Exterior Accent Colors
A fast growing trend is for homeowners to paint the outside of their homes to create a personalized theme. These themes can be created by using the base color and accents, or just the accents and leaving the main part of the house (the base) white. When it comes to doing this right though, you want to think about three parts of the house altogether; the exterior, the trim and the accents. These three make up the entire body of the house. People seem to always be looking for color trends for just the body of the house, but they don’t bother with the accents, and these are essential to any paint job!
The Parts of a House
As mentioned, there are three parts of a house. The body is the front, back and sides of the home. The trim includes the eaves, the window frames, band trim as well as corner trim. The accents to the house include everything else such as shakes, vents, gables, flower boxes, shutters, etc. Themes are used to create a color scheme which will make all three of these components of the house "pop" with color by using the best contrast. Obviously some people will go a little heavy handed with these components and they ruin the look of the house. But, in order to make this look right, there are a few things you will need to consider, and I will be going over those below.
How to Choose Accent Colors
When it comes to accent colors, choosing the best colors is not as hard as it may seem - you just need to have a level head and understand which colors go with what colors of the body of the house. One example of a great color scheme is if you have a white house, to paint the accent colors black and the door red. This is obviously a very plain concept, but it gets my point across. Not only do these schemes look well together, but it also helps your house look different than everyone else's on the street. Yes, color schemes are also about creating curb appeal and making the home look more attractive from the street to potential buyers or passer-byes. When it comes to trends, you not only want to look at popular colors, but you want to find colors that complement each other. Most of the time when we think about complementing colors, we think about colors that are different from each other. For instance on the color wheel, green is on the other opposing side of red, and yellow is on the other opposing side of violet. Some popular color trends right now are colors like pine green, brown chocolate, brick red and even bronze! Here are a few popular color trend themes below.
Two Hues For Accents
One of the better "styles" of homes in regards to colors for this example, are Colonial Style homes. These are usually painted one color on the base of the house and that color is usually white along with all of the other components. Once in a blue moon you can find a colonial house that has black or red accents, but you would rarely see this type of home with lavender gray and turquoise, because it’s just not considered the norm. But, if you take a look online at these variations, you can clearly see that the lavender offers a more refined accents on the homes accent parts like the shutters, and the turquoise, directs the traffic to the home, to the door. See, colors aren’t just about colors and looks, they can also "do" different things!
Primary Colors
When it comes to complementary colors, these colors tend to be richer colors like reds, blues, yellows, etc. These are the basis of all the other color hues. And while most normal people would stay away from things like a red, yellow or blue house, the key is to use them sparingly. For example, a light yellow house body, with a few accents of red. You would think this would look like a McDonald’s house, but it actually makes the colors pop and looks great together! Another option to consider; a blue house, with black front (where the door is) and a yellow or red door. Again, sounds like an odd option, but given the right house, it can look really good together.
Stain As a Color
Most people that paint their homes know that when it comes time for the exterior house painter to come, that there are literally millions of colors of paint to choose from. Well, these days, stain is the same way. Maybe not as numerous in colors, but there are quite a few hundred different shades, hues and colors when choosing stain. One of the things you need to consider if you are going to "paint" a home with stain rather than paint or use the stain on a larger scale than paint, is to stain a swath of the house - a small area. Then, let it dry, and see how it looks throughout the day. if you hate the color or you want something darker, you know that you can change the stain color and/or change the stain brightness/darkness by adding another layer or not.
The Parts of a House
As mentioned, there are three parts of a house. The body is the front, back and sides of the home. The trim includes the eaves, the window frames, band trim as well as corner trim. The accents to the house include everything else such as shakes, vents, gables, flower boxes, shutters, etc. Themes are used to create a color scheme which will make all three of these components of the house "pop" with color by using the best contrast. Obviously some people will go a little heavy handed with these components and they ruin the look of the house. But, in order to make this look right, there are a few things you will need to consider, and I will be going over those below.
How to Choose Accent Colors
When it comes to accent colors, choosing the best colors is not as hard as it may seem - you just need to have a level head and understand which colors go with what colors of the body of the house. One example of a great color scheme is if you have a white house, to paint the accent colors black and the door red. This is obviously a very plain concept, but it gets my point across. Not only do these schemes look well together, but it also helps your house look different than everyone else's on the street. Yes, color schemes are also about creating curb appeal and making the home look more attractive from the street to potential buyers or passer-byes. When it comes to trends, you not only want to look at popular colors, but you want to find colors that complement each other. Most of the time when we think about complementing colors, we think about colors that are different from each other. For instance on the color wheel, green is on the other opposing side of red, and yellow is on the other opposing side of violet. Some popular color trends right now are colors like pine green, brown chocolate, brick red and even bronze! Here are a few popular color trend themes below.
Two Hues For Accents
One of the better "styles" of homes in regards to colors for this example, are Colonial Style homes. These are usually painted one color on the base of the house and that color is usually white along with all of the other components. Once in a blue moon you can find a colonial house that has black or red accents, but you would rarely see this type of home with lavender gray and turquoise, because it’s just not considered the norm. But, if you take a look online at these variations, you can clearly see that the lavender offers a more refined accents on the homes accent parts like the shutters, and the turquoise, directs the traffic to the home, to the door. See, colors aren’t just about colors and looks, they can also "do" different things!
Primary Colors
When it comes to complementary colors, these colors tend to be richer colors like reds, blues, yellows, etc. These are the basis of all the other color hues. And while most normal people would stay away from things like a red, yellow or blue house, the key is to use them sparingly. For example, a light yellow house body, with a few accents of red. You would think this would look like a McDonald’s house, but it actually makes the colors pop and looks great together! Another option to consider; a blue house, with black front (where the door is) and a yellow or red door. Again, sounds like an odd option, but given the right house, it can look really good together.
Stain As a Color
Most people that paint their homes know that when it comes time for the exterior house painter to come, that there are literally millions of colors of paint to choose from. Well, these days, stain is the same way. Maybe not as numerous in colors, but there are quite a few hundred different shades, hues and colors when choosing stain. One of the things you need to consider if you are going to "paint" a home with stain rather than paint or use the stain on a larger scale than paint, is to stain a swath of the house - a small area. Then, let it dry, and see how it looks throughout the day. if you hate the color or you want something darker, you know that you can change the stain color and/or change the stain brightness/darkness by adding another layer or not.