Styles and trends change. The houses you describe seem to be seeking a safety zone.
I try to get clients to pick colors that match their personalities as part of the house. "What would you like to drive home to each day or wow friends with when they visit?"
I also try to get them to blend the house with at least their landscape and those to immediate side. And finally, I try to get them to think about how the exterior of the house will look in all four seasons. I can think of nothing more winter depressing than the houses of your hood described in a snow storm.
Of course if there are neighborhood association rules on color you might as well abide by them.
But no. Nothing says your house has to be light just because others are. Do something stunning and darker if you want. Do remember your roofing color so you do not end up looking goofy. And do not go overboard and make yours look totally out of context or something.
I restored a cute, historic, little railway worker house in Central Illinois once. Someone else did a near matching one and the interior is not bad. The exterior has a magnificent, perfectly executed paint job in at least 4 of the dominant green colors of Ireland. It is known as the leprechaun whorehouse now.
Friends live on a gorgeous row of tall, elegant, old Queen Anne Victorians with gingerbread trim. Some color consultant, having never seen the place, counseled people moving into one to paint theirs six shades of deep gray. TG the trees hide it from now until late Fall. It is like something that would be used for an Addams Family movie. Sitting with snow all around it looks like the Victorian version of Battlestar Gallactica crashed or something.
I try to get clients to pick colors that match their personalities as part of the house. "What would you like to drive home to each day or wow friends with when they visit?"
I also try to get them to blend the house with at least their landscape and those to immediate side. And finally, I try to get them to think about how the exterior of the house will look in all four seasons. I can think of nothing more winter depressing than the houses of your hood described in a snow storm.
Of course if there are neighborhood association rules on color you might as well abide by them.
But no. Nothing says your house has to be light just because others are. Do something stunning and darker if you want. Do remember your roofing color so you do not end up looking goofy. And do not go overboard and make yours look totally out of context or something.
I restored a cute, historic, little railway worker house in Central Illinois once. Someone else did a near matching one and the interior is not bad. The exterior has a magnificent, perfectly executed paint job in at least 4 of the dominant green colors of Ireland. It is known as the leprechaun whorehouse now.
Friends live on a gorgeous row of tall, elegant, old Queen Anne Victorians with gingerbread trim. Some color consultant, having never seen the place, counseled people moving into one to paint theirs six shades of deep gray. TG the trees hide it from now until late Fall. It is like something that would be used for an Addams Family movie. Sitting with snow all around it looks like the Victorian version of Battlestar Gallactica crashed or something.