Help with choosing exterior paint colour

heldel00

We really need to paint exterior of house. I have gone to a few different places with pics but come away with different ideas every time!

Detached house, sandstone stone work, cream windows, reveals around windows.

I really don't want to pick a colour that makes windows look yellow. This is my main concern.

Does anyone have any suggestions of where to go for advice or someone i could pay for advice? Big house so really don't want to make mistake.

antiskeptic

How does this look? Farrow and Ball Light Grey with cream (Farrow and Ball New White would be a good off white to go with) windows/reveals

I've used the combo internally and it works great. The house in the photo shows what happens when you combine outside.

https://www.google.com/search?q=farrow+and+ball+light+grey+exterior&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=dYrVy14kBUj6LM%253A%252C0-_5YlI94pCbIM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kRpWkzsmdECm9x5s6QyzZNsHrR5sQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiKu43kotffAhXLURUIHTB4CRMQ9QEwAHoECAAQBA#imgrc=dYrVy14kBUj6LM:

heldel00

That is beautiful. Love that combination.
Really wish there was a website that you could upload pic of house and play around with ideas.

(Showed it to husband there and he roared laughing. Apparently we'd need to rob a bank to paint house using Farrow and Ball!)

jlm29

You can get their colours mixed into other brands of paint though.

heldel00

Sorry yes i should have said that about colour matching. My usual place now stocks colourtrend and f&b so they won't match anymore. Bit of a pain.

antiskeptic

jlm29 wrote: »

You can get their colours mixed into other brands of paint though.

...and will end up with something that doesn't quite do what Farrow and Ball does. There's a bit more to it than just colour (and I don't just mean paint-snobbery).

heldel00

Do you mean as in the coverage is better with F&B?
Have never used it. Always use colourtrend. More expensive but works out the same because walls, of a new house in particular, will soak up so much paint.

dok_golf

Just my own opinion, but I wouldn't touch F & B, or colourtrend. Both are over priced and over rated although they do a great job marketing themselves in interior design magazines and blogs etc. I recommend either Weathershield and Sandtex to my customers, they can be matched to any colour from any manufacturer. The paints are equal ( better imo) as the ones mentioned above and a fraction of the price.

antiskeptic

heldel00 wrote: »

Do you mean as in the coverage is better with F&B?
Have never used it. Always use colourtrend. More expensive but works out the same because walls, of a new house in particular, will soak up so much paint.

The quality of the colour - especially it's ability to look good in different light levels and with different light types (halogen/led/natural).

I'd a sister who liked an F&B colour I'd put up. She got a ColourTrend copy. We put up a panel of F&B on top of the CT to compare. No comparison. Sure, it's not unlike, but it's not the same.


Put it this way, I flip houses occasionally and use F&B. I did decide to give CT a try - for obvious cost reasons - but quickly figured it a false economy. You don't get the same impact and folk, frequently, do notice it. And folk, generally, put a high price on the "packaging" of a house they buy.

I've never understood the cost objection to F&B (once having being converted). Per sq m covered, F&B paint is a tiny fraction of your semi-solid flooring, yet paint you see a lot more than flooring.

antiskeptic

dok_golf wrote: »

Just my own opinion, but I wouldn't touch F & B, or colourtrend. Both are over priced and over rated although they do a great job marketing themselves in interior design magazines and blogs etc. I recommend either Weathershield and Sandtex to my customers, they can be matched to any colour from any manufacturer. The paints are equal ( better imo) as the ones mentioned above and a fraction of the price.

You can consider paint colour like you would the colour of an light bulb.

An LED light (generally) emits light of one wavelength and gets rated according to the colour (warmth) that wavelength produces. Let's say a particular bulb has a colour temperature rating of 3500K

A halogen bulb can have the same nominal colour/warmth. It's rated at 3500K just like the LED bulb.

But the halogen emits light over an infinite number of wavelengths, some warmer than 3500K, some colder than 3500K. But the average effect of all the wavelengths combined is 3500K, an so it's rating.

The halogen light (not unexpectedly) has a completely different visual quality to the LED light. Notwithstanding the fact it's nominally the same colour as the LED. LED's tend to be harsh on the eye whereas the halogens and softer on the eye - for same overall warmth rating.

Ditto F&B vs a cheaper paint. You'll get undertones and subtleties in F&B that you simply can't get in Sandtex. The latter simply isn't built up with the layers than F&B is.

And so, you'll get (as I recall getting) a lovely warm Dulux sand-coloured paint (when seen in sunlight) which turned cold, lemon yellow once the lights were turned on in the evening. Versus a F&B warm grey out of which warm plum tones come in evening light

If you want a colour, go with the copy. If you want a visual effect, go with the F&B.

I'd agree there's a lot of poncing associated with expensive paint. But they do what they say on the tin, nevertheless.

heldel00

Thanks for all the advice. No harm in pricing it i suppose.
It's a big fécking house though so want to get it right but not leave me broke either.

antiskeptic

heldel00 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice. No harm in pricing it i suppose.
It's a big fécking house though so want to get it right but not leave me broke either.

Depending on the quantities involved you could try priming and 1st coat CT and 2nd coat FB. You need to have sufficient areas of like-colour to be covering to make it worthwhile.

A word of warning on copying for colour. I once decided to get a CT copy of FB's New White. 10 litres of it. I figured that the qualitative difference would matter less on the ceiling.

With 5 litre tins being mixed you would expect less error involved when adding the smaller quantity pigments. Put it up and it was ... peach. I ended up having to add 5 litres of brilliant white in order to match the colour. 5 litres of white into 10 litres of CT copy! That's how far off it was..

Last tip. If you've never tried it, go for a estate emulsion (FB's designation for full matt) instead of mid-sheen (FB mid sheen). Bar for kitchen and bathroom, its practical enough and you can give it a wipe. It brings out the visual quality far better.