What’s Going On With Painting The Exterior? (Our Dilemma + My Honest Thoughts)

How many times can we repaint our house within a month before our neighbors start to wonder if we’ve lost it?? I feel like 3 times is pushing it…. 🙂

Last week was the most stressed I think I’ve ever been. I didn’t expect picking a paint color for our exterior to be such an emotional experience but I can confidently say that it sucked. Not even gonna sugar coat it. From loving the color one second to hating the sight of it the next hour…. From coming up with plan B and spending so much money to repaint again only to realize that plan B was worse than plan A. ….I don’t know if I can handle another major exterior decision for a while.

So here’s the story. We sampled 10 colors on our house and picked one that we loved in all lights! Sealskin by Sherwin Williams was the perfect moody color and on paper it was everything we wanted. So the next evening we painted half of our house, but as soon as we started I had doubts. I didn’t hate it…but something wasn’t working and I couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

Maybe it was the sheen of the paint, maybe it was the lack of contrast, maybe it was the shock of an all black home, maybe it was my inner battle of doing a trendy color, maybe it was my fear of growing tired of it in 6 months time, or maybe it was a combination of all the above that made me question my decision. In some moments I loved the charred wood look of it and other times I felt like it looked like a black hole. I had to tell Chris how I felt and I can’t tell you how terrified I was to do that. But he took it well and despite his love for the black exterior, he told me we can repaint it a different color.

I came up with plan B which was polar opposite of plan A. I decided on Accessible Beige at 75% strength which is a creamy warm white. Pairing that with black, white, and brass accents was (on paper) everything that a classy, timeless home should be. We even painted a large section on the back of our house to be sure the color was right and exactly what I wanted….it was (for me) but to be honest, Chris wasn’t thrilled about the new color scheme. Regardless, he agreed to it anyway because he’s such a kind person! 🙂

So we painted our house again in just 3 hours! Thank goodness that part was easy! By the time we finished I loved it and I was so much more confident in my choice. But then morning came and I stepped outside…to my shock it dried yellow! Like a tan yellow….the most blah yellow ever! We realized afterwards that because the front of our house has far more trees and sun exposure, the lighting is vastly different from the back. So what looked like a beautiful creamy white on the back, looked like a tan yellow on the front. I cried…a lot actually.

I don’t know why I was taking it so hard. I think I felt so much pressure to get it right especially since Chris really liked the first color we chose. And I know it sounds dumb, but I really wanted to pick a color that impressed you guys too! I don’t ever design spaces just to please my audience, but there’s always a little voice in the back of my head that wants you guys to be utterly amazed by what we do.

So the pressure to get it right the second time around, to not waste any more money than we already did, and to pick something that would inspire others… only to realize that I had failed on all 3 accounts lead to what I would call an anxiety attack.

Since then, I decided to let myself breathe for a minute. To give myself space from color swatches and samples so that I can come back with a clear and more positive mindset. It’s been a week since and we both feel MUCH better mentally! We’re ready to address exterior colors again and we’re testing out a few more samples at the moment. Maybe something in the deep green family? Perhaps it won’t feel as drastic like black did? We shall see, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t terrified to pick the wrong color again.

We will not paint our house four times…WE WILL NOT PAINT OUR HOUSE 4 TIMES!

Stay tuned! You know I’ll keep you posted on the blog, but if you want more behind the scenes looks at the journey, follow along on instagram @nadine_stay.