Is it time to repaint the exterior of your house? Great! There couldn’t be a better time for this than summer or early fall. There shouldn’t be too many weather worries, and it’s the home-buying season!
An average homeowner can expect to pay a professional painter between $2,500-3,000 to paint a home’s exterior. That’s not so bad for a whole new look, is it? Especially not if it can bring some potential buyers to your door.
And there certainly is no shortage of exterior paint colors to choose from.
What House Colors Are You Thinking of?
When choosing your house colors, there are a lot of things to consider. Here are some of the most important.
Consider the Impression You Want to Make
What are the paint colors of the homes where you live? If you are near the coast, chances are you will be surrounded by brightly painted houses, often with yards lavishly decorated by various flora and lawn ornaments.
There you’ll see house colors like pink, purple, lime, and tangerine– with more traditional colors mixed in as well.
Other places are more conservative, though, with residents tending to favor more neutral house colors. These are less polarizing vis-à-vis the neighbors and any potential home buyers who might come along.
By the way, do you live in a managed community with a limited choice of home colors? If so, you should contact the homeowners’ association to find out what exterior paint colors you may choose from. Some might be in the list below.
Perhaps One of Today’s Trendy Neutrals?
Consider one of these:
- Ivory: For example, Ivory Lace by Sherwin-Williams. This is about as neutral as you can get, with a hint of color to give it warmth. It would be a good main color or to use for trim.
- Dark gray: For example, Intergalactic by Behr. It’s deep and it’s rich. What a great color to contrast with either a bright white or black.
- Gray-green: For example, Riverdale by Behr. This gray has enough green to give it an optimistic, fresh feel. It might be good–as either a main color or trim–in combination with a darker shade of a similar color.
- Blue-gray: For example, Uncertain Gray by Sherwin-Williams. This gray has different possibilities. Maybe try an off white with a touch of gray? Or how about a dark navy?
- Beige: For example, Manchester Tan by Benjamin Moore. This shade of beige is warm and would look good with white trim (or red for the adventurous).
- Taupe: For example, Loggia by Sherwin-Williams This color is a cooler one and would look great contrasted with dark brown trim (try Half-Caff by Sherwin-Williams
- Buff: For example, Frosty Melon by Behr. This is a warm neutral shade that might look good with red or black trim.
- Olive green: For example, Nature’s Gift by Behr. This would look terrific paired with either white or a darker shade of itself.
Or go out on a limb with one of these appealing home paint colors.
- Dark brown: For example, Half-Caff by Sherwin Williams. This is a fairly dark brown. Try making the trim an even darker shade of brown, or perhaps red.
- Yellow: For example, Hawthorne Yellow by Benjamin Moore. For those who like their neutrals to be a bit vibrant. Possibly trim with bright white or medium brown.
- Lighter green: For example, Pale Moss Green by Pittsburgh Paints. Consider using with navy trim or as trim for a white or ivory main color. It’s not quite a neutral color.
- Medium blue: For example, Deep Sea Dive by Sherwin-Williams. This gorgeous color would make your house stand out in the neighborhood–but not like a sore thumb. Trim might be either off white or navy.
- Vibrant red: Red Tomato by Sherwin-Williams. For something different, use a shade of gray or black for the trim.
Quite a few interior paint colors are also available as exterior paint colors. So if you’ve seen a color in someone’s house that might look good on the outside of your house, ask what the color name is and ask about it at your paint store.
Contrasting vs Monochromatic
Contrasting main color with trim color is good–just be sure that if one of them is white, the other is something unusual so that it can stand out against the white.
However, a monochromatic look can be very unique and memorable. Paint stores have online and in-store examples of what would be lighter and darker shades of given colors.
If you don’t want to go all the way with monochromatic, though, contrast two similar shades, such as medium blue and black or light blue and dark green (or vice versa).
The Front Door Matters
A brightly colored front door–a color that makes it stand out–is a welcoming sign to visitors. It should be a color (including stained natural wood) that is different from both the main color and the trim color.
Bright yellow (like Daisy by Sherwin-Williams) is a popular front door color, as is a purplish blue (like Crushed Velvet by Pittsburgh Paints). Contemplate the rest of your exterior house color scheme and figure out what would work.
Exterior Paint Colors for Houses with Aluminum, Vinyl, Fiber Cement, or Composite Siding
Does your home have non-wood siding? Do you think you’re “doomed” to living with the original color? This might have been the case at one time, but it might not be anymore.
You also have a couple of options for a home with siding, depending on your budget and your tastes:
Option 1: Have All the Siding Painted
In many cases. this is a possibility, though not always. Check your warranty or check with the manufacturer to be sure it’s all right and you won’t void the warranty.
If you don’t have the warranty, if it’s expired, or if you have other questions, contact a painting professional.
The process can be complicated, so again, it’s best to talk with a professional. But if all this turns out to be too much to take on, why not just work with the trim?
Option 2: Work with Just the Trim
Are you tired of those artificial shutters so many homes have? Remove them and install window trim. These take little to install and will add a clean look to your exterior–especially with the right color paint to complement your siding color.
Siding, especially older siding is usually found in lighter and more neutral colors. So a bright or unexpected color like black, dark brown, or bright blue could really give the place a facelift.
Concluding Thoughts
So you see all the options we dreamed up for you–by looking at house photos online as well as by walking around our own neighborhoods. Use your own imagination to figure out the “dream look” for your house and its potential buyers.
Whatever exterior paint colors you choose to make your home a stand-out, though, get other opinions, including those of a painting professional–and maybe some of your neighbors as well.
And don’t try to do the painting yourself and wind up doing something regrettable. Make it a quality job by hiring professionals to do the work. Yes, go ahead– give us a call!