Colorbond colour scheme advice

6 years ago

Hi Houzz community,

My husband and I in the process of designing a holiday house on 5 acres of bush on the Sunshine Coast. I've been pretty good with making most decisions but I'm a bit undecided with the external colour scheme so would love to hear your thoughts!

I'll attach some elevations of the house at the end of the post.

Here's what we've already decided on:

- Roof will be Colorbond, custom-orb

- Wall cladding will be Colorbond horizontal custom-orb

- Window frames will be aluminum (light silver)

- Decking is INEX composite decking (light grey/weathered wood look)

We like a minimalist/simple aesthetic, neutral grey colour schemes, no browns or greens. I'm planning on adding a few key pieces of furniture/pots to add interest and colour.

Anyway, the scheme I've come up with is a combination of Shale Grey (roof), Windspray (walls), and Basalt (deck posts & balustrades, fascia, gutters). I was also thinking of Basalt for the front door.

We also have to choose colours for our shed - I want it to recede (i.e darker colours) and to look different from the house. I'm thinking Basalt walls and roof, Windspray or Basalt roller doors.

I did a mock up of my proposed colour scheme (though the Windspray looks a lot more blue in the drawing than it does in person).

Would love to hear your thoughts and any suggestions, improvements etc. that you may have. Thank you!

Featured Answer

sunnycoast
Original Author

6 years ago

Also I found a photo of a colour scheme similar to what we were planning - light roof, mid-grey walls, light window frames, dark gutters/fascia and dark deck posts (obviously a different style house to ours, and our colours are a bit different, but it does make me think it might work...?

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Comments (30)

sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
And here are the elevations:
sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
Also forgot to say that the water tanks will be stainless steel. :-)
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annb1997
6 years ago
Great design! I like your colour scheme. S/S tanks will look amazing. I think if you keep shed all same colour it will recede better. Landscaping will help too.

We have an enormous galvanised water tank and to camouflage it from house, we installed posts with 3 rows of S/S wire run between them alongside tank, then planted ornamental vines. ATM the leaves are deep red.
bigreader
6 years ago
Your site sounds lovely. I think three colours is too much for a modern design. And I have a personal preference for gutters and downpipes to be the same colour as the background - they aren’t an architectural feature.
I’d do the shed and tanks both in the same darker colour to recede as again they aren’t a feature.
sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks annb and bigreader for your replies :-) The house is our own custom design and has been in the pipeline for many years - things are finally moving ahead now which is very exciting! We spent a lot of time trying to get the design right but I left the colour scheme to last, LOL.

OK cool so we’ll go with Basalt for the whole shed. (I forgot to mention that the small water tank for the shed will also be Basalt.) I like your suggestion Annb, some landscaping in front of the shed should help it to blend in a bit more too. Your vines sound beautiful!!

With the house water tanks - I actually really like the stainless steel, they’re our only water source so I kinda like the idea of celebrating that utilitarian vine (does that sound weird? LOL!) our above-ground plunge pool is cast concrete and will be kept as-is too.

Bigreader, I do like the idea of less colours... we are set on Shale Grey for the roof so I did think of using it on the walls too - but I’m not sure if our house is ‘architectural’ or striking enough to pull it off if that makes sense...? And also whether it would work with the light silver window frames we want (i.e. not enough contrast between the two).

My thought process with the balustrades is that we want them to be as unobtrusive as possible so as not to detract from the bush view, hence the darker colour. I then thought the verandah posts should be the same dark colour - and then I thought it might look weird if the the gutter/fascia wasn’t the same colour too...?

Thanks again to you both for your help, honestly I’m finding this one of the hardest parts about the house design... glad that we have a decision about the shed colour at least! :-)
sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
Arrrgh sorry for the wall of text, I’m using the app and it stripped out all my line breaks...!
Jo M
6 years ago
Our last house (a modern farm house made from colourbond and shadow clad timber )was shale grey and windspray. Really nice colour combination I think. Our windows were timber, painted white. I think you're on the right track.
sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks Jo that’s good to hear! :-) Your old house sounds awesome, love the modern farm house look.

I have no idea what you’d call our place... it’s probably a bit of a mish-mash of different styles... pavilion with a shed vibe...? LOL!

So many of our design decisions were based purely on function, economy, durability, utility, passive design, etc. and the form has just flowed from that, hopefully the aesthetics all come together in the end.
annb1997
6 years ago
I still think your house colour scheme will work brilliantly. I love the S/S tanks. As I said ours is galvanised, as is our big garage, small fire water tank, and the cladding on entire north side of house. We didn't want to hide the tank as it serves as our only water supply, but as it can partly be seen from our daughter's window we thought the ornamental vines would pretty it up.

Trust yourself, your long-awaited plans are coming together!
sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks Ann :-) I’m certainly feeling more confident that we’re on the right track! So great to get others input on these things - hubby is colour blind and/or thinks everything looks fine, and my friends are probably bored out of their brains listening to me talk about the house!!

Your place sounds fantastic... I love the galvanised look too. What did you choose for the other walls...? Do you have any pics?
annb1997
6 years ago
The front (north) is clad in spotted gum, decks which run entire north and west side are spotted gum too. I'll post a pic of front, but will have to take some of north side in daylight.

We had just re-oiled right end of cladding so that's why it looks so much darker than left side.
annb1997
6 years ago
This pic shows galvanised garage & small fire water tank.
annb1997
6 years ago
sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
WOW stunning! Love it!
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annb1997
6 years ago
You are very kind, thank you.
sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
bigreader I was just thinking about your comment... are you suggesting that it would look best to keep the gutters the same colour as the roof (Shale Grey), and then just make the fascia Basalt...?

We are definitely planning to make the downpipes the same colour as either the walls (where they run down the wall) or the balustrade (for those that run down a balustrade post)
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sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
OK... So....

I'm now thinking that with our particular style of house & roof lines that it is going to look best if the gutters and fascia are the same colour. This pic is similar to how our roof will be constructed and I think given the wide fascias on each end of the house, and the fact that we won't have gutters on either end, and the position of the gutters, it looks best when they're both the same colour.

(It's a bit hard to see in the photo but there's a half-round gutter at the front.)
Jo M
6 years ago
I'm confused about the whole gutter fascia colour thing in general ;). Just starting to re paint our house, and looking around the neighbourhood it seems most have painted their gutters a completely different colour to roof, and I could never understand why anyone would want to make a feature of them. We currently have red roof and green gutters....

So totally agree with bigreader and your idea to blend them in, they are not a feature. Your house will be great, and the location sounds wonderful.
sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
Haha that makes two of us Jo!! From what I’ve read, the advice is to make them the same colour as your roof, or the same colour as your fascia, I’m guessing both options would probably work to make sure they don’t stand out too much.
bigreader
6 years ago
Annab. Your house is lovely. I notice you have some yellow flowers along the front. Could I be bold enough to suggest you fill in around that garden with Billy Buttons? They only come in yellow but are so happy I’ve been dying to recommend them to someone.
girlguides
6 years ago
Suggest need more contrast and basalt clashes with windspray so go shale same as roof for gutters and surfmist for fascias to give nice contrast and break btwrooflineand house
sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks girlguides for your feedback :-)

With my limited colour knowledge (LOL) I thought that Windspray looked OK with Basalt - Windspray is definitely a cooler grey but Basalt seems pretty much neutral (i.e. not warm or cool) so I thought it worked when we went to look at samples... You are definitely right though, it is a pretty subtle colour scheme.

I think I'm pretty much decided now that the gutters and fascia should be the same colour - so with your suggestion they'd both be surfmist.

With your colour scheme, what would you suggest for the balustrades and balustrade/deck posts? I thought a darker colour for them would be best since I want them to recede into the view when sitting on the deck/looking outside.
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annb1997
6 years ago
Thank you bigreader, Billy Buttons are pretty. Thanks for suggestion.
girlguides
6 years ago
Hi sunnycoast
I find white eg surfmist does recede better into view than dark when looking from inside to outside view whereas darker tends to box up or frame the view. You could go double strength surfmist for posts and rails. On the other hand having your shed darker as you suggest will make it recede into the background Alternatively you could have half strength windspray for verandah posts etc. find some railing fences and sit behind and look at view and see what you like. Good luck and nice house
sunnycoast
Original Author
6 years ago
Hi girlguides, yeah I always just assumed a darker railing would recede... but like you say It can have a different effect. I wonder if it depends on what your view through the railing is? Like if it was an open/expansive view, then the lighter colour would ‘blend’ in more with that...? On our block the view is going to be tall trees & dense bushland all around. Yes I’ll definitely be paying more attention to any railings I see around, great idea! Thanks :-)
HU-298901528
5 years ago
Hi Sunnycoast, wondering how your build went? We are building and contemplating at the exact same colour scheme!
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sunnycoast
Original Author
4 years ago
Hi there, sorry for the late reply I haven’t been on Houzz for ages... Our build is in progress (finally!) We went with shale grey for our roof, gutters and fascia and windspray for the walls. Can’t really see the roof from ground level but I love the colour of the windspray and I think it works great with our silver window frames. (We also ended up going with shale grey for our shed as we decided this would be more practical in keeping the shed cooler.) Hope this helps!
Jo M
4 years ago
It's looking good sunnycoast
sunnycoast
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks Jo! This house has been a long time coming, LOL.
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