I kind of like that you all know me so well you predicted with certainty that I would want to paint our new door with the Crestview Doorlite kit orange.  What you don’t know is that orange is part of an exterior color scheme that has been about a year in the making.  This is the article that started it all for me, from Eichler Home Network.

I was inspired by a lot of houses I’ve seen in books online and I have found myself attracted to neutral exteriors with bright accents and colorful doors.  Some of the ones from my Pinterest board that inspired me are:

And if we lived in a warmer climate or if our house had a whiter exterior, I would be tempted to even go for green or turquoise.  But orange it is.

That left us wondering about the rest of the house.  If we want to go from this:

To this:

So there has been an ongoing conversation about exterior paint color.  Now that we landed on orange for the door, we wanted to find the right colors to accent it.  The original exterior of the house appears to have been stained a very deep brown color.  It still exists in the carport-turned-garage.

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I’d like to get it as close to its original color as possible and yet also have a somewhat lighter accent color to make sure it doesn’t get too dark and depressing looking.   I started with the Eichler exterior paint gallery as inspiration.

After much consternation, we landed on a trifecta of orange, brown and gray, all from Behr:  Pumpkin Patch, Walnut Bark and Wood Smoke.

And of course, we will be doing it ourselves, which from what I hear, is one of those home improvement nightmares akin to Russian dolls, you find layers and layers of problems beneath.  Fingers crossed.  Not sure if we will get this done this summer (considering we’re in mid-August!) but it’s on the horizon for sure.

But there are lots of other things to consider for a beautifully simple exterior:  door knobs, lighting, house numbers.  Fortunately for me, I have given a LOT of thought to those as well.

Most MCM houses had doorknobs that were simple brushed metal with a geometric back-plate.  There was a trend in the 1950s and ‘60s to decorate modern doors with large geometric plates, called escutcheons, which were placed behind the doorknob and crafted in circular, diamond, square, star, and crosshair shapes.

I haven’t been able to find many of these online and the ones I have are pricey! The Starburst one above is from Rejuvenation and runs $224!  However, they do sell the escutcheons for less than $50 and I wonder if I couldn’t pair it with a less expensive simple doorknob from Home Depot or Lowes?

I would also love to replace some of the exterior lighting with snazzy mid-century fixtures that are like Bullet lamps, but I am not sure where to find them.  Any suggestions?  Rejuventation makes some for interiors, but again…with a hefty price tag! 

As long as we are dreaming, I also covet the Neutra house numbers.  While $48 each, this is one item I want an original of!

As with all things, we will be moving at a snail’s pace doing one thing at a time.  But it’s coming together in my head and I like the vision I am seeing.

Tags: Behr paint, Crestview Doorlite Kit, Eichler, mid-century modern exterior, Neutra Numbers, Rejuvenation