Table of Content
- Our Exterior House Paint Colors
- Warm Gray + White Trim
- Pick an exterior color scheme that works for your home's style.
- California Home Interior Design Ideas.
- Nouveau Narrative Collection
- Sign up for your PaintPerks® benefits! It's Free and Simple!
- California Modern Farmhouse for Sale.
- Beautiful Homes of Instagram: Interior Design.
Using three colors is a general rule of thumb for selecting an exterior color scheme. Most homeowners assume those hues have to be distinctly different, but this monochromatic house proves otherwise. Here, light gray is the dominant color, while a medium tone accents the wood archway over the front door. A deeper shade of gray around the windows and doors supplies the final accent. Selecting from a nearly endless parade of exterior paint color ideas can be overwhelming, and the very act of exterior home painting is a big job.
Follow these tips for choosing exterior paint colors that go together so you can be confident as you undertake your painting project. With a little know-how, you can create a color scheme that suits your home's architecture and style and reflects your tastes. "We used a classic palette for this historic brick estate addition and renovation," says designer Melinda Kelson O'Connor of Melinda Kelson O'Connor Architecture and Interiors. This renovated Cape Cod-style home from AHG Interiors is painted in a deep, dark shade of navy blue, with green undertones that help it to blend seamlessly with the surrounding landscape.
Our Exterior House Paint Colors
This lakefront home from Crisp Architects is painted in a soothing medium-toned olive green with a subtly grayish cast that adds definition while blending in with the tranquil natural surroundings. A rhubarb red front door adds contrast and marks the entrance. Kelly Caruso of Regarding Design used a versatile off-white for the exterior of this contemporary Minneapolis house. The warm white is paired with a dark trim to create dramatic contrast. Please note that paint colors may look different in photographs compared with the paint swatch. Complimentary paint colors and wall covering were added throughout the home including High Tea, Anonymous, Ecru, Riverway, Urbane Bronze, Jogging Path and Ethereal Mood.
An all-neutral palette looks particularly polished when accented with hits of black. To give your beige exterior a more sophisticated feel, try painting the shutters and front door black. Use white on the trim and other exterior elements so the look is crisp and clean instead of one-note. Cottage-style homes are amenable to an exterior color scheme that's less bounded by formal rules and freer to experiment with whimsical approaches to shade and pattern. Here, the first impulse might be to paint the section of the front facade above the door line the same color as the bottom half.
Warm Gray + White Trim
While the house appears stark white from a distance, a closer look reveals that the exterior paint color has a touch of off-white warmth. The trim is painted in a cooler shade of white to add definition. And those black shutters are actually painted in a deep nearly black shade of green that reveals the nuances of faux black. If your home is surrounded by a natural landscape, you can take one of two approaches to exterior paint color ideas. First, you can pick hues that will make the home recede into the background of trees and plants.
But instead, the natural wood, which will weather to a warm gray if left unstained, adds warmth to the gray-green paint. For contrast, bright robin's-egg blue accents the front door. What ties these three disparate tones together is the white trim around the door, pillars, and rails. This home from Crisp Architects demonstrates why an elegant white house with black shutters is a timeless choice that looks good day or night and in any season or weather. With a blanket of snow on the ground and golden light emanating from every window, it's a textbook definition of a warm and welcoming home.
Pick an exterior color scheme that works for your home's style.
That can be done in a number of ways, such as a bright accent color like orange that's on the warm end of the color scheme. A contrasting material, such as wood, can also be a good choice, particularly when stained a medium to dark color. In this contemporary scheme, a rich gray provides a good bridge between the two hues. Some prefer a creamier color for their classic home look, which is why Sherwin Williams’ Summer White just had to make it onto our top exterior paint colors of 2016.
This Berkshires home designed by Crisp Architects is washed in a barely there blue-gray-violet hue that subs in for classic white, adding a bit of nuance to the facade. White Sands Design Build chose a soft neutral off-white without gray or yellow undertones to complement the Moorish facade of this 1929 bungalow in Manhattan Beach, CA. This Mediterranean-style home from Fantastic Frank is softened with pale salmon pink paint complemented with delicate sage green exterior wood shutters and doors that look like they've faded naturally in the sun. Designer Stephanie Zaharias of Zaharias Design used a color-matched stucco in an off-white shade with gray undertones for the exterior of this home in California’s Silicon Valley. The color was selected to complement the gray-stained cedar on the exterior’s second level. This Mediterranean-style house in Los Angeles is covered in an off-white mixed with green that softens the look and coordinates with the front door and landscaping.
California Home Interior Design Ideas.
Or you can choose a standout color that calls attention to the style of your space. This home does the latter; its seafoam green exterior wood paint selection stands in contrast to the lush green backdrop of the tree canopy. When it comes to pastel shades, white is a successful accent color that adds contrast without being too jarring. The primary colors—red, yellow, and blue—are the basis of all other hues, and 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 color wheel.
Mindy Gayer Design Co. collaborated with Dana Webber Design Group and Fairbank Construction Company to build this Puget Sound vacation home. The front entryway to the home is defined by warm off-white paint that gives the sprawling facade some dimension and contrasts with the darker siding and mixed tone wood accents. This brick house from A Beautiful Mess has a painted satin white exterior and a blushing pink door, with cacti lining the entry steps that adds some greenery and visual interest to the facade. Randell Design Group used pre-weathered zinc cladding in a soft shade of gray on the exterior of this U.K. House, combined with gray brick for a textural feel that looks modern and complements the lush green lawn.
Pale beige-pink paint softens the exterior of this home, while teal blue trim and russet red doors add definition to the facade. This Connecticut home designed by Crisp Architects is painted in a soothing shade of grayish green that makes a change from the usual white without altering the classic feel of the facade. Martha O'Hara Interiors painted the facade of this home in a soft greige, adding definition with steely gray shutters and a deep gray hue on the front door. The color of your home will vary according to the time of day and the quality of the light. A soft shade of pistachio green on this Litchfield County, CT home from Crisp Architects has a taupe-y appearance as night falls that sets it apart from the dark greens of the surrounding landscape. Sandra Foster used flat white paint on her tiny Victorian cottage in the Catskills of New York to highlight its fairy tale charm, while a green-colored roof blends in with the woodsy surroundings.
Deep reddish-brown stained siding with contrasting medium-toned blue-green trim make the facade of this home stand out from the leafy green surrounding landscape. This French Quarter home is painted in cheerful shades of yellow and orange that show off the architecture and embrace the anything-goes color palette of the city of New Orleans. Randell Design Group chose pre-painted Russwood Scotlarch cladding with an opaque black finish to give this modern A-frame home a crisp and graphic feel.
Kate Marker Interiors traded pale yellow for deep charcoal paint with clean white trim on this inviting cottage renovation. Teal blue paint with a touch of gray gives this beach house from Michelle Berwick Design a slightly weathered allure that pays homage to the coastal Canadian setting. Natural greens and blues create a relaxed setting for a bedroom loft space. An ombre alcove is reminiscent of a misty, atmospheric landscape, balanced by black side chairs and abstract artwork. Orange and turquoise are pop accents that reveal a sense of optimism, while a mix of geometric patterns and soft textiles invite you into the room.
Here, the pattern on the brick section of the front facade is nearly mosaic-like. Functional features, such as drain pipes or front steps, can be a wonderful way to include different colors or materials, too. While painting the house red can give it a whole new lease on life, keep in mind that you can also create a new mood with something as simple as changing the door color. By itself, steely gray can be a sterile choice for exterior house color combinations. But if this cool-minded hue tops your preferred color list, consider warming it up.
