Decisions .... decisions

Oh Dwyllis, what a choice to have to make - and not one you can change in a hurry if you decide you don't like it. My personal preference would be for the version with the white clapboard and heliotrope paintwork - very romantic, and it would set off greens and bright yellows well, but I don't know about your neighbours. Are there any houses close to yours? Clashing colours?
Aren't you clever with your colours on the computer? How do you do that?
Thinking about it, maybe deep muted colours would look really good - nothing too bright or you'd be fighting the flowers! Be sure to send us pictures of the final result.

I love that one too & like you, I think it is very romantic ... the background colour is called Island Spice & is more of a cream than a stark white .... my OH does not like the heliotrope .... he keeps saying he does not want to live in a house with pink trims! lol. But he doesn't mind the more blue-purple tones! He would go ahead with anything I wanted, I think, but it would be nice to have something we both really liked. Our neighbour on one side has a virtually identical house & his is painted stark white with very vivid strong-medium blue on all the trims .... too stark & too much contrast for my taste, but very neat & fresh-looking. Our neighbour on the other side has an old, rather ramshackled villa of the same period, painted in a very strong darkish jade green all over, with deep mulberry-pink trimmings. Across the road we have a more modern house in lemon with white trims, & next to that is a large two-storey old Vicarage which has just recently been refurbished & painted in a medium terracotta colour with cream trimmings & a red roof. So I don't think any of the colours would be out of place. As you say, it is a huge decision & one that cannot be easily altered if one suddenly decides it was a mistake. That is why I thought going for a heritage colour on the background, such as Soft Apple or Island Spice, & putting a more dramatic colour on the fancy trims, would be the way to go. Then if we do decide we don't like it, the fancy trims & even the windowsills would not be such a big undertaking to change at some point.

Gosh, how brilliant and colourful life in NZ must be! It's a far cry from suburban Manchester or scruffy Italian farming communities. (Yards full of rusting agricultural machinery and duck poo.)

Would it be simpler to change you OH? :-)

My favourite is picture 1 Dwyllis lovely colours & the white trims really make it stand out,really nice home you have.

Not that this is any help to you, but I like the first picture best. The white trims make it look very crisp.
Good luck with the choosing and could you let us know what you decide on?
Very pleasing style of house, by the way.

Dwyllis, this is exactly the kind of dilemma that I love. I think you have worked it all out for yourself really. Brilliant way of sharing it with everyone and being really sure in your choices. I like the idea of using the apple green as the background, because as you say it would really show off the pink roses you plan to plant in the front garden. I am not a great fan of white. People think it goes with everything. In my opinion it doesnt. I know you have said in previous blogs you really like pastel colours when it comes to choosing plants. The apple green with various shades of pink will give you a romantic soft look that will blend in together to form a much nicer whole picture. (in my opinion) Let us know whatever you decide Honey. Have fun. Your husband will come around to it. Just be sure that its what you want. Be brave!

I like the first and the last one.

No I like the first one.

Thankyou everyone. Well that just about does it for me .... heritage house done in heritage colours of the correct period. Andrew .... I laughed when I read your comment ... but couldn't change him because quite simply he is wonderful, & apart from minor clashes on interior & exterior colourschemes, we live harmoniously in every way LOL. Poppy ..... you are quite right of course .... the first colourscheme is the way I would prefer to go, as I think it has a nice timeless & also pretty look, & once the front has been planted up with roses in various shades of pink & lemon, with some burgundy thrown in for good measure, to match the hydrangeas at the front, I think it will all gel together rather nicely. My OH is not fond of blue or grey or brown tones, & thinks that the white or cream tones on the weatherboard will show up every single blemish in the wood, which may well be true. I do really like the 4th & 5th colourways, but I knew they were never going to be real contenders, in consideration of my OH, who did not want to have a strong pink on the house .... we have quite a strong pink in one of our guest bedrooms, & he actually really likes it, but protested at the thought of pink in either our bedroom, the lounge or on the exterior lol. We did our previous villa in a smokey-turquoise background with French Navy trimmings, but this time round I would prefer something a bit more sedate & romantic.

Here in Spain most casas are white with dark wood windows and doors, contrasted against the terracotta roofs, but every so often someone somewhere will break the mold and paint their outer walls with bright peacock blue, holly green, mustard yellow or - recently seen and very nasty - dark purple! I know people are allowed their choices, but somehow it just doesn't seem right. Having said that, I like your Heritage choice of colours - to me subtle is always best. ;o)

Some day, when the sun comes out again, I must photograph a row of new houses in a nearby village - you need sunglasses and sedation just to look at them: everything a colour scheme shouldn't be! I'd be very happy if the locals would just stick to white, like Spain and Greece, Nariz. There's an extremely nasty colour used here which is supposed to be traditional, and historically was mixed using bull's blood (yuk!). The modern version is pretty unspeakable, especially when painted with alternating stripes of ochre, and the shutters done in leaf green. I must remember to keep my camera with me at all times - that way you'd feel a lot better about anything else.

That has made me giggle, all those choices! Good luck in choosing!

All look lovely,Dwyllis,but my favourite is the first one too..a lovely contrast with all colour schemes in the garden..

I like the first one too Dwyllis. The house is lovely.

Oh blimey Dwyllis!!!!!! I don`t envy you and your hubby, thats a big job to undertake and then decide halfway through that you don`t like it.
I`ve been up and down the pics like a yoyo and I like the first one with the third a close second, good luck with both deciding on colour scheme and actually doing the job....

First pic gets my vote, far and away the best - although, were it mine, I'd do it out in dove grey with soft pink trims... or lime green with mid blue trims - now that would keep you awake on a dull day, lol!

I'm sure after such deliberation it will be just right for the two of you . Couldn't OH get on and put his colour choices too . It is such a good facility , you can see the final effect before you even start . [There will be a few sore muscles though , when it is done !]

Lincslass .... that third colourscheme is really the only one I like which my OH likes too. Now if everyone above had said they liked that one best, it would be 'problem solved' LOL. Driad .... he has done that, but as he doesn't like any of the blues, or any tones which hint of brown or grey, & he only likes certain shades of greens, & does not want it to be white or cream, & of course all the pink & lilac/purple tones are out too ..... & I don't like oranges or strong yellows ..... he has really had a difficult time trying to choose a colourscheme he likes .... & he has a tendency to change his mind, so what he says he likes on a Monday, I might show it to him again on the Friday & he says he doesn't like it all that much LOL. What he would like would be the dull tomato-red background with dark khaki sills & trims, or a strong mustard colour with either jade green or mulberry sills & trims. I did give both of them some deliberation, but when it comes right down to it, I am not a great fan of those strong bold colours when it comes to the exterior of a house. The only way I could live with either, would be to put lots of bushy foliage planting at the front, so that the strong colour would be 'broken up' visually, with just glimpses of it through the foliage, but as this house sits quite close to the road, there isn't a lot of space to do that sort of planting. I'm sure we will manage to settle on something which we can both enjoy, but we were hoping to get the front & the driveway done over the summer, leaving the other side & the back, which cannot be seen from the road, until the following spring/summer. That's how a lot of people do it, because it is a mammoth task & we did it on our previous house, which had three seperate verandas, & we totally ran out of steam two thirds of the way through. I really do appreciate everyone's input, so thankyou. I will keep you all updated.

I like the first and the second best. I know what you mean about gaudy colours. Around our area there is a brilliant buttercup yellow, a very bright darkish green and there was a purple one but they have now painted it white, I guess as they were trying to sell it with no takers! Have to admit our reaction was Yuck, but the owners must have liked them. Its very personal.I hope you can decide on a combination you both like in the end.

Oooooh !