Exterior Paint - getting closer

Thanks to for the encouragement from so many of you on my post yesterday about Easter. And thanks for allowing me to express myself. I feel like my posts are all over the place - watercolor blooms, house pics and really vulnerable spiritual stuff. Honestly, that's the flow of it these days.

Onto lighter topics. We closed Tuesday and we are quickly getting our new home prepped and ready for the work that needs to be done before we move in. The painters come Monday so we are quickly deciding on color. We found this combo and fell in love with it.

I mean, isn't that door fun? We actually liked moving away from red. We are pretty patriotic people but I was having reservations about the red door.

Here are the colors I went to get to sample. All look great but the Pale Smoke on the front porch deck. It is way too light. Here's a close up shot of the sample on the house.

See the deck is way too light... but I'm playing around with some other colors that are a bit darker. Like this one...

This one (Dorian Gray) feel too taupe gray to me - especially against the yellow door.

I'm actually leaning towards this (mineral alloy). I put down a sample today - but I'll have to go back and look at it tomorrow once it is dry. I'm amazed how different these colors look in person and in natural light.

Stay tuned... we are getting closer - and let me know what you think. Oh, and I need deck stain ideas. What is currently on the deck is too red...