I went with a polymer material for the decking because it’s low-maintenance and we will never have to worry about the boards rotting, cracking or splintering.

Another detail that was also really important to me was that I match the front door stain to the new decking. I went to The Home Depot with my sample of the decking and they were able to customize a stain for me. I am OBSESSED with how the door came out and how great of a match the stain is to the decking! They were really able to capture the golden red undertone of the Mahogany shade, perfectly.

I am SO ready for the moment when the exterior of the house is finally painted, because I know it will absolutely take my breath away! Watch the entire video below!

Let me know in the comments what you’re most excited for when it comes to the exterior!

XO, MaCenna