I'm more drawn to the second, but am wondering if it reads overly pretty and feminine. Kevin says he's not bothered by that, but I was curious what other folks thought, especially other men. Does the second color palette seem girly to you? Keeping in mind that the main body of the house will be the deep blue in the center, and all the other colors will be used for trim detail (and lots of it).
Also, there are six colors in that second scheme -- three purple and three blues. Should I use them all, or cut back to two of each? (I'm kind of leaning towards using them all, but the painters might kill me.)
The second color scheme does not look “girly” to me, but it does look bland. I like the top one much more.
I like the 2nd one a lot. It seems harmonious and organic.
Normally I don’t mess with other’s color selection, but personally I like a main field color, one trim color and an accent color.
The second scheme has accent colors that will fade (depending on sun exposure) such that in a year or two if you squinted at the house the light colors will grey out and not seem so different.
The first group while more somber, will hold up to the sun tho they too will fade a little. The interesting thing is that there are accent colors that are darker than the main blue and some are lighter. Therefore one could put two accent colors together that would work in contrast as well as using the same accents individually working well with the blue.
But you will have to decide which accents you want, unless you want to make the front elevation one color group and the back another group. It would seem that the North elevation would use lighter accents since it will not see the sun and the Southern elevation have the darker accents since the sun will brighten them when it shines.
And, as I’ve mentioned before, fewer colors make for easier repainting in the future, unles you’ll want to go in a new direction.
I hope you are enjoying the house.
I prefer the second one. It doesn’t seem that girly to me as the colours are muted with a bit of grey, rather than pastels. I love those sorts of shades, especially the middle blue – like a storm-tossed sea.
I agree with Dennis B. I think most of those lighter accent colors will get more washed out with time. And fewer colors mean easier repainting. I also agree with him about using too many. Most decorators would suggest following the 60/30/10 rule.