The color scheme for your home's exterior sets the mood for the surrounding environment.
For the sake of your own happiness and your home's resale value, it's necessary to choose the right color for your home exterior. Don't make this choice lightly or without carefully considering all your options as you will live with this color for quite some time.
Warm Colors
Warm colors are those colors that fall into the category of reds, yellows and oranges. Within these parameters is a huge range, from deep mustard yellows to stop sign reds. Earth tone colors like copper, rust and light gold cast a warm and inviting appearance on a home, while brighter, bolder warm colors, such as lemon yellow and salmon orange, are a bit overwhelming on a large space like a house.
Cool Colors
Cool colors fall on the opposite side of the color wheel from warm colors. These colors include blue, green and purple. Cool colors are seen as calm and soothing compared to warm colors. For painting a home exterior, commonly used cool colors include gray-blues and sage greens. Except on Victorian homes and in areas where very bright colors are the norm for houses, purple is less commonly used in home exterior paint but is used as a trim.
Neutrals
When in doubt, a neutral is a safe bet for painting the outside of a house. Neutrals include gray, white, cream and beige. These colors work especially well on homes that are partially made of brick because the colors don't often clash with brick. If you use a neutral paint on your house, use colorful trim like blue or deep red to add interest to an otherwise conservative color choice.
Surrounding Environment
Among the categories of warm colors, cool colors and neutrals, take into account the surrounding environment as you make your choice. For example, in a wooded area with few other houses around, a bright blue or salmon colored home will stand out and look strange. Whereas, in a residential neighborhood where most of the houses are bright pastels, a dark earthy colored house looks a little odd and possibly drab. If you've already narrowed down your paint preference to a category of color, look to the colors around the house for more inspiration and direction.
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