If you’re doing it yourself, painting is a pain in the butt, and if you’re paying someone to do it, it’s expensive. So no matter what, choosing the right paint color for the exterior of your home is a big choice and one that might start to feel overwhelming very quickly. To help ease your nerves, here are our tips to overcome decision paralysis and pick the perfect exterior house color for your home.
Take a Drive for Inspiration
When looking at your home or thinking about all the options and which direction you should take, it can be impossible to narrow down your choices. We suggest looking for inspiration. This could be a drive through your neighborhood looking at other homes or a scroll through Houzz or Pinterest. You might not even think of a color until you see it in someone else’s home. It can also let you know which colors you don’t like, which is equally important!
Paint Samples Appear Darker
When walking down the paint aisles, remember that the paint will look darker when applied to your home. However, small paint samples naturally look lighter and can be deceiving. So if you’re on the fence about a color thinking it might be too dark, keep this in mind and maybe go for the shade lighter.
Weather, Seasons, and Lighting
Depending on the day, the paint on your home can look different. Before you start to panic and wonder if you’ve made a terrible decision, this is normal. The weather, the seasons, and the time of day can dramatically change the color of your paint. If you think the stormy blue color you love will look too dark on a gloomy day outside, maybe go for a lighter shade. Just remember that it will always change depending on the weather.
Paint Can Be Made Lighter or Darker
If you’ve fallen in love with a color, and now you’re struggling to find a complementary color for your trim or window accents, we might have a solution for you! Paint colors can be made lighter or darker when they are mixed. You can ask the paint specialist to mix it lighter or darker, and you’ll have the perfect complementary shade for those trim pieces.
Colors Will Look Darker on Textured Surfaces
We’ve already talked about how the color you choose can look different during different weather or seasons and will be darker than the paint sample you take home. Additionally, due to the curves and shading that happens, the paint will also look darker on textured surfaces. Vinyl-sided houses tend to look lighter, while brick, stucco, or slates can appear much darker even if they are the same color. If you’re worried about a color being too dark or too light, keep this detail in mind.
Match the Interior
The interior of your home should match the exterior; although you don’t have to do this, it can make it easier for you to choose a color if you have an existing color pallet. Again, it doesn’t have to be a color you’ve already used inside, but maybe colors that go well together or suit the same aesthetics.
Don’t Skip Test Swatching
We know it’s a pain, and you just want to get the job done, but test swatching is so essential to the success of your exterior home repainting. It’s going to be a lot of work or money to repaint the entire exterior of your home, and you don’t want to end up hating it because you didn’t spend the time swatching and testing the paint out.
Even if you’ve done all these steps and taken the time to find the perfect color, there’s always a voice that’s going to worry in the back of your head. So take your time, follow these steps, and we promise you’ll be much more confident in your choice in the end.
