I love black, it moves the ordinary into the sophisticated, the plain into the posh, the dull to the dramatic.
I love black, it works with any other colour in the whole wide world and most especially my other favourite colour; white; and in the words of Coco Chanel the absolute knower of all things fashion;
“I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.”
A good few years back I managed to convince ‘he who likes to save money’ to paint our little house black, people thought we had lost our minds especially as we had only painted it two years earlier, (hence the convincing on my part) but it looks oh so right amongst all the green that surrounds us.
So many black homes are popping up around us now, so its not just for the brave and bold. Here are a few beautiful examples from NZ and further afield.
Black Barn Vineyard via Pinterest
My Little House
MyScandinavianHome via Pinterest
Bo Bedre via Pinterest
Husonhem.se via Pinterest
Thejunkhaus via Pinterest
Spicerandbank via Pinterest
Myscandinavianhome via Pinterest
stylecarrot via Pinterest
Archdaily via Pinterest
Black Barn Via Pinterest
Black Pool House Archdaily via Pinterest
MLH STYLE FILE
Don’t be afraid of black, while other colours come and go black is always in vogue!
If you decide to paint your little house black make sure you use a UV protect paint such as Resene Cool Colours; its pigment helps to reflect the heat.
Silver on Black, White on Black and Black on Black all work for roof, door and window combinations.
Its a good idea to spray your exterior every year for spiders as cobwebs are pretty visible on a black home.
Plant light green foliage near your exterior such as Griselinia littoralis the lime green looks amazing against the black.
Ivy can look equally stunning climbing a black home, but beware of the damage that can occur to your homes cladding.
Contact me if you need any colour advice for your interior or exterior
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3 comments:
Hi there Hayley,
Just wanted to ask some advice. I LOVE the black barn look especially with the white windows and trim. We are just about to build a country home and have plans drawn up for such a look. However we have growing concerns over staining the shadowclad board and batten black. Lots of people are saying the maintenence is huge, with it needing to be stained annually to protect it. Is yours stained or painted…sounds like you may have painted it with resene cool colour paint? Also is the cladding shadowclad or something else…how long have you had it black and do you find it to be high maintenance – apart from the spiderwebss of course!
Thanks so much!
Sherilyn
Hi Sherilyn,
Sounds great!
In short yes maintenance is high, but not its an annual thing for us its 2-3 yearly on the sides of the house that get the sun most or all of day but on the south side it probably only needs a restain every 6 years. Our exterior is Shadowclad with custom sized pine battens and we use Resene Pitch Black Woodsman waterbourne Stain with Cool Colours. They have recently changed the formula for it and it is much better consistency. Every year I get the house sprayed professionally for spiders and have no problem with cobwebs.
I do recommend that if you have windows in white – which looks beautiful – that you add a batten framing the whole white aluminium and paint it white – it makes them stand out so much more – sometimes the profile of aluminium is too fine to get that great contrast look that you would with wooden windows.
Send me some photos when you are done!
Hayley
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