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FRESH Colors
FOR EXTERIORS WITH CURB APPEAL
Table of Contents
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Introduction
Create Your Color Scheme
Fixed Features
How to Choose Your Colors
Regional Colors
Getting It Right
Environment and Surroundings
Historic and HOA Colors
Style of the House
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About the Author
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Introduction
Your home makes a statement. It tells the world
something about the personality of the people
who live inside. Whether you’re building new or
renovating, each product and color choice can give
your house style while enhancing its curb appeal
and resale value.
The problem is that, if you are like most
homeowners, choosing the materials and products
is more straightforward than picking the color.
Choosing a color for one item can be difcult, and
selecting several exterior colors can be daunting.
The good news is that choosing the right color for
each element of your home - roong, siding, doors,
windows, shutters, trim, and accents - doesn’t have
to be complicated. All it takes is some fresh thinking.
As a certied color professional, I use the FRESH
approach to select colors for a home exterior. By
following the steps in this guidebook, you can use
the same process to choose colors for your house
and pick the perfect colors for your home exterior.
When searching for an ideal color combination,
consider the personal statement you want to make
with your home’s exterior. Do you want your house
to have a stately and elegant appearance or a
cute and storybook-like feel? Will a natural, toned-
down color match your vision, or is a bright, beach-
inspired hue a better choice? Having a clear idea of
the overall style you want to convey will guide you
towards the best material and color options.
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One of the easiest ways to determine your design
preferences is to look at other houses that appeal to
you. Identify what you like about each one. Is it the
overall color scheme, or the historic style? Maybe it
looks friendly and welcoming? Take note of these
features to help guide your own design choices.
You purchased your home because you enjoyed the
surroundings and neighborhood. Walking or driving
around your home is often the best place to start
your search for color ideas. Houses within an area
are also often similar in style. Looking at what your
neighbors have done with their homes can serve as
inspiration for your own home’s exterior.
Do you prefer homes with contrasting shutters and
front doors, or do you prefer a color scheme with
closely related colors? To nd out, take pictures
of colors and color combinations that you nd
attractive.
Once you have a collection of images, look at the
homes side-by-side. You may notice similarities
that you didn’t see when looking at them
individually.
After you have dened your style, the next step is to
consider the ve keys to FRESH exterior colors:
F
Fixed
Features
R
Regional
Colors
E
Environment &
Surroundings
S
Style of
the Home
H
Historic and
HOA Colors
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Fixed Features
Fixed features are important to consider as you select your
colors. These include items that rarely, if ever, change on a home
exterior, such as:
• Brick or stonework
• Primary and accent roong
• Window grids, if not a light neutral
• Any other architectural elements that will not change
A home is only a blank canvas if you build a house from the
ground up. Otherwise, there are many things to consider
when selecting colors, and xed features are among the most
inuential.
Fixed features can provide an excellent source of color direction
for your siding color, which will likely change over the years.
Although your xed features may be made of different materials,
they usually have a unifying color or color cast. Once you identify
that color, you can use other elements with the same color, color
cast, or undertone in your color scheme.
New colors don’t need to match existing shades, but they should
harmonize with them. Take inventory of the colors in your home’s
xed features. What color is your roof? Are there bricks or stones
on your facade? What about the window frames? The color of
each of these areas of your exterior will become part of your
overall color plan.
Look again at your home’s xed features. You will likely see some
repetition of color tones. It is this repetition that allows different
materials and textures to work well together. When choosing
colors for items such as your roof, nd a color or variety of colors
that also includes the predominant color or color cast of the
existing permanent elements.
Start with the largest features rst when choosing
colors for your home’s exterior. If your home has brick
or stone, begin there. The most signicant xed feature
for all other houses is the roof.
Roong materials are rarely a at or solid color. Look
closely to see what you can detect up close that isn’t
apparent from a distance. Premium roong products
often have color variations that are part of the
product’s beauty.
If your home is brick or has a partial brick exterior, note
the primary color and color cast. Many bricks are red
but have a golden-yellow or beige cast. Include one or
both colors in your roong, siding, or accents.
If stonework is prominent on or around your home, look
at the overall stone color rst. Is it gray, brown, green,
peach, etc.? Next, see what colors stand out from the
other stones. A deep shade of this color might work for
your front door or shutters.
Repeating the colors or color cast from the xed
features begins to tie your color scheme together
visually. If all the permanent elements from the roof
down harmonize, you are well on your way to creating
an appealing exterior color scheme. Plus, you’ll have
great exibility if you change your home’s siding or
accent colors.
When all the xed features have a cohesive color story,
it opens up your options for a siding color. If your xed
features are gray or have a gray color cast, just about
any color family will work. Brown or warmer colors
often work well with siding colors that are also warm.
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Regional Colors
When choosing the color scheme for your
home’s exterior, it’s important to consider
the physical location of your house. For
example, a brighter terra cotta color may
seem out of place in northern climates but
could be an excellent choice for areas with
intense sunlight in the Southwest.
Regional color preferences are inuenced
by a blend of natural characteristics, such
as climate, topography, landscape, and
quality of natural light, as well as an area’s
housing styles, available materials, and
cultural history.
Across the country, homes in the Northeast
tend to have traditional colors with brighter
accents. White with black shutters, gray
with a red front door, or natural stain with
green trim are examples of schemes you
might nd in the New England region. In the
Midwest, popular colors include white, tan,
and gray. The Southeast also has these
colors, along with tans, greens, blues, and
grays in coastal areas.
In the Northwest, houses are often natural
gold-based with green hues that reect
the colors found in the local environment.
Nature also inuences home colors in the
mountain states, where the colors of stone,
rock, and natural woods lead the color
schemes.
Southwestern houses tend to have neutral
sandy or sun-drenched terra cotta colors
accented with coral, turquoise, brown, and
green. While these colors are still rooted
in nature, they tend to have more vibrant
hues that won’t pale in the bright sunlight.
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Environment and Surroundings
Consider the overall look of your neighborhood when
choosing colors for your home’s exterior. Look for colors
that express your style, complement the surroundings,
and harmonize with nearby houses. The goal is to choose
colors that will stand out while still tting in.
Your home’s natural setting and landscaping are
also important considerations. If you have beautiful
owerbeds or shrubs, choose colors that will complement
and highlight their colors. For example, if you have a
prize-winning selection of red and pink roses, consider
a cream or natural shade to “frame” your horticultural
creations. Avoid using colors that are too dark, such as
deep blues or greens, as they may make the plants and
shrubs go unnoticed.
On the other hand, if your home is a mid-tone green, tan,
or gray, surrounding trees could camouage your home
most of the year. In this case, choosing a contrasting
color such as barn red, or Williamsburg blue can help
your home stand out from the trees.
Keep in mind that heavily wooded lots will make colors
appear darker due to shading. If you want a medium
color, try sampling both the mid-tone and a lighter
variation of the same color. You may be surprised by
how much darker the paint looks when viewed in a shady
area. Also, consider seasonal changes when selecting
colors. When leaves are off the trees or the sun is low
in the sky, these conditions can change the look of the
colors on your home.
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Style of the House
The architectural style of your home is an
essential aspect of your color scheme. The
colors you choose must t your neighborhood
and your home’s design.
Start by determining the style of your home. Is it
Traditional, Tudor, Cape Cod, Ranch, Split Level,
Colonial, Victorian, Southwestern, or Coastal?
Select colors and materials that complement
your home’s look and architecture rather than
vice versa. You’ll nd that colors can vary
depending on the home’s style.
For Tudor and Craftsman-style houses, dark trim
colors like brown, maroon, deep olive, and green
work well.
Georgian and Colonial Revival houses typically
have light colors like white, gray, gray-blue,
gray-green, or yellow on the body, with white
trim and window sashes, along with dark
shutters and doors.
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Modern houses with light neutrals may have dark
sashes and bold, bright, primary color accents.
Federal-style houses with pale or light colors, such
as whites or pale gray, have lines and forms that
stand out.
Greek Revival houses painted white, off-white, or
gray with shutter and window sashes painted in
a dark contrasting color, such as green or black,
create an off-white contrast.
During the Victorian era, houses followed a three-
color paint scheme, with one color for the siding,
another for the trim, and a third for the door and
shutters. Only later, homeowners added color to
Victorian homes, leading to the multi-colored
schemes known as “Painted Ladies.”
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Historic and HOA
Colors
Using historic colors can allow you to create a timeless
design for your home, regardless of its age. Traditional
color schemes convey a sense of stability and
permanence, as they have stood the test of time and
are likely to remain stylish for years to come. The good
news is that most popular exterior paint colors have
their roots in the past. Even if your home isn’t in a historic
district, you can draw inspiration from these schemes,
styles, and elements to create a classic look.
While you want your home’s exterior to reect your
personality, you may not have complete freedom with
your color choices. Some neighborhoods have pre-
approved color palettes for houses to ensure uniformity
in the community. Both older and newer homes may be
subject to regulations from a homeowner association
(HOA) or historic district. Before making your nal color
selections, make sure you understand any rules or
approvals required by these organizations.
Following these guidelines may limit your creativity, but
they serve to maintain the neighborhood’s uniformity
or protect the historic nature of the area. However, you
will likely still have enough options to make your home
stand out from your neighbors’.
Typically, a designer puts together the approved color
palette for the HOA, choosing colors that harmonize with
each other and work well with the materials and xed
features, while also satisfying a majority of homeowners.
Create Your Color Scheme
You’ve started brainstorming ideas for your color scheme,
using the FRESH approach to consider the top ve areas
that will most inuence your home’s colors. Now it’s time to
bring together everything you’ve learned about your home
and potential color options and create the perfect color
palette.
It’s natural to research, gather, and think about your color
and product choices simultaneously. An excellent tool to
help you imagine your new exterior is the DaVinci Visualizer.
It has never been easier to see how color can transform
your home. Once you’re ready to make nal decisions,
please look at large samples of each color and material.
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How to Choose Your Colors
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Find options for your primary colors that harmonize with your brick or stone if your house
has these xed features.
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Look at the colors alongside your roong. The roof covers a large section of the visual
eld of your home’s exterior. Even if you are not replacing it, the roong color needs to
coordinate with the other colors in the palette. Focus rst on these elements. Once you
nd a color(s) that works well with these xed features, the decisions for your trim, window
grids, and door colors will more quickly fall into place.
Consider the window grids. Are they contrasting or is it an element that fades into the
scheme? When window grids are a distinct color, they weigh into your color scheme
decisions. White, off-white, and putty fade into the house. You don’t have to consider
their color when planning your scheme. The grids are often the same or close in color
to the trim, but they do not need to match. Any difference you see up close will not be
noticeable once you step back.
Lastly, select the accent colors. If your home has shutters, it’s time to choose their
color. You can pick a dark shade of the roof color to bring that color onto the house. For
example, navy shutters with a red front door are classic. Or deep green shutters with a
yellow front door are very welcoming. Choose colors that harmonize with your selected
colors and give the palette personality.
Select colors in the following order for the most successful result.
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Getting It Right
Determining how a color and nish will look on your home is difcult, if not
impossible, without looking at a sample of the roong and other exterior products
or painting a section of the house. It’s always best to obtain physical samples to
give you an idea of the full impact of your selected mix of colors and patterns.
To get it right, follow these steps:
• Arrange to get samples of paint options and exterior materials.
• Begin by looking at samples of the exterior materials alongside the house
paying attention to how they look with the other xed features. Also look at the
product in the location and orientation you plan to install it. For example, siding
perpendicular to the ground, or roong overhead and at a slope.
• Sample paint by applying large swatches directly to the surfaces of your house.
Find a location where the body, trim, and accent colors are adjacent and visible
when standing at least 15 to 20 feet away. Paint each color on the house section
where you plan to use it, placing a large sample of the body color between two
trim pieces.
• Look at your samples early in the day for the most accurate idea of the color.
Later in the day, the more intense sun may wash the colors out, and the colors
will appear muted in the dimmer evening light.
• Live with the samples for a few days, viewing them up close and at a distance
during different times of the day. You might discover that a color you thought
was perfect in the morning looks entirely different in the waning afternoon light.
The direction and amount of light hitting each side of the house differs and can
make the color look slightly different. Once you select colors, add paint samples on
the remaining sides of your home to conrm that you’re pleased with the colors in
all locations and lighting conditions.
By following these simple steps, you have made great choices and found a color
scheme that works beautifully for you and your home. It feels great to know that
you have selected a new color scheme and will be happy with the colors for the
life of the quality exterior products you are purchasing, some of which come with
lifetime warranties.
And all it took was a little FRESH thinking!
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About the Author
Kate Smith
International Color Expert
President & Chief Color Maven, Sensational Color
Kate Smith is a well-recognized color expert sought out for her
unmatched ability to show homeowners how to put together a
FRESH color scheme for their home’s exterior.
It was very important to us to have a
roong product that resembled the
original slate on the home when we
purchased it. We wanted to keep the
look and character of the house the
same. We’re very pleased with the
appearance of the simulated slate
shingles. The color blend we selected
has nicely accented the color of the
home’s brick siding and helped pull the
entire exterior renovation together.
~ Doug Miller
Copyright: © 2023 by Kate Smith. Standard Copyright License.
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TM
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