I have been saying for what feels like quite some time, that we would like to clad our house in “blue” with white trim and natural cedar. The things is, there are so many different types of blues, and narrowing down the right one is a big decision. It can’t be too dark, too light, to green, to grey… you see my dilemma? I took a visit to Benajmin Moore’s store yesterday, to talk logistics and finish options. I am not fully certain we will go with Benjamin Moore, but their solid stain selections are certainly in the running. They are available in all of the bejamin Moore colors! I am planning to use an oil based product for the natural cedar, either a transparent or slightly tinted stain. On that note, I had been thinking of Sikkens, but the color dude at BM said they have changed their formulation in the the last year to a hybrid product, and he wasn’t confident to stand by it’s performance… any one with a word on that?
Ok, back to Blue.
After bringing a few options home and looking at them with Matt, I decided to peruse the Benjamin Moore Web Site for color options. I have to admit my affinity for BM, in part comes from following the journey of Sharon Grech, who is a designer and BM spokesperson… you may recognize her from guest spots on Cityline. Also if you read Young House Love, they have a selection of their top color picks. I used the handy BM Colour Gallery to peruse my options, and this did help to narrow down some of my top picks! Here are 8 of my favorites (at least my favorites for today!)
I would like to pair whichever blue we choose with nice crisp, warm white trim, perhaps something like this:
It’s a little hard to read white on a computer 😉 They all seem to look a bit grey or a bit beige… but, it’ve lovely on my swatch next to winter’s eve! Next step is to choose our top 3 blues and buy some samples! I am not leaving nearly 3000sf of siding to chance… yay!!! What is your favorite? Do you prefer the navy route, greeny/blues… crisp ocean tones? I would love to have you weigh in!
-Miss Ash
You can view some of my other exterior related posts for the cottage here:
Its so hard to pick paint colors when you see all the options at once 😉 My eyes were automatically drawn to “lucerne”…I really like the teal tones to it..but for something lighter or more typical cottagey look I think “winter’s eve” is the classic cottage, then “finley blue” looks really dutch…but I wonder how lucerne would look on the wall with the sunshine coming through..if its not too dark, i would try that one. I LOVE COLORS!!!
Ashlea,
I don’t know if you remember, but our house is blue with white trim and cedar.Here is the link: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/catalog/servlet/Search?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&keyword=night+watch&Ns=None&Ntpr=1&Ntpc=1&selectedCatgry=Search+AllWe used Home Depot Behr paint called “Nightwatch.”
I’ll post a pic on Facebook.
We hired a friend who used to work at a BM store and she did a fantastic job and the paint went on awesome. She used the Aura paint for all our doors, and the no VOC one for the whole interior. Also, she ended up with a gallon extra, even after being conservative with her estimates, she said it just goes on so nice and covers so well. It had such a low odor we could hardly tell it had been painted when we got home!
Happy blue choosing, I am not good at giving my opinion, because to be honest they all look the same to me, lol. Ok well not really but if it is for the whole exterior, I would go with a shade lighter than you want it to end up, because being too dark might lose some of the “life” you want it to have 🙂
I discovered your blog today. I love the blue you choose for the house exterior? Which paint color did you settle on? Thank you!
Hi Cynthia- our home exterior is a Behr color called “Arrowhead Lake” I took a sample to Benjamin Moore and had it matched in their exterior solid stain product, Arbourcoat.