We are closing in on finalizing paint color for our house.
Just a quick update: we had our house recovered in Hardie plank/panel and there are a few areas of stucco accents. Presently, it looks like this:
The light grey areas are the stucco accent areas. The siding will be painted and the cedar decking and trim will be stained to bring out a bit more of that lovely cedar red.
But I need to show you the stucco sample and a closer shot of the paint color. Ready?
That's right people. A lovely chartruese-ish green (Martha Stewart Cornichon) for our stucco accent color and Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal for the house color.
Yes, we realize stucco doesn't naturally occur in this color. However, we really wanted something that popped off the grey and cedar. We are partially excited about proceeding with this and partially praying that we aren't creating the neighborhood eyesore.
I don't quite have the right lighting on this, but here is a wider shot of the front of our new porch.
And here is is with a Photoshopped Wall o' Cornichon.
You're not really going to miss that one in a storm, now are you?
Welcome to CZ Design Central. How may I take your order?
Stay tuned.
dawn says
The colors look good and people will notice it, not in a bad way but in a “hey look at that color, we should do that to” kinda way. Can’t wait to see the finished results and I’m loving the porch/steps you have.
Lee Currie says
It’s going to look spectacular 🙂 Can’t wait to see the finished shots.
thepellerins@msn.com says
I like it!
Leora says
I love it!
helena says
love it
and now I feel this urge to open PSE and create a page – whenever I see those colours I think Cathy Z tempalte. I guess that is example of strong branding !
mary says
Wow!! Can I move back to MN now?
scrappysue says
Love it!
laura kate says
sassy. love it.
rosie says
I love the color!!! (and don’t you feel better after sharing some house details with your groupies-I mean, readers????)
We have an old (1923) brick house and all the trim is painted puke-beige and then we have hunter green accents so our house looks like it time traveled back to about 1987. I am dying to update the colors with some charcoal gray on the trim because I think it looks so rich with the brick.
thanks for sharing it with us 🙂
rosie says
PS I am also in love with the way the porch comes out a bit on the side-that bit of asymetry serious makes my heart flutter. It is so modern and cool, but doesn’t mess with the style or integrity of the house. It’s almost like you are some kind of awesome designer or something 🙂
Kendra B says
Love it!! and ditto what Rosie said 🙂
Korey Lindberg says
The house is looking Fabulous Cathy! You must be so excited that it’s so close to being finished. Oh and I love the paint colors!!!
Barb says
Fabulous!
judy in huntsville - al says
I love green! And I thin once the porch weathers in it will all be gorgeous together! Yay for you for the renovation! I”m still trying to get one bathroom done [the $$ always seem to go somewhere else – but that’s all good too-]
Caroline says
Love it!
Mad Morti says
lol – ditto what Helena said – very strong branding! HEHEHEHEHEH
Love it – love your courage.
Megan says
Seriously Love.
Rachel B. says
That is going to look AWESOME!!! And it is looking awesome already. I am so happy for you and your very stylish and very YOU house!
Rozanne says
I like it…but have you considered pink? I think it would look stunning with the charcoal.
ale says
one of my favorite color combos. love it!
Renee Gallup says
I love it, Cathy! And I also love that front entry area! Gorgeous!
ginny says
Love that color combo! It would make me smile every time I looked at it!
j.leija says
I love it! Mixing any of the “bold” colors with gray is always a smashing success according to my book! Please post pics when its done 🙂
Dawn G says
I love it! I am a huge fan of green. It looks great with the charcoal siding. I cant wait to see the finished product with all the cedar trim. It’s going to be gorgeous. The show house of the street!
cathy says
LOL! Branding indeed!
cathy says
Well, that would be a hard sell for Dan. LOL! Also, there is a pink house 4 houses down from us. Pink stucco. They might call us copycats. Ha!
cathy says
It is sassy, isnt it?
cathy says
I am happy to do it. I just am looking forward to doing a whole before and after photos post! Its coming in June, if everything is done by then!
cathy says
Rosie, thats courtesy of our totally awesome architects. There are some really cool details in the remodel, including siding panels that are different depths. We think we got our moneys worth!
Ellie A. says
Oh I can’t wait to see the Before & After pics 🙂 Love it.
Ania says
Yup…as if there was any other accent color! You are going to have the house that everyone wants…including us…way out in Oregon.
Jeannie Damon says
Nice Photoshop job. 🙂
Oh, the colors are great, too. I’m reminded of a couple of scrapbook pages . . .
Anna Aspnes says
i would not expect anything less CZ.
Laney says
I LOVE IT! But chartreuse is my favorite color so I might not be completly unbiaised here…
kayleigh wiles says
Of course it is that colour! We just painted our front door last night turquoise which is becoming my signature colour. Too funny!
Lisa Dickinson says
looooooove it. just like the architecture, it harkens back to the classic craftsman, but adds a modern touch. it’s nothing short of fabulous. 🙂
Kim says
It’s going to look fantastic!
rosie says
I totally agree! It’s those little modern touches on an old house that make the difference without ruining the integrity of the original design. Hope you have a nice long summer (is that possible in MN??) to enjoy that porch.
Sharon F. in CA says
Love it…love the color and its great to see the photoshop version to get the effect. Definitely Sassy and fits the Zielske clan to a T!! Congrats. Looks fabulous.
cinback says
It’s brilliant! And so you!
erica says
that entry way makes my heart go pitty pat – gorgeous! (and, our kitchen/dining area is MS cornichon/dk grey/lt grey so a big thumbs up from me on the colors!)
Kelly says
love it. i think you should probably just paint dan as well.
Kitty says
Love it! The green stucco and red cedar are complimentary colors and should look really nice with the neutral gray.I have a red brick house with a matching door. Maybe I need to mix it up a bit and paint it chartreuse (my current favorite replacing red) ……
K Weston says
Just built a new house and covered it with Hardie board & batton in the pre-painted “Iron Gray.” We debated and struggle and debated and finally I told my husband that the gray would get ‘er done. And then I prayed that I was right.
I so was. It is fabulous and striking. People stop and stare at it every day, wondering what is that siding and what is that color. (In different light, it can look black or blue or green.) And it looks awesome with red-wood accents, stone base and white trim. Love it, love it.
Gray is the new Fabulous.
Jen says
I love it!! And the photoshopped picture reminds me of the Dulux “Mouse Painter” software…. (http://www.icipaints.co.uk/colours/duluxtrade/mousepainter/index.jsp I don’t know the html code for “insert this here” lol)
cathy says
Id love to see that! Our kitchen is a color called Peppery, by Sherwin Williams. Its a paprika color. Love bold in kitchens!
Katie says
I love your house and LOVE the colors! We went with the same charcoal color when we painted last year, and it’s gorgeous. I adore the chartreuse accent color – but my husband is a MAJOR color-phobe. Even the charcoal freaked him out. I know without me, this house would be beige, floor to ceiling, inside and out. Yikes!
Carol Anne says
When we moved to our house, it had that greenish color on the trim. We lasted three years before we had to get rid of it — painted it a nice rich green. Our neighbors applauded our decision. Good luck.
Sarah says
In my past life, I was married to a man who could NOT visualize what anything would look like so, I often had to Photoshop things in different colors so that he could SEE what it would look like. For some reason, he didn’t like my attitude of “it’s only paint and we can re-paint if we don’t like it.”
LOVE your bold color choice and can’t wait to see the final pics!
madeline St onge says
I like the colors Cathy.
DonnaC says
I love it – I think it will look especially great on those grey snowy winter days, and spread some cheeriness around.
DonnaC says
Great reno by the way – love what you and your architects have done with the front porch.
Trude says
OMG it’s totally one of your pages brought to life. All the lines, plus the awesome squares of windows? 🙂 Love that color, why not add a pop when everything else is neutral? It’ll make you happy in winter when everything else is grey and brown.
Jana says
Mmm, great color combo! You need to photoshop the cedar now, to show how everything will look together. (right, like you need something else added to your already busy to-do list!)
We love color in our house – our bathroom has yellow walls, purple wainscoting and trim, with green counter top & a combo of all 3 colors in the tile work. (White bathroom porcelain). Our kitchen is periwinkle blue with white. The living room has a billiard green ceiling & trim w/white walls, and the dining room / family room is mostly terra-cotta orange with merlot trim with flashes of blue, chartreuse, red, amber, turquoise, peeking out from under the orange… (need to do a blog post on that almost finished paint experiment)
Your chosen colors will be terrific! The green has just enough “mud” to keep it from being obnoxious!!
Cheryl says
Love it! I’m feeling a scrapbook LO with that color combo…
Jules says
I am loving your color choices. PSE the lower part so we can get the full effect! Chartruese-y green is one of my favorite colors so I applaud your bold choice. Can’t wait to see the finished result.
Dawn says
Love love Love it!!
telisj says
There is a house in my town which has that color green for the entire house with black window frames and it is stunning! it took me a while to get use to but now it is one of my favorite houses! I think it’ll look great!
gypsy chaos says
I applaud your decision to paint the stucco in a color that CLEARLY isn’t a “natural” color. i love the color scheme. I think Dan makes a great accent piece in the decor.
A local house with mega-amounts of stucco painted every square inch orange. Orange that couldn’t decide if it was a deep peach or true orange. Orange kinda sorta like a natural terra cotta. Orange like a dye job gone drastically bad.
Kay Gregory-Clark says
I guess I’m in the minority. I’m not a green person to start with and especially do not like chartreuse. But it’s definitely CZ, no doubt. I do like the charcoal. I’m so jealous of your house, though. My favorite architectural style. Hey! I just FINALLY, after months of drip-drip-drip got my kitchen faucet replaced yesterday. Progress takes time. 🙂
cathy says
Oh Kay, you and your opinions! ; ) There IS a part of us that is nervous, but, worst case scenario? We hate it, and later have it resurfaced and redone, or we just paint. My fingers are crossed, let me tell you!
Kimberley K says
Absolutely love it! AND…love your house. I think I ran across a video on concrete counters with your picture on a stick….is that you???? If not it is your twin. Anyway…love your color choice and will have to pick up a color sample at Ace Hardware to see how it would go in my computer room.
cathy says
Oh Kim, its me alright. We had our kitchen remodeled for a show on the DIY channel. My head was on a stick because they had to film one of the episodes while I was at a Simple Scrapbooks magazine meeting in Utah. : ) They just worked it into the story line.
Jacqueline says
Lovely fresh colours! Every time you come home, you will be smiling.
Rose SL says
Cornichon (pickle in french) is PERFECT. Love that green! Your exterior remodel is looking lovely, and I bet people will stop and ask you the name of that colour, it will be very sought after! Looking forward to the final reveal!
Barbara Rokke says
Oh my gosh! I just spent hours agonizing over painting my living room – duh! I could have taken a picture and photoshopped the color to see what it would look like. Now why didn’t I think of that??!!! Cathy, you are brilliant! I can’t believe I spent so much time trying to decide – in the end, I picked a cream color which was just a touch lighter than the cream on the walls! But I wanted my living room to be bright since it is smaller. I did paint my master bathroom a medium brown and it looks awesome so I shouldn’t have been so scared to put color in my living room. Just need to pick out curtains and I have a new room. Only 4 more rooms on this floor to go! 🙂
Linda says
Kathy, I love color. I really do. Yet, I have to say, with the MN days being approx 160 with weather below 60 degrees, this color doesn’t seem to say happy little house.
Pink isn’t what I would pick either, and purple is way too much like a Viking fan lives there.
With the warm tones of the wood and cool of the grey roof and underbelly {technical term} of the front it just needs a little something different.
Not that you tried this technique…however, it is similar to how you stamp an image or have floaties {another technical term} on a layout…it needs to be grounded a bit.
I looked at the color yesterday, and again now.
It is like your butt, you only think of it when you see it in the mirror. You go all day long not even thinking about it.
I know, I am a minority here by telling you this and well the color of the outside of your house is only important when giving directions.
I don’t mind green, I just think the undertones need to have a little bit less yellow and more blue.
I am saying this in a very loving and caring manner. So please don’t take it any other way.
Kay Gregory-Clark says
No one ever accused me of not having one (opinion). A person who’s a very good friend now told me (much after the fact) that when he came to work with me, I intimidated the hell out of him! I come from a line of strong women.
cathy says
oh, its all appreciated! : )
Sabrina L says
Stunning. I love the contrast of the modern twist of architecture and colours on an otherwise very traditional house. We are currently looking at a house very similar to this to buy and I think you’ve given us some ideas to take kick it up a notch!
On the right side of the house there is a boxed frame that sticks out a bit…is this around a window? Love the detail! And the thinner planking mixed up with the wider ones…love it.
cathy says
Yes, that little bump out is around a window, and it will be painted the cornichon color too.
Mariee says
I’m also in the minority and initially absolutely did not like the color combination but that’s because I’m not a mustard yellow kind of girl. Give me 5 years and I bet I’ll absolutly love it too! 🙂
MichelleGB says
Love, love, love your choices! I can’t wait to see it all done!
Kelli says
OMGoodness! I love the angled stairs and the jutting out of the roof line. I think we have the same grey on the bottom of our garage, but we went much more ‘safer’. Navy trim, white boards, red cedar in between.