EXTERIOR HOME COLORS
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Below you will find tips, techniques and guidelines to help you choose the best exterior colors for your home.
If your specifically looking for free color selecting tools, or color samples and charts to help you select your colors, then scroll down and use the COLOR SELECTION LINKS, to help you find the exterior home colors that your looking for.
The colors you choose, are of course up to you, but if you want to eventually sell your home, here is a little color selection advice to follow for both painting or siding application.
Lighter colors tend to make a home look closer to the curb, if your home is set farther back on the lot, a lighter color might bring the house forward, making the house look bigger and a little more pleasant to the eye.
Lighter colors will also last longer as they don't absorb heat as easily as darker colors. Lighter colors also tend to result in less blistering, pealing and fading.
Dark exterior home colors, on the other hand, do absorb heat, but darker colors work best for accenting trim, like windows or fascia and can really make a door stand out from the rest of the house.
Darker colors also make a smaller home look tiny but if you have a large home on a small lot you may want paint the large home a darker color so as not to accentuate the minimal-ness of the lot.
Another good thing with darker colors is a darker colors ability to add height,. If you have windows or columns that need to a little more on the tall side, then a darker color would be your best choice.
It's a good idea not to make your color selection to busy. A maximum of three colors is recommended for the majority of homes. Your first color would be the main color and is in most cases used as the siding or stucco coating.
The next color, would be for trim pieces, such as windows and fascia, the last color would be applied in the least amount and should accent doors or shutters.
Bigger houses of course, can handle more colors. When selecting your shades, tones and hues, use a color strip and choose ones that are at least a color or two apart.
As an example, the lightest color on a color strip, is for the siding, middle colors could be applied to windows and the darkest color might be brushed and rolled onto your shutters and doors.
Paint dealers today have an assortment of ways for you to select the color that will work best, from software programs to color matched pamphlets. Talk to your local paint dealer for selection assistance, regarding your exterior home colors.
Most houses have other colors associated with them, items such as landscaping, homes next to you, roofing, stone work, and decks Etc., need to be taken into consideration when making a color choice.
Also, you should always make sure that the colors you choose, flow with the other colors around or beside your home.
As far as the type of exterior finish to select, flat is the desired choice, paints with a flat or very low sheen, always looks better than gloss on the majority of exterior surface's.
Be sure to save touch up paint in a labeled, unbreakable, air tight container and keep the container from freezing.
When choosing exterior home colors, you will notice that a color strip will look a lot different, when taken outside into the sunlite, so, with that said, be careful when you decide on the color you want.
A good number of paint stores, now sell small containers of paint for you to do a color test, it's probably a good idea to buy one or two of these containers and save yourself some grief.
Take care when deciding on what to accent, you may think your outside tap looks better in a bright red, but after it's painted you will probably change your mind.
Don't be afraid of using a brighter or darker color on your trim, if you don't like it after the first window, you can easily have it changed.
Last but not least, ask your local paint dealer regarding the caulking, hole filler, primmer, paint, tools and other products and advice that you will need for the job your doing.
EXTERIOR HOME COLORS
Online color selectors and tools are not an exact representation of the colors that you will end up putting on your home.
Even so, color tools are fun to play with and should help you with your color selection decisions. Hope you find me again soon.
www.glidden.com
Once your on this site, point to a color, then look to the right, by doing so, you will discover what the paint color is called.
On the left are color moods and the slider at the bottom of the page, will increase the amount of colors to choose from.
www.behr.com
This site lets you look up a color name or number, it also has a color tool for interior/exterior color selection and an inspiration section loaded with pictures.
www.about.com
If your looking for an assortment of selection tools for exterior home colors, then this is the site for you.
By clicking on the links on the about.com site, you will read about one or two paint brands that you more than likely have never heard of before along with finding some nifty little color tools to play with.
Looking for decorating solutions other than exterior home colors. Click on the home link. You should be able to find a decorating or painting idea by reading the text.
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