6 Tips for Choosing the Ideal Exterior Paint Palette

By Guest Blogger Diana S.

6 Tips for Choosing the Ideal Exterior Paint Palette

 

image-4-2Choosing the exterior paint palette has never been an easy task. Unlike the interior that is supposed to be modeled entirely according to your liking, your house’s exterior is out there, exposed to everyone’s judgment. The wrong hues can affect the look of the entire street. But, that’s only a part of the problem. You need to think about the style and durability of your exterior paint, and any wrong step can cost you a small fortune when you realize that you’ve made a mistake. Let’s make sure that this doesn’t happen.

Consider the look of your neighborhood

Some cities like Cinque Terre, Cape Town, Trinidad and Bristol are inherently vivid and colorful. Adding to that diversity will only make them appear livelier. However, if you are living in a more traditional city or neighborhood, going for a garnish hue of green will make passers-by literally go green. That doesn’t mean that your entire neighborhood should follow the uniform, by-the-numbers color pattern. But, if you are surrounded with gentle browns and grays, going full cyan wouldn’t make too much sense, would it?

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Think about permanent materials and installations

When choosing the right exterior paint palette, consider the hues and nuances of the permanent exterior elements, such as roof, brick or stone foundation, patio, tiles, stonework, pathways or some other permanent accents. Put them all on the paper, try to find the lowest common denominator and work your way up from there. Are they cool or warm? Earthy or neutral? If you end up stuck, know that the colors that belong to the opposite ends of the color spectrum (for instance, red brick foundation and gray/blue exterior paint) make just as good combination.

Take style and era of the house into the equation

Can you imagine a Victorian house painted in stark orange and pale mint green? It looks jarring, right? Well, you are not the only one who thinks that. As a matter of fact, some neighborhoods, cities, and states even have different regulations prescribing the recommended colors for historic buildings. If you own an older house, it would be a good idea to do a little research and find what colors were popular when the house was built and it’s preferable to stick to those.

Use bold accents

Of course, if you don’t feel obliged to paint your house in accordance with your neighbors’ tastes or even a historical context, you shouldn’t be afraid to follow your own instincts. However, if you intend to use unusual, bold, and eye-catching colors it would be wise to limit them to accents like the front door, window trims, and fascia, and paint the rest of the house in some neutral color. This way, you will have much more room to experiment with the accents in the future.

Start with samples

image-1-4Some colors may look great on the paper, but that’s not always the case when you paint it on the wall. That is why you should start small. Paint a small portion of the wall, leave it to dry and see how it behaves throughout the day. Something that looks nice in the morning may not look as good in the evening. Painting a couple of different colors at the same time will give you even a better perspective.

Don’t forget durability

By painting a house, you are giving a new look to your most valuable possession. How about using this opportunity to make your most valuable possession a bit more durable? With the right choice of protective paints, coatings, and primers you will make your investment more worthwhile as you won’t have to repaint it as frequently.

Follow these few tips and you won’t have any problems painting your house in the right colors. Exterior painting is not that cheap, and you won’t be doing it every year. So, be careful, the mistakes you make will haunt you for many years to follow.

 Tia, and TipsfromTia.com  is trying to keep you looking good and
feeling good, from the inside out. If you’ve got a problem or a tip email me! Be sure to Like and share on Facebook or Follow on Twitter or Instagram