How to Pick an Exterior House Paint Color
Choosing an exterior paint color for your house can be somewhat challenging as there are so many colors from which to choose. Each color has several shades. Another factor to consider is that paint will look different when it is actually applied to a surface. The amount of light that reflects off of the house can make the paint appear to be lighter or darker. There are some simple things that you can do before you purchase a large amount of tinted paint that cannot be returned. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Choose Color Schemes
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Choose your color scheme by considering the color of your roof and the color of your window frames if they are vinyl. Not all paint colors will go well with the color of your shingles or your window frames. Another factor to consider is the surrounding homes. It is important for your home to blend in with your neighbors' homes. It is extremely unattractive to have your home painted in a drastically different shade. If your neighbors homes are painted in neutral earth tones, it would not do for your home to be painted bright yellow. Choose colors that also go with the color of your brick if your home is brick.
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Use your color deck to choose your paint colors. Choose the color that will cover the largest areas of your home. This would be the walls if your house is wood or vinyl, the sofit and the guttering. Accent colors are often painted on the facia, doors, shutters, and window trim. Choose an accent color that goes well with the house color. The accent color looks best if it is lighter than the house color. For help with choosing an accent color, consider using the color wheel. A color wheel will have at least 12 colors. Colors placed on the wheel right next to each other make great accent or trim colors. You can also use color combinations that are directly opposite of each other, but they are a bit harder to combine. You do not have to use the exact colors on the wheel, it just gives you an idea of what goes well together. You can use many variations of these colors.
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Use a color palette to choose your colors. At paint stores and home supply stores there are color palettes that have at least three preselected colors for exterior painting. These colors are professionally put together and go extremely well together. Preselected colors on a color palette will have your main paint which will cover the majority of your home, and two trim paints. The color palette will also show a picture of a home using the preselected colors. This gives you a clear picture of how well these colors go together, and how they look actuall painted on a house.
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Purchase paint samples. This is an inexpensive way to see how your choice of colors will actually look before you buy too much paint that you do not like. Use your paint brush to paint a small area of trim color around a window or door, and paint an area of the main color. Paint these colors next to each other. This will give you an idea of how your colors will look on your house. After the paint has dried, look at it during different times of the day. The paint can look completely different in the afternoon or evening light from the way that it looked in the morning light.
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Use a virtual painting CD. Take a picture of the outside of your home. Download the picture to your computer. Insert the virtual CD. Follow the prompts on the CD. You can easily virtually paint your entire home any color that you choose to see how it will look before ever purchasing anything.
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Tips & Warnings
Technology has made it much easier to decide what color to paint the exterior of your home. After you have chosen the colors, purchase the samples to make sure that they look the same in reality as they do virtually.
