Hi! What are the best tools out there to simulate colours on your exterior? I'm having trouble mocking up exterior paint colours and roof. The biggest dilemma is that we're working from a given colour scheme that includes a Woodland Grey roof. We're in an area that wouldn't suit a dark roof for the heat transfer properties. No doubt the infra cool technology will come with a price tag and I'm not sure how well it works compared to lighter colours. However, if I choose a lighter colour like shale grey or even wind spray, I'm worried the exterior will look blendy same same - no contrast.

All the new estates where I live now show houses with narrow frontages (on deeper house blocks). Our new build will have a much wider frontage so it's pointless comparing the look if even I can find similar colours out there. Tell me your tips or tools to do mock ups! Dulux on the phone today told me all about the tools they no longer have for me to use...very handy - not!

Although I'd like to be able to mock up the options and play around myself, I'd be very happy to accept any opinions, thoughts and ideas from Houzzers out there. I'm free to change the roof colour to anything but need to be mindful of how that affects the other colours in the scheme. Deviation to the scheme will be tolerated to some degree so long as I don't complicate things too much (while paint colour is okay to change, I must get prefab elements ordered soon and won't be able to change them if they don't work with a totally new colour palette), plus I'm bearing in mind that the interior currently ties in with the exterior scheme and I want cohesion there.

Pictured first is my very dodgy mock up of our actual house plan on an app my husband found with colours from our given colour scheme. There is actually weatherboard where the Mount Aspiring colour sits on the front, and on the windowless panel closest to the end of the house. This app was fairly clunky. Mangaweka is the colour designated for render, but we're having Hardieflex so I plonked that colour on there for contrast, but they needn't be set that way. I could select either of those colours or a different one completely for the whole frontage, or retain contrasting colours. The garage door is surfmist which I don't think works with the other colours so well - more creamy/yellowy in natural light?? The soffits are surfeits too but that's pretty common. You can't tell, but gutters and fascia are same as roof at present with Woodland Grey. Below that pic is a picture I snapped of the only house that I've seen with a remotely similar colour combo, except with stained door (which I'd also prefer) and garage matching roof, rather than contrasting with it. I do love the nice contrast, but of course I'm trying to eliminate the dark roof, so I don't see how I could keep this contrasting dark garage against the lighter house frontage unless we make those windowless panels of the house a dark colour also and tie it in to the gutters and fascia or something...

Ideas??