What colour should i paint my house?

[SirVixofVixHall]

I'm having trouble deciding, and the builders need a decision....
The basics:- House is essentially a cottage with Georgian pretentions. Built around 1825, semi detatched, with original windows. (Rural area so the style of a much older house but with Georgian windows). The front is North facing, and is currently pale blue. Next door has just been repainted and is now a very strong vivid puce/fuschia dark pink (a sort of lipsticky colour, probably closest to pantone 226 on my monitor) which I feel scuppers my desire for a red front door, as the clash would be rather startling. My builder thinks i should paint it what I like and not consider the contrast with next door, but to my eyes it rules out greens, yellows etc and probably leaves me with blue again (which it was when we bought it, and I am bored with), or a paler pink.
Inside is Farrow and Ball, because I am fussy about colour tone and depth, and I hate synthetic looking colours . F&B is the paint closest to the finish I like, but i would happly use any alternative, as Eco as possible. Lime render would be ideal but that isn't an option at the moment.
I'm thinking something like F&B pink ground, but perhaps that is too fleshy against the fuschia? Would consider anything at all. There is decorative work around the windows which would probably look best in a contrast shade, so i need to think of that too.

Bumping in hope.

I disagree with your builder, with such a strong colour you will have to take it into consideration. Very tricky with such a strong colour too!

Could you go with a pale pink like Slipper Satin or a pale blue. I think Pink Ground could work too.

How about a grey-ish green with bright white windows?

I could do pale blue, but that would mean keeping it much as it is and I fancy a proper change. This is the first time we have painted it. Is slipper satin pink? I thought it was cream. Will go and root out my chart, although it is an old-ish one, so won't have some of the more recent colours. I think I have a sample pot of pink ground, I suppose I could paint a sheet of paper and go and hold it next to next door to see how it looks....I suppose a lilac-y grey might work too?

I like greyish greens but I think that would look very clashing next to the bright pink, its a blue-ish pink.

I think lilacy-y grey would tone with the neighbours house, rather than fight it, & maybe a purple-y front door f&b brinjal I think its called.

Brinjal is the very deep aubergine isn't it? Or I could have a black front door maybe. I'll go and look at the chart and focus on pinks, greys and lilacs, and check out Brinjal. I need to think about woodwork and the detailing around the windows.

Sirvix I think it might be sandtex that also do a really lovely deep purple might be worth checking out.

I think brinjal for the door could work. Or moles breath.
I think lamp room grey might work on walls. If be careful about it being too washed out against your neighbours house.

Also most of the blues, obviously. And some greys like calluna that are quite pure in colour.

I like Calluna very much. It looks lilac to me, rather than grey, but my friend sees it as grey. Grey is rather too trendy at the moment for my liking, the colour will need to last at least five years, so I don't want it to be too fashionable. But Calluna is my favourite so far. I had chosen that before I read your post Chablis, so that was interesting! I don't want blue again. I've had enough of blue. Also the light here doesn't work well with many blues. They need to be slatey or faintly pink tinged to work.
I'm getting Calluna as a tester and then I can paint a panel and prop it up outside to get a feel for it. I would need to find trim and window frame colours to work with it too. We have scaffolding up so I need to get a move on!!

i was going to suggest Calluna too! Or Dust from the new Habitat paint range.

Alternatively, I'd go for a contrast to cut the sheer level of pinkness. How about Bone or Hardwick White or Pigeon?

This period of house does suit dove greys and soft dusty colours. Also we are a mile and a half from the sea, and so misty colours work well. The local stone and slate has a purpley blue tone so the best here colours echo that. Calluna to me looks like the type of colour that changes very much with light, time of day and situation, so I will wait and see what it looks like on the board before making a final choice. I feel quite excited about painting it though!

Do check out Dust, which is similar to Calluna - I've just used a Habitat paint and found it really nice to work with, and much cheaper than F&B.

Oh thanks, I'll have a look at the Habitat range then. I peeped at Hardwick white and bone, not keen on those, I don't like the beigey tone . I pretty much ignore the first three blocks on my colour card from F&B as I don't like any of them other than the half a dozen very pale shades. I do like Pigeon though. I actually love Arsenic but that would be a bit of a shock next to the violent pink! Think I might paint my bathroom or bedroom with it instead...

Looking at the Habitat website briefly it seems it is only interior paint, they don't seem to do one for external masonry.

I'd look at what other places have and see what works for you
I'd personally go neutral but there are some strong combinations that work

www.alamy.com/stock-photo-painted-multicoloured-georgian-houses-atop-a-steep-cutting-above-bristol-27596308.html

www.newalresfordtc.org.uk/design/images/west_street_600.jpg

i1.walesonline.co.uk/incoming/article1990709.ece/alternates/s615/the-castle-734562817.jpg

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/ObservatoryStreetOxford.jpg

www.skyscanner.net/sites/it/files/images/news/bristol_shutterstock_91042592.jpg

www.images.walesdirectory.co.uk/images/335/780/335.jpg

[[http://c8.alamy.com/comp/C0WK0T/a-row-of-colourful-georgian-houses-on-bywater-street-in-chelsea-london-C0WK0T.jpg]

c8.alamy.com/comp/BWXHH2/colourful-georgian-houses-of-hotwells-by-the-river-avon-and-the-a4-BWXHH2.jpg

c8.alamy.com/comp/AG803N/attractive-colourful-quayside-georgian-houses-across-water-of-harbour-AG803N.jpg

t1.ftcdn.net/jpg/00/67/82/44/400_F_67824400_AOpRDTtie7HL1eAlDuKNKcu3McT6DXyD.jpg

Thanks for all those pictures! I know the ones in Wales. Some of those are how the house is/was. Next door was pale yellow, next to our powder blue. This worked pretty well. Next door is now this colour.
www.partyanimalonline.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/fucsia_hot_pink_food_colour-450x600.jpeg
Some of the colours in the pics work far better than others IMO. The bright turquoise in Bristol isn't great. I'm not far from here, so similar light and house.
static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/7/28/1311861030820/Aberaeron-Harbour-007.jpg

As long as it's not this one
i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01522/blobby_1522827i.jpg

More like this one then c8.alamy.com/comp/CXY64C/pink-walls-on-front-of-terraced-house-in-beaumaris-north-wales-uk-CXY64C.jpg

With that personally I'd go cream or white as its so intense it would overpower most things next to it and it would be hard to get something to tone right with it.

Yes, very like that one in Beaumaris, but slightly less red, a wee bit more blue toned. It looks fine next to our blue, but I really want to have a new colour, and although there is a soft green on the next house along, there is enough of a gap between them for it to work rather than clash. As we are the other half of the semi, I think I need to be more careful. The houses aren't identical, they have different shaped eaves, and very different windows (mine are original, next door not, but even when original they would have been different). We have railings and they don't. The back of my house, and the side, are white. But I really want to keep the coloured frontage as it suits the area and is also a bit more interesting than white. I'm not going to worry too much about toning, just not a shocking clash. So no yellow, which would be the worst colour, or red.