Exterior house colors

[Pea-n-Me]

I searched and didn’t see a thread on this before.

Anyone have any recent (or not so recent) experiences with picking out house colors? Care to share yours, or what you like?

Did you and your housemates agree on the color(s)? What factors went into your decison-making? (LIke colors of neighbor’s houses, style of house, etc.)

Any pictures or similarities you care to share, would love to see them.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I searched and didn’t see a thread on this before.

Anyone have any recent (or not so recent) experiences with picking out house colors? Care to share yours, or what you like?

Did you and your housemates agree on the color(s)? What factors went into your decison-making? (LIke colors of neighbor’s houses, style of house, etc.)

Any pictures or similarities you care to share, would love to see them.

Well, when we got around to painting our house years ago we went with (basically) a light tannish/beige with a grey/blue for the trim. Now my husband just paints around the house in sections to keep it fresh.

We're pretty boring here. Our interior paint is Swiss Coffee (really a light beige color) in the whole interior.

 

[TCRAIG]

My house is brick but there are some places by dormer windows on the side and the back that were wood (cedar I think) that had begun to rot. I recently replaced them with Hardie Board - really nice blue/gray color - called Boothbay Blue.

 

[AprilsZoo]

Seems like most homes nowadays are subject to HOA rules on colors and exterior design issues. Is your home in an HOA?

Be sure you request from them their pre-approved palette before getting your heart set on any particular colors. And ask what the process is for attempting to get approval for other colors if the pre-selected ones aren’t to your liking.

 

[tvguy]

We went with white with black trim when we repainted. My wife liked how classy it looks
For about 30 years our house was what I call Cape Cod style home colors. Light Blue with dark blue trim.
When we bought our house 40 years ago it was DARK brown with tan trim.
We like lighter colors to help reduce air conditioning costs.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Well, when we got around to painting our house years ago we went with (basically) a light tannish/beige with a grey/blue for the trim. Now my husband just paints around the house in sections to keep it fresh.

We're pretty boring here. Our interior paint is Swiss Coffee (really a light beige color) in the whole interior.

That sounds nice to me! We did similar colors in our in law apt, but DD is getting ready to re-do it. She’s going with I think a beige/grey.

My house is brick but there are some places by dormer windows on the side and the back that were wood (cedar I think) that had begun to rot. I recently replaced them with Hardie Board - really nice blue/gray color - called Boothbay Blue.

No HOA. We can do whatever we like.

This will be at least the fourth time we’ve painted this house. And DH re-shingled the whole thing. We live in New England, so we only paint the front - the sides and back stay natural. It’s not too difficult aside from scraping (big job) and putting primer on. (We’re going from red, so we don’t want that to bleed through.)

I’ve been thinking about a very light grey, almost white, with navy blue shutters, and red accents will be chairs on the porch. (I don’t want a red door, lol. Ours is white and we keep a screen door for the dogs to look out.)

But then I saw this and really liked it. (Not our house - but wish it was! - just an example.)



We have shutters and not sure about color for those. I was thinking just white but I’ve noticed no one around us has put their shutters back up. Maybe they’ve gone out of style?

We also have a lot of greys and blues around us.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

We went with white with black trim when we repainted. My wife liked how classy it looks
For about 30 years our house was what I call Cape Cod style home colors. Light Blue with dark blue trim.
When we bought our house 40 years ago it was DARK brown with tan trim.
We like lighter colors to help reduce air conditioning costs.

White is another option. I like classic. I was thinking with this fern green maybe (like above, really liking that color), for shutters. Do you have to re-paint more often if it’s white?

 

[barkley]

when we painted our exterior i wanted to go with something that complimented the surrounds. since we have allot of pine trees we went with a deep forest green with a deep reddish accent for the trim including the rain gutters. i have a covered deck and for the ceiling (which is not visable unless you go on the deck) we went with a warm white so it would not darken the interior roof adjacent to it.

i highly reccommend rodda brand paint-our house was done over 8 years ago and has areas that get full sun as well as exposure to snow and pine needles (very acidic). we had to do a little touch up in one area this year and used some of the old paint we had left over from the original job-it was impressive to see how little fading had occured.

 

[LoveDaisy]

I resided my house last summer. I went with gray siding, black shutters and white trim. This was before they put the gutters and downspouts on. We also pulled out the overgrown shrubs in front of the bay window before they sided so those will have to replaced in the spring.

 

[unrequited23]

I live in a pink house. Not my choice, but other repairs and upgrades have taken precedence over repainting/residing. After removing some landscaping we discovered the aluminium siding was originally beige and painted pink by one of the previous owners. (I have so many questions)

A year after we purchased. a real estate developer bought 3 houses on our block and painted them all a dark blue grey. This immediately took that color out of the running for us.

Right now, I'm leaning toward a warm mushroom taupe shade with white shutters and keeping the double front door navy.

There are a few houses on my street that went beyond simple white trim/black shutters and look amazing. It seems like they went to the paint store chose a pre-selected palette. I will probably hit up a few big boxes stores and paint stores for those free paint brochures of exterior swatches before we officially decide on colors (whenever that may be.)

 

[_19disnA]

Very dark/vivid colors tend to fade faster from UV light associated with sun exposure. Those types of colors require more frequent repainting to keep them looking good. What color is largely a matter of personal preference, although as mentioned above some HOA's have color guidelines you need to follow.

 

[mjkacmom]

The first time I had my house painted, I consulted with a colorist, there are actually 6 colors, and she worked with my painter. The next time (15 years later) I couldn’t find my palette, she changed the name of her company but I found her, she emailed it to me. It’s green, tan, white, brown, a darker tan, sky blue (wrap around porch ceiling). It blends very nicely with the homes in the neighborhood (most built around 100 years ago by a popular developer with similar features like wrap around porches, ribboned oak floors, heavy chestnut molding..). It was originally brown.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

Several years ago when we resided our house I decided I wanted sometime g other than white and went with a green similar to the others that have posted, with white trim. There weren’t very many around here then. Now it seems like everybody has gone that route.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Our family home has brick, a nice light gray siding and black shutters with a dark gray roof & black wrought iron fence, the classic color combination still works very nicely after nearly 30 years and I have no complaints at all. We picked the home for the layout and the colors were fine, we didn't put much thought into it other than it be easy on the eyes.

Our next place we would like to change it up and are leaning into more color. We like what we are calling the New England Dark Blue, it is a color we don't really see in PA but it is common up here. There is also a really nice dark gray we see often. I guess I should sort out if these colors are a trend or classics up here, I don't want to go diving into trendy for our forever home where we need to keep up with it - not inviting headaches.

 

[tony67]

Well I would recommend driving around your neighborhood and seeing what other folks have.

Id try to avoid the same colors as others in the neighborhood - and most importantly in the more immediate area to your home. Of course this does not stop someone else from them using the same color as you a few months later - not sure what the house a few down from me was thinking when they picked the same color as us

Of course this assumes you are not stuck in a HOA.

 

[tvguy]

White is another option. I like classic. I was thinking with this fern green maybe (like above, really liking that color), for shutters. Do you have to re-paint more often if it’s white?

Ah, well it still looks good and it's been 9 years since we painted it white.

 

[Christine]

I like the trend of a white house with black trim but it has to be the "right" house. The New England/Cape Cod style seem to be the "right" type of house. Someone tried it my neighborhood and it did not go well, lol!!! But I really like the white/black contrast and then put in a really bright door and, as you said, some bright chairs out front. I like this one below but I'd do a brighter door.

 

[kdonnel]

I am burned out on the white and black.

Every house going up on infill lots are brand new brick houses painted white with black trim.

There are another 5 going in down from my neighborhood entrance and most of the comments on the neighborhood Facebook page were, oh no, not 5 more of those black and white houses.

It sounds like the trend is close to running its course in my area.

I would pick an earth tone. A color that exists commonly in nature. Stay away from blues or anything that might look like blue.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

The first time I had my house painted, I consulted with a colorist, there are actually 6 colors, and she worked with my painter. The next time (15 years later) I couldn’t find my palette, she changed the name of her company but I found her, she emailed it to me. It’s green, tan, white, brown, a darker tan, sky blue (wrap around porch ceiling). It blends very nicely with the homes in the neighborhood (most built around 100 years ago by a popular developer with similar features like wrap around porches, ribboned oak floors, heavy chestnut molding..). It was originally brown.View attachment 808384

Oh, what a beautiful porch! The house I grew up in (and those around it) was similar to this, too. Really nice living space in the summertime. (How are your bugs? Mosquitos?) My porch is more modern, with Trex, we added it about 25 yrs ago, and screened part of the porch. Bugs around us are horrific, you really can’t sit out there without it. We’ve been spraying for mosquitos (with an all natural company), as have our neighbors, and for just one year - 2022 - it was heaven. We could actually sit out on the porch without getting bitten alive. But because we had a rainy spring this year, they were back again, so no go.

Our next place we would like to change it up and are leaning into more color. We like what we are calling the New England Dark Blue, it is a color we don't really see in PA but it is common up here. There is also a really nice dark gray we see often. I guess I should sort out if these colors are a trend or classics up here, I don't want to go diving into trendy for our forever home where we need to keep up with it - not inviting headaches.

I think I know the colors you’re referring to. We at one time had the dark grey. We’d actually seen it on someone’s house (about a mile away from us) and knocked on their door to ask what color it was. They happily shared, lol. It was Sherwin Williams, I can’t remember the exact name but would know it if I heard it. She knew it right away. (ETA I believe it was Williamsburg Grey Exterior Stain.) That was beautiful. I’m feeling something a little lighter this time since we’ve lived with dark a lot recently. And as a pp mentioned, I think it fades faster. Ours did, anyway, and it peeled, so that was a headache.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I was researching best paint. Sherwin Williams always comes up. It’s about $30/can more, but probably worth it, and it says you only need one coat. Experiences?