[exterior colors] in the woods

Now that Halloween has passed, summer has certainly transitioned into Fall. At our Rosemary Beach studio and shop, the temperature has started to drop (this is a beautiful time of year to visit the beach, by the way) and in Birmingham, the trees are turning fall colors and the leaves are crunching underfoot. We’ve been talking about starting a new blog series for a while now that focuses on exterior color selection–a service we frequently provide in addition to interior design. Today we thought we’d kick off this series by highlighting some exterior colors we’ve selected for the homes at Silverock Cove, a development about an hour north of Birmingham located on beautiful Smith Lake.

The design of the homes and amenity buildings at Silverock focus heavily on the beautiful natural setting of the site. When choosing colors for the exterior of the buildings, we selected colors that would blend with the woods, rocks and water while still defining the architecture of the homes (which were all designed by Dungan Nequette Architects).

The grey green body color of this home is repeated on the window trim. Using the same color for both elements respects the simplicity of the home's architecture while darker eaves and fascia provide definition at the roofline. Untreated wood porch elements will weather naturally over time.

On this home, dark brown windows and trim give depth to the color scheme.

We generally find that in a wooded setting, darker windows and trim help buildings recede and blend into their surroundings rather than stand out. Imagine if the homes pictured above had bright white or cream windows. The darker tones also feel more rustic and relaxed in a wooded setting.

Charcoal grey trim and windows ground the lighter body color of this lakefront home.

There are over 50 homes at Silverock Cove–with more on the way–so of course we didn’t paint every house a shade of green or brown. The home pictured above, the first in Silverock’s Phase III actually has a very light body color, which stands in a pleasant contrast to the surrounding woods. To keep the house from feeling too light though, dark charcoal trim–and eventually windows–keep the color scheme grounded in the wooded setting. The base of the home will soon receive a stone veneer which will further connect the house to the natural site.

Red window sashes provide a pop of color to this otherwise sedate home

It’s still possible to use color on a home set in the woods too without it seeming out of place. On the home pictured above, an otherwise quiet color scheme is enlivened with red window sashes that give an unexpected pop of color–and fun–to the home’s exterior.

All of these homes show that when thinking about exterior colors for a home in a natural setting, simple palettes of brown, grey, green and even autumnal red can give distinction to a structure while still blending with nature.