What to Consider When Selecting Your Exterior Paint Color

With the new year in view, many of you may be ready for a change to the outside of your building.  A great way to achieve that is by giving it a fresh coat of paint and updating the overall color scheme.  The question is how to go about doing this while keeping your sanity intact.  And I think I can help with that.  

Last week I was called in on a project to select the finishes for the outside of a very well-known building in our smaller city.  It's actually a big deal because it's right on the main road in and out of the city and people have been waiting patiently behind the traffic light right by this sweet little nugget of history for decades now.  So naturally everyone was a little reluctant to just pick a color.

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This lead me to today's blog post which I think may prove to be helpful for any of you considering a change to your existing building.  So grab something warm to drink and dive in to my list of 7 Things to Consider When Picking Your Exterior Paint Color!

 #1 - Consider the surrounding buildings

In most cases, what you don't want to do is select a color that is just like everyone else's.  If you're considering brown for example and the building right next to yours is brown, it probably won't stand out very much.  So unless that's what you're intent is, try to choose something that has it's own identity.  You do however, want something that works with the surrounding buildings to compliment them without being an eye sore.  Most of the time,  your goal is not to be the biggest and loudest building on the block.  So make sure that your selection is helpful to your community and not a hindrance.

#2 - Consider your interior color scheme

What ever your interior design concept is, you almost always want the outside of your building to flow nicely with what your community is about to see on the inside.  In other words, you wouldn't want a heavily traditional bright white building with Ionic columns, a rocking-chair front porch and palatial Palladian windows on the outside with an interior that screams mid-century modern.  It confuses people and it just doesn't make sense.  So choose colors that feed seamlessly into your building.

#3 - Consider the materials on your building

If you have multiple materials like EIFS, metal and brick for example, you would need to consider what of those you might want to paint and how best to accent them.  You might also consider keeping the metal as long as it's in good condition and just choosing paint colors that work well with your metal tones.  You don't want to choose an overly warm tone for the entire building if you've got a very cold metal everywhere else.  The two tones will not play nicely together.  Trust me on this one.  I see people do it all the time and it's a mistake.

#4 - Consider how light effects your color

When selecting a color, you need to keep in mind that light changes color - dramatically sometimes.  I highly recommend that you choose three different color options in the color family you're leaning toward and paint all three next to each other but in an area of the building that will receive both sunlight as well as shade.  Then make your decision.  Selecting color this way will give you the best possible view of the range of color you will see and you won't be surprised when you see the color in one condition or the other.

#5 - Consider how texture effects your color

While we're on the topic of color change, keep in mind that texture and sheen will always effect your colors as well.  If you select any color from the color wheel and put it on a heavily textured surface, or really even a moderately textured surface, the color will appear darker than it did on your fan deck.  It's just the nature of it.  Texture creates pockets and pockets create shadows.  That's going to make your color appear darker.  This goes with anything you paint by the way.  It's just a good rule of thumb.  So choose your colors a shade lighter if you're looking for a specific color that will end up on a textured wall.  And always paint swatches before you make your final decision.  

#6 - Consider ease of maintenance

You may want to check with your facilities team before you make any final decisions as far as maintenance is concerned.  Some colors will be easier to maintain than others and some locational conditions will lend themselves to more rigorous cleaning methods than others.  So while you may not necessarily want the maintenance team to fully dictate the color of your building, you may want to consider their thoughts on the matter.

#7 - Consider any future plans for the building

So earlier I mentioned how I was called out to assist one of my clients in selecting their exterior colors.  One of the interesting points for this particular project was that the decision makers currently making the call on the overall appearance of this historical landmark will not remain in that role a little further down the line.  So the next owners who will inherit the property happen to work in the building and were included in the selection process.  

It's important to know where the future of your building may be headed before you settle on a color.  There may be different uses that could come into play.  Or there may be an entire renovation for the interior of the building on the horizon just a few years down the road.  If that's the case, you may want to figure out if there's anyone else that might wish to have a say in the final appearance, or perhaps you want to choose an easy, safe neutral for the time being until further decisions can be made.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Either way, there are plenty of color choices for your exteriors.  You just have to be willing to take the time and try some things out.  Don't get overwhelmed by the process and don't get so swept up in the selections that you paralyze yourself with fear of making a choice at all.  Make wise choices by painting a few large swatches before making your final decision and in the end, go with your instincts.