progress report: siding

so here is a quick shot of what the front of the house looks like right now.  the hardie board siding looks good right?!  but compared to that barn wood siding....well it falls short big time.  its kind of a puke-y yellow color so björn and i are eager to get it painted as soon as we can. 

originally we really wanted to paint the south house a lighter blue-grey color.  this was our plan all along, my grandfather did an amazing rendering of the house based on a color i had picked back in september.  however, after seeing how beautiful our barn wood turned out we were feeling like the south portion of the house needed to be able to hold its own without competing with the barn wood and that light blue-grey was just not going to cut it.  it seemed kind of weak.  

while björn and i were in new zealand two years ago we noticed many of new houses had black or very dark colored siding and we both really loved it.  i don't think it ever crossed our minds to paint our own house in such a bold dark color.  now before everyone gets a little scared i have rounded up some photos which are good examples of how black or almost black siding can look very elegant.  if you will notice all of these homes have beautiful bright white trim which is key to the house not looking darth vader like.

black board and batten siding Battle Associates Architects via Houzz

dark dark green siding and beautiful white trim- Birdseye Design via Houzz

i love this swedish house with charcoal grey siding
- Ike Kligerman Barkley via Houzz

Ron Brenner Architects

Union Studio Architects

Are you convinced yet?  Björn and I are really loving the richness of the dark colors and the white trim just makes it look so happy!  We have narrowed down our choice to a Behr paint color called Evening Hush.  I am going to do a little research tomorrow to see who has the best exterior paint and also who has the best price. If all works out we will be painting the house at the end of this week.  The weather here is pretty good for painting, warm but a little cloudy.  I hope that we can share photos of the finished Hardie Board soon!

Evening Hush - Behr
(it looks better in real life- it looks a little flat on the computer)