I get asked about my house colours all the time. Every week I think! So I thought I'd put a post together for those who are interested :) The weatherboard has been painted SHALE GREY. I used Taubmans Endure (we painted the whole outside of the house ourselves). We asked Taubmans to tint the paint …
I get asked about my house colours all the time. Every week I think! So I thought I’d put a post together for those who are interested 🙂
The weatherboard has been painted SHALE GREY. I used Taubmans Endure (we painted the whole outside of the house ourselves). We asked Taubmans to tint the paint in full strength SHALE GREY. It doesn’t matter what brand you use, as long as it’s tinted ‘Colorbond Shale Grey’. I knew this paint colour would be good. I’d used it as a feature wall inside our previous home so I was confident the grey was the right grey. Not blue, not brown, not purple (you know how some throw the wrong tinge?). I also knew shale grey would be the right grey because it originated from Colorbond (used for a roofing) and I had seen this colour on houses in our area.
My roof colour is SURFMIST. It’s light (but not white). It’s a pale grey. I matched the gutters and fascia to this. So there was no hard thinking here. Sometimes people get so confused with roof/gutter/fascia. For me it’s easy – all the same. Now, the swatches I’ve put on the image above are small, so they may look darker, but outside over a large area, they do look lighter as you can see from the photos of my house.
The window frames, shutters, posts and fretwork are WHITE. No tint in that bucket of white. Nothing. Don’t get confused with whites. You don’t have to tint everything. This leads me to INSIDE my house. The walls are all WHITE. No tint. Just a wash and wear brand on the walls (with no tint added) will do, and the SAME white went straight on to the ceiling. My entire house has the same white paint from the bottom of the walls up and over the ceilings. It was Taubmans Easy Coat Walls. Now, if you did need to put a tint in your white (some painters will request something because they say the paint covers better), I would ask them to put a “shot” of black in that white tin. Like an incy bit just to keep the white balanced. But I don’t normally do that. I just like the whiteness which comes straight out of the tin. My internal doors, skirting and architraves are all GLOSS WHITE (again no tint).
So you can see that I picked THREE colours out the front – shale grey, surfmist and white. You can also see that the house looks darker in the shade and quite light in the sun.
The reason I know all of these colours work well is because this is the 3rd house we’ve built and we’ve renovated two houses as well (I’ve made some doozies along the way too!).
♥ KC.
Be the first to read my stories
Get Inspired by the World of Interior Design
Thank you for subscribing to the newsletter.
Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later.
Comments
jason
Hi Katrina,
Your house looks perfect and I love your colour. My house is west-facing so it doesn’t get much sunlight, only some at late afternoon, I wonder if the shale grey might look too dark for my house? Do you have any suggestions?
catherine
Hi Katrina,
I love your colour pick, your house really looks amazing. I have my house with cement render in white on exterior wall and green on window/door trims, it looks ugly and I want to change to something like yours. So I am thinking of painting the exterior wall in Shale grey, gutter/fascia to surfmist, door/window trims in white, however the roof is dark tile not colourbond, I am concerned how the house will look like after I painted everything except the roof. Also my house is west facing and has a patio installed on the front, so the front wall doesn’t get much sunlight. Will it still look bright?
Very keen to hear your advice and I would really appreciate it.
Catherine
Michelle
Hi Katrina,
I have a little house in Wagga in desperate need of an exterior update – cracked and broken boards, severely peeling paint, the works! I’m thinking it may be a good idea to go weatherboard. Can you recommend anyone in Wagga?
Thank you!
Nada
Hi Katrina,
L O V E your home and the colour scheme is exactly what we are after! Thank you for sharing!
Our home is on stumps and has a weatherboard skirting. We are thinking to paint this a darker grey? What are your thoughts or suggestions on this with your experience?
Thank you,
Nada
Sophie
Hi Katrina what a beautiful house i was just wondering what colour your fences are did you go with surfmist? do they get very dirty?
Thanks
Katrina
The fences have to be a council approved colour – we couldn’t chose those. They are a bone colour. I hate them but have been covering them with hedges 🙂
Maxine
Wow Katrina, you are patient as you have answered the SAME questions again and again that you wrote about in your article! Lol. We went on the grey with white trim paint swatch search. I have never picked/painted the exterior of any of our homes. I would not have thought of the shale grey giving the light grey that we are after. But will definitely be buying a sample now, thank you 🙂 and had a giggle over your white-no tint, don’t over think it! Sooo obvious-now….xx p.s. who are you on IG?
Katrina
Thanks Maxine! I am @katrinas_instagram on Insta 🙂 X
Simone
I love your house colours. We have an old Queenslander we’re planning to paint (it’s currently white with awful light blue trim) so I’ve been hunting the internet for ideas and I keep coming back to images of your house. The only change I’d make is to have a glossy back front door 🙂 I might buy a sample of the shale grey and paint it on the side of the house just make sure first. Thank you for sharing!
Rose
Hi Katrina,
LOVE this house!
Just a quick question – we’ve got a Woodland Grey colourbond fence down the side and back of our place, and a new carport colourbond roof due to go up, which I had assumed I’d do woodland as well, and eventually do the whole house roof to match – do you think the Sale Grey would still work as the exterior house colour? With the white trims definitely.
Or should I forget about matching the fence and go for the Surf Mist on the new carport, and then eventually match the existing roof to it. (which is currently cream yuck!)
This is obviously my first adventure into the land of paint colour! And my first home, so any advice is appreciated!
Many thanks!
Rose
Kellie
love these colours. I would really like to paint my house white, or a very light grey. My problem is we have an old red terracotta roof. Any suggestions? I want white trim. We have a very dark grey/black pergola covering our back deck. My husband wants the gutter and eaves the same colour. Please help!!!
Kellie lendich
Hi katrina loving your desing flare 🙂 I love your exterior colour theme my parter and I are building a monopitch home near the beach with coastal views in the far north of NZ we also have a slice of native bush do you think this colour scheme would work on a monopitch home? Also we have an open plan living design with the Kitchen at the centre of the home with a deck surrounding the front to capture the view with large cavity front doors which open the kicthen front to the deck we are installing laminate wood flooring cant afford realwood struggling to find the right laminate tone recomendations our design is natual timeless durable thanks
Misty
Im curious if you painted different sheens of white paint on the interior wall, trim and ceiling. Thanks!
Erin
Your house looks great. What colour is your garage door?
Andrew
Hi Katrina
Your house looks amazing, i would love to use the same colours as they obviously work, however we are doing a large first floor addition ( the house is 18m wide at the end of a battleaxe block) and i was thinking of a darker colour to try to bring the appearance of the house smaller … Ground floor is rendered brick upstairs weatherboard … Clear anodised windows as we are close to beach, any suggestions would be greatly received.
Linda Vitale
Hi Katrina, we have a dilemma with painting our duplex, we used Sherwin W Online grey but the blue tinge was very extreme, we had mixed the Online to get a darker grey with Berger Paints “Elephant ” and this colour when painted turned out to be a steely blue. We do like the greys without any blue undertones, therefore we are contemplating changing to Colourbond Shale Gray, will this hide the exiting paint colour. Thank you regards
Sarah
Hi Katrina, using the Shale Grey weatherboards would I get the same effect if I used surf mist on garage door, posts and window trims?
Katrina
I think that would be lovely!
Tania
Hi Katrina,
We have the same colours however our roof is basalt
We are building a front picket fence, what colour do you think would look good? Just white?
Didn’t know you could get white garage roller door so we chose surf mist. Will this look odd with a white picket fence?
Allain Gally
I like how your house is being painted. Each color compliments with each other. The colors aren’t loud, just cool in the eyes. I like the shadow effect when you see it from afar. Although there are variants in these paints because you used three shades but when they are fused in one material, it’s a masterpiece. I love the colors scheme playing from dark to light and vise versa. Kindly visit my site: http://www.sea-explorers.com/rates-promos/padi-dive-courses/
Peter Hayes
Have done our home to your exact colours .Big Help.
Lowset” Colonial look” 2 long verandahs. Q what colour do we paint concrete verandahs,We have red/brown soil that is making verandahs look poor.
Thanks
Andrea Davis
Katrina,
Our ranch style home is built of concrete blocks that have been painted. Wondering do you think we will get the same effect using Shale Grey?
We have Gunmetal Grey Colourbond roof. Do you think that Shale Grey and Lexicon White 1/2 will work?
Jen Schach
Hi Katrina
We have .a surfmist roof and also looking at shale grey and white but we have cedar wood windows. What do you think? Do you think it may be a bit dark and perhaps use surfmist or Dieskau on the ext walls as well?
Appreciate your help
Jen