How to Choose the Right Exterior Paint Colors

An attractive exterior can greatly enhance your home’s appeal to the public. This will add great value, especially when you’re trying to sell it. However, it’s a daunting task to choose the right exterior paint colors when there are thousands of options available.

Indeed, what will be the best paint for your home exterior according to the size and style? Try to use a visualizer to check out the perfect one and choose the shade of the color. Look out the existing color of the trim, roof, or brick to figure out the best one.

There are a lot of factors you need to deal with while doing this exterior paint, like landscaping, roofing, and many more. Instead, you can take help from a professional to choose the best color scheme for your home’s exterior.

How to Choose the Right Exterior Paint Colors?

When people look at your house, the first thing they notice is the exterior. Some houses made with bricks will not require a fresh coat of paint, but exteriors like stucco or siding are needed. So here are some basic tricks that you should follow while choosing the right exterior paint color-

1.   Look To Your Home For Guidance

You need to include the color scheme that your house already has, like the stone or brick color, window trim, or even the roof hue. Consider the red brick and siding combinations paint. However, you can think about them as the base, before making the final decision.

You should understand how the existing permanent colors will influence the paint you choose now. Don’t ignore those and select a trendy color; otherwise, they can create a clash. Moreover, your house size influences how the paint color will look. If you have a large house and paint it blue, it’ll look ominous.

2.   Select Your Shade First

When choosing the right exterior paint, you should decide the shade of the color first. Decide what type of shade you want for your house, like light, mid-tone, or dark color.

In this stage, all you need to consider is the color shade you require. You can choose a light or white color or a mid-tone shade, or you can choose a medium shade. You can also use a dark color for the exterior part of your house.

Most people can make a decision immediately if they want a light or dark color. In contrast, some people have trouble making decisions, so they need little help. You can take help from Pinterest to get inspiration about the right exterior paint colors.

3.   Choose Several Paint Shades

The exterior part of a house has three significant parts, and they are field color, accent color, and trim color. All of them are visually essential as the first one dominates the whole exterior, the second one brings life to the doors, shutters, and the other smaller parts.

The last one is used for the window, door casings, roof edging, railings. The trim color needs to contrast with the field color. If you select the primary paint dark house’s exterior paint color, choose classic white trim or another shade.

With the dark trim paint, a light field color will go better. If you want a perfect accent, then choose bright red or lemon yellow for the doors.

4.   Factor In Light for Exterior Paint Colors

After deciding the shade, let’s think about the impact of the light on the exterior paint, which will be different from the interior. In the daylight, the exterior paint color will drastically turn into cool or blue.

This thing will happen when there is a lot of sunlight. It’ll be better if you choose a 2-3 times warmer paint color for the exterior of your home. This will give you a balanced color that will not turn blue or cool.

5.   Look to a Color Visualizer Before Buying Paint

While you have the basic idea of what shade you want, try to use a visualizer to get the exact paint. You can browse by your favorite colors or even find out the color that other families or decorators pick up. Most paint companies offer some tool with the exterior paint option. 

Though the interface of the tools is different, all of them use the same methods to test the paint. Using these tools is not difficult, just upload the exterior images of your home and see which paint will look better. This will be a great idea to experiment with the exterior color visually.

6.   Consider Your Roof Color

Before you take further decisions about your exterior paint color, mull over your roof color. Check if your roof color is black or neutral gray, then you should not worry about color clashing.

Suppose you have a dark brown with a red undertone roof, then choosing any shades of green or blue tones will create a clash. To play it safe, you can select a neutral paint color for your house exterior. If your roof color has red, tan, green, or blue-gray in the shingles, you must consider it while choosing the exterior colors.

When you have green or blue-gray tones, you can stop the color clashing by choosing a neutral or a blend of the shingle color in it. If you have the black color on the roof, select anything you want

7.   Mull Over Your Home’s Architectural Style

You should take your home’s architectural style into account when choosing the exterior paint color. Some manufacturers help the homeowners by offering collections of accurate paint colors.

Or even you can consult any professional who is specialized in this area. Remember, don’t follow the historical guidelines except for codes of the house and neighborhood specified.

8.   Consider Weather Conditions

To protect your paint from the extreme level of temperatures or high humidity, you have to plan your color wisely. Don’t start to paint if the temperature is below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.44 °C). Check if there is any possibility of rain or high humidity. These weather conditions can destroy a new paint coat or delay the dry times.

9.   Never Rely On Paint Chips And Think About The Visual Effect

While searching for the exterior paint, don’t only rely on the paint chips. You can test the color in an inconspicuous house area by buying a quart of paint. Try to study the color in different times and weather conditions.

Think about your home’s collection to the street together with the landscape. You can choose a slightly lighter or even bright color. This will set your home apart from the rest.

10.   Don’t Get Caught Up In Trends

Choosing the exterior paint color of the house is not like choosing the cloth, sofa, or shoe color. Most people don’t want to use the brown color for their home now because the trend is over. So choose wisely which color will be best for your house and trendy too.

Wrapping Up

While making the final decision, make sure that you select at least three colors for the exterior wall paint. Painting a fresh coat of color according to the trend will look best.  The trendy color of the exterior will be better than the dated color scheme.

Pick a neutral color that will be up-to-date in the next five to ten years. If you want to enhance the value of your house, a few buckets of paint will be a wise investment. Choosing the best color for your exterior will create more appeal for future buyers for visualizing themselves living there.

Photo by Ryan Franco on Unsplash