When it comes to the rooms inside your house, getting creative with the colors you choose is usually perfectly fine. You can choose a bold emerald green for a statement wall or a pale blue for a guest room. There’s plenty of space to play with color and make your home feel like your own.

But there’s a lot more pressure when it comes to the exterior color of your home. It’s more expensive to paint the outside of your house, meaning you probably don’t want to change it up as frequently. You’re usually only choosing one color at a time (not counting accents), so it needs to be a good one.

Perhaps most importantly, your home exterior is visible to the outside world. It tells other people something about you and your aesthetics. And when taken with the other houses in your area, it makes up the design style of your neighborhood and even your city.

Match Your Home’s Style

There’s no single perfect color for all houses, because not all houses are the same. To get a sense for which colors will look good on your home, start with what’s already there.

• Architectural style. Warm, tan colors might look great with a Spanish-style home, while cool pastels work wonderfully with Victorian houses, for example.
• Existing Elements. Look for colors that work well with the features already present in your home.
• Surrounding Homes. Consider colors that complement the other homes in your neighborhood and comply with HOA rules.

Find the Right Palette

Now that you’ve narrowed down the colors that could work for your home, it’s time to pick the ones that you actually want. Ideally, you should be looking at colors that complement each other – either existing on opposite sides of the color wheel or very close to each other. 

While you can pick a bold color, you should default to picking neutrals or soft colors unless there is a specific reason not to. Muted colors tend to look better for longer and be more cohesive with the surrounding homes. But of course, if you’re in an area with lots of bright homes, matching them would be more cohesive than picking a gray.

Sample Your Paints!

Once you have a few options, head to your local paint store and get some samples. Make sure the paints you choose are for exterior use; colors for interior painting only may fade when exposed to sunlight.

Paint large boards or sections of your exterior, ideally near different elements of your home and in both sun and shade. 

Watch throughout the day to see how it looks in any lighting. Once you’ve made your observations, pick the paint that looks best in all lightings and positions.

Still Can’t Decide? Call in Backup

There are thousands of paint shades to choose between, and that can get overwhelming. If you still can’t pick what looks best for your home, we’re happy to give a second opinion.

Our CorsPaint team has plenty of experience working in different neighborhoods throughout North Central Florida, and we have a great sense of what looks best for different areas and design styles. And once you’ve made your choice, we’re happy to bring your vision to life!