I need to paint my house this summer (yes NEED not want). Anyway the wife and I can't figure out what color combo. So we get the brilliant idea to play with colors in Photoshop! Problem is nothing I'm doing looks right.

What I've done so far is use channel masks to isolate the white and the shutters/door. I then tried to use adjustment layers for color fill and/or channel mixer (even with combining the two). Nothing looks right.

We're trying to see what the house would look like with
- beige paint & burgundy shutters
- colonial grey & burgundy shutters
- colonial blue & black shutters
- any combination that would look good and we're not opposed to painting the brick.

Anyone willing to teach me how to do this? I'm guessing that part of the problem is starting with trying to color a white house? This is the house and a link to the full-size pic.

I'll see what I can do.

Look no further, tofu.
Heres the house for you.

Fix the stinking mailbox. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?

These pics are from when we first looked at the house. The box was fixed right after we bought it!

Couple of questions-

Is your siding Wood, Aluminum or Vinyl?

Are the eaves wrapped or wood?

Are you planning on painting the brick?

I've painted hundreds of shacks and those are the first things to consider.

FYI, Vinyl doesn't paint. Aluminum will paint but, The best latex wouldn't make it through the next winter. You would need a reliable oil-base primer.

Save your bricks! As with all fashionable styles, Everything comes around(mullets, mini skirts, pointy shoes, etc) and the brick you painted this year will be the brick you wished was normal five years down the line.

I'd go with three colors, A lower tone beige for the body. A charcoal/gray matching the roof colors for the trim and a red or orange tone for the shutters and doors.

Good points JD.
I'd definately stay with white, and only be planning on a new color for trim and doors. I'd probably go with something that looks like a lighter tone of the brick to keep it tied together. A terracotta maybe. AND when it comes time for new roof shingle..absolutely positively go with a brick color for those.
IMHO I wouldn't even consider using color instead of the white to express myself with this home. White white white, and stay white...what you need to do to express yourself, drive up the property value, and also win the love of your neighbors is landscape that neglected property.
Get your color from the landscape, Green at every level touched off with plum from a Japanese maple, some small plum trees, and plum colored plants will be the KIZAAA!
Those Podocarpus bushes will grow into trees unless you wanna trim them all teh time, they're too close against the house, gotta go.

Wood siding, trim, eaves, fascia board. I worked for a house painter before college. I'm more than familiar with painting (which is more appropriately named scrapingsandingcaulkingsealingthenfinallypainting)

I hear ya on the styles coming and going. We're hoping to put new siding on the house in a few years (but only if food and fuel prices don't cause us to sell first ). So that's why we're willing to play with color right now. The shingles will need to be replaced in about 3-5 years. I'm personally partial to the brown tones for shingles but I think they'd look odd on this house so we'll probably stick with the charcoal color. We're also going to get a lighting fixture that fits the size of the entryway. The one there is just too small for our taste.



I like this idea but, again, it's a money thing. We'd only be able to get plants here and there. Plus there's no sprinkler system. I have two hose bibs outside and that means moving a sprinkler around the yard (which nobody else in the family seems able to do). So the first yard investment is a sprinkler system.

However those bushes are definitely going. We were just talking about that right before I saw your post! We hate those things (which, btw, I thought were arba vitae or whatever the spelling is so it's nice to know what they are)! The yard is framed on two sides by those stupid podocrappy things. You can see a glimpse of them to the left/rear of the house. They're about 15 friggin feet high on the left and front left of the yard! :X Then the previous owners planted like 20 more across the backyard lot line.

thats a sweet house tofu

I like your house the way it is, Tofu. And don't start painting the bricks, because then you will be painting them every two or three years for the rest of your life! Keep the wood white, and maybe change the shutters colour. But, on the picture I noticed that the shutters colour is related to the roof colour. So, when you change the roof some time in the future, then you can think of changing the shutters colour as well. To keep the harmony.

For now, I think the best thing for you is to pick a slightly lighter colour for the shutters, but not that much lighter. Windows need to be white. And the door a darker version of the roof colour. Work with those and you can never go wrong.

The main thing is, that you keep it all harmonic. Because then it will stand out and look fresh and crispy all the time.

Using colours grows very tiresome - white can never go wrong.

(They COULD be arbor vitae..hard to tell in the pick)
The ones along the back property line may be providing privacy for you.
yer lawn looks healthy enough...don't look like you need irrigation, which is costly, and with water restrictions getting tighter every year ..you could be throwing yer money away on a system that will become illegal to use..heck..it's likely yer only allowed to use it one day a week now.
Plants...buy baby plants cheap ..home depot's ok...keep the buckets for a year and if any die they replace free.
Scraping and repairing wood siding. I cheat it...do all the scraping...you wanna get as many years as ya can out of wood...thats why ya paint it often..anyway ..I cheat it..scrape it all, dig out rot, and consider the way I do it which noone else will agree with, but it works..works perfect, and is easiest, sod them critics..
scrape, dig out rot, get a couple cans of that foam insulation in a can...
something to use as a spatula that ya can toss in the trash..a piece of cardboard whatever...squirt slowly in all the rot holes...let expand..let it set, dry, then when its dry get a knife, scraper, whatever and shape back down to board shape. fast easy works best. It seals, and its rot proof, and dont hold moisture.

The lawn isn't as healthy in the backyard. That yard gets full sun all day long. We've had two very dry summers in a row so the yard suffered from only getting sprinklered when I was around to do it.

Even with the dry summers I don't have water restrictions though. We're on a newly drilled well (with a whole house filtration/purification system before you worry about well water). I live across the street from a lake and my well goes down almost as deep as the lake does. So if the lake dries up then I'll know my well is in danger. I even have the previous sand point well pump for a separate well for the sprinklers system if the drilled well can't handle them along with the house.

The bushes.... We don't get any privacy from the rear plantings. They're too short and both our house and the one behind use are split-level ranch houses. So we look right across the yard into each other's house. So the bushes are nothing more than a fence for the next several years. And they're fugly. The branches droop and flop over. The previous owner literally had ropes inside them to pull the branches back up to vertical. One of the large bushes in front lost a branch from being choked off by the rope that had been inside it for years. So now there's a hole in the bush. I even have a tree with an embedded chain at the base of the trunk. Sad too as it's a nice elm. Hard to believe the previous owner wasn't a redneck.

Your rot solution is a novel idea. I was personally thinking of using bondo instead of wood filler.

So, Joe, where can I read up on landscaping to make this yard look better? You can see the saplings in the front yard and I've got some in the back too. Is your suggestion to replace those with the plums or add the plums?

IMO it looks fine like it is now. I wouldnt change the colors, but I am more than 10.000 miles away...

If you have water restrictions then forget the sprinker system. As the south has had the water evaporate we are only allowed down here to water on certain days so investing in a sprinkler would not be a wise idea.

I would go with azaleas ( do they grow up north)? They like semi shade and lots of mulch along with rhododendrens. maybe a butterfly bush. Flowering fruit trees, like pear, apple, and ornamental dogwood one redbud, they spawn badly. Then throw in some evergreens like nadina, holly, pines, firs,
Then use monkey grass, hostas, and to do some bordering. I love my lily of the valley it's a great ground cover, along with conventional ivy. Once you invest in these they come back yearly. ( course I am in a zone 6 or 7 for growing season so you may have to watch what is hardy in your area. I love spring forsythia bushes, But for the money you can't go wrong with Azaleas. Also weeping cherry's, willows, and as scion said magnolia too if they grow up there.

Stay away from the burgandy on the house..... sounds really not good but I guess I'd have to see it. lol

If you still want to know how to do it in PS, I used Hue/Saturation set to colorize. Not amazing results, but it does ok.