Choosing an Exterior Color Scheme

DESIGN PROBLEM – HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR EXTERIOR COLORS

Updating your siding? Thinking about painting your shutters, front door, or exterior trim? Don’t know where to start for inspiration to choose your exterior color scheme?  Easy – look inside! We all have a natural tendency to pay more attention to our interior spaces than the exterior, which means that what we like, what makes us comfortable, can already be found in our interior design color choices. If you are having issues with creating a cohesive inside color palette, then pick your favorite room or space (or maybe just the area that’s not quite the hot mess you think everything else is).  What colors do you see?  Those are the colors you should be using on your exterior.  In this post, I discuss the Golden Ratio Rule for color schemes in case you are still having trouble.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE – USING COLOR TO DEFINE VISUAL SPACE

Everyone will tell you that color is a key design element.  True, but don’t think it’s just to keep in sync with a particular design style aesthetic, or even for the psychology of creating a certain mood.  Color can also help define a visual space.  One of the most common home owner complaints is ‘not enough space’.  To extend your living area at least visually, have a cohesive color scheme inside and out to unify the spaces.

HOW I APPLIED THE USE OF COLOR TO EXTEND MY SPACE

Prairie/Craftsman/Mission style has a ‘one with nature’ aesthetic, so my color palette consists mostly of earthy green, yellow, and red.  Want an inside peek to my whole house color scheme, what I chose to go where, and why? Get access to this resource guide and all my other freebies in the Style Library. As the pictures above show, the predominant color of choice for interior or exterior walls is an earthy green; dark brown is used as a neutral to ground the space; red is used as an accent; and white is used to lighten up for spring and summer when the weather here in Missouri is 90°F with 90% humidity on a typical day!

Bonus Tip: Don’t limit your cohesive color scheme to the house itself.  It should extend to any yard décor and even plantings!

1. Warm colors of red, yellow, and white flowers
2. White house numbers
3. Green and brown decorative potting bench with yellow flowers
4. Red garden statuary

DIY INSPIRATION ADAPTED FOR A COOL COLOR SCHEME

Since my home color palette is ‘warm’, let’s look at this design principle in a cool color spectrum.  I have seen plenty of Craftsman/Bungalow style homes in cool colors, but they still need to be “earthy” to maintain that intended connection to nature, meaning a color not too saturated or vibrant.

Here I’ve switched my main wall color from a warm green to a cool grey, the dark brown still provides grounding, but the accent color is a cool blue instead of the red.  I’ve found (much to my frustration) that there are more flowers readily available in the cool spectrum particularly annuals like salvia, cornflower, petunias or impatiens.  And any statuary can just as easily be dry brushed a pink, purple or blue!

Look for more about whole house color palettes in this post with nature’s color-by-number approach!