Complementary house and barn colors?

[LilyandBaron]

My husband and I bought our farm about 5 years ago, and are finally close to done with our outside improvements, and next up is our house renovation. Our horse and storage barn have “saddle tan” siding and green metal roofing. The buildings are visible behind the house, which is currently gray with brick red shutters and trim, but also some white trim on the newer windows. But the house is what we will remodel adn can paint any color. We would like a metal roof on the house as well. The setting is very picturesque, with large trees, so a cottage vibe seems appropriate.

I want a timeless color scheme that doesn’t clash with the barns, but prefer complementary colors on the house, not an exact replica of the barn colors on the house. Any ideas or examples appreciated! I tried searching but hard to not find all the trendy pole barn house design sites!

[stb]

You have a lot going on there - colorwise. The best option is for your house and all outbuildings to be the same color scheme or complementary colors.

[Palm_Beach]

Can you paint the shutters the same green as the roofs of the outbuildings?

[longlanefarm]

I’m not following completely. Are you planning to redo your house exterior now (siding/roof)? Or just enough to make the house and barn/out buildings not clash?

We’re about to redo our farmhouse’s exterior and roof. Barn is faded yellow/tan wood siding with black metal roof. House will be white board and batten with dark brown/grey standing seam roof. Eventually barn siding will need replaced but I don’t know if I would want a white barn!?!?

I agree, you’ve got a lot of colors going on. If you are replacing your house roof and like the barn roof color, I’d have them match. As you said, getting rid of the red might help a lot.

[LilyandBaron]

@longlanefarm

I’m not following completely. Are you planning to redo your house exterior now (siding/roof)? Or just enough to make the house and barn/out buildings not clash?

Sorry - house is currently gray/red/white, which is NOT something I want to keep! I don’t hate gray, but mainly looking for ideas to complement the updated barns that we love. I don’t really want an exact match, but complementary color schemes. Thanks!

[MissAriel]

If the light sand and the saddle tan are complementary, I would be inclined to paint the house the lighter sand (or just a lighter version of the saddle tan), with the same dark green as the barn for the trim. This would let the house be a little bit set apart from the outbuildings, while keeping everything cohesive.

White with green trim could also look nice.

A light sand or maybe even the saddle tan with white trim and green shutters and doors is another option.

There are some online paint visualization sites (usually at the sites for paint manufacturers) that might help you sort options.

[LilyandBaron]

Updated my original, confusing, post! Thanks for inputs! I do wish there was a tool to visualize the separate buildings - all I could find were tools to visualize just one building at a time…

[TCA_Arabians]

I love this thread because I’m having the same debate with myself. Barn is a very, pale blue/grey with a metal roof that reflects the sky. House is a sand color with a brown rock façade half way up the front wall, window trim, porch overhang and support pillars are a deep brown/red (think Spanish style). The current roof is asphalt shingle. I’m toying with a white roof to reflect the summer sun. The brown rock limits the color scheme for the house. I like the sand color as this is the high desert and the dust is always blowing.

OP - I missed the color of your roof. A sand with dark green trim would complement your barns as others have suggested. For me, I think keeping the brown/red on the trim or going with dark green are my only options. I used an antique green on window frames years ago (different house) and liked the result. We have a lot of trees between the house and the barn. That does break up the noticeable difference in the colors.

[bdj]

I have three buildings on my property - the house, an unattached garage and the barn. House and garage were on the property when I bought it, and I added the barn.

House is beige(ish) with a grey tone and a dark brown shingled roof. Garage is a slightly lighter beige with a white metal roof. Barn is the closest match to the house color as I could come up with (it’s a pole barn with sheet metal, so there were only so many choices) with a dark blue/navy roof and trim. Despite the differences, the place looks pretty nice - I think keeping the “body” of the buildings in similar colors helps it look cohesive. If money weren’t an option, I’d like to redo the roof on the garage to match the barn and replace the roof on the house and make the trim blue, but both roofs are in good shape, so that’s not happening anytime soon!

Only have one picture of the barn that sort of shows the colors at the moment, but the house is pretty much the same color.