A limestone facade
Limestone is sedimentary rock containing large amounts of calcium carbonate or calcite and found in a variety of locations---Portugal, India, Australia, Bulgaria and the U.S. A pure limestone is white to gray in color but through the natural addition of impurities, namely iron oxides, limestone can be found in a variety of colors. Matching limestone to a paint color is not as simple as locating a single color number and brand.
Match The Hue
Limestone is formed in a vast array of neutral colors---tans, yellow, pinks and gray. Each of these neutrals can have variations, for example, gray can be a gray-green, a gray-blue, a light gray or a dark gray. Tans can be found tinted in a pink or a rust and yellows can be a soft sand color or a deep ochre. Find the best exterior paint color to match a home's limestone by visiting My Perfect Color, a website designed to aid do-it-yourself home owners needing a perfect color match for just about any surface. Their list of top selling exterior paint colors reveals a number of best choices for matching limestone. Try Alcoa's Desert Sand or their color called Cameo. Other possible matches are Benjamin Moore's Monterey White, Lancaster Whitewash, 01 White or even 513 Limestone.
Try Deeper Color
Lighter colors of limestone in the gray to white range look stunning by combining a deeper gray paint color along with a lighter gray. Case in point is example 159 in Susan Hershman's book "House Colors: Exterior Color by Architectural Style," a book filled with innovative exterior color applications. This homes facade is active with color possibilities and the misty gray paint color, although slightly darker than the front door limestone surround, works well. Combining it with a dark gray like Behr's Creek Bend, described by Behr as a "wooly gray" provides further visual definition to the second floor Tudor facade.
Consider Historic Color
The Valspar Corporation has a collection of exterior colors that match historic homes. Called the "Historic Colors of the National Trust for Historic Preservation" they include colors that match Belle Grove, a turn of the nineteenth century home located in Middletown, Virginia and shrouded in locally quarried limestone. Belle Grove Valley Fog is the gray neutral used in combination with the limestone. The Historic Colors collection contains a variety of other possible matches for exterior limestone facades and surrounds.
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