Deck/Fence color ideas? (shutters, paint, colors, light)

[beckycat]

We are purchasing a home where the previous owners stained the fence and deck red. The house is beige and the shutters are black. It doesn't go with the color of the house. What options do we have? What colors? Maybe a darker brown? I would've like to stain it a lighter color close to the color of the wood but I guess that's out of the question because we'd have to remove the red color.

Here's the house:


Here's the deck/fence:

[metamorphosis]

It's a cute house! The deck is nice, but I can understand why you aren't excited about the color.

I think it would look nice with a light color stain, but doubt that's possible. However, a nice brown would probably look good, since the house is beige. I've never stained over a dark color, so I can't comment on the end result.

My only other solution would be to finish with the red stain on the rail that is unfinished and change the color of the shutters to match the stain of the deck.

There are no shutters on the back of the house and from the view of the front of the house, one can't see that the deck and fence don't match the shutters. At any rate, if I were to change the color of the shutters, I'd put some on the back windows as well.

[Kayekaye]

So often people feel compelled to use a "Redwood" looking color even when it is not used anywhere else on the home. Once you decide on the colors of your home, it should be repeated on the deck. Even if it is redwood one doesn't have to use the red color, I have done a nice dark brown on an all redwood house that looked great.

[beckycat]

I'm thinking we're going to go with a darker brown like this color: What do you think??

[Kayekaye]

Yes that's a nice color --if you use it elsewhere on the house as well.

[metamorphosis]

Yeah, the dark brown is nice. As Kayekaye said, use the color elsewhere. And I said, match the color of the shutters to the deck and add shutters to the back of the house. Any kind of matching trim would tie it all together.

[beckycat]

I'm not sure about brown shutters tho. I was hoping to keep the shutters black. I think putting shutters on the back of the house would look good.

[NickySantoro]

The stain appears to be a semi-transparent. If so, you should be able to remove most of the color using a deck finish remover. Both Cabot and Behr make a good product for this. Follow this with a good power washing of the whole area to be stained/restained. Follow that with an application of deck brightener, again Behr or Cabot. Rinse thoroughly and allow to dry. As usual, follow package directions scrupulously. At this point you should be able to use a brownish stain of your choice, possibly a bit darker than you might prefer, but as long as it is complimentary to the overall color scheme it will be fine. Another possibility is using a solid deck stain. I finally did that on my own deck with Benjamin Moore Arborcoat. This was the third season and it still looks pretty good. Next year I'll likely redo just the deck surface and the tops of the rails. The rest is still pristine.
FWIW
YMMV

[beckycat]

Originally Posted by NickySantoro

The stain appears to be a semi-transparent. If so, you should be able to remove most of the color using a deck finish remover. Both Cabot and Behr make a good product for this. Follow this with a good power washing of the whole area to be stained/restained. Follow that with an application of deck brightener, again Behr or Cabot. Rinse thoroughly and allow to dry. As usual, follow package directions scrupulously. At this point you should be able to use a brownish stain of your choice, possibly a bit darker than you might prefer, but as long as it is complimentary to the overall color scheme it will be fine. Another possibility is using a solid deck stain. I finally did that on my own deck with Benjamin Moore Arborcoat. This was the third season and it still looks pretty good. Next year I'll likely redo just the deck surface and the tops of the rails. The rest is still pristine.
FWIW
YMMV

I think we are going to end up using the solid deck stain. Thanks for the tips.

[Chimuelojones]

Originally Posted by beckycat

We are purchasing a home where the previous owners stained the fence and deck red. The house is beige and the shutters are black. It doesn't go with the color of the house. What options do we have? What colors? Maybe a darker brown? I would've like to stain it a lighter color close to the color of the wood but I guess that's out of the question because we'd have to remove the red color.

Here's the house:

Here's the deck/fence:

I like the red stain...it just looks odd with so much unfinished wood. Looks like patch jobs. Paint and/or stain as much of the wood as possible.