Choosing Exterior Paint Colors You Will Not Regret

When we ask people what worries them about repainting the outside of their home, the answer is almost never the prep or the schedule. It is the color. You are going to look at it every day for years, your neighbors will see it, and a gallon of the wrong shade is a very visible mistake. The good news is that most color regret is avoidable.

Start with what is not changing

Your roof, any stone or brick, the driveway and the front walk all stay put. Those materials have their own undertones, whether warm, cool, gray or tan, and your new colors have to get along with them. A cool gray body next to a warm brown roof can look off even when each color is lovely on its own.

Walk out to the street and look at the house the way a visitor would. Pick out the fixed colors and ask what they lean toward. Your paint colors should either match that lean or contrast with it on purpose.

Test big, test long

A small chip from the store is a starting point and nothing more. Colors change a lot once they are on a large wall in natural light. Put up sample patches of a decent size on the actual house, and put them on more than one side, because the north wall and the west wall do not get the same light.

• Look at the samples in the morning, at midday and in the evening.
• Check them on a bright day and on an overcast one.
• Put each one next to the trim color you are considering, the roof and any stone.
• Step back to the street, because a color that works at arm's length can read very differently from 40 feet away.
• Live with them for a few days before you decide.

Pay attention to undertone and depth

Most regrettable colors are not wrong in hue, they are wrong in undertone. A beige can lean pink, green or yellow, and a gray can lean blue or brown. Outdoors, in strong sunlight, those undertones get louder. Darker colors also tend to look more saturated across a whole house than they do on a sample, and very light colors can wash out in bright sun, so judge the color on a big patch, not a small one.

Sheen plays a part too. A flatter finish hides surface flaws and reads softer, while a bit more sheen reads crisper and sheds dirt more easily. Trim often gets a little more sheen than the walls so it stays defined.

Plan the trim and the front door

The body color gets the most attention, but the trim and the front door finish the look. White or a light trim around a mid-tone body gives clean lines. A darker front door against a lighter body is an easy way to give the house some personality without repainting the whole thing. Decide those colors at the same time as the body so the three work as a set rather than three separate decisions.

Let the painter weigh in

Color guidance is the thing our reviewers mention most. Here is what two of them wrote in their Google reviews.

• Christian Smith, Google review: “Ramon and team were very helpful with color selection, making sure we would be happy.”
• Thaddeus Torrez, Google review: “Gave advice on coordinating colors.”

That is how we look at it. A painter has seen a lot of finished houses and knows how a color tends to behave once it is up on siding in full sun, which is hard to guess from a chip. We would rather help you get it right before the first coat than repaint a wall because the color did not feel right.

A few quick rules

• Do not pick under store lighting. Take samples outside.
• Limit yourself to three main colors, body, trim and accent, unless the house has real architectural detail to highlight.
• Look at houses you like in your own neighborhood and notice what they share.
• If two colors are close, choose the one that looks best in the worst light, not the best.
• If you are stuck, narrow it down to two and test only those two on the house.

Talk it through with us

When we come out for an estimate, we are happy to talk about color while we look at the house, the roof and the surroundings. The estimate is free and there is no obligation. Call (509) 910-1408 or send us a message through the contact page. If you want to know when your house is due for paint at all, our post on how often to repaint a Yakima exterior covers the timeline.