Choosing paint colors can be tricky. It's one of the most frequent topics I am asked about. Choosing exterior paint colors can be even trickier as colors will often look very different on the front, back and sides of your home depending on which direction your house faces and where sun and shade are. Finding a paint color that looks good on all sides, in all lighting, during the day and at night can be overwhelming. 

My biggest advice is to test, test, test. Never go by the that little paper swatch and even if you've used the color before in a different space it doesn't mean it will work somewhere else. I always recommend painting a decent size swatch (12' x 12" at least) on all 4 walls of an interior room or on front, back and side of your exterior. 

Watch the swatches for a few days and check how the color looks at different times of day. Light makes such a difference in how paint colors appear and you want to find a color that you love during the day and at night equally. 

On to our house...

Our home was built in 1968 and is a mix of brick and wood. I know painting brick is a controversial subject, but I LOVE painted brick. Especially if your brick is like mine - a gross yellow-y brown with pink mortar. WHY WOULD ANYONE USE PINK MORTAR?! It is beyond me, but my house is proof that it happened. 

When I see this picture from the original real estate listing, I have a hard time remembering why in the world we even went to see it. It's a little bit (OK, A LOT) of an ugly duckling I know, but it seriously has some great bones. We saw so much potential and we knew we could make it amazing. So I know you might be cringing right now, but just wait till we finish this exterior makeover. 

Below are the current paint swatches we are deciding between.

1 / Custom color I mixed and used on our last home's exterior

2 / Benjamin Moore Black Iron

3 / A mix of 1 and 2

4 / A slightly darker mix of 1 and 2 

It's really hard to tell between 3 and 4 in this picture, but in person you can definitely see that 4 is darker. I really like 3 and 4 and I think one of those is our winner. I'm going to let it marinate for a few more days before I fully decide.

If you follow me on Instagram, I posted the easy process of mixing your own color to get the perfect shade in my stories. I may try to figure out how to put the stories all together in one video and post it here (we'll see....I'm not the most tech savvy).  

Which one is your favorite? 1, 2, 3 or 4? I'd love to hear your thoughts!