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Behold, our house.
It pains me to look at the front of our house. Our poor lawn! But, we’re being the dutiful Californians and have allowed our lawn to die. It’s only green in parts thanks to the rain we’ve gotten this season.
The weather has been so nice lately – a preview to summer! It’s made me start thinking about finishing our exterior spaces, both front and back. We didn’t quite finish the back yard in time for a reveal last summer, so I postponed it to this year. Additionally, our front yard is just screaming for help.
The giant dead front lawn area is now just wasted space. If money were no option, we would build the house forward, add a bedroom and a master bath. We’ve weighed the cost against potential ROI and have concluded it wouldn’t be the best investment, although I would love the added square footage.
We have a couple Eichler neighborhoods in our area with incredible and immaculate dry landscape, It’s hard not to pick up inspiration from your surroundings! I’m channeling the simplicity, and mix of natural elements, that most Eichler homes carry. Maybe a slat fence, maybe a few too many prickly cacti. I think I need to take a road trip to the desert :)
My achievable wishlist for the front of our house includes: removing the brick facade, removing the decorative bracket things, repaint the exterior, rework the pathway and planter areas, and possibly add a fence. The tough part about painting our house is the fact our roof is RED. Ugh! A red roof. I’ve dug hard and deep in Pinterest and Houzz, and come up empty handed on inspiration. What color (besides beige) goes good with a brick red roof?
And, does anyone have a good tutorial on photoshopping colors realistically? Help!
Hi Brittany! I am also looking to paint my home and found this website. Of course it’s not perfect but I have found it pretty helpful! I love being able to upload the actual photo and pick paint from a few different vendors. http://colorvisualizer.certapro.com/en/
Oh wow, thank you! I will check it out!!!
I know it will be fabulous!
From what I have seen so far of your home, anything you do will be amazing. http://www.photoshopessentials.com maybe a good place to get photoshop help.
Thank you! And I’ll Check out that tutorial ASAP
Since your house is ranch style with a Spanish style roof why not go with a Spanish style house color? Remove the barge board (the things under the eaves) and paint the house all white or choose another Spanish style color. If you paint the whole house white, even the brick, you can add some black numbers (take them off the garage, move to above the brick planter) and light fixtures , and a cool wood, Spanish style door.
Also, the bushes in front of the windows should be moved. The window on the left would look great with two plants to the left of it, different heights, and a tall plant on the right (next to the front door to add some interest and even out the space. Also, by having a tall plant on one side of the door, the planter on the other side wouldn’t feel like it was so obvious. The right window should have low growing bushes that are all around the same height, and so they don’t grow tall and block the window. Because you are in a drought area grasses might be a good choice for you.
If you google Spanish style houses amd colors you can get some great ideas about color.
Congratulations on your home, have fun making it your own!
Janet! Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it! I think you’re definitely right, especially with those plants!
By the way, your house is super cute, have fun with it. I think you’ll be surprised how many options you have for the front yard. Flagstone, succulents, and grasses can give you a really low maintenance yard. Also, I have learned with remodels over the year to keep it simple and elegant, but I think you’ve already got that figured out. Enjoy!
Yeah! Exactly! Thank you :)
I really like the nautical look of this house with the red terracotta tiles and blue and white siding. TIs a bit down on the page link http://www.mariakillam.com/roofcolours/
Excellent suggestion! Thank you! I pinned the image for future reference :)
You’re reading my mind :)
We have the same roof on our ranch style house! I feel like my house is having an identity crisis, ranch style or Spanish style??? We are getting ready to paint and I am leaning towards a dark grey. I have also seen cedar planks done horizontally on just the front wall. It adds a modern touch and the color helps make sense of the roof color. Can’t wait to see what you do!
I would love to see a picture of that design! And I feel you on the identity crisis thing, I need to push it in one direction or another!
If you type in the address 6720 E Wardlow Rd Long Beach, CA on Zillow you can see a great example of it! It looks so good we were driving by and I made my husband stop so I could take a picture of it.
I say embrace the tile roof!! When you can’t get rid of it then work with it. I think it can be charming. This is the link https://www.pinterest.com/msmillholland/southwest-style/ to one of my Pinterest boards. For a brief second I thought we were moving to Texas last year and I was looking at houses with tile roofs in real estate ads and pinning away on cute red tiled roof cottages. A lot of them are white which is super crisp with the roof and I personally adore a white house. And what about a big pergola over a stone/pebble and maybe outlined in brick to tie it all in patio?? The pergola would add interest, use your front yard in a way everyone could enjoy, shade a few plants and possibly a small fountain to help overcome the dryness you feel. If you ever did expand to the front permanently you could dismantle and relocate the pergola so no waste involved. You could thrift furniture for the area or build simple benches to start. Check out some of the images I pinned. Some have great trim colors too. Good luck!! I think you have a lot of potential there!!
Thank you! This is so helpful, and I will check out your board :)
Like others, I think white could look really pretty with the red. Especially with black, dusty-turquoise, or dark blue trim/Spanish shutters!
I also just had the thought (though I don’t know if it’s even possible or realistic), is there a way to paint tile roofs without it looking funky down the road? Like if you could do a brown-wash over the red somehow? Maybe, maybe not. :)
http://hookedonhouses.net/2013/08/20/daydreaming-romantic-la-collina-ranch-in-ojai/
http://recentpastnation.org//www/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/style_spanishcolonialrev3.jpg
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/443745369506822489/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/130885932896913330/
Thank you! And I like the suggestion of blue window trim – I hadn’t even thought about that! I’ve contemplated painting the tiles, but haven’t reached out to a professional or done any research to see if it’s possible. If it is, and isn’t expensive, I might do it!
I’m not sure how the color would look with the roof but what if you left the brick and painted it a deeper hue of the main house color…perhaps a deep gray-olive color with the trim being a warm greige. Just a thought to save some money and keep the brick but make it look purposeful.
Something like this color….https://www.pinterest.com/pin/28851253839556483/
Chiming in with some Photoshop help… If you select all of the areas you’ll want to change the color, you can “refine your selection” (selecting smooth and feather to avoid harsh, jagged lines) and then play with the Hue and Saturation to accurately see how the colors will work in shadows and highlights. Overlaying a color on top doesn’t work because you either have to multiply it (which darkens it and you never know what the accurate color is), or you play with the opacity and you still aren’t seeing how the colors work in the shadows and highlights. Hopefully this helps!
ahhh you’re amazing! thank you!