Exterior House Colors

I’ve gotten a few questions about what style/feel I’m going for with the new house, and I’m hoping to start sharing some inspiration posts so you can see the direction I’m going. Just as soon as I nail down the direction I’m going :) I actually have it mostly figured out…I think!

Today let’s talk about siding. The exterior for me is one of the scariest things to make a decision on because it’s not an easy or cheap fix if I don’t like it down the road. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram (Instagram stories is an especially great place to keep up on house progress!), you may have taken part in my siding color poll. If not, I’ll show you here the 3 choices we were trying to decide between. This is vinyl shake siding like we used on our last home.

Gray siding

The overwhelming winner of the poll, almost a unanimous decision on instagram was the darkest grey. Facebook was a bit more varied, but the dark grey still won by a large margin. Not that this is a choose your own adventure story book (anyone else love those as a kid?!) where I let my readers pick everything out in my house, ha! I was totally sold on the dark grey before the poll, but all your love for the dark grey helped me convince the Mr. –  thanks for having excellent taste guys!

A few of you were scared by the dark grey and thought it was going to feel super dark and not cottagey. Some of you really wanted me to go the all white route, and I get it as I love white houses too! However, when you are building a lake home, you tend to think about how the house looks from the lake. The white we had at our last house was pretty up close, but from out in the lake, you couldn’t see the cool trim work on our house. I’m really excited about the high contrast look, plus there isn’t another house on the lake this deep charcoal color.

I love the high contrast of the really dark siding and all the white trim, if you remember our house plans I’ll refresh your memory below, but you can see more here.

Lake House Exterior

You’ll notice all the white trim and window panes along with the white railing and pillars of the decking. Plus the white pergola and doors on the back are really going to pop against the dark siding and keep it from feeling too dark. Also the roofing color won’t be black/grey like the renderings show. I would love to have a cedar roof like the inspiration pics show, but it’s incredibly expensive and not very practical. I have found a good solution, which I’ll be sharing soon, but I need to hammer down a few more details first!

So there you go, first thoughts on the house! We are definitely going for a cottagey/lake house feel again with this house, but it will be more casual that our last house. I hesitate to say more rustic because I’m not sure that’s the right word. Maybe think more natural? Think warmer natural wood tones, slate, lots of white wood work, and pops of blue.

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31 Comments

  1. I’m curious now 4 years later is the grey/white still your go to color scheme? We are building on the Gulf Of Mexico in FL and have decisions to finalize.

  2. Hi Mellisa were any of your other 2 choices above Deep Granite by Mastic?
    I am trying to chose siding and shake from Mastic and need to pick roof by tomorrow!!
    So need to chose Siding! I love Harbor Gray but think too light.
    If you could be any help I would appreciate!
    Thx, Mary
    [email protected]

  3. I’m obsessed with the color of your lake house. Unfortunately we have cedar siding. Do you know any paint colors or stains that match? Thanks so much!

    1. Hey Natalie I know some people have gotten a sample of the siding by Mastic and had it color matched at a local paint store – thanks!

  4. Where can I find a shake siding like that to buy. What brand?

    Thank you so much if you can help me

  5. Hi just curious what color and brand is your siding? We are building a house and I like the color. Thanks looks beautiful.

  6. Love the colors of your siding, but most of all I love you windows that go from floor to ceiling.

  7. I just painted my house a dark gray that turned out REALLY awesome. We used Bear Creek by Benjamin Moore and Huskie Gray Trim. We have some cedar accents that we stained light gray. It looks so amazing!

  8. Ok you definitely swayed me!!! I love it! I can’t wait to see this! And on a personal note I totally miss seeing your home decked out for the holidays! I’ll just have to wait till next year! Enjoy the process. Can’t wait to see this beauty go up!!!

    1. Glad you are on board Maggie :) I’ll be sharing a little holiday fluffing I did at my paren’t house next week on the blog. It’s not my usual full tour but it’s a little something at least!

  9. I really like your style and I love your colour choices for your new home with the darkest grey with a crisp white trim being my favorite. I love any Muskoka Living inspiration for a lake home since their homes have such style. As we are building our own lake house right now and are probably at the same stage as you, I briefly tossed around the idea of white exterior. I tend to agree that from the water, white would not stand out as much as a charcoal colour and it’s also a more unique colour. Good luck with all of your decisions. I hope you are better at choosing than I am. I’ve already lost a few hours sleep over all the decisions that need to be made. Thank goodness for Houzz, Pinterest and Instagram ?

  10. The dark grey is the winner, as you already knew. It will all be beautiful when you are finished. Happy Holidays, Ardith

  11. Muskoka Living……my neck of the woods
    You can’t go wrong borrowing any one of their ideas or designs
    Their store is to die for
    Worth the drive from Michigan. ….Road trip

  12. Any stone on the pillars or the front elevation. Coming from the Canadian Rocky Mountains, I love the look of a little stone added for a slightly more rustic look. It gives the feeling of a solid, “forever” home. Round washed out river stones. Just sayin!

    1. Hey Maureen, we originally planned for stone on the lake side pillars but my parent’s have stone like that and 90 percent of it is covered up with landscaping which I think would be the case for us too. I love the look of stone but I love the look of limelight hydrangeas more :)

  13. Good morning, beautiful exterior colors for your home and are you thinking of a metal roof?
    Kathleen in Az

  14. I didn’t see the polls on social media (off to follow you there, ASAP), but immediately thought the darkest gray looked best and I was even more convinced by the end of your post! Can’t wait to see what’s next!

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