Choosing Exterior Paint
A lot of effort is put into choosing the perfect color for your house. But somehow you make a mistake when you paint the outside and it turns into an embarrassment for the whole neighborhood to know. And also considering the amount of time and labor that went into it, the thought of repainting is not that feasible. So just do a bit of homework before you decide to paint your house in parrot green or fluorescent orange. There are some rules of thumb that you should keep in mind. It is best to keep only a few color shades in your mind rather than going through a huge book of color palettes, which will make you dizzy and give you a case of Chromophobia – the fear of colors. Your house is like your face to the world and you should make sure that you paint it in the right colors. Choose something fresh and new that suits your style, some simple homework will help you get off on the right foot. Read on to find out how to choose the right exterior paint.
How To Choose Exterior Paint
Match Paint To The Style
Never forget the architecture of the house you are painting. Historic architectural styles like Colonial and Colonial Revival look best in their original color schemes and sport less color as compared to their interiors. Modern and contemporary houses tend to magnify the sharp contours of the house with brightly colored paints that are very eye catching. Farmhouses and cottages sport a darker, earthier color scheme using deep browns, greens, and reds. It’s safer to do a test colors on Bristol board to check the appearance of color during the day.
Overall Streetscape
Take a step back and take a long look at your neighborhood and consider what will work in your scheme of colors for your street. You may have limitations imposed by your Home Owners’ Association to fit in the overall feel of the neighborhood. But the colors should not clash with your neighbors or they will think that you copied their paint color ideas.
Harmony Of The Whole House
Even though it is not absolutely necessary to match the house color to the roof, it should not stand out too much from it. Begin with colors suggested by your roof. Is your roof slate, aluminum, copper, cedar shakes? It is also important to consider your natural landscaping to choose the right color for your house. You can pull the colors for your home from a piece of interior décor and translate it onto your exterior paint. This adds a sense of harmony and integrity in the design. Also, consider other features you don’t plan to paint, such as masonry or vinyl windows.
Inspirations From All Around
Just look around your house and you will find that house is blooming with color ideas. Trees may suggest an earthy palette of greens and browns. A beach setting might suggest vivid blues, turquoises, and coral colors. Even the garden in your front yard can inspire exciting color combinations. You can also use the color of your furnishings to guide you in the selection of your interior paint colors, and your interior paint colors will influence the colors you use outside.
Paint Durability
Exposure to direct sunlight will have a huge impact on color retention. You might find that your color shade has reduced in a few days’ time. Look for UV protection range in exterior paints or just go for a notch shade darker for the paint. Also organic colors such as reds, blues, greens and yellows tend to fade very quickly. Inorganic colors like beiges, browns, tans, and other earth-tone colors are more stable on stand strong exterior exposures. Intense colors are more prone to fading and dark colors suffer more moisture problems than lighter shades.
Paint Sheen
You can choose to add sheen to your exterior paint color in flat, satin, semi-gloss, gloss, enamel and lacquer. Remember that as sheen increases, durability and cleanability also increases. But the coverage that you can achieve with one coat of flat paint will take 3 coat of semi-gloss paint to achieve. So that means more paint is required to achieve a glassy sheen.
Color Over Color
Remember what color your house is painted in right now. It will be easier to work off from those shades of color rather than repainting completely. So if your current paint color is dark and you want to paint a light color over it, you’ll probably need to use a primer first in order to get that lighter color to cover. This will cost you additional expenses on your labor and paint charges.
Sample Color Tools
Most color dealers are now equipped with sophisticated computer programs that you can try out to find your color scheme. You just have to choose a house that is closest to your own house and feed in your selected color shades in the body of the house, the trim, the doors, etc. this will help you decided if the color combinations you have chosen will suit your house or not.
Latest Color Trends
You do not want your contemporary house to look Victorian just because you spent a lot of money on repainting without consulting the latest color trends of the season. Just scan through the colors that are in fashion and use a color wheel to find shades of those colors that you can paint your house in. This way your exterior paint will be in fashion for a longer time.
Take your time to decide on the exterior paint shade and have ample time in your hands to focus on details so that you can research well about color families. Use two or three shades of color to create a balanced symmetry for the viewer. The best colors are those that highlight the most beautiful features of your home.
