Render Dilemma

Julesy 71 · Oct 10, 2012 4:44 am

We are having a serious dilemma with our house render choice! After so many sample posts and sample sheets ordered from Dulux, I'm tearing my hair out not being able to make a decision.

We will have quite a large/prominent roof and want to go with Surfmist for that as well as for the gutters, fascia and garage door .. and figured we should choose a light-coloured main render, so that the roof and house tone in together rather than contrasting and accentuating the roof size. We really like the colour Dune, but wonder if this is too bland or boring (or common??) as a render colour?? And should we just go Dune 100% or slightly darker than this?? Is it really light for exterior render? Would love to see any pics of any houses with a Dune render!

We quite like this look, but not sure what the render colour is .. any ideas?

The other dilemma is what feature colour to go with. We don't want anything that will date or we'll get sick of in a hurry, so want to keep things fairly plain/neutral. At the front of the house we'll have a rendered brick letterbox and planter box section, so we're thinking to make that in either:

- a high contrasting colour (we quite like Raku)
- or just stick with similar tones to Dune and choose something a few shades darker?

.. and is it necessary to do any other element of the house in the feature colour or will the front letterbox section be enough?

We like browny grey tones, but nothing too milky-looking if you know what I mean?

Externals
Roof - Surfmist
Gutters - Surfmist
Fascia - Surfmist
Downpipes - Dune (to match main render colour)
Eaves -
Soffit to underside of
Eaves, Verandas & Portico’s -marine ply panels stained in timber-look (same as front door colour)
Posts - Dune?? or feature colour??
Windows - Silver Lustre
Doors - Madison Pivot Door in cedar stain (same as eaves lining)
Deck - Exposed Aggregate

Here's our elevation and we are at brickwork stage now, so I've included a shot of how the front is looking so far.

Any/all advice (and photos!) would be SO appreciated!!!

nikkiweedoninteriors · Oct 10, 2012 4:11 pm

You can try Taubmans - Athena. It has a blend of grey and browns together. Really nice warm tone.

Otherwise if you are wanting more grey you can try Dulux - Pale Earth or Nile Clay. They are around 2 shades darker than Dune.

A lot of my clients are selecting Dune for their exterior colours VERY POPULAR. No doubt there will be loads of houses in the next couple of months going up with this.

Julesy 71 · Oct 11, 2012 9:46 pm

Thanks for your advice! I've had a look at Athena, but I think it could be a bit too brown for our liking. We are wanting more of a cool/grey brown than creamy brown'ish. Might not be making sense here?!

We've seen a house that's 200% Surfmist for the render with a quite dark grey/brown feature render (like Namidji we think) and we quite like that, but then they had a dark timber look garage door and we were thinking of Surfmist, so would the 200% Surfmist render make it all too light/white??

The saga continues!

Any advice appreciated!!

belandchris · Oct 11, 2012 11:59 pm

Hi there, we are doing similar colours, only our roof is dune, with dune gutters and facia. We have three large gables in the roof which will be clad with horizontal slatting in surfmist. We have surfmist windows and surfmist garage door. For our render, we did choose dune as well until the last minute, when we changed to dune 3/4 strength. Unfortunately our builder wouldn't do a 3/4 strength so we went with Taubmans Birchstone (pretty much looks like dune). We were also considering colours very similar to dune including Dulux calf skin, mudpack and powered rock. We may do a front feature wall in mudpack but will wait until the house render is painted to see if we need to go a bit darker again. All in all it is going to be a very light coloured house, accentuated with a stained timber door, front decking, green yukkas and a charcoal driveway. Hope it looks ok (!)

Julesy 71 · Oct 21, 2012 12:57 am

belandchris thanks for your input! What you're doing sounds great .. I love all those colours and have looked at those myself. Mud Pack is one of my many sample pots! I'd love to know if it all works out.

We are now thinking of going with Shale Grey as our roof colour - as we've driven past so many Surfmist vs Shale Grey roofs and the Surfmist does look really white. Given that our roof is so huge, we thought the Shale Grey might tone things down a bit and help it blend better with the render.

For the render, we knocked on another door of a house we liked and it was Solver Cloudy Sky 150% (with features of Solver Southwards and Dundee). It looked fantastic, so we are leaning towards Cloudy Sky as our main render now .. and still with a dark browny/grey for a small feature area. Cloudy Sky seems to be a bit greyer than Dune.

I've got a few questions I'm hoping someone can help with:

1. Would Cloudy Sky be ok to match with a Shale Grey roof? Even though Cloudy Sky looks grey'ish, it does still seem to have browny tones to it, so would it work with Shale Grey?

2. Should we go for Surfmist for the fascia and gutters and garage door or stick with Shale Grey for those to blend the roof and garage with the house?

3. A separate thing .. we have the option to change our metal posts on the verandah to round (various size options, but we're thinking 101mm would be best). We are wondering if we should change to round or stick with square (@ 100mm).

Would love some help / advice!!

Julesy 71 · Oct 21, 2012 1:02 am

By the way, we ended up finding out what the colours were for the house in the photo above .. they are Shale Grey roof, gutters and garage door, Surfmist fascia and Dune render (100%). We were quite surprised to hear that the garage door and roof is Shale Grey! We thought they were Surfmist!! This is another reason we decided we might change to Shale Grey ourselves.

otago_2 · May 15, 2013 1:27 pm

Just going through this myself. What colours did you end up going with as I seem to having the same wishes as yours... Seems like such a HUGE decision!

meowsy · May 15, 2013 2:21 pm

Also, maybe try Heifer or Mud pack. These were recommended to me to tie in with surfmist and light bricks. Personally I didn't like how the Dune render could look- it had a purpley undertone in some of the houses I assume to have used Dune. Even the colorbond had a purpley undertone to me.

Julesy 71 · May 16, 2013 1:05 am

We actually ended up going with Shale Grey for the roof, guttering and downpipes and it looks fantastic. We're really glad we didn't go Surfmist as it would've been too stark given the size of our roof being quite large. It still looks really light but without being too reflective and prominent.

As far as the render goes, we are still not there yet! Our builder said we could decide right at the end, so I haven't locked it in yet. But I've found a gorgeous group of colours that I think we will go with. Our builder had samples done up with the render applied and they look great. The colour combination will either be Vanilla Quake with Rampart for a couple of darker highlight/feature sections or Rampart as the main colour with Doe for the highlights. Vanilla Quake is quite light, but we are quite keen to keep everything fairly light. It is a really nice warm grey colour without any unwanted undertones showing through.

Fingers crossed it looks as good on the walls when done!

Sallyann · Jan 03, 2014 7:43 pm

Julesy 71

By the way, we ended up finding out what the colours were for the house in the photo above .. they are Shale Grey roof, gutters and garage door, Surfmist fascia and Dune render (100%). We were quite surprised to hear that the garage door and roof is Shale Grey! We thought they were Surfmist!! This is another reason we decided we might change to Shale Grey ourselves.

Sallyann · Jan 03, 2014 7:57 pm

Hi we are picking roof and render now and are wondering where the house is that you had the image of? We are using the cladding that's in the picture on our portico. Also what render did you end up using? What brick do you have for the other outside walls or do you have render for all the walls. Thanks Sally

Julesy 71 · Jan 05, 2014 10:19 pm

The house in the photo was in Hillarys, but I don't actually know the address - I only know where it is by driving there! Sorry about that! It's a few streets back from Mawson's Park from memory.

We ended up going with all render on our exterior and the colour we ended up choosing was Vanilla Quake. It's gorgeous! We love it. It's a very neutral colour that's a warm grey and goes with everything. We have a rich/dark timber lining to our eaves/external ceilings and our front door and the render contrasts beautifully with it. It's a great colour! We went with Shale Grey for our roof, downpipes and metal posts/pillars and it works well with that (is very similar but slightly warmer). Our boundary fence is Woodland Grey and so that contrasts really well with the house and seems to 'frame' everything. We're really happy with our colours.

If you want to send me your email address I can email you some photos of our exterior. I find it really hard/time consuming to upload onto this site, so it would be easier to email you if that's suitable for you.

Hope this all helps a bit?! Good luck!

Julie

Sallyann · Jan 05, 2014 11:01 pm

Thanks Julie we are in Mindarie so might go for a drive round Hillary's this week. Would love to see a photo of your house as the colours sound great. My email is sallythompson3956@gmail.com Regards Sally

nicki_p · Jan 08, 2014 10:46 pm

Hi Julie,
Ive just come across this thread and I am choosing very similar colours to you. Do you mind emailing me some pics of your exterior? Im very curious to see how it all looks together. My email address is nicpenson@gmail.com.
Thanks so much

CJ_81 · Apr 02, 2014 11:47 pm

Hello can I please get copies of your finished house as well please?? Haha. Pity you couldn't get the images to the forum.. carissa.taylor15@hotmail.com
Many thanks.

Dunaden_31 · Aug 06, 2014 11:58 am

Julesy 71

The house in the photo was in Hillarys, but I don't actually know the address - I only know where it is by driving there! Sorry about that! It's a few streets back from Mawson's Park from memory.

We ended up going with all render on our exterior and the colour we ended up choosing was Vanilla Quake. It's gorgeous! We love it. It's a very neutral colour that's a warm grey and goes with everything. We have a rich/dark timber lining to our eaves/external ceilings and our front door and the render contrasts beautifully with it. It's a great colour! We went with Shale Grey for our roof, downpipes and metal posts/pillars and it works well with that (is very similar but slightly warmer). Our boundary fence is Woodland Grey and so that contrasts really well with the house and seems to 'frame' everything. We're really happy with our colours.

If you want to send me your email address I can email you some photos of our exterior. I find it really hard/time consuming to upload onto this site, so it would be easier to email you if that's suitable for you.

Hope this all helps a bit?! Good luck!

Julie

Hi Julie
If possible could you also send email of pics to me at brennolee1974@hotmail.com
Appreciate your help.

AussieMark · Aug 06, 2014 12:24 pm

For what its worth, and I know its tough, I am using light leather and tapestry beige as my two render colours. I will be having a dark tiled roof and monument gutters and facia. My downpipes are not exposed so not an issue. Its crazy how stressful these decisions are......

Anna85 · Sep 03, 2014 2:41 pm

Julesy 71

We actually ended up going with Shale Grey for the roof, guttering and downpipes and it looks fantastic. We're really glad we didn't go Surfmist as it would've been too stark given the size of our roof being quite large. It still looks really light but without being too reflective and prominent.

As far as the render goes, we are still not there yet! Our builder said we could decide right at the end, so I haven't locked it in yet. But I've found a gorgeous group of colours that I think we will go with. Our builder had samples done up with the render applied and they look great. The colour combination will either be Vanilla Quake with Rampart for a couple of darker highlight/feature sections or Rampart as the main colour with Doe for the highlights. Vanilla Quake is quite light, but we are quite keen to keep everything fairly light. It is a really nice warm grey colour without any unwanted undertones showing through.

Fingers crossed it looks as good on the walls when done!

i am thinking these exact colourrs also and would LOVe to see what it looks like

could you please send a pic to me ? anna.singleton@steelblue.com.au ??

would very much appreciate it its driving me mad trying to picture

Talz01 · Nov 11, 2014 5:18 pm

Where do you get sample render colours??

ItalianGal · Mar 30, 2016 11:01 pm

Hiiiiii... I am in your dilemma now

Any suggestions?? Love the light grey colours for exterior (but not cement looking)

White duck is nice....