When someone has bought their own home, it becomes the safest place for them. This is where no rules of the outer world apply. This is where they can do whatever they want and use their maximized imagination and sense of style to decorate.
When it comes to decorating and re-painting, every house owner wants to make their house look the most beautiful one in the neighborhood. They want to take a look at their house from a distance and breath out in satisfaction.
No matter how well of a structure any home has, the exploration of that structure depends on what color has been put on it. You can bring the best architect in the world to design the best-looking house for you. However, if the color of the exterior is not appealing enough, the design will lose its charm.
So, it’s imperative which color you’re choosing for the exterior. You can let the experts choose one for you. But selecting an exterior or interior color for your own house is like choosing the clothes anyone wants to buy. This decision is extremely personal.
But if you are confused and don’t know how to choose house exterior colors, it will most certainly impose a problem. So, in this article, we will help you with ideas of how you can make this decision yourself. Before moving forward with that, let’s discuss the most common house exterior colors. You might even find the answer in the next paragraph, who knows.
What are The Most Common House-Exterior Colors?
People tend to follow what others have been practicing. The same goes for choosing a house exterior color. In most cases, the choice is influenced by some other house that they spotted crossing some alley or walking down the street or something they saw on the internet.
The following are some of the most commonly applied exterior colors. You might find yours in this list too. Here goes–
- Off White accented with deep blue
- Cream accented with light blue or black
- Grey accented with white or wood tone
- Classic blue with white accents
- Deep blue with white accents
- Red with white or wooden accents (mainly used on barns)
These are some of the most common colors that people go for. These colors are applied for houses of all shapes, sizes, and structures. Most neighborhoods have at least one house having one of these color combinations. It’s because these are some of the safest combinations that are commonly used, yes, but attractive.
It’s better to stick to a traditional choice of color rather than not having any ideas of which color to go for. It’s like having the best paint sprayer for a house exterior but not being able to use it because we lack ideas.
Now that we discussed the most common color patterns let’s start our discussion of how to choose house exterior colors.
How to Choose House Exterior Colors
It’s all about having the proper motivation or inspiration to think and expand the sphere of imagination. The more you will be motivated, the more your imaginations will expand. There are a few ways of expanding your view that can help you choose the colors. Let’s start.
Choose Neutral Colors
There are a few colors that are acceptable by people of all ages and practices. You can never go wrong with those colors. A factor of people praising works in the case of exterior paint. Everyone wants people to praise their selection of colors, design of the house, rooms, interior décor, etc.
So, choosing a color that is accepted by all is a safe play. If you are too confused about which color to choose, just go for any of the neutral colors that exist.
For instance, you can choose light blue, eggshell white, brown, grey, etc. These colors are eye-soothing and eye-catching at the same time. So, there’s no failure in choosing neutral colors.
Match the Neighborhood Color Scheme
Every neighborhood has a particular color theme going on. You do have a good relationship with the people who live nearby, don’t you? The entire community sometimes follows the same color scheme for the entire community to look the same.
This is true in the case of house design. People don’t necessarily copy house structures, but certain similarities indicate these people belong to the same community.
Also, if your house doesn’t really match the color scheme at all and for some reason, you decided to paint your house red where all the other houses are light blue, yours would make the entire setup look hideous. Then it won’t matter how good of a color you have chosen for your house because other houses will not be complementing your color.
So, while choosing a color for your house exterior, make sure you take into account the houses beside and nearby you.
Choose a Color that Matches the House Design and Interior
Say you have a house that has a Victorian structure. Most Victorian houses follow a wooden color scheme. If you have a modern home, the colors are usually white, black, grey, etc., all the minimal choices.
So, while choosing a color, the design factor is essential. If you paint a modern-designed house orange or light green, it will look extremely hideous. The work of exterior color is to compliment the design of the building.
Following the Trend
The easiest way to choose a color for your home would be to follow the current trend that has been going on for a while. For instance, there was a time when people used to construct houses and give them a red brick exterior. This trend lasted for quite a while, and people literally applied this to different designs.
The red brick trend was above any design or color combination. Because till date, if our eyes come across a house that has a red brick exterior, it draws our attention. Redbrick compliments the design.
This example is not about motivating you to get red brick walls. You cannot possibly do that if you have a wooden house, can you? What you can do is, understand the trend and apply that. See what colors are trending now and apply them. You will end up changing house exterior colors after a few years again. So, following the trend can never go wrong.
Factor in The Climate
Every place in the world has a different climate. The difference between the climate of New York and Florida is literally like fire and water. New York has gloomy, chilly weather, and Florida is dry and sunny. If you search for pictures online to see a neighborhood in Florida and a neighborhood in New York, you will, very evidently, notice differences in exterior colors.
When choosing a color, taking into account the climate is a crucial factor. Because if you choose a color that does not match the climate of your location, it will look really horrible.
Test the Paint
The best way to figure out which paint will actually satisfy your need and everyone’s eyes is to take a few paints and try to find out the best combination and accent colors. Let’s face it, you will not understand which color you exactly want unless you see them live.
So, take a few paint buckets or a small amount of paint and a blank slate. A white surface would be best for you to test. Get yourself the best paint sprayer for house exterior and run a few paint combinations. This way, you can actually create the live paint experience of what your house would have. It will definitely help you to make a decision.
Consider the Permanent Elements
There are certain elements of a house that cannot be changed or you will not change for a long time, i.e., the bricks, the porch, stone walls, roofing, backyard decorative, etc. These elements have specific colors that have to be considered while coloring the house exterior.
For instance, suppose you have a little fountain setup going on in the backyard, which is white with gold accents, you cannot go forward with colors that will undertone that decorative. Mostly deep colors will do that.
Consider Cultural reference
Every culture has a few color options that they tend to prefer no matter what. This comes from the idea of design. You can see that Asian houses have a specific structural identity. To complement that structural identity, they have specific color schemes to follow.
If you have visited China towns, you would see their houses have designs inspired by dragons and mythical beasts. They follow either green or orange/red color schemes to complement those traditional designs. The green represents the body of those beasts, and the orange with red accents represents fire.
Just like that, your family culture must have some traditional identities that have many a few color schemes. You can take your traditional background as an experience and add a few tweaks to it. That’s probably the easiest way for anyone to find a design that will satisfy every one of your family, and if anyone asks, you will always have the culture card to play.
Recreate Your Imagination Virtually
In this era of technology, there are applications even on our phones where you can literally create a design of your house. You don’t even need architectural knowledge to do that. Designing a real house would require an architect, yes. But virtual, you can create the design of your imagination without breaking any sweat.
This revolutionary step in technology has made things easier for people who have a dream house and don’t know how to explain that in words to a professional. They can easily create a design and how it to professionals. Rest is up to them to turn the dream into reality.
These applications or software can help you with choosing the exterior colors too. What you have to do is create the design of your existing house on them and add colors to see which one suits you the best. Then, you can place the house in the background of your need to identify whether it suits the environment or not. Also, you can make a live-virtual comparison among neighborhood buildings.
How to Choose Paint for House Exterior?
There are thousands of paint brands that you can get your hands on. But not all of them have the same quality, same price, or same materials for that matter. So, while choosing paint for the house exterior, maintain the following things to be assured of getting the best value for money.
Quality of Paint
High-quality paint is straightforward to determine. Paint is a synthetic substance. It’s not that toxic, but better safe than sorry.
To determine whether the paint is of high grade or not, all you have to check is the density of the paint and are there are residue or small particles in the paint. The density of the paint will be high, and there will be no solid particles inside the paint bucket. The paint will be clean and thick.
Color Deception
Color deception is the most common issue with paint. A paint sample can look really lively and appealing on small surfaces and shop lights. But on a vast surface and natural light, even the deepest of paint can look very light.
So, before buying paint, take a medium-sized surface and put the color after thinning. Take the board outside in broad daylight to check the actual color that you and people will see for a long time.
Final Words
So, this is how to choose house exterior colors. Don’t just pick any color of paint and start spraying on the house walls. Instead, follow any methods of idea generations mentioned above. That way, you will be able to pick a satisfactory color.
We don’t paint the house exterior every year. We paint it once, and it stays there for at least 5 to 10 years. Consider the fact that whatever you will choose will be there for at least five years or so, and everyone who passes through your street will look. So, choose wisely.
