Exterior paint and colour inspiration
Have you ever had the feeling that a house should be a certain colour? When we first landed our eyes on our home in 2016, I knew it was going to be white!
Picture December 2016
Exterior — Before & After
Three years living in our home pictured below.
We lived in our home for three years before we finally got around to painting it. In fact, the entire process of installing new windows, hand painting them sage green on the exterior and white on the inside took us months to complete. You can see top left, for about a year our home was red brick with green windows. It did NOT look good!! Haha. But like I always say, “a home takes time,” it can’t be rushed and a lot of the time, (in the real world) it doesn’t happen all at once, especially when you are living in it, raising a family and doing it yourself. Painting the brick was going to have to wait…
But when the time came, we chose to paint our 1950’s red brick home in a soft and neutral palette. It’s reflective of our surroundings which is close to the beach in sunny Australia. And, I really do LOVE white painted brick houses, In my eyes, white brick houses will forever be classic and timeless, so whats better than painting your home with something you will always love! Our garden is full of lush greenery that we nurtured and planted to complement the colours of the exterior. We were intentional about pairing the subtle sage green of the succulents to match the sage green of the windows, soft purples with the grey decks and white wth the rich greenery!
EXTERIOR PAINT COLOURS:
Exterior: Feather Soft Dulux - Weather Shield Maxi Flex
Windows & Doors: Pencil Pine - British Paints
Deck: Pine, Grey Mist Cutek Stain/Sealer
When choosing paint it can be overwhelming, something that helps narrow down the selection, along with working with the surroundings, size, area and purpose, I always ask “ How do I want it to feel? How do I want my family or guests to feel within this surrounding?” The psychology of colour and emotions are so closely linked we have the power to set the tone of how we truly want to feel within a space! When choosing paint for the exterior, I highly recommend testing a few colours on different areas of your house, before jumping in and let it sit for a couple of days. Carefully watch it throughout different times of the day and see how cool and warm it gets with the movement of the sun.
We hand painted our home in two days! We planned ahead and had my mother in law come to visit and help look after the kids so Ben and I could get to work! You might think we had to do a lot of preparation for painting our brick home, but really it was pretty easy! (Every home is different, consult a paint specialist if you have concerns) Fortunately, we asked Bens brother who has a painting business, what we might need to do to achieve the look we wanted. Luckily a lot of our bricks were in tact and did not need more than a little ‘gaps’ in certain spots before painting. We didn’t use any primer, we simply just painted Feather Soft Dulux - Weather Shield Maxi Flex straight onto the brick! It covered fantastically and we only needed to do two coats. Ben and I got into a rhythm, he cut in and I rolled. After the first coat a few mortar joints needed a little bit more gaps and extra paint. Then we cut in with sage green on the window trims again for the final crisp result. Oh the power of paint will forever blow my mind!!
OUR PAINT INSPIRATION?
White for home exteriors creates a crisp and clean first impression. It’s a classic hue that offers versatility in the sense that it is able to fit any architectural style – traditional, modern, classic, victorian ect. It is timeless!! The first benefit would be aesthetics. White may be simple but it is also a classic, and therefore, will never go out of style. Furthermore, it provides the perfect backdrop for architectural details like shutters, window frames, or doors. (our green windows!) Another great benefit is that white houses stay cooler compared to houses that are darker colours for their exteriors. Living in Australia this was a big factor for us.
Image source, House and Garden
Below: Bahamas, India Hicks home
What was inspiration? Our surroundings, what we love, our roots and experiences! Being English and growing up in English countryside I was surrounded by painted brick houses with complementary contrasting windows. Along with England being a huge exterior colour inspiration for us, Ben and I have travelled extensively to the Caribbean. We love the white houses situated between the tropical lush gardens and we wanted to bring a piece of our travels back with us to Australia.
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