How to choose exterior house colours for your home

choose exterior house colours

So often our exterior colour and material selection is given little thought by the client or the resident. The selections are often made by the building designer, draftsperson or architect. Or pre-selected by a template design from a volume builder. But if you can choose exterior house colours for your home, here’s how.

What your interior style goal?

You might be thinking what’s does my interior style goal have to do with my external colour selections? Well the interior style goal will help determine your colour scheme and once you have an internal colour scheme you have colours to work with for the exterior.

For example, with a client I’m working with on a home renovation in Burwood their interior style goal is Hamptons. Their colour scheme is traditional Hamptons, blue, white, and grey. The extension is Modern.

The architect has drawn the extension in black and it’s not in line with Hamptons style. I’m not sure why a coastal material such as timber was not used in the extension but that would be the ideal choice for the client’s interior style goal.

The existing house is a yellow brick, which the client is keeping. So I suggested the Modern extension is the Colorbond colour Deep Ocean. Even though the architectural style and building material doesn’t work with Hamptons interior style goal, the colour does.

Surfaces and trims

In the interior you have walls and trims to consider when selecting finishes such as paint. The trims are architraves, cornices, window frames etc.

The exterior is similar. In that the trims are gutters, windows frames, down pipes and so on. So when selecting exterior colours and materials, balance is equally important as it is in the interior.

Let’s say your colour scheme is black, white, grey. Let’s say internally your walls are white, your trims are grey and your doors are black.

For your exterior it could be white brick, grey roof tiles and black gutters and down pipes or some variation, depending on the building materials.

Colour scheme and materials

Materials such as bricks, weatherboard, concrete, paving all come in a variety of colours. That’s why knowing your interior style goal and accompanying colour scheme will help you with your exterior colour and materials selections.

Street appeal is part of the interior design and renovation process. Street appeal is important because as you come home whether you drive into the garage, walk up the path or down the side of the house you want to like coming home and feel proud.

Landscaping and fencing is part of this too but often left to the end either as an after thought or simply your budget has run out or is tight.

But thinking of your exterior in terms of what your interior style goal and interior colour scheme is will help you make some tough decisions on what colours and materials to select for the external elements of your home.