Exterior Color Trends 2014: Quiet Elegance

Our homes provide a haven to satisfy a craving for a space to think and a place to renew. Having all five senses bombarded continuously has created a deep craving within for silence and an environment that conveys harmony and calm. There is sense of silence and quiet in deep gray, muted plum and smokey teal. There is an elegance to colors that have been toned way down so that what remains is the essence of the color rather than the chroma.

Exterior Color Trends 2014: Exclusive Plum Sherwin-Williiams

Any color family is fair game for your exterior when you long for the look of quiet elegance. If I suggested purple as the main color for a home many people would probably cringe. That is because what often springs into their head something that looks like grape soda or Barney.

Tone purple way down to just this side of gray and you have a completely different color. Sherwin-Williams Color of the Year SW 6263 Exclusive Plum is a grayed purple that shows just how beautiful purple can be. A color like this has a more personalized look then gray and pairs wonderfully with gold, bronze or brown. It also provides a wonderful ground color.

Take It From The Top Down

Exterior Color Trends 2014 DaVinci Roofscapes

DaVinci Roofscapes slate tiles always add instant elegance to a home but you might want to consider blends that include tones of red, purple, violet or green mixed with grays or browns to add a touch of subtle color starting at the top of the home. Going with a great roof is an especially good trick for adding appeal to a home that doesn’t have many architectural details.

Elegant Alternatives To Black

Exterior Color Trends 2103 Quixotic Plum with Castle Gray Slate

Give your front door the royal treatment. Instead of gray and black and try deep purple or plum instead. Quixotic Plum, an understated purple, gives instant personality to a neutral scheme. (image https://www.vivaciouslyvintage.com/)

Exterior Color Trends 2014 Flint

Another option for front door, shutters or accents that can be even more elegant than black is to go with a deep complex neutral. Two of my current favorite colors that fall in this category and are on trend — Sherwin-Williams Sealskin and Benjamin Moore Flint.

Quiet Elegance Palette

Other current neutrals are close to familiar neutrals but just slightly more interesting when you take a closer look. These are colors that are not so straight forward but rather have subtle nuances. This makes them more eye-catching and gives them the ability to play as a backdrop to just about any accent color, blend well with a wide mix of materials and play nicely together as a stand alone color story.

Exterior Color Trends 2014 Paint

These trend colors have a quieter elegance but can still create a show-stopping scheme. Here are a couple of examples.

2014 Exterior Color Trends Victorian Mauve

Here a muted mauve melds into the surroundings and barely whispers that it’s in the purple family. For a look of understated elegance follow Lynne Rutter’s lead by selecting colors of similar value and intensity. Lynne chose “a scheme using a muted split-complementary palette of mauve, green-grey, ochre, and rose, with hints of purple and peridot, and of course, some well-placed gold leaf. (image Lynne Ruitters)

Exterior Color Trends 2014 French Country Classic

Soft blue against a scheme pulled from the colors in the stone creates a quiet palette against the lush green that just invites you to come out and enjoy. (image Golightly Landscape Architecture)

Home Exterior Trends 2014 Quiet Elegance

As part of this trend even complementary schemes have a less intense feel. The blue-green main color gently contrasts with the red-orange tones of the stone and wood-tones. (image Martha O’Hara Interiors)

Who Else Is Talking About This Trend

Sherwin-Williams 2014 Color Trends Palette “Curiosity” Includes Many Of These Colors

Exterior Color Trends 2014 Sherwin-Williams Curiosity Palette

You can also see a range of colored neutrals in the Pittsburgh Paint 2014 Color Trends Report that have these same qualities.

2014 Exterior Color Trends PPG Neutrals

Rather than asking you to push your color boundaries, this trend allows you to wrap your home in timeless, toned down hues. So if your spirit seeks solitude and your design sense seeks an upscale, elegant look this trend will satisfy both.

For additional information on 2014 color trends, visit A Simple Guide to Exterior Color Trends 2014 | Take A New Look At Blue. Stay tuned over the next few weeks to see more 2014 color trends!