Monday, August 5, 2013

Picking A Siding Color


After almost two years in our house, the hubs and I finally decided it was time to replace our siding. The house still has the original 1980's masonite siding. Honestly, I can't believe it's held up the way it has. Nonetheless, there are places where it's starting to really look bad, and us not loving the idea of a moldy, falling apart house, we started looking into our options. Hardiplank it is. I can't wait!

Our siding guy told me I needed to choose a paint color. I'm pretty confident when it comes to choosing interior colors, but exterior is a different ball game. The sun and shadows mess with everything, plus there's the brick colors, mortar, surroundings, nearby houses, etc. to consider. Oof. Then, siding guy tells me it has to be a Sherwin Williams color.

What?

I know about zilch when it comes to SW paint. I have never really used it before, except for the Anew Gray in our guest bedroom. This caused me slight anxiety, followed by a few dozen samples...


At first, I thought it would be between Sandy Ridge and Studio Taupe...


Until I saw it on the house. I tried out several colors on our old siding in the back to see what I thought. The top is Sandy Ridge, under that is Studio Taupe. WAY TOO KHAKI. Crazy how neutral and gray these colors looked in the shade, but get them in full sun and they look completely different. Bleh. So, I dug through my paints and found Anew Gray. Tested it out. Then I found a sample of Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray.

Of course Hubs liked the ONE Benjamin Moore color I put up (the darkest color on the bottom). So, then it was all about trying to find a similar color in SW paint.

This pictures shows you how badly we need the siding done... and I can't wait to cover up all those wires (half of which Hubs discovered aren't even connected to anywhere, so he pulled them off). You know, circa 2013 instead of 1984. The pebbles are going, too... as soon as we get our backyard landscaped. (If we can ever get a company to call us back!)



It's SW Gauntlet Gray if you are wondering. Dovetail was also a close match to Chelsea Gray, but it was a few shades lighter. So, Gauntlet Gray it is. I love how the dark color picks up on the dark charcoals in our brick. Cannot wait to get a new feeling house! Woo! Goodbye 80's......