I Want Different Colors Please!

Have you ever considered the possibility of painting the front of your house a different color than the back?

I know to most this will sound a bit odd. I know when I told my painter that is exactly what I wanted to do,he said,"Come with me." Then he had me tell his crew my request.They actually seemed fine with it, but he thought I was kidding. Now I bet you are wondering why in the world I would do such a thing. I have a small suburan ranch style home in California. I have always loved yellow houses, so painting my home yellow was a given. The sun comes up facing my porch, so it is always warm and comfortable in the mornings when the air is still cool. My backyard is another story. The sun sets in my back yard and around 3:00 in the afternoon it is very,very hot in the summer. Because we get over 100 degrees in the summer I wanted to cool it down a bit with the use of cool colors. This is why I decided to paint the back a different color. The only place you can even see the back of my house is when you are in the backyard. You can not see the yellow sides from the back, only when you are in the front yard. This is how I got away with a two -toned house. The back is painted a soft sage green . I have one window that I had Hubby put shutters  and a window box on. I painted those a cobalt blue. All my pots are either a green or a cobalt. I choose plantings in various greens and pinks and whites. I am lucky to have a very shaded area to the side of my patio where I can grow shade plants and ferns. I have also put a small water feature there. I have never heard of anyone doing this and in looking for some images other than my own home I was unable to find any showing a two-toned house. So I guess that does make me a bit weird, but I like it and it works for our enviroment. Here is a peek at the back side of the house.......

Now that you have seen my backyard, are you ready to see the front of the house. Don't forget it is a different color, remember it is yellow............

Sorry for the glare, The sun comes up facing my house, you can see it in the front door.

You can see it is a soft, butter-yellow. I had the color custom mixed by my tinter and it only has one pigment in it, Yellow-oxide, which is a gold/yellow. I like my yellows more on the butter side of yellow, especially for outside. Most people seem to choose far to bright or on the green side of yellow and it becomes too neon.

 I love yellow and have had it on two of my houses, so I am kind of married to it.

With all this information do you think you would ever consider painting your house two-toned? As long as one side can not be seen from the other you can do it. It is funny when people realize the front and back are different, but to be honest most people don't even notice. I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of my front and back yard differences.

"Enjoy the Process" Of: Doing something outside the box.

Kathysue