Tips for Choosing Exterior Paint Colors for Your House
Picking house paint colors isn’t just difficult; it can be terrifying! If you choose colors that are boring and blah, your house will seem flat and featureless, but if the paint colors are too bold, they can overwhelm the architecture or might even infuriate the neighbors. The potential rewards are substantial, though. Getting it just right by choosing the perfect exterior house color and trim combinations can change your life.
As you consider paint colors for you home’s exterior, keep in mind that the best paint colors are those that highlight the most beautiful features of your home. That’s one reason to know a little bit about residential architecture since history can tell you a lot about what colors have worked for various house styles over the years. Also remember that skillful use of color can sometimes disguise design flaws, boosting the curb appeal and market value of your home.
Honor History
If you’re planning to paint an older home, you’ll probably want to use a historically accurate color scheme. One way to do this is by a simple form of archeology—you can hire a pro to dig down to old paint layers on your siding and trim to analyze them and recreate the original color of your house. Or, you can refer to a historic color chart and select shades that were common at the time your home was built.
Consider Jazzing Up the Past
In some neighborhoods, it’s common for homeowners to fly in the face of history. Instead of choosing historically accurate colors, they paint with modern colors to dramatize architectural details. Using bright colors on old architectural details can produce startling and exciting results—if your local historic commission approves. But before you buy 10 gallons of bubblegum pink, it’s a good idea to look at what your neighbors are doing. A fluorescent colored Victorian that looks splendid in San Francisco can seem wildly out of place in more conservative neighborhoods of the Northeast. The bright pink stucco that is common in Florida might truly startle neighbors in Washington State—which can be either good or bad. Remember that what’s deemed as an acceptable color scheme may be dictated by region and neighborhood, not just historic architectural style.
Consider Your Neighbors
The house next door can give you paint color ideas, but it’s a bad idea to copy your neighbor exactly. Choose colors that set your house apart but that don’t clash with nearby buildings. Look around your neighborhood. Does your house’s architecture look like the house next door? Are you in a suburban development with houses all around, or are your neighbors the trees? Or does your house stand apart within the neighborhood, like an original large farmhouse now surrounded by newer ranch- style mid-century homes?
How to Choose the Right Exterior Paint Colors
Are you struggling with choosing the right exterior paint color for your home? I’m here to help and walk you through each step for choosing the right paint color combination for the exterior of your home. I’m going to make this real easy for you guys, I promise!
The number one paint question I have received over the years is about choosing exterior paint colors because it’s one of the most difficult paint decisions you can make for your home. You want your home to have beautiful curb appeal and you don’t want to make any color mistakes. If you follow my seven steps below, I promise you will avoid the common mistakes and will be able to make exterior paint color decisions that will be beautiful! Stick with me on this!
CHOOSE YOUR SHADE FIRST
The first thing you will want to do when deciding what color you want to paint the exterior of your home is to choose the shade of a color first. When I say “shade”, I mean do you want a light, mid-tone or dark color on the body of your home? At this point, you don’t have to consider anything else except to make a decision if you want a light or white color, a mid-tone or medium shade, or do you want a dark color.
For most of you, choosing a shade is an instant easy decision and you immediately know that you want a light or dark colored home. However, some of you may not be sure and are open to any shade and need a little help making that decision. It will help if you search Pinterest for exterior homes for inspiration to determine what shade would look best for your home. For example, if you have a ranch style home, search “ranch style home exteriors” in Pinterest search to see all the different color options to inspire you.
CONSIDER YOUR ROOF COLOR (AND OTHER ACCENT COLORS)
Before you can go much further in your color decision-making, you will need to consider the color of your roof. If you have a black or neutral gray, you don’t have to worry as much about color clashing. Unfortunately, I have a dark brown roof with slight red undertones, so colors like shades of green or blues wouldn’t work for me and would clash. For those of you that have a roof with red, tan, green or blue gray undertones in your shingles, you will for sure need to factor in your roof color as you choose your exterior paint color palette
How to Pick Exterior Paint Colors
Inevitably, when the weather warms we turn our attention to the outside of our homes, sprucing up the yard and porches and generally looking for ways to turn up the curb appeal. One of the biggest exterior changes you can make for the most impact is painting your home. It’s also one of the most daunting
To help you choose the right palette, we got in touch with color consultant and designer, Jennifer Ott of Jennifer Ott Design. “It’s good timing,” Jennifer told us when we contacted her at her office in San Francisco. “With everyone heading outside, now is the best time to paint the exterior of your house.”
I think people tend to overdo it when it comes to exterior colors. Unless you have a very finely architecturally detailed Victorian, it’s best to limit the palette to two to three colors. And if you’ve got brick or stone or some kind of fixed element that’s not going to be painted, then that counts as a color, especially if it’s a colorful brick or stone. In that case, I would recommend using just two colors. But if your entire home is being painted — say you’ve got wood siding, trim and a front door that you want to stand out — then that is when you go up to three colors.
People can get overwhelmed when they have to pick paint colors, because there are so many factors. I generally love to push clients to be creative. However, when it comes to exterior colors, I think it’s a good thing to immediately rule out some of your options. The best way to do that is to look at the architectural style of your home. If you have a Colonial or a Cape Cod, you’re going to be looking at a different palette than if you have a super modern stucco home. So start with looking at the style of your home and then those fixed elements you’re not going to change, like stone, brick or a specific color of roof.
Next, I would say look at the climate that you live in. If you’re in a hot climate, you’ll want to look at lighter colors, because they absorb much less light and heat, so it’s an energy efficient choice. There’s also the neighborhood you live in, which is a huge factor. Some people live in a neighborhood where an HOA dictates the colors, which is automatically limiting right there. But if you don’t, then look around at the houses in your neighborhood. It’s not that you have to blend in or match your neighbor’s houses — I wouldn’t want people to do that — but you don’t want to veer off too far from the rest of the homes. So if you live in a neighborhood with mostly light colored homes or mostly dark colored homes and especially if you live kind of close to your neighbors, then do let that be a guide. If you’re more spread out and don’t have a lot of close neighbors, then those rules can be loosened a bit. Lastly, I’d say it comes down to colors you like. It’s pretty easy to get to a limited selection if you take all of those into account
Best Exterior Color Schemes
Boost your home’s curb appeal with inspiration from these tips and tricks for creating perfect exterior color schemes. Learn how to figure out what exterior colors go together and how to pick hues that work for your home’s style and architecture.
Rely on the Classics
When it comes to exterior color schemes, there’s something to be said for tried-and-true combinations. This classic abode might look out of place with any palette other than warm beige for the siding and bright white around windows and on rails. Another good accent piece to pay attention to: exterior light fixtures. These are wonderful for adding complementary materials or colors. On this exterior, the lantern-type fixtures balance the home’s symmetry, with a pair flanking the doors on all three floors.
Some of the best exterior house paint ideas are those that turn tradition on its head. Take, for example, Colonial-style homes: Often these are painted in a single color, many times white. While that’s a great solution, there are ways to update and modernize that choice, too. The accent shades chosen here—a dusty lavender-gray and a bright turquoise—would normally not be used in the same . Here, though, the grayish-purple offers a refined accent on the shutters, while the turquoise—a brighter spin-off of some of those same blue-purple tones—directs foot traffic to the front door. Plus, if you’re looking for easy exterior paint ideas, adding color to just your shutters and front door is the way to go
Judicious use of an accent color can lend your home a more . It’s a choice that works well with classic home styles, particularly because it doesn’t overpower their traditional forms. This home—which deftly matches a deep green-gray with a lighter tone—also relies on an orange-red hue found in the copper roof accents and repeated on the wood front door. That tone carries over onto rooflines and side doors to provide a continuing color line for the eye to follow.
Red, yellow, and blue—the primary colors—are the basis of all other hues; as such, they’re naturally complementary. But very few of us would consider painting a home in red, yellow, and blue, as represented in the original . However, when given rich depth or startling brightness, the hues provide an exterior color scheme that’s at once distinctive and deeply satisfying. The is to select one color that pops—here, yellow—and another that’s used sparingly—. The rich, almost neutral shade of blue offers a base outside house paint color.
Must-Know Tips for Choosing House Paint Colors
Painting a room can be stressful, but choosing house paint colors for an exterior facade is downright intimidating. In all aspects—time, money, and curb presence—it’s a big task. Luckily, some carefully considered steps can help you successfully navigate the job of choosing house paint colors.
Identify Your Home’s Style and Neighborhood
Although you need not be hidebound by tradition, a home’s style does lend some guidance when choosing house paint colors. An exuberant collection of pastels may not be the best fit for a ranch-style home, while very bold hues may feel out of place on a Victorian house. It’s advice that Maria Killam, a color expert, design blogger, author, decorator and stylist, uses, especially when working on those classic home designs. “I love the symmetrical look of a Colonial with shutters,” she says. “White with black shutters and a green front door is what I would do if I had one.”
Become a House Color Copycat
As you’re trying to narrow down your house paint colors, drive around neighborhoods and snap photos of exterior color palettes that you like or homes that look like yours. In addition, if something looks out of place, there’s a reason for it. “One of the biggest mistakes I see every day is with vinyl windows,” Killam says. “The standard colors are generally bright white and beige. White belongs with crisper, cleaner color schemes, like turquoise or a straw yellow for example, or grays and blacks.”
Don’t Get Caught Up in Trends
Clothing, shoes, sofas, home colors: They’re all subject to the same hot-hue-of-the-moment but not-cool-tomorrow trends. “Just like most people aren’t interested in painting their house brown right now because that trend is over, don’t do the same thing with charcoal,” Killam says. “You might love it now, but as soon as the gray trend is over, you’ll wish it was the next trendy neutral.”
Look to Your Home for Guidance
Your home likely already has some hues that you should include as part of your color scheme: brick or stone on the foundation, window trim, even the roof. Those should serve as the base to build on. “A lot of people don’t understand how much influence existing fixed colors have when selecting paint colors,” Killam says. “You can’t ignore what’s already on the house and go for a current trendy color that in no way relates to what’s already there. One of my clients painted stucco gray with her gold/yellow stone, and she contacted me for a consultation. She was not thrilled, and the color I gave her coordinated much better with her existing stone and was very happy with the result.”