Watch us build a house!: Exterior Colors

There's been quite a bit of progress on the house, and the contractors have started prepping for stucco application. Since they'll also be painting the stucco (as opposed to the paint crew doing the rest of the house), we need to finalize the exterior color in the next few days. The house has a lot of orange tones from the the cedar accents and the stonework, and we wanted a neutral beige/taupe color to balance that.

After brunch today, we headed off to select a color. This process involves buying 15 shades of beige paint, painting them on the side of the house, staring at them for an hour, and getting mad at J when he can't tell the difference between Ultimate Beige and Pinnacle Beige. To be fair, I only picked up nine samples, and two of them I just wanted to see as potential interior colors (SW Worldly Gray and SW Amazing Gray).

Of the colors samples I chose, SW Balanced Beige is a clear standout for me. I'd be happy with this color, but of course J, looking at all the shades, didn't like any of the them and made the very astute observation that "they're all...so...beige." We discussed using SW Bunglehouse Gray, and J liked that idea. I'm torn, primarily because I've now used that color twice (in our house on 24th and on the flip project on 25th). I suppose another way to look at it is that it's definitely a color that I know I love. Another benefit of that color is that no other house on the block is that green/grey/taupe shade, while there IS another beige stucco house just three doors down. Our house is so different, though, that I don't think the other house also being beige matters that much. Anyhoo, I'm going to pick up another sample of Bunglehouse Gray tomorrow to do a side-by-side comparison. In the meantime, below are a few images of what we're working with.

SW Balanced Beige (next to cedar trim)