Exterior Home-Painting Ideas

Painting your home exterior every few years is important, not only for appearance, but because it protects it against insects, moisture and generally helps the exterior of your home last longer. Regardless of whether it's the first coat of paint on a new home or if you're freshening up an older home, your choice of color is a big decision. If you're attached to the color of your home, you may decide on a fresh coat in the same color. If it's a new home, you will be wondering what it really looks like when it's all done.

Fitting In

When choosing the paint color, consider the color of homes in your neighborhood. Choose colors that will be compatible or at least not clash harshly with your neighbors so that your home isn't the eyesore on the block. If the homes are all in light colors or white, it might be jarring to have one dark green or brown house in the cul-de-sac. If you want to paint your house something darker, consider painting it a powdery gray or a neutral shade, such as sandstone with white trim. Or try a light shade of sage green, which would complement the other homes, not distract.

Landscaping

Paint your home in colors that work with your landscaping and garden plantings. Evergreen bushes will be enhanced by a white, beige, mustard-yellow or barn-red paint. If you have a path leading up to your home made of stone or brick pavers, choose colors that will complement the stone. If you have brick-red pavers, offset the brightness with an earthy putty color or moss-green house paint.

Architecture

If your home is an old colonial, Prairie style or a plain 1950s rambler, select colors that enhance the style. Prairie-style design looks best when painted in neutral earth-toned browns, red-browns and sand. A colonial-style home offers many opportunities for contrasting trim colors. Try muted-gray exterior walls with beige trim, and muted-green or red accents.

Home Size

If you have a small home and you would like to create the illusion that it's larger, you can do it by painting it in a lighter color. Choose white, off-white or pastel yellow for a small house. To make a large house look smaller, paint the trim in darker shades than the main color of the house. For a large, white house, paint the shutters, window trim and exterior door in a hunter green.

Visualization Tools and Samples

Try one of the online color visualizing tools to get a general idea of the color paint you'd like for your home. Experiment with different shades. These online tools are available at paint manufacturers' websites. You can pick the style of home that most resembles yours, then choose from hundreds of color palettes and shades, and apply the color to the model exterior walls, doors and trim. Or, visit a home improvement store and choose some sample colors to bring home. These are sold for just a few dollars, and you can apply them to a piece of scrap wood to see how they look.

References

• Choosing Exterior Paint Colors
• Painting Houses

Resources

• Color Visualizer