Softer exterior colours come together like a dream
This is a column in which designer Suzanne Rowe selects homes that could benefit from a little inexpensive help in increasing their curb appeal. After examining photographs, she then proceeds to sketch out an artist’s rendering of what they could look lik
Due to sleep deprivation from being parents of 1- and 3-yearold kids, the owners of this 1964 cottage had other more important priorities than to work on the enhancement of their home. He’s a managing engineer for a large firm and she just got back to work in computers after two maternity leaves.
Six years ago, they purchased this property in the West Island. They would love to warm up its harsh blackand-white colour scheme. The shingles have to be replaced within five years. I favour a charcoal and black roof, but in a mock cedarstyle shingle. The two-tone surface looks richer, less massive than solid black and less busy than multi-toned. A brown roof would permit a limited colour combination for the walls and doors. Charcoal goes with neutrals like greys, warm beiges and even colours like oxblood reds, creamy yellows, muddy greens and dirty blues.
The dingy bricks once qualified as white, but with time and from being subjected to pollution as well as natural elements, they became an uneven yellow grey with a stained mustard tone near the ground. A relatively quick and easy solution would be to paint these and the mortar. A specialized selfpriming acrylic latex product made for masonry, stucco and bricks would look great in a matte finish. I chose a rich khaki medium beige and a tone darker for the new coachstyle garage doors, flower box and aluminum siding. Only the twin doors and the box can reveal a discrete lustre. The vertical gutters ought to replicate its background pigment. The old or new shutters ought to exhibit a warm charcoal tone as a nod to the nuance of the new roof.
The arched detail above the entrance will be replaced by a streamlined plank. The post will be thickened on both ends and mouldings will be added to provide a more refined look. All white elements will be refreshed with a few strokes of crisp white exterior acrylic paint in a flat finish. A thin, built-in flower box will be inserted between the wall and the square column. Like bold red lips on a beautiful face, I intended to expose a maximum surface of the merlot tint to exorcise any dullness on the façade. For this reason, the windows on the door would be smaller to reveal a larger coloured focal point.
Near the foundation, there will be a low retaining wall fostering the same upward and cascading white and pink annuals as in the wooden box. In the elongated bed will be nestled a trio of compact Taxus Brownii evergreens, which will reside alongside the two windows.
The couple wished for a pathway leading to the yard, a spacious porch, a seating area and a driveway made out of paving stones. These would have to be a beige that will blend with the walls. Not shown here, the owners’ Japanese maple will be placed outside the curvy patio, but a bit more to the right. Either black modern or more traditional Adirondack armchairs won’t need to be expensive but should look it. Plastic furniture should never be exhibited in front of a home. Not illustrated on the sketch are three tall black planters containing flowing ornamental grasses that will furnish the front left part on the patio. This will complete the cocooning effect of the three conifers on the right as well as the owners’ Japanese maple thus adding privacy. Like a bouquet, their pink hydrangea tree will rest in the middle of five deep purple shrubs and silver white ground cover. This love nest will now exhibit a more inviting personality with its warmer disposition, richer coloration and happy botanical composition.
I wish our submitters all the best in life, but more importantly, many a good night’s sleep. Vegetation (from left to right):
Clematis Nelly Moser or Carnaby (climber, two pinks or pink and white, fence)
Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle (shrub, white, yard, compost)
Thuja occidentalis Smaragd (pyramidal evergreens, one on the left, three on the right)
Hemerocallis Ruby d’Oro (several perennials, cherry pink, yellow centre, yard path)
Owners’ shrubs (three globular evergreens, left of yard path, trim in rounder shape at end of June)
Heuchera Vesuvius or palace Purple (persistent perennials, purple red, left of driveway)
Lamium maculatum White Nancy (persistent perennials, ground cover, white, silver)
Begonia Dragon Wing Pink (cascading annuals, pink, box, raised bed, fertilize every two weeks, compost, perlite)
Begonia semperflorens (annuals, white, box, raised bed)
Taxus media Brownii (three evergreens, raised bed, alongside windows)
Euonymus fortunei Emerald Gold (three persistent shrubs, yellow and green, light post)
Berberis thunbergii Concorde (five shrubs, burgundy, around pink Hydrangea tree)
Hydrangea paniculata Quick Fire (shrub grafted on trunk, pink, compost, perlite, sphagnum moss, to be trimmed above the lowest clusters of buds of the last summers’ branches)