House Color - Exterior Pictures

Picking a house color? Exterior pictures can help you see what others are doing.

In this article I advocate for more colorful homes than we are used to seeing in the bland subdivision that make up most of the new housing stock. For those lucky enough to have some say in the color of their house enjoy my collection of pics.

Its rather like a pinterest page for exterior colors, but with a little editorial content thrown in.

Colorful Towns and Neighborhoods

People tend to not to want to look too different from the neighbors. Colorful homes are often found in neighborhoods full of colorful homes.

Colorful Neighborhood in EuropeEuropean cities are sometimes more colorful than U.S. cities

If you cruise through most suburbs you will notice that most homes have vinyl siding and there is a strong affinity for the most neutral of neutral colors. Beige and Gray rule the day.

If you go to the websites of the major manufacturers of vinyl siding you will find that there strongest colors still tend to the neutral. For a clearer explanation of colors check out my page on color theory. The short version is that colors range from high-chroma, which is your brightest of brights, your purest colors, to neutral, which is where the high-chroma colors are mixed with eath other and black or white. The result is a muddying or washing out of the colors.

This is not by chance. These suburban communities are designed. Even where multiple builders are active in a sub-division there are often restrictions on the colors and siding that can be used.

In contrast it is the old neighborhoods of wood houses, or painted brick, where you find your most colorful homes. There is still a tendency to favor the neutral colors, but a few brave souls will venture out into the realm of the bright and cheery.

I will be the first to admit that many of these experiments in color do not work out. Ugly comes in many forms, and sometimes it is bold and vibrant.

Blue Homes

Blue used to be more common than it is now. You still see a lot of blue-grays, but they tend to be a lot more gray than blue.

My friend growing up had a blue house. It was a light blue. It was sided in vinyl, and I think that shade was fairly common back in the '70s, but I never liked it.

I tend to go for the darker blues, but it depends on the house.  Blue is a fairly conservative house color. You rarely shock people with blue the way you can with purple or pink.

Here I offer a range of blue homes that might help you decide what kind of blue home you want.

Teal home in New Palestine, IndianaI think this house is teal, although the camera doesn't quite get it right. It is on the border between green and blue.

Yellow Houses

Yellow is cheerful. It is in its glory when it is brightest. On a sunny day the yellow houses will pop out at you.

Earth-tone varieties are popular with stucco and adobe homes. Muted, they lose some of their cheeriness, but connect the house with the ground and its surroundings.

There is some danger. As you move toward the neutral yellows you enter into the dreaded beige zone. Beige is boring. Its a backdrop color. A beige house will not stand out. It does not invite you in. It invites you to ignore it.

Green Homes

Red Homes

A red house with a stone covered core.This one is barn red, which just shows that it can look pretty good on a house too.

Pink House

A salmon colored house in TulsaMaybe this should be called Salmon. Not quite pink, not quite orange. Its not quite an earth tone, but not a full-chroma color either.

Purple Homes

I wish I had more purple homes to show you. It is not a popular cover, but the lively Victorians did make use of it, at least in the U.S..


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