Selecting an External Colour Scheme for Your Home
Knowing where to start when selecting an external colour scheme for your home is the hardest part. From the roof, fascia and gutters to the fretwork and finials and the front door colour. There is a lot to think about.
Your façade is first part of your home your guests will see, and we all know first impressions count. The colour scheme can set the tone for the rest of your house, so it is important to get it right.
In this blog post we will cover the different variables to consider when selecting your colour scheme to make the process less overwhelming. Best of all, we have plenty of real customer examples, and the related Wattyl colours, for you to see how the vision comes to life and take your inspiration from.
Create your colour scheme around the elements that will not change
As much as we hate to admit it, there are elements around our homes that can’t be changed. Whether it is the existing estate fence colour, the rich earth or dry crop in the paddock next door, or the saturating colour from the bricks of the neighbouring two storey home.
While it doesn’t seem overly obvious at first, reflections play a large part in your overall final look, especially if you are building in an estate with neighbours close by. The home below took advantage of the gum trees in a neighbouring park and tied them in with their colour scheme.
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- Cladding Vertical – Colorbond® steel Monument®, Render – Colorbond® steel Surfmist®, Roof, Fascia and Gutter – Colorbond® steel Monument®, Garage – Colorbond® steel Surfmist®
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- Cladding – Manhattan Grey, Roof, Fascia and Gutters – Colorbond® steel Monument®, Front Door and Posts – Calcium
Look at the difference between warm and cool tones
Your overall material style will help to guide your tone. Natural materials like sandstone, timber and terracotta suit a warm colour scheme. Whereas industrial style materials like concrete and steel in their natural grey and blue hues suit a cooler colour scheme.
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- Roof, Gutters, Fascia, Front Door and Garage – Colorbond® steel Basalt®, Cladding – Feather Dawn Half, Render – Manhattan Grey
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- Roof, Gutters, Fascia, Front Door and Garage – Colorbond® steel Basalt®, Cladding – Feather Dawn Half, Render – Manhattan Grey
Use the greenery in your area to compliment your scheme
If your home resides in nature, or you plan to plant a leafy and well foliaged garden, think about the colours that play well with these tones. Black, charcoal and grey tones work incredibly well with greenery. Our favourite picks are from the Colorbond® range – Surfmist®, Woodland Grey®, Monument® and Night Sky®. Not only can these be used as paint, they are also available for cladding, gutters, roof, fascia and garage doors to seamlessly match colours.
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- Cladding, Render, Garage – Colorbond® steel Surfmist®, Roof, Gutter – Colorbond® steel Woodland Grey®, Fascia – Colorbond® steel Dune®, Posts – Colorbond® steel Night Sky®
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- Roof, gutters, fascia and vertical corrugated cladding – Colorbond® steel Night Sky®, Matt Finesse Cladding and Render – Colorbond® steel Monument®
Create a seamless flow for your entire home
Choosing a similar colour scheme throughout your home will create a seamless flow from external to internal. If you choose to not include colour through paint, add these details with pops of colour in your landscaping, think lavender, cabbage palms and agapanthus, and through your styling pieces. These can easily be changed as styles change and the task isn’t as daunting as repainting your whole home.
The home below chose to add colour through their porch tiling. A subtle touch that catches your eye once you are approaching the front door. And it ties in so will with the other external colour choices.
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- Render, Front Door and Garage Door – Colorbond® steel Surfmist®, Roof, Fascia, Gutter, Finials – Colorbond® steel Monument®
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- Render, Front Door and Garage Door – Colorbond® steel Surfmist®, Roof, Fascia, Gutter, Finials – Colorbond® steel Monument®
Something else we thoroughly enjoy, is a coloured front door. It adds some personality and is incredibly easy to change when your taste does.
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- Door – Lavendar Splash, Cladding – School Memory, Render – Comet Dust, Fretwork and Fascia – Colorbond® steel Dover White™
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- Door – The New Black, Cladding and Render – Grey Pearl
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- Cladding – Colorbond® steel Surfmist®, Door – by owner
A full white colour scheme
A white-on-white colour scheme is absolutely an option, pending your local council requirements. If you are nervous about the entire home being the same colour, look at a quarter strength of your chosen white for the trims to give a slight contrast.
Keep in mind that light roof colours reflect the heat and are best suited for high sun states, like Queensland. Dark coloured roofs absorb the heat, which is ideal for us in South Australia in the cooler months. A contrasting colour will also give your façade some more depth to allow each feature to pop in its own way.
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- Cladding – Soft Apparition, Gables – Wattyl White, Roof – Colorbond® steel Windspray®
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- Cladding – Soft Apparition, Gables – Wattyl White, Roof – Colorbond® steel Windspray®
Put your colours together to create your scheme
If you are still truly stuck, a general rule to follow is sticking to a lighter tone for wood trim, mid tone for walls and darker tone for contrasting features, like your roof, gutters and lighting. Both of the homes below had a very similar idea.
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- Cladding – Gothic Shadow, Fretwork and Finials – Feather Dawn Half, Roof and Gutters – Colorbond® steel Wallaby®, Fascia and Garage Door – Colorbond® steel Dover White™
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- Cladding and Render – Melchior, Fretwork and Finials – Feather Dawn Half, Roof, fascia and Gutter – Colorbond® steel Monument®, Garage – Colorbond® steel Dover White™
The verdict
The best part about selecting an external colour scheme for your home with Kookaburra Homes is that we will generate 3D renders of your home in your chosen colours. If you aren’t happy with your choices during this concept stage, they can be changed. There is nothing more custom that building your dream home, not someone else’s.
If you decide that your taste has changed in tens years’ time, they can also be changed. Your colour scheme should be based on what makes you happy when you look at your home, not on what the current trends are.
Looking for more inspiration? Check out Our Projects to see more colour combinations.
By Amy Rosendale
