From Basic to Boundless with Color and Design
Choosing exterior colors for your home is more complex than gathering paint swatches. It’s essential to consider your home’s architectural style and exterior materials, especially if the facade is brick or stone. An exterior color scheme should avoid short-term trends and look great over time. Why? Because fixed materials like roofing, brick, and siding will last for decades.
A survey from a few years ago found that 67 percent of homeowners prefer earthy, calm exterior colors such as beige, white, cream, tan, gray, or brown. Warm, natural shades help anchor a home to the landscape. However, bold colors like navy and deep green or high-contrast combinations like black and white have also become popular today.
Where should you begin if you want to go beyond the basics?
As the color expert at DaVinci Roofscapes, I’ve provided “Ask an Expert” advice to homeowners for over a decade. I always recommend a “top-down” approach, using a home’s fixed materials as color inspiration for the roof, siding, trim, shutters, doors, and other details.
Your home’s style and surroundings can influence the roofing color. If your home has stone or brick elements, we use those colors to help choose a complementary roof color. Once you’ve established the fixed materials’ colors, you have the foundation for creating an exterior color palette for your home that expresses your true colors.
Exterior Colors for Stone and Brick
Stone and brick are traditional materials that add depth and interest to a home’s facade. Instead of solid, flat colors, they provide variegated shades that combine to create the color’s cast.
The subtle color differences in brick and stone materials create a unique play of light on the surface, providing options for a wide range of exterior color schemes. In the free, step-by-step guide FRESH Colors for Homes with Brick or Stone, written for DaVinci Roofscapes, I’ve included 60 intriguing color palettes to inspire you to be boundless with colors.
White Exteriors
Crisp and classic, white is a timeless exterior color that sets off traditional features like board-and-batten siding, painted bricks, dormer windows, front porches, and shutters. It’s ideal for an updated farmhouse look.
DaVinci Slate Black composite roofing fits every home, from farmhouse chic to classic and elegant. Show your style in all the details that go wonderfully with this high-contrast pairing.
Versatile Cream Exterior Colors
Creamy white has a softer look as an all-over exterior color. Combine it with earthy colors like khaki, sage green, or warm gray to subtly highlight architectural details.
DaVinci Brownstone Slate harmonizes with the stone, dark window trim, and creamy body color to create a palette that merges with the natural surroundings.
Welcoming Beige And Taupe Exteriors
Partial stone with a tan or beige cast around an entry or highlighting a feature is popular for home exteriors. While you may think tan is perfectly neutral, it often has gold, greige, peach, or taupe undertones. Look for these subtle nuances to inspire paint color choices for exterior siding, trim, and shutters.
DaVinci Mossy Cedar Shakes with Benjamin Moore Inner Balance 1522 and Northwood Brown 1000 create a quiet background that lets the Eldorado Stone® San Marino Limestone and Agave AF-420 front door color be the stars.
Classic Gray Exteriors
Gray is another popular neutral, available in shades ranging from deep charcoal to soft greige. Before choosing exterior colors to coordinate for a home with gray stone, it’s essential to determine whether the stone has a warm or cool cast. Then, you can decide whether to match the undertones or contrast them by combining warm and cool colors.
DaVinci Castle Gray Slate with Benjamin Moore Benjamin Moore Silver Dollar 1460 and Chantilly Lace 2121-70 take colors directly from Eldorado Stone® White Cap Ledgecut33. The siding and trim blend beautifully with the stonework. They found the perfect accent color, Firenze AF-225, with a color that intensifies the coral tones in the stone.
Refreshing Blue Exterior Colors
Blue is a cool color with many variations, from a deep, traditional navy to a pale, beachy sky blue. Dark blue can make a bold statement with contrasting white trim. Light blues can make a Georgian mansion look grand, or a small cottage appear relaxed and welcoming. Blue is so versatile that it complements almost any roof color, from gray to brown.
The roof is essential in giving this home its eye-catching style. DaVinci Tahoe Shakes adds upgraded elegance to this roof, complementing the rich blue siding and crisp white trim.
Chic Green Home Exteriors
Green is a traditional color for historic homes, from pale sage to deep hunter green. A dark green can anchor a home in the landscape and provide contrast for accent colors that make unique architectural details stand out.
DaVinci Black Slate is an ideal roof for a green exterior with bold accents.
Stately Red Brick Exteriors
Brick comes in many colors and types, but red brick is the most popular. It’s a classic look for many American homes, and it works well with gray or soft black roofing accented by off-white trim.
DaVinci® Slate Gray tops a home with classic Cultured Stone® Antique Red Used Brick. Off-white paint like PPG Brandied Pears PPG1086-2 with deep brick red, Sweet Spiceberry PPG1059-7 is a stately look.
There are many gorgeous options for adding color to a classic scheme, like DaVinci® Slate Gray and Cultured Stone® Antique Red Used Brick. A “boundless” option is grayed-white PPG Oatmeal PPG1023-1 with jewel tone PPG Blue Flame PPG1157-7.
Ask An Expert
Need help selecting materials and curated exterior colors for your home? Download one or all of our FRESH Color guides. Inside, you’ll find tips on choosing colors, why historic colors have stood the test of time, and what carefully curated colors can do for your exterior.
Remember, you can always “Ask the Color Expert” for help! Since 2010, I’ve worked with DaVinci Roofscapes to offer advice on selecting roofing and exterior colors for your home.
About the Author
Kate Smith
is an internationally recognized color expert, consultant, and designer. She is a skilled colorist & a color consultant who, for more than a decade, has lent her expertise to DaVinci Roofscapes. Kate helps YOU select colors you will love for many years.