COLOR

The color used on some homes in Buffalo are quite noticeable.  Reasons for the saturated color found on local homes can be:

• The style and character of the neighborhood.
• Wanting to be individual and stand out.
• Wanting brightness in a gloomy winterscape.
• Wanting to exert a sense of playfulness and joy.

Actually, the reasons to paint your house and garden with color are many. Some obvious, and some to evoke a feeling, both inward and out into the public realm. Color is a great design tool. It can be applied, singularly, sporadically, graphically or solidly on a large scale.  Large drifts of single-color perennials make a huge statement in the landscape. So do rich repetitive groupings.

Whether the home is on the cooler side of the color wheel in blue, lavender, purple, or green, these gardeners selected plants to enhance the feel of happiness, with full beds and planting to the sidewalk. Color is all around. Splash in a few hot colors and have the garden radiate or be complementary by choosing colors opposite that really pack a punch.

Warm or Cool Colors Create Mood

Moving onto the warm side of the wheel, we create a mood anywhere from warm and fuzzy to hot and lively.

Red is generally the hottest color, but can be toned down with reserve. There are clean colors and dirty colors. We think of dirty colors having a muddy appearance. Clean color is usually the truest hue and brightest version. Color can be toned down with black or its opposite on the color wheel.

This house is not as bright and happy as yesterday’s post, but has an old world feel. Even though the brick is partially painted, a feeling of time and permanence is evident. I believe that this home had a porch at one time. There is evidence of having the ledger board on the facade and it was repaired and painted above the windows and door.

The cool blue trim helps give the impression of long-established, as does the cooler red of the brick and paint. Did I say cool red? Yes I did. When you compare any color to a version of itself, one will be cooler than the other.

Clean and Dirty Color

See the difference? I know it is difficult to do color online, but you can readily see a difference in the two. The home on the right is brighter and a more crisp color. Both have white trim, so I think it is a fair comparison. Many other factors play into color determination, but this is a simplified explanation.

Let’s get on with the wheel. Now, let us look at orange, yellow and pink. Now these images are a party in a post. Wow. Even the pale pink home has a fiesta feel. The garden is an art gallery, with the art providing the biggest bang for the buck.

Analogous

The orange house above, used an analogous palette of flowers to compliment the house, as did the yellow house to the left. You can see how they went right through a little more than half the wheel with the color, from true green through magenta.

Also, notice in this image that the yellow in the home is much cooler than the yellow in the Garden Walk sign. This owner used candy colored red and hot pink Impatiens to spice up the landscape. Yum.

We can not forget white. White is powerful when used with bright color. In the garden, white gives the eye a rest in all the color commotion. It is common as a home color or as trim. But white can work the same way as in the garden, giving you a clean palette on which to add color accent, build a wild palette, or use the opposite in black.

Black homes are much less common. Here is one with a buttery cream trim. One thing about white and black, virtually no color looks bad with either. The shade of the color determines the impact, but all flowers will pop. Notice how the singular planting of magenta flowers pop at the white home. The black house has orange sunflowers and red Impatiens, but check out the red stairs and door. Takes a home from cautious to confident. Spunky, with a little spice.

And what about no color? I did not do this in Photoshop, it really exists. I know, because I take all my own photos. Rarely in our neck of the woods do you see a house engulfed with vines like you do down South. At least they trimmed around the windows a bit. Where is the door? A little cinema-like foreboding. Maybe you can get in but not out, eerie, I think. It looks like a really nice house, love the tower, but I would love to see it clean-shaven.

Next post will be all about only the color in the garden. Stay tuned, I have more wheels.