Get the colour scheme for your house just right with these tips.
Timeless exteriors
When your canvas is literally as big as a house, you want to ensure you get the paint colours right.
First impressions count
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It can be a daunting task deciding on a scheme for the exterior, especially given the cost of materials and labour.
House exteriors are subject to changing tastes and fashions but repainting the outside of your house is a lot more costly and time-consuming than giving your living room a new lick of paint to suit your changing mood. Which is why most of us choose more timeless schemes for the outside.
The current trends are fairly timeless anyway — soft or mid-greys, white, black, grey-blues or grey-greens. Muted colours suit exteriors, whether you’re in the city, suburbia or out in the country. They don’t fight visually with their surroundings.
Remember that white will make your house look larger, just as darker colours will make your house visually recede … but will also give your home a dramatic feel.
Black may not always be technically suitable for your house. Dark colours absorb more of the sun’s heat and can put stress on the cladding. With any darker colour, consider using the Resene CoolColour range, formulated with special pigment technology to reflect more of the sun’s energy. This keeps the coating and substrate cooler, reducing the likelihood of heat damage such as warping.
Finding inspiration
Let history and house style lead you — heritage tones for a villa, soft gelato shades for an Art Deco stucco cottage or brooding black for a contemporary masterpiece.
For inspiration, cruise the neighbourhood and check out similar styles of houses. Door-knock and ask the names of colours you love. Don’t exactly copy a direct neighbour, however, or you may be struck off the street party list. Keep a scrapbook of ideas, so you get a feel for your own style.
The environment may give you clues. Lots of leafy trees and bush may inspire you to stained cedar, or soft green weatherboards. Near a beach? Maybe palest grey-blues and crisp whites are the go.
While this country has a certain tolerance for freedom of expression, bedecking your home in tangy orange may be okay in a funky inner-city suburb, but not in a more conservative area. In fact, some suburbs have covenants that restrict what colours and materials you can use on your house exterior. Best find out what those are before you buy buckets of paint.
Handy guidelines
Colours usually look much lighter outdoors, especially in our strong sunlight. If in doubt choose a shade darker. They also change if you put them beside other colours: a grey roof makes green walls look fresher, and a high-gloss finish (rather than a low-sheen finish) renders a colour brighter. Contrasts make a colour scheme more interesting, but only highlight details if they deserve the focus.
When choosing a colour family for your exterior, try the Resene Whites and Neutrals collection. It’s rich in neutral variants from pale grey to stone tones and soft green-greys.
Always test your colour with a Resene testpot. Paint a sample on card so it’s easy to move around and test on both the sunny and shady sides of the house.
While cedar cladding can be left to slowly turn grey, this leaves it exposed to the weather. If you want to keep a natural look, stain it using the Resene Waterborne Woodsman range. Visit your local Resene ColorShop to see the colour options on different timber.
How many colours?
A controllable number of colours to use in an exterior scheme is four: one for the main cladding, one for the trims, one for the roof and spouting, and an accent that you might use on the front door. You can then use one of these on the fence too. The more colours you end up with, the more you should consider using colour families or variants of the same colour. If you use too few colours, your house may end up looking bland and lacking personality. A hit of bold colour on the front door in a Resene Enamacryl gloss finish could be the remedy.
A dark colour on your fence, such as Resene Pitch Black, can help it recede into the background so your garden can take centre stage.
Look carefully at all of the different elements that make up your house exterior, from the roof and barge boards, to the cladding, window trims, any ornate timber work, verandas and front steps. Will they all be painted, and in different colours?
What elements will remain unpainted but still be a significant part of the overall look and colour scheme: brick, timber, guttering and spouting and downpipes, steps? Also remember to extend the scheme into your garden, especially on decorative fences or those that sit in front of your house.
Wash and repeat
Once you’ve finished painting, remember to plan a house wash every year with detergent and water, such as Resene Paint Prep and Housewash. Just like cleaning your car, a house wash will keep your home looking good.
