What colour to warm up a cool grey exterior in a country house?!
Lisa L
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
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Ellie
4 years agoLisa L
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Our house's exterior colours??
Comments (8)Thank you!From Little Greene I'm currently trying the various shades of Slaked Lime and, French Grey, and Cool Arbour... I also liked Hardwick White, Off-White, etc etc (FnB)... :/ I just can't decide whether the painted stone, ie rough/wobbly texture looks ok darker, or not. Or whether to do frames a mid-greyish tone, with soft white walls...or. just paint the lot white! The frames on the stone wall sides make any shades look different again......See MoreHow to make a Victorian house warm?
Comments (24)Hello! We have done two things which relate to some of the issues you describe. However, I should point out that we don't have a cellar; we have ground around 30cm below our ground floor joists. We have wooden floorboards rather than concrete - but I would imagine concrete would be easier to insulate, perhaps from below, in the ceiling of the cellar? Anyway, this is what we did: We insulated under our floor borads on the ground floor. (Note that not every single one has to be lifted, you lift a few every foot or so). Celotex was inserted between the joists. There is a risk the insulation will fall out onto the ground below, so they cut it slightly too big and then hammer it in. It's wedged in very tight and we have had none fall out two years later. As I wrote in my post above as well, we added angled vent covers outside to reduce the draft coming in under the floorboards. We were very concerned about air cirulation when doing all of this, but we have come to the conclusion that the air circulation is already so large under our ground floor, that the celotex and vent covers aren't really an issue. It's not like we have sealed everything shut, there are still plenty of tiny gaps everywhere. We haven't had any issues with mould or anything like that. The other thing we have done more recently is to balance our radiators. We had the problem that our front room was extremely cold relative to the rest of the house (although we had high spec/high BTU radiators in all rooms). We thought this may have been due to low power on the radiators, but in fact after doing a big rebalancing exercise, it's now the warmest room in the house. We're quite surprised how much of a difference rebalancing makes. There are plenty of guides online which we followed; essentially, what you do is you first check how open each radiator is (check the lockshield valve, not the TSV!). We wrote this down on a piece of paper for each radiator in the house (e.g. "fully open", "3/4 open", etc). We then put the heating on from cold and ran around the house checking which radiator fires up first/last. Made a note of this on paper. We then realised that in our case, although the front room radiator was fully open (which would suggest it should get the hot water first), in fact so were many of the radiators that are closer to the boiler. As a result, the hot water was going to those closer ones first (it takes the easiest route). The solution was to close the lockshield valves on the radiators closer to the boiler (not completely, you do it 1/4 of a turn at a time and check the effect). After a few runs we were able to get to a point where the hot water was filling up the front room radiators first. Now it's great. I hope this can help you! Good luck!...See MoreAdvice on how to warm up kitchen with colours and textures
Comments (39)Hello, I don't normally comment but you have inspired me to get on and do my splashback, been using some propped up flooring for two years. I have bought various sample tiles and now have some pretty trivets and placemats ! Your kitchen looks much more inviting and together with a few changes and good choices. I really like the tiles, sadly don't think green will suit my kitchen but where did you get them ? Hoping they might have something for me. thanks Ali....See MoreExterior House - what colours
Comments (21)Thank you for everyones help so far. i have had a decorator out and they have suggested keeping to a wood colour but darker such as dark palisander - including fascias and soffits. Currently it is all a bit of a mismatch with some wood very bleached, and this should tie it together. i have liked others suggestions and particularly liked Sonia’s photo but i do want something that is not going to go out of fashion or creates alot of work next time decorating. It will be years away but more expensive.and I may have retired. So i am quite liking the sound of this but not sure on garage. Here are some exampes with photos dark to go with windows british racing green or similjar light grey / stone to match grout in case of green i would probably get a new front door this colour. if garage was light grey / stone i think it may clash with render so may not be suitable as a front door colour.? Once it is all decorated i will introdruce some planting and the wheelie bin resited to rear. And please remember the brick is not as dark as it looks in these photos and front door is at side. Thank you...See MoreLisa L
4 years agoOk, so here are a couple of photos of the colour. I have a wooden gate at the front of the house which is painted in 'Windmill Lane' (Little Greene), so don't want to go OTT on green, as I also like the fact the gate is a different colour. The front of the house is a bit dated in terms of its style, but with some big planters containing climbing roses which will grow up and around the storm porch, this should also soften the look and make it more 'country'. Also, the border which is currently dark grey, is going to be painted in Rock Salt too. So looking for a bit of colour on the window ledges only.
I'd be really grateful for your advice/ideas!
Sonia
4 years agoLisa L
4 years agoOh! I added two pics but it must only allow for one (check the novice...!) - thanks for pointing out, now attached!
Sonia
4 years agoHi Lisa you can upload more photos but only one at a time (slow I know!) so once one photo is uploaded click on Photo again for the next photo etc.
Anyway back to your lovely house. I think grey green is a lovely country colour and would look good with the walls. Something like this
Adams+Collingwood Architects