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I'd replace the rug with something lighter, leave the fireplace as is, and consider painting all pine except the short wall seen in pic#3. That said, you might whitewash the brick, if the room is dark. It's hard to tell with photos. You might consider waiting until Spring, because then you'd have a better sense of whether your room is dark in winter.
This is one area of the whole home.
It looks like the brick on the fireplace is the same brick as the exterior of the home, which ties the exterior and interior together. I would not paint the brick fireplace.
The original darker browner doors and trim seem to blend well with the fireplace, but the pine is way too orange and clashes with both the doors and the red brick.
There are a couple of ways to handle the panelling. You can sand, prime and paint. You will need a primer that keeps the knots from bleeding. ( Zinsser B-I-N Shellac-Based Primer ).
Option 2 is to use fill the lines with spackle, sand lightly and apply heavy-duty wallpaper lining paper over the paneling or Option 3 - remove the paneling. Often it has just been nailed/glued over drywall and with a bit of work you are back to drywall walls. Sometimes (especially in basements) it is simply nailed to the studs. There is a risk that the paneling was not just decorative, but used to cover some issue like peeling lead paint. Not what I would expect looking at your home, but remove the paneling carefully so you can simply nail it back up if you find a problem that you are not prepared to deal with at this time.
Personally - I would go for removing the paneling and starting with nice, smooth walls.
I would also remove the popcorn ceiling, but make sure to have it tested for asbestos before removing. If there isn't any asbestos it is a simple, but messy job. If there is asbestos it is more expensive to have it professionally removed and the asbestos properly handled. It can wait until you are ready to do it right.
I would leave the carpet and tile until you have a whole home plan. The color on the wall works with the carpet and the fireplace and your furniture, so I would use the same color on the new un-paneled walls or over the paneling.
When you are ready replace the carpet and/or the tile flooring if it doesn't work with your whole home plan. If you decide to keep the tile flooring recolor the grout.
I would also see why there is a trim piece at the ceiling over the fireplace - is it needed? If not remove it. If it is hiding something make it as small and indiscrete as possible and paint it dark with a matte/flat paint to help it hide.
Assuming this is the furniture that you will be using in the room, and that there will be no TV here, I'd move the sofa so its back is to the window. Place 2 chairs facing each other, so you have a U shaped conversation area. Leave a 4 feet clear walkway across the front of the fireplace, as your traffic path through the room.
It will be nice to sit on the sofa with the light from the window coming over your shoulder and lighting your reading or whatever else you are doing. And the sofa will be facing the fireplace, which seems natural.
Is that a slate floor? If so, I would not replace it. It's a cool, authentic feature. I don't think cement-look anything would be an improvement. If the cabs are in good shape, I'd keep them. We can't really see the walls or backsplashy, so it's hard to advise. But, probably that would be the place to focus.
@jethre what's the pipes behind the stove? Before you begin changing flooring and finishes, see if these can be moved or hidden? Or do they have to stay and just worked around?
Once you've established what can be done with the pipes and then decide if you want to keep your cabinets as they are, or if you want to paint, then we can help proceed with design choices and how to get those started.
Those are the gas lines, I believe. Moving them would likely be a larger project than I would like to take on (and would probably involve me losing my gas service.(NYC. - iykyk.). But I will ask my upstairs neighbors on the same line to see what they have.
If you're going to paint it, I'd go with a blue a few shades darker than your siding.
Right now it's hard to see the front door and any detailing on it isn't very visible. If you want it to stand out would suggest a very light color.
I like the first blue Maureen used. It matches your siding beautifully
Diluting it 25% with white will make it lighter, but probably won't affect the blue/gray balance. You might try Little Falls or Silver Mist. If you click on a color on the BM site, they will show you lighter/darker and similar colors.
For example, with Brewster, they offer Adiago as lighter, Templeton as darker. Similar colors include Shadow Gray, which is a tad bluer and lighter, Gull Wing gray which is lighter. You can keep clicking until you come across a color you love.
Thank you everyone for input. This is a new construction home. So I’m having to make tons of decisions, and having occasional decision fatigue snd questioning my choices.
Cutting the formula would make the color strength weaker. Because of the DNA of the colorants, you would have to add a hefty amount of white paint to move its appearance..
Color online is not accurate and the kind of blue gray color you’re describing falls into a pocket where there is an even greater inaccuracy online.
Even though there are a lot of decisions to make, it’s a really good idea to make the time to go to a paint store and get chips and paint samples to test the colors properly
And don’t let anybody rush you in that process. If it takes you a couple more days to test and find the right colors , they can wait.
The thing that would really make me nervous about self-designing a home like this— besides the fact that you will clearly be spending a significant sum: you are putting a LOT of trust into both AI renderings AND your contractor’s (or their drafter’s?) ability to interpret and execute them.
Good modern home design relies heavily on the ability of a skilled architect to both (a) manage the big picture alongside all of the details/ minutiae that undergird it, while (b) monitoring and holding the contractor accountable to not taking shortcuts in the build process. You’re going to leave a lot of things to chance and risk the build looking like a very dumbed-down version of the general concepts you asked for by not having an architect on board.
Again, why a three story townhouse on a broad suburban lot? Why not a two story if there's room to build out?
I think the OP is out searching for a competent local residential architect.
(very optimistic)
@Patricia Colwell I would like to think so. We would have, too. Problem is that the floor was tiled around the bar vs. underneath which is concrete..
There'd be a bar-shaped opening in the approx 14'x28' tile floor. It's a solid bar, and quite common in homes this age in this area.
I also scouted for rolled cork, vinyl fabric and carpet. I suspect it'll be quickest to replace the face boards and paint. I like the texture of the OSB but read it has a wax coating. A handyman will be here Monday afternoon. We'll see . . .
The OSB isn't bad. I'd paint the bottom and be done with it. It's not attractive and there isn't much you can do to make it attractive without spending way more money than you'll get back. Paint the bottom and be done. I don't think that cork, vinyl or carpet is going to make a difference. If you do a great installation, the improvement will be marginal. If your DIY job is mediocre, you'll have made things either worse or no better.
You could get another storm door. You would be advised to put pavers in front of the door, so you don't have the wood in contact with dirt and rotting.
"What would you do here?"
I would build a new door PRE_HUNG from Eastern Red Cedar. Pre-hung because a much better fit can be had and ERC because it's rot resistant and moves less than other wood during wet-dry cycles. Even threashold can be made of Cedar because it does well with ground contact. This is doable in home shop with tablesaw and router but does require medium skill.
That's some kool diggs to unwind in.
You want a prehung (important to keep out cold, rain and snow) fiberglass door. You can find one on-line, look for rustic, with a window. No storm door is necessary.
I googled the weighted leather strap idea and it is possible; maybe your husband can take a look at this AI suggestion.
- The Inside Mechanism (The Gravity Latch): Install an interior-mounted, heavy-duty iron drop-bar gravity latch. Because it is weighted on one side, gravity naturally forces the bar downward into its catching cradle every time the door shuts.
- The Exterior Function (The Leather Strap): Drill a small, clean hole through the cabin door right beneath the drop bar. Tie a thick piece of full-grain saddle leather or bridle leather to the latch bar, thread it through the hole to the outside, and weight the exterior end with an antique iron ring or decorative brass fob. Tugging down on the outside leather strap lifts the internal weighted bar.
Adding Front-Door Security: Because a leather strap latch can be opened by anyone walking up to the door, you must install an independent, matching deadbolt directly above or below it. Pair your strap assembly with an oil-rubbed bronze or distressed iron deadbolt cylinder to keep the cabin safe when you are away.
Fun project...what else are you doing to the exterior?
I'd go with something in the Downing Earth family, except much lighter. SW Minimalist, perhaps
We recently had our screened porch painted in SW Safari. It is lighter than the options you have shown, but it seems like it would work with your stone. I am not at that home currently so I have no pictures.
The garage doors and the stonework both have warm colors. For that reason, I’d nix anything grayish or blue-ish (for example, the Downing Earth looks much too gray to me).
Go warmer with beige, tan, rust etc colors.
Terraces stepped down the hill makes sense to catch and direct runoff as long as there is somewhere for the water from the lowest pool to flow to. It brings to mind rice paddies you see in mountainous regions.
You can connect them with a swale or just use a curved swale to move all the water. That said, a picture is worth a thousand words.
You could put a paver path to the door and grass growing through pavers to the left of the path. That will make it greener, but still allow you to back out of the garage.
With all that red brick, I'd have white or yellow-flowering shrubs. But, again, Maine or Texas or Sweden or India matters.
We want to see pictures as you add touches to this gorgeous house.
Glad you like the rendering, @atalieplus2--and do show us pictures!
I agree with others that you should simplify your color scheme. I'd start by removing the shutters. Most are undersized for the windows. Then, I'd have two siding colors. If your wood shingles are natural, I'd keep them and do one green. I like a darker green on the garage doors. I don't think the red door goes with the green siding.
I'd downplay the detail...it's still there, just more subtle. Remove the shutters. A warm off-white paint for siding. Keep the white trim and white garage doors.
^The all white with wood shingles is a bit distracting for me. It pulls my focus to the shingles. IDK, would all white be better, or just something darker with the shingles for more balance (such as other examples here)?
Air mattresses are more comfortable than most sofa beds and a lot cheaper. A futon couch tends to be more comfortable than a fold-out couch. The thing about air mattresses is that they tend to spring leaks over time. We were staying at our son's on an old air mattress and it sprung a slow leak. But we went out and bought a new one, which was cheaper than a hotel room.
I am in my 60’s I could probably get down on the floor to sleep. But I am not sure I could get back up.
Thank you @freedomplace1 I like the screens idea!
If you hang them higher, you won't be able to reach most of the shelves. I have cabinets hung high and I can't reach the top shelves and barely reach the second shelf. I think you'll be far happier with the arrangement you have --- how often are you going to look at the top of your cabs anyway --- than always needing a step-stool or losing most of your cabinet space.
One really high cabinet over the fridge is fine, because you'll probably want to store little-used holiday stuff, but you'll want to reach the shelves in the bulk of your cabinets.
It looks fine to me. Once it is done and you live there for a month, you won’t even notice!
id ditch all the crown moulding along ceilings and extend cabinets to ceiling by boxing in open space and adding simple, narrow 90degree moulding where cabs meet ceiling. this type of moulding matches the shaker cabinets much better than the large curved moulding which imo is passe.
2/2.
2over 2 just like the orignal .
The 4 over 4 looks rich to me and they are very pretty inside, but they do block views and they are harder to clean and worse to paint. I have modern one over ones and I hate them.
I use a big canvas bag with handles from LLBean as a laundry bag. I holds a lot, including neatly folded sheets or towels and can be easily held in one hand. They are open, so easy to rummage through.
Haven't consumed all the comments but my thought on a bathroom. You can never have too much space around a toilet when someone needs help getting on and off it. Make sure that first floor bath renovation includes a curbless shower. When a person is disabled, even a four inch curb is unmanageable. It is nearly impossible to make a second floor shower curbless unless you can drop the ceiling below it to enable the drain. Make sure all doorways are wide enough to accommodate a walker or better yet, a wheelchair. Touch or touchless faucets are great for arthritic hands.
Outlets were mentioned. When installing them, put them high up so you don't have to stand on your head to plug something in or move furniture to get to it. Like really high up, 40 inches up on the wall is good, no more than 48 if she's eventually using a wheelchair.
I have a neighbor like your mom. She is 85 and her home is very, very important to her identity. She will go out of it like her husband did, feet first. And yes, god bless her yard man, most patient guy in the world.
Just to educate yourself, think about visiting an assisted living facility. Not to check it out for mom, but to see the layouts of the kitchens and bathrooms, especially the cabinet design. You want the bathroom cabinets to have an opening under the sink for a chair or wheel chair. Drawers instead of cabinets for ease of access.
Regarding carpet, see if you can interest her in a very low pile or even industrial pile type carpet. Wall to wall, no area rugs as they become trip hazards.
I'm very impressed she has allowed a clean out. All the best to you all!
We used to "check the house" for well over a decade when the parents exited to Florida.............
As they aged, the accumulation, "It's still good, someone can use it" became a visual of OUR someday nightmare looming.
One year, we went top to bottom with " they will not notice , lets dump it" My sister comes out from under the basement stair in a lemon color parka, sleeves reaching her elbows.
WHAT IS THAT? " My parka from sixth grade.......except I am now 36?!! )i
A dozen contractor bags to donation from the attic....from our old closets.
AT LEAST three hundred "wafers "of Irish Spring soap in cookie containers....( they loathed the worn bar, but not enough to admit it and toss. )
15 lawn and leaf bags of JUNK at the curb. .My sister freaks when we're ready to leave...
OMG...what if one of their cronies on the street blows us IN??"
Me: There is no way I am hauling that back in! Noooooo
Nothing happened, they didn't notice....::) nor did the parents when they returned two months later.
Spare your children.........: )
Do you have a lake to do a cold dip? At any rate, you will almost certainly be barefoot at the sauna and you won't want to step on rock when you walk out of the door. Are you going to roll in snow in the winter? Where will the snow be? Lastly, do you have the privacy to be naked? Or will you be sauna-ing in a bathing suit?
A simple outdoor shower spigot to rinse off chlorine or sweat. As mentioned could be unheated water to cool off and one can certainly shower in a swim suit.
My brother in law built a wooden privacy fence from the calves to the neck to shower and change.
Here’s an idea working off of your rendering.
You've got a great start --- I like your colors. The first thing is to tidy up. You appear to have a lot of space on your upper closet shelf, so I'd get some clear bins and put stuff there.
Can you turn the bed so the foot of the bed faces the dark wall? If so, take down the items pinned to the dark wall and wall mount a TV there. Get some help with friends to organize and contain items on the wall, only essential items should be visible. folders or notebooks for the other items. I would recommend a larger, better quality full-length mirror, you want to see your whole fabulous look.
great project!
Lamps are way cozier than overhead light - hit facebook marketplace, target etc for some larger lamps you like - will make a huge difference
be ruthless re: what you need vs what you dont - aka do you need a desk?
You need a picture.
What color is the roof and do you see a lot of it?
Would you like to continue with your dilemma, or not?
You can lighten a color by adding more white. All paints are pigments added to a white. Our house is painted 75% pigment (SW Juniper Blue) and 25% white. I did the same with a interior room, 50% Pigment, 50% white. Sometimes, the paints have different undertones. By diluting a paint with the white that is the base, you are sure to have a paint that has the same undertones. And, when you do this, you get to claim it's a custom color!
@freedomplace just set the bar higher. That is a fabulous, elegant color. Do you know the name of it?
Thank you so much, Red Ryder.
And your question is a very good one... I wish I had an exact paint color name. I created this visual with AI, and did not specify a specific paint color. I wanted to see what AI would come up with. I ‘did’ specify that I wanted a deep reddish-brown - that would complement the brick and wood garage doors. I love what AI chose... It looked perfect to me- right out of the gate! I really did not have to do any edits, on anything I had requested. The walkway and garden pavers would of course need to be adjusted a bit... so that the walkway veers more toward the steps - with clear access.
Paint colors can be matched from pictures. PPG Paints has a paint visualizer that I use. I uploaded the AI pic, and did a color match. I got PPG “Cherokee Red”.
Then, I found some Benjamin Moore matches to PPG Cherokee Red here:
https://www.matchmypaintcolor.com/hex/824e4a/benjamin-moore-matches
I also found these BM color matches to Farrow & Ball’s “Deep Reddish Brown”:
https://www.matchmypaintcolor.com/farrow-ball/deep-reddish-brown-w101/benjamin-moore-matches
Paint store/Company people should be able to do better than me. :) They should be able to zero in on it.
Ultimately, any color(s), in any color way that the OP chooses, will need to be tested on the actual house- in real time.
Numbers one and three seem to be the same with different color palettes. I like the lighter one a lot better. Number 2 is a poor design. One the first floor, none of the windows are aligned. The arched window's crossbar at the bottom of the arch is not aligned with the top of the window to the right of the door. The bigger window on the second floor is not centered in the wall it is in and the shutters emphasize that fact. Nor is it aligned in any way with the window below it. I'm not convinced the rightmost windows are centered in their mass, but can't tell from the angle. Further, it has the fewest and smallest windows on the second floor, meaning your rooms will probably not get a lot of natural light.
With #1&3, you want to ensure that the leftmost windows on both the first and second floor are centered and aligned.
The windows still aren't centered or aligned. I would align the middle of the biggest window to the middle of the one below it. You've made the garage very prominent, and you have a tiny dead space to the left of the garage and right of the house.
Also, I don't like the curved roof on the left. They can be cool Tudor details, but because the back is not curved and higher, you just get an odd shape.
I would go with the simplest style you can (tends to age well) and then add drama and interest with fabulous landscaping — the current trend is homes with lots of different materials, shapes and “details” tacked on the front and then really anemic landscaping (looking at you boxwoods) - flipping this script will yield something with staying power imo
Thank y’all for the added input!
The solid stain on my house lasted a good 15 years. Never had termites. I would not call it high maintenance. If anything, wood is better. If you have some other siding, if something needs to be replaced, you'll have to find the same thing, but products change. Wood shingles that match our 100 year old shingles are still easy to find.
Agree with Paul F & also Lyn Nielson’s suggestion. You have beautiful trees btw. I agree with Paul F re the blue. For some reason, idk why, blue ”cheapens” the look ( for me ) , perhaps because I associate it with manufactured ( aka mobile ) homes. Seems to be a popular choice.
If you want to avoid the swelling, contracting, and potentially uneven fading common to traditional charred Sugi, acetylated Shou Sugi Ban is your solution. The advanced acetylation process alters the wood at a molecular level, preventing the natural warping that can loosen nails over time. By eliminating wood movement, it ensures the charred finish fades much more uniformly while freeing you from the occasional structural maintenance required by standard softwoods.
But to be honest with you, traditional Sugi is a very specific, high-contrast look that isn't for everyone. In my opinion, plain gray acetylated wood beats it entirely. Products like Accoya Color Grey are pigmented all the way to the core, giving you a gorgeous, sleek, modern look from day one without any of the soot, heavy textures, or char-related headaches.
Clethra. It comes in white, too
Do you have a deer problem?
See above about the myth that pine needles acidify soil. And we don't know that your native soil is not already sufficiently acidic. What grows naturally in your area? Blueberries? Kalmia? Regarding the growth habit of azaleas many are broad and short. Unless you have researched the cultivar you have bought it's not safe to assume it'll be tall and narrow. Also I would plant that azalea further forward.
Given the above info, maybe you can use pine needles for everything instead of buying shredded mulch? How fortunate to have such an abundance of pines! Where do you live?
you need pictures
You love the neighborhood, you lucked out. why move into an unknown situation? The grass is always greener. How much time do you really spend looking at the house from the curb anyway?
Btw I love the house and yard. I would paint the brick as suggested, use Romabio made for brick and masonry.
It's the metal bedframe that damaged the wall. You can put some cardboard or styrofoam on it to prevent that from happening again.
Can you swap the table and the dresser? Do you have the width? Because the dresser looks deeper. Another option is a drop-front dresser or gateleg desk, where you can put the extra table space out when needed and drop it back when not needed. These can often be found in vintage or antique furniture stores.
Gateleg table
Dropfront furniture
Here's the link to the headboard. It's out of stock in the queen but you can ask to be notified when it comes back. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Home-Design-Yakima-Full-Headboard-with-Minimalist-Design-Easy-Installation-Black-Easy-Assembly-Adjustable-Height/19477252986
OK, thanks, I was able to order it. The bed is full sized.
As the previous poster pointed out there's very little room around your garage for any stone veneer. The other thing is that your entryway is fairly narrow, meaning that you could not add the stone bases to your columns without making the entry and stairs too narrow. The result is that very little of the stone veneer will be visible on the outside of your house. Further, the colors there work with the roof, which is not the same color as your roof. Not to mention that
AI has changed the proportions of your house. They always make things look nice, but often at the expense of reality. The right gable is smaller, the area around the garage door are larger, the eaves are longer, etc.
In short, your results are not going to look like the AI rendering. Before you invest the money, you should try to get a realistic rendering.
In my post i suggested (james) Hardie board, which comes in vertical formats and is available in canada
I swapped out wood siding for the more durable Hardie Board, on my 2nd floor. Looks great and holds the paint well. The exterior on the main floor is stucco (I'm in So Calif).
On the front of my house, the installer chose the less expensive Azek trim, which looks like plastic to me. A few years later, I extended Hardie Board around the side and back of my house -- and chose the matching Hardie trim.
Hardie Board offers several styles, including board & batten.
I had the siding painted a custom color after installation. There is an option to have the siding pre-painted (in one of their available colors) -- this requires purchasing extra material to avoid running out. Also, there will still be some touch-up paint after installation; e.g., to cover nail holes.
I clad the bottom third of my front columns with bluestone, which I used as a veneer on my front sidewalk as well.
I like the current color. In general, I'm not a fan of beige, but that's very neutral. If it's a rental, you want neutral. When I was looking to rent a house, I remember seeing one with a very nice blue living room --- except all my living room furniture was green with some yellow accents.
Thanks for the clarification, @Oreo Kolthoff. If you are going to rent it out, focus on the furniture colors, patterns and layout. As everyone says, the wall color is nice and will probably work with a lot of different styles and colors.
Thanks!
Interesting that so many have art behind the desk. A Zoom backdrop?
As promised at the beginning of the article, we see lots of storage ideas here. Storage is key to a home office. Even today, a small table with a laptop in a room without other storage is not sufficient. As for desks, computers have not eliminated paper and desks need to be large enough to hold plenty of such, even if only when working. Finally, laptops have become very powerful, but their typically smallish screens are not ideal for extended office-type work. So pretty little laptops on small Parsons tables may look very cool but their functionality is probably minimal. And, oh yes, the most important piece of furniture in an office is the office chair. The true Aeron is expensive but unbelievably comfortable for long periods and worth every penny. Substitutes look similar but are not the same.
Matching is helpful so you don't have different lightbulbs and 10 years down the road, if some are failing, you can cannibalize them to repair the others.
Well, matching in terms of style, but you may want differing sizes, depending upon placement. I live on the coast of Maine, and the copper onion lights have survived nicely. The first is at least 20 years old. The second two are 8. We are half a mile from the open ocean, on a tidal estuary. We also have various floodlights on the house and they have relatively short lifespans.
I think a medium blue with white or cream trim along the roofline would look good. Right now, your house is a very dreary color.
And a couple more…
I love the greens like Evergreen Fog where you live it makes the home seem right at home in the woods
I'd remove the shutters. I might do a medium blue with your stone.
Sherwin Williams Alabaster may be a nice choice to for the siding and trim.
Here is a bolder look to consider:
This house has the same stone as yours + SW Iron Ore for main body + SW Pure White for trim + charcoal black architectural shingles. Also, this shows a white oak stained front door. I think a wood stained door would look nice.
I would think about removing the shutters. They are not sized appropriately for the windows. If you want to keep the shutters, please install ones that look like real functioning shutters that are sized correctly for the windows.
I would paint the awnings if you're going with any color other than Casa Blanca. I kind of like Medici Ivory, it's a cream with a warm undertone. I don't like the yellow. I like lighter colors on stucco, for example Lullaby, rather than Star Dew. I might be tempted to try a darker shade for the trim, rather than a white/cream. For example Waterloo with Lullaby or Star Dew.
I like the awnings. Fun and different. I'd keep them and paint the rest of the house, trim, downspouts, everything, one color. You can do a sheen on the trims. Choosing this one because it loves peach/melon color for coordinates and I think it is perfect for your cottage because green love east light. B.M. Duxbury Gray in the Historic collection.
Maybe for the front door, stay green, but go for a black green.