Right, I'm almost at the point in my vanilla playthrough where I'll be ready to make the Dragonplate armor I've been wanting all this time. Trouble is they don't do any in the color I want. Thing is, can I make some vanilla armor now and then retexture it later on with the CK without making my armor into a mod?

What do you mean "without making my armor into a mod"?

The short answer, no, if you modify any vanilla stuff, you've technically made a "mod".

Hmm, let's see, I've yet to even download the CK let alone use it, so I'm not sure what its abilities or functions are. I guess I mean to recolor the one specific set of armor I'm using, not as a specific esp file. For example, to take the exact helm I'm wearing and use CK to recolor/edit it, like you would a pic on Photoshop. I wish to make a unique set of enchanted armor that I can recolor later on without having to make a new set or armor. Er, I think that makes sense?

No, you can't do that with the CK. You'd have to edit the textures of the armor and if you did that, you'd end up changing the way the armor looked across the entire game (though for Dragon Armor, I'm not sure how big of a deal that is, since no one else has a set), but in order to have a Unique set for yourself, you'd have to create entirely new objects with the new textures.

One way or another that was a big help. I thought I might be able to use CK to take my armor into the proverbial custom spray shop. Looks like I was wrong. But it does help, 'cause now I can make future plans for my character's arc. I've been doing some thinking and I'll only need dragon armor for my character for now (I eventually intend dragon armor and weapons for my followers and even an army!) , so it wont be such a big waste of material to do a basic set now then create another better set using CK later on. The basic set could be akin the Mk. 1 suit from Iron Man, if you will.