Lay My Hat

Hi all!

Having a difference of opinion with my OH regarding the background of our villa's website.

It's currently a deep grey
www.dordogne-holiday-villa.co.uk

Looking at a change to a much paler grey
www.dordogne-holiday-villa.co.uk/index-light.html

If anyone has a few minutes to spare I'd be grateful to know which you prefer on first impressions ( and why, if you have a bit more time to write)
Many thanks in advance!
Elena

www.lescrouquets.net

I prefer the dark grey...it makes the photos stand out more.

Debby

I prefer the darker background, I find it easier to read the text.

Agree with the others, dark grey is easier on the eyes.

I don't find white print on a dark background easy to read so I would always vote for black print on a light colour.

Blanche wrote:I don't find white print on a dark background easy to read so I would always vote for black print on a light colour.

I feel exactly the same. I do actually like the dark grey very much, but I struggle with the white writing.

What a nice property and a beautiful website. It surprises me to say that I prefer the dark grey background, because normally white print on a dark ground doesn't appeal to me.

I've voted for the pale grey. It's softer, prettier and more subtle. I find the dark grey rather harsh.

The photos work better on the dark background but I prefer text on white/pale.You could have the best of both by changing the layout to have horizontal bands of dark areas for photos followed by light for text, but I appreciate that might be more work than you wanted to do.

The house looks great - my only other comment is that I expected to see photos of the pool on the grounds page but there weren't any.

Normally I prefer light but I think the dark grey is crisp, smart, more legible and works very well with the pictures. No contest here! The place looks lovely too!

Prefer the light grey actually.
BTW you are aware that the DDASS in France do not recommend "salt generation" pools for multi-occupation (gites) so to advertise your pool as such could be problematical.

Thanks everyone!

A slight leaning towards pale .....

I first chose the dark grey because I thought it looked smarter and more sophisticated but now I find myself thinking it looks slightly heavy and gives a bit of an "older" feel to the property. The photos do stand out better on the darker grey though.

I wanted to bring a fresher, airier feel to the website and thought pale grey was a good way to go... not sure if I'm doing the right thing or not as more people here liked the dark version than I was expecting! There's not huge numbers though so might sit it out for a while before making the move ....

Thanks again for all your thoughts,
Elena

www.dordogne-holiday-villa.co.uk
www.lescrouquets.net

Sorry I'm a bit late to this discussion, and I'm going to rock the boat a little, too!

I much prefer the light background. The whole world of writing revolves around dark print on a pale or white background, so everybody is attuned to that, therefore it's easier for the brain to absorb information in that colourway.

I also felt the photos stood out better on the pale background and looked sharper, not so dark themselves. I opened 2 tabs on my browser and did a direct comparison of, in particular, your golf course and inside lounge area photos. The ones on the pale background looked brighter and sunnier, more welcoming. In comparison, the lounge photo on the dark background looked as though the inside of the house would be a bit dark with insufficient natural light, despite the sun streaming in behind the sofa.

Now you've got yourself a dilemma! Whichever way you jump, good luck with the season - and what a beautiful house.

There's a lot of discussion about whether the pictures stand out better on light or dark grey.

Given that light grey is currently leading in the Poll (and its my preference), a really cool way to improve the pictures on a light background is to add a dark grey (not black) 1 pixel border on them all.

You'll really be surprised at the impact