the space between

upcycle, repurpose and reinvent your space

if by blue you mean grey {exterior house paint ideas}

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Well, it seems as though this week is the week. Our closing is scheduled for Thursday. Can I get a knuckle bump?!?!

We’re pretty darn excited to get this new chapter in our journey started already. And somewhat cautiously optimistic that this closing date will actually happen. So maybe it’s best to hold off on the knuckle bumps until the weekend. 🙂 #nojinxiesplease

exterior house paint ideas


And, as it stands today, I’m actually kind of surprised the current residents of the house haven’t filed a restraining order against me yet. I seem to be able to find any reason under the sun to drive, walk, jog and otherwise meander by the house. 🙂  There are so many exterior house paint ideas that run through my mind that I find myself thinking of them and then thinking …

… “I’ll just go by the house to remind myself where we’re starting … I need to run a few errands anyway” or …

… “I need to take another look and make sure that would work … I’ll just walk by on my stroll with Marley” or …

… “I wonder if they’ve packed up everything in the car port yet … let’s drive by and see”.

I have restrained myself from becoming even more paparazzi-stalker-like and actually taking pictures every time I happen by. But along the lines of exterior house paint ideas here is the current topic up for discussion … I’d love for you to weigh in.

How do you decided what color to paint the exterior of your house? We know that changing the color of the house will have an immediate and dramatic impact.

When I asked Joel what he had in mind for exterior house paint ideas he said “something fun, like blue”.

gray exterior house paint ideas - the space between blog

(BHG)

So, in my loving, I’m-sure-I-understand-what-you-mean-and-I-take-your-opinions-very-seriously-at-all-times-voice I responded pretty quickly with “if by blue you mean grey … then I totally agree“. 🙂

Turns out, he did mean grey after I convinced him that’s really what he meant.

So let’s talk a little bit about this exterior house paint idea, can we?!?!

For starters, grey is the epitome of versatile. If we go with a shade of grey than we can go with a more fun color on the shutters and front door. I say let’s do fun on the smaller accents instead of ending up with a house that screams “WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS”.

I think grey is enough of a color that it is a color while still being enough of a neutral to go with a wide variety of other colors. Make sense?

I mean, we’re not strapping ourselves down to any specific color scheme with grey. We’re going to want to bring in color with flowers and patio furniture and other fun outdoor accessories. I don’t want to limit those fun little additions by having too defined of a color in the form of a big a$$ house. 🙂

gray exterior house paint ideas - the space between blog
(Houzz)

Also, grey is a color that is very ‘coastal’ feeling to me. By going with grey we can create a beach house vibe without being too Florida beachy, I want a subtle beach vibe, not pinks and palm fronds. ifyouknowwhatimean  🙂

gray exterior house paint ideas - the space between blog(VAHI)

But, within this net of grey are still a lot of options. So we’re working on trying to get it narrowed down.
gray exterior house paint ideas - the space between blog

I’m thinking a lighter grey, but dark enough to really pop off the white trim.

And I’m thinking a grey from the bluish-grey family, as opposed to a taupey or greenish-grey. Hopefully this helps tie in the desires of the man of the house and make him realize this color was actually his idea. Good idea, honey. 😉

Seems like a fair compromise, no?!?!

And if you’re interested in getting caught up on how we got to this point be sure to check out how we moved from one island to another in 23 days, how we decided whether to rent or buy knowing that we are only going to live here for a few years and see some ugly fun before pictures of our soon to be house.

Update:  See the color we chose and how we’re using a paint sprayer to apply it.

And if you’re looking for some general inspiration about choosing your own color scheme for the exterior of your house you might find these articles helpful:

Comments

  1. We had our house sided about 30 years ago. It’s a color the siding company called pewter; A light grey (or gray depending on your school of thought) I am still happy with. Our next door neighbors were in the choosing process when ours was in the beginning of going up process. She said that we stole her color, it was what they’d just decided on! And you’re right, anything goes with it. Maybe Joel can have Blue Adirondack chairs, lol.
    Janet

    • I love the idea of blue adirondack chairs … sounds like I’d love the look of your siding!!

  2. I love blue, however, that is not always the best for outside, so I feel grayish blue is good. I have had a painter here for days — slow, slow and will be so glad when he has finished. Since I will be selling the house I chose a light beige with terracotta trim along the roof line. If I were staying here, it would be more colorful. I know you are excited, and I am excited for you. Blessings

    • I have to admit that I think beige is a great color for a house exterior, it’s appeal to most people. Great choice!!

  3. I love grey houses – but with lots of white trim! So exciting – keep on hoarding those chips – and make sure you don’t get arrested! You may need camo – peek through the bushes and they’ll never even know you were there!
    Kelly

    • I am feeling like quite the criminal with all the paint chips … but its necessary, right?!?!?! 🙂

  4. Grey sounds like a good choice … red or black would really pop with that color.
    Good luck,
    Audrey Z. @ Timeless Treasures

  5. I love that grey house with the teal blue door – so pretty!

    I’m a paint-chip-hoarder myself. Once I’ve narrowed things down to oh, say, a dozen or so, I’ll invest in some sample pots, only to realize my dozen are totally wrong for my space. And so it goes.

    I’m finally locked in to paint colors for downstairs now though – and it only took 6 months! YAY! Now to find the budget to buy the paint and the awesome doohickeymabobber I saw that lets you roll right up to the ceiling without actually getting your wall color dotted all over said ceiling…

    • They make those!!!! Wow I need one of those. I hate having to go back to cover up the goofs when you get to close…or are not careful like my better half is when painting. I’m too meticulous and he’s to sloppy. LOL! 🙂 Going to have to google doohickeymabobber for painting close to ceilings now….

    • Seriously … I need to find me one of those doohickeymabobbers … that sounds like the best invention ever!!!

  6. I think the grey will be gorgeous with white trim, very classic and it does leave you with lots of options for accent colors. I always sample the paint on a piece of poster board so I can move it around to check the color against the brick, the front door, etc. and then I don’t have million little patches of paint all over the house. I will keep my fingers crossed for the closing on Friday.
    Traci

      • My favorite Duron paint store mgr. got us using a painted poster board years ago. She has the best eye for color; and I’ve lost track of her since she retired. She was so good that she had clients that flew her to Fla. to paint and decorate their Fla. home. Probably snowbirds! Poster board is fairly inexpensive too. You can also buy paint samples now days. Better to spend less than $10 for a sample then buy a gallon and not be satisfied with the color. We have purchased a number of sample colors of Benjamin Moore paints. Have been using BM for last 10 or 15 years and swear by it. Our first house we used SW, second house discovered Duron and used that brand for at least 20 yrs. and BM now.

  7. For sure a bluish gray is the way to go — you can have so much fun with all your punches of color! Fingers crossed for smooth sailing on Thursday, Karah!
    xo Heidi

    • Thanks so much Heidi … I have to admit my fingers (and toes) are crossed, too. 🙂

  8. It’s so hard to decided! Good luck. Someday we would love to paint our house grey with black shutters and white trim =) Can’t wait to see how it all unfolds!

    • I LOVE that color combo, Kelly!! We would probably go black shutters if we lived anywhere else … might have to do something a little more ‘Florida’ down here … but you never know. 🙂 And, have you noticed any difference in load time on the blog? I’ve been working on its about 13 seconds for me … still trying to get it below 10.

  9. Hi Karah..I haven’t posted anything to you in a while 🙁 srry..but I have been busy redoing my bedroom…I knew I wanted coastal, beachy but not tacky…kinda old florida style…so I chose sea mist and a turq color (forgot the name) that was a half a shade darker for focal. Posted pics on my fb wall if you want to see….picking paint is tough but I like the blue grey idea…def not greenish 🙂 Love to the furry babies !!

    • I love the sound of your bedroom update … just friended you so I can check out the pics!!

  10. Gray with white! And I loooove the “before” shots of your new house…hilarious {and just as horrifying as mine!} Can’t wait to see what you do next. 😉

    Aimee

  11. Oh yes, good choice, Joel! Grey would be lovely on your new home. Imagine the fun you can have decorating the outside to accent it.
    I’ll be praying your house closing goes off without a hitch, Karah. It really is a beautiful place, I love the porch! (we don’t have one, I want one so bad!)
    Debbie 🙂

  12. Love grey. I’m a paint chip hoarder. I also get panicked that I’ve chosen the wrong colour, even after it’s done. People say, oh it’s just paint – but paint is expensive! We just did our bedroom – twice. First time was BM Arctic Seal. Too dark. Repainted in BM Stormy Monday. Perfect.

    • At the risk of jinxing it, I’ve never actually repainted a room after I’ve picked a paint color … let’s hope that tradition holds true. 🙂

  13. All those houses are lovely. Really lovely. But none of them are in Key West. If you have to go grey I would go very blue grey. You are right about not doing the beige grey or the brown grey or whatever…. I kind of already answered this in your post from today… Congrats and good luck.

  14. Looks like you have your work ahead of you just picking the color, lots of choices. A word of caution, when we bought our house it was what is called colonial blue, think smurfs. The house was on the market for over a year and this was years ago. Our Realtor told us blue houses are the hardest to sell.

    • Hahaha, I have to admit I’m thinking smurfs and chuckling a bit … and I feel like I’ve heard that stat about blue houses somewhere so we’d be smart to steer clear of that option 🙂

  15. I love gray on a house and totally agree that it is easy to pair gray with fun colors on the trim. Hope everything goes smoothly for the closing!

  16. Yes! We went through this exact process and ended up with a light gray trim, slightly darker walls and a red door. I love that I can change the door color and change the look any old time. I wish I hadn’t seen on FB that you didn’t close. I woulda been so excited about it! Boo!

  17. I’m in the process of picking exterior paint color, too. I had to laugh at your basket of paint chips. I think I have most of them in my stack. I am also wanting grey blue. I knew I wanted a pretty yellow front door (at least this week) and since one of my fav combos is yellow/grey, it was a no-brainer. I agree, you don’t want a beige or green grey, especially in Fla. Are you going to do all white trim? Maybe some black? That was my first thought, but I’m thinking I want primarily white w/some navy (not a dark navy). I love picking paint colors. I have a system that works for me and, so far, I haven’t had to repaint. The big drawback is the time it takes. I tend to cogitate (weird word). It has served me well so far. Have fun picking the colors and good luck with the closing. It’s nerve wracking but exciting.

  18. We painted our house grey last summer with lots of white and went with a Granny Smith apple green on my doors and planters. The fun part of grey is that almost any other color is great as an accent. Think of the plants and landscaping colors that you are going to want to use and pull from there a FUN color! You wont be sorry. Keep in mind that the darker the color the larger your house will appear where the lighter the color will minimize the structure. Wishing you much success in your final choices.

    • YAY!!! So glad to hear it Kim!! I’m am so looking forward to the day when we actually get that checked off the list!

  20. That basket of grey and greige paint chips looks soooo familiar! We had our house painted last summer, and it came out a little more greige than I really wanted, but it looks great. The best part is our front door. Dark dark indigo. Almost black in some lights, almost purple in others. Ebony Slate from Benjamin Moore. Makes for a blue accent. I’ve seen a lot of grey houses with blue doors on the web lately.

    • I love the idea of a front door that looks different in different light! We met our neighbors the other day and the first thing they said was ‘please change the color of the house’ hahaha 🙂

  21. Have you seen any grey painted houses in Key West? Never been there but it’s on our list of places to go “someday.” From pictures I’ve seen of houses in KW, aren’t they painted more tropical colors? I am wanting to repaint our sunroom using tropical colors in the decor. My living room/dining room is BM Manchester Tan with white trim. Since the sunroom adjoins the diriing room I want to chose a color that will blend with the LR/DR colors. I have a collection of Interior bird houses on a shelf above the windows and that is going to be some of my inspiration.Right now, it’s painted BM Kittery point green and I am ready for a change.

  22. I subscribe to Coastal living magazine, even though I don’t live in a coastal region. I enjoy this magazine and you could get a lot of inspiration from it about colors that are popular in coastal towns/cities. If you don’t subscribe..they have their own website or just search on pinterest boards. Maybe the public library has a subscription and you can borrow some of its back issues.

  23. What color(s) and brand of paint did you decide on? We live in WA state in the pine trees and I have so many of the same thoughts that you wrote about! I want the more bluish gray, not the green/taupe and I am using poppy seed by Behr for the front door. I am struggling to find the perfect grey! Who knew? I don’t want too dark, just afraid of a really dark house and it gets so hot in the summer here. Too light of a grey is somewhat boring to me. If you found a winner, let me know!! Thanks! Jill
    Found your article on pinterest

    • Hi Jill!! I hope you find my email helpful … best of luck in your perfect-gray hunt!!

  24. Karah, How exciting, buying a new home and making all these decisions! I adore the color grey for a house. As a matter of fact, we have lived in our present house for some 22 years. It is a very light grey with charcoal shutters. We have never tired of it!

    • I’m so glad to hear, Lynn!! Our permit should be approved next week, we can not wait to see what a difference the new color will make!! I love the idea of charcoal colored shutters, too!

  26. Hello,

    we have been searching for the perfect gray exterior home color and your little pic with the blue door is what i am looking for!
    what paint colors are they (both) and what company?
    Thank you for your help!! Cute site 🙂

    • Hi Lori! I love that one, too!! I have the links to where I found each picture right below the photos, hopefully they can help you nail down the exact name!

  27. So have you decided on a color? I have the same thought about what I want the exterior of our home to look like. I have been wanting a grey, but more towards the blue, light but not too light and just dark enough for the white trim to pop. I am needing to know what color grey that is. 🙂 Please share if you did decide so that I can hopefully can make a decision as well.

  29. Awesome post. Now i’m gearing up to try bluish-gray on our next exterior project. Thanks! (btw- your followup post sounds like it was quite the adventure – did you ever get finished photos?)

  30. Do you know the color that was used on the house in the picture you posted with the blue door?? Like you, we are paint shopping for the perfect “grey/gray”. Thanks!

  31. Love the Houzz house! Picking colors for our house and we have cream trim, any idea what color that is? Need a gray to go with cream.

Trackbacks