Best Exterior Color Selections for Your Home

When choosing the paint color for an interior room, you certainly want to get it right the first time, but it’s not a huge investment in time and money if you change your mind later. Your home’s exterior paint is a different story. Curb appeal is a combination of your home’s architectural style and details and surrounding landscape. The color palette that passersby see is a combination of your home’s siding, trim, and doors. Baker Residential offers expert suggestions to create a lasting impression by making the best exterior color selections for your home.

Respect the architectural style.Your home reflects a specific style, or at least certain aspects. A Craftsman home, for example is defined by details like the pillars and porch, while a Victorian style home features ornate details. The exterior color you choose should align with the architectural style of your home. A Colonial home is nicely accented with historically accurate shades, like white, creamy yellow, slate blue, and forest green. Do a little research to find the right colors for your home’s architecture.

Consider the surroundings. Your home’s exterior colors should work with the landscape around your home. With a woodsy surrounding, use earthy tones that complement the surroundings, without blending in or standing out too much. With an open landscape and interesting architectural details on your home, consider the combination of two accent colors. This approach brings attention to your home’s uniqueness, highlighting certain features—like the effect of an accent wall in a room.

Part of your surroundings are the neighboring homes. Walk around your neighborhood and take note of the house colors. Choose a color that will complement the other homes, so the area maintains its integrity and value.

Consider the roof color. A gray or black roof represents a cool color. For best results, choose an exterior paint color that is cool, like a contrasting shade of gray, or a green, blue, or white color. If you want something a bit warmer—like red, brown, or yellow—select a shade that tends toward the cooler side (blended with a hint of black). For a brown roof, go in the opposite direction, with warm shades. We recently completed a new construction home in our Providence at Yates Pond community in Cary, NC, where our designer chose a lighter shade of brown to work with the darker brown roof. Take a look at the result at 2128 Vandiver Way.

Accent the stonework. A home with brick or stonework as well as shingles should be painted with a color that accents the natural colors of the stones. You don’t have to match, but you should choose an earthy tone that doesn’t harshly contrast. A design like The Oakleaf floor plan at 2049 Vandiver Way blends stone and shingles with a pleasing color balance. In the same community, look at the move-in ready home at 2056 Vandiver Way, where we used a color for the shake siding that closely matches the stone.

Make a statement with your doors. The color choice for your front door and garage door are also important. Many homeowners lean toward painting the garage door the same color as the home’s exterior, so that this space blends with the home, rather than standing out.

You can use your front door paint color as a focal point. Go subtle or bold. Match your home’s trim or pick something entirely different! The front door color is easy enough to change, so if you want to have a bit more fun with your home’s exterior, use the entry to make your statement.

Baker Residential builds luxury townhomes and single-family homes in sought-after locations in North Carolina, New York, and New Jersey. We aim for the perfect balance of curb appeal for the exterior and luxury style for the interior. Talk to us at Baker Residential when you’re ready to make the right move.