Exterior, House Building Type, Wood Siding Material, Concrete Siding Material, and Shingles Roof Material A family in Hamburg, Germany, turned a kitschy turn-of-the-century villa into a high-design home with a few exterior tricks, including sheathing the exterior in one-dimensional, murdered-out black.  Photo 4 of 10 in Paint it Black

Paint it Black

4 of 10

High Contrast: The question of the facade was a big one: How to unite the house, with its quaint old villa, and the squat, square, ugly minimart add-on built flush against it? Instead of trying to minimize the discrepancy, the architects emphasized it. They kept the old-fashioned facade intact and painted it graphite gray using RAL color 7024, made by Brillux, and then covered the "box" next door in plain, light-colored larch.