Choosing Exterior Finishes

I find exterior design (on a budget) to be very difficult. We all know a beautiful home when we see it, but creating a home that has the visual aesthetic while being cost conscious, is tough.

Where to start

When designing our exterior, I began with siding samples from our local hardware store. I had hoped a color would instantly stand out to me, unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I went onto Pinterest and looked at every exterior I had pinned over the last few months. It didn’t take long to notice that most of my pins were black and white exteriors. That colour combo has become incredibly popular lately which made me hesitate to do it because we didn’t want to chase trends.

We were hoping to design a classic exterior that ages well.

Black accents

Once the siding color (white) was chosen we moved onto accents and interesting details to bring in that classic touch. We knew we wanted the accent color to be black so we decided to splurge and purchase all black windows. Many homes have a secondary color of trim around the window, we decided instead to stick to simplicity and keep the window surrounds white and let the black window detail make its own simple statement.

We opted for black metal around the door; because it was such a small space the cost was only a few hundred dollars. The bespoke detail elevates the entire home.

All the details

Now that the main areas were decided we looked for thoughtful accents that we could add. We began with a black garage door to coincide with the black windows. We also had all of our exterior doors painted black to add that drama and cohesiveness. From there we wanted to add some warmth and earthiness to reflect the interior. For this we chose copper lights to flank either side of the garage door, they look both weathered and classic. We decided those needed another warm element so we paired the lights with a cost effective (around $50 from the hardware store) stained wood board that sits atop the garage door.

We love how all of the details came together and are looking forward to finishing up our exterior next summer with landscaping.

-The Miller's