There is an abundance of whites/light grey around. Windspray is a Colorbond colour and looks really good. Timeless Grey is also quite good nice. Shale grey is very pale almost white and again really good looking. My suggestion to a client is to choose something else aside from grey however. Unless there aren't any grey houses close by of course. We all seem to be a bit 'safe' with our colour choices which is unfortunate. My own house is grey but when I did it there were no other grey houses around.... anywhere! One of my clients went with 'Poppy Pink' another went with 'Vanessa Mae'. Fabulous colours without being eye searing. Unfortunately I don't have any good pictures.

I like the darker charcoal and white , if repainting make sure it is a nice deep charcoal , NOT a dark grey -- as gwyn says , why be ordinary ? I'll offer 2 thoughts though -- the first would be a bit more white , such as the terrace railtop , and maybe a small 'sculpture panel' on the main wall ( it looks like there is one on the end wall ? ) . Easy to do . Option 2 and 2a is not quite so easy , and may not suit the neighbourhood , but 2 more authentic colour options -- Scandinavian Red is what I would call Barn Red -- with the white highlights that looks the part ! The other option on that thought track is Swedish Blue -- authentic , but not a favourite of mine , and again it may look out of place amongst the neighbours , and its too close to grey for my liking , but with crisp white highlights it can look okay . So I suppose 3 options from me haha -- slightly darker charcoal , with white highlights ; Scandinavian red with white highlights ; Swedish Blue with white highlights .

Hi, firstly congratulations on your decision to renovate. How exciting. We are nearing the end of a major renovation and choosing the exterior colours was a real sticking point. Most of the houses around us were built in the 1990's and my renovation had the potential to not quite fit in. I had to use a timber cladding to match the existing cedar but the original had been poorly stained and I was never going to get a cohesive match between old and new. I was left pondering my choices. The solution was to paint both but what colour? In the end, I looked at what of the existing was going to be left unchanged. It turned out to be the Karaka Green window frames - not my favourite colour - but in order to work with it I had to pray I didn't offend the neighbourhood. I didn't want the old dirty brown shade and a thousand testpots later, left me with only one really obvious answer. As you can see from the photo, I chose [quite radically] to paint the entire extention in Half Karaka green. It's still a work in progress and in the coming weeks, the rest of the house will be painted to match. I waited for the neighbours - particularly, the old people from the Rest Home at the end of the street - to tell me off for my choice but have been blown away by their reactions. Every last comment has been a major thumbs up. Even the painter - who was highly skeptical - apologised for his doubt, Don't automatically assume your neighbours are going to hate seeing the changes you are about to bring to the area. Which brings me to your planned renovations. I am assuming that your window frames are also going to remain the white colour in the photo. Rather than get all confused about greys etc. Start with them as the basis for the rest of the house and work out from there. If you do that, then I don't think it will be as difficult as it currently seems for you to pick what the rest of the house will be. Don't be afraid to spend money on purchasing test pots. They are around $4 or $5 each and I believe that I probably spent $200. It was worth every penny to me to get a few small off cuts of cedar painted and sit and look at them alongside the existing windows in order to make an informed decision. Good luck. I look forward to seeing some finished photos. I hope to post my finished renovation photos here soon.

I love Surfmist as a colour , but I don't think it plays well with the terracota . like you , I wouldn't keep the buttery yellow , so therefore wouldn't change the roof and paving colours ( no point changing everything ) . I'd go a light sandy tone , sort of a dark beige . There are 100's to choose , I'd let you choose , but personally I'd keep away from the ones that seemed trendy 15 years ago -- basically start your own trend , instead of updating a 40 year old trend with a 15 year old one , or a 5 year old ( light grey ) one . And as dreamer says , crisp whiten up the trim -- 'sand' and the 'orange' , with crisp white will look planned and get noticed in a good way .