Choosing your exterior paint colours on your home is a big deal.
I help customers choose roof colours for their home in my job. They come to us, wanting a new Colorbond roof installed and I love giving them advice on which colour to choose. I wrote about it here and thought it might be useful to share the tips here with you today too.
It is a big decision to make and a costly one if you get it wrong.
I always show my customers this image from Monier when they are choosing their roof colour. It is a great snapshot of what your eye actually sees when looking at the exterior of the home. The majority of what you see is your wall colour.
You can therefore see how important it is to get the colours of your homes exterior right. Here are some more tips I have for you in making this important decision and what to consider.
1. What’s your neighbourhood like? Consider the landscape and the environment.
Take a look around your nieghbourhood. You need to consider the design of the house, the surrounding environment including the streetscape, houses nearby, other finishes already selected and your personal preferences.
Are you surrounded by greenery or by red soil? Do you get a lot of shade or is your area notably void of vegetation? Along with helping you decide on an aesthetic design (e.g you may opt for a dark blue or green roof is you live near a rainforest), the very nature of the nature you’re surrounded by could determine whether you need a colour that helps capture or reflect heat.
When choosing my house colours, I took into consideration the greenery and gum tree vegetation that makes up my neighbourhood. The neighbouring homes are predominantly brick and the homes are between 20-30 years old. I wanted a neutral look that was modern, but not out of place.
2. What’s the weather like?
The climate of where you live is extremely important to remember when choosing your exterior house colours but most importantly your roof colour. If you happen to live in a hot and humid climate, then you will want to avoid darker roof colours as they will absorb the heat. Similarly, if you live in a cooler climate, you may not want to opt for lighter colours as they reflect the sun’s rays, meaning your home won’t retain as much heat. This is as far as this factor needs to go in terms of consideration, but just remember your roof colour isn’t just an aesthetic factor - it also offers practical benefits.
3. Consider the external finishes
It’s a good idea to have a checklist with all the major components of the house listed and this will assist you in assembling your colour and finishes palette including:
Head to the hardware and take some paint sections and colours home and see how you will like it working in with your neighbourhood and surrounds. This is what I did, along with selecting some paint pot samples to try at home on all the different surfaces of your home - walls, trims, doors, fence etc.
In my home, I chose Colorbond colours Monument (roofing and guttering), Jasper (walls) and white from the handrail and window trims.
I also added a feature wall downstairs that was originally brick. We wanted to add a contrast of texture to the home and the tones of this stacker stone worked perfectly.
My home is two storey at the front and single storey at the rear. We when renovating incorporated a few different building materials to create and add interest. Originally the downstairs and sides were brick and the upstairs front are rear were cladding.
We opted to paint all the brick, add stacker stone to the downstairs brick, replace the front cladding, remove the rear cladding and install blue board which we rendered. The exterior now has many different surfaces, textures and breaks up what was a dull home.
Timber is also a big feature in our home, with the front and rear having large merbau timber decks. The front fence is also timber. This brings another texture and colour to the home which ties in perfectly with the colours and stacker stone.
The whole look is very earthy and neutral which suits the neighbourhood perfectly.
External painted brick, you can see how we did that here.
Front white picket verandah
The rear of the home - don't you love the before and after (below!)
You can see clearly here how we have incorporated timber into the home.
We removed the rear white cladding and replace this wall with blue board sheeting and rendered it, also adding the verandah and roofing. You can see the transformation here.
The before photo (above) is the day we moved in to our home and now the after of the external painted brick and renovations.
This photo of the pool area is about two years old, I will have to post an updated one soon as these plants have doubled in size along the house line and are looking fantastic!
HAVE YOU PAINTED YOUR HOME BEFORE?
Or maybe you are planning on giving your home a lick of paint soon?
I hope these tips have given you some things to think about in making the all important decision! What colours would you paint your home in? Any favourites or pictures or inspiration you want to share?
Want to catch up on some of my home renovations? Click below to see the before and after transformations of the following:
|| Backyard Transformation and More Photos Here ||
Linking up with Essentially Jess
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These are great tips Ashlea. I've never had to choose outdoor colours but this post is super helpful. I've learned something new that your eye is drawn mostly to the wall colour.
ReplyDeleteYes spot on Bec! Also depends on your roof pitch too and how much roof you actually see. At the front of my home there is alot of pitch and you do see a fair bit - something we had to take into consideration! :) x
DeleteI love those house colours. They are very similar to ours. They go beautifully together.
ReplyDeleteGlad you too have good taste Renee :P x
DeleteYou know, I can honestly say I've never thought about the outside colour of my house before. We've always rented, so it's not been a big thing. Maybe when we buy I'll think about tit more closely.
ReplyDeleteHi Ashlea, I really like the painted brick on your house. Plain brick can be quite bland. I live in London and almost every house is just plain brick. Although uniformity can be quite nice, I always like to see a splash of paint to make a house a home. Obviously nothing to bold colour wise as you want your home to be pleasing to the eyes and not an eye sore:)
ReplyDeleteHi Ashlea, I really like the painted brick on your house. Plain brick can be quite bland. I live in London and almost every house is just plain brick. Although uniformity can be quite nice, I always like to see a splash of paint to make a house a home. Obviously nothing to bold colour wise as you want your home to be pleasing to the eyes and not an eye sore:)
ReplyDeleteI didn't think that we would need to have so much thought put in to what colour you end up painting your house. I mean, I'd more likely check my self storage space to see what excess I'd have and just stick with that! Haha!
ReplyDelete