Picking A Perfect Color Scheme For Your Bungalow Style Home

If you are wondering about the best way to choose colors for your home exterior then I have some great news for you. I’ve taken my years of experience choosing colors for hundreds of homes and put it into easy to follow steps for you to download for FREE in the DaVinci Roofscapes Color Studio.

Green Roof Systems

In my first ebook FRESH Home Exterior Colors: 5 Steps for Finding the Perfect Hues for Your Home I introduce you to my FRESH approach for picking your colors in five steps.

In the second ebook FRESH Color Schemes for Your Home Exterior I provide step-by-step color guidance for seven different home styles. You will see how I use a “top down” approach, giving you insights on adding eye-pleasing color palettes to your home exterior starting with the roof, then working your way down to consider your siding, window frames, front door and trim. As you see how I create these looks you will quickly learn how to do the same for your home.

Here is an example of selecting a color scheme for the bungalow home you see above rendered with the suggested colors. Just as you will do for your own home, I considered each part of “FRESH”, the homeowner’s like and dislikes, their personal style and vision they had for their home. These are the steps I took for this home. You can see examples of the other six styles in FRESH Color Schemes for Your Home Exterior.

 

Cedar Roof Shingles

 

To honor the style of this home, polymer shake roofing tiles in New Cedar were used on the roof. This blend includes a combination of five shades of cedar colors and complements the entire vision of the home.

 

 

The homeowners didn’t love the dark color of the bricks on their home. I knew that the high contrast of their existing white trim was making the bricks seem that much darker. I also knew that the perception of a color could be changed by the colors surrounding it, so I worked on finding a color that would make the brick more attractive.

 

 

There was only a small area of the siding that was not covered with brick. For those areas I chose Chamois, a warm golden tan paint color that harmonizes with the New Cedar roof and the color of the bricks. Chamois contrasts with the brick to highlight the architectural details of the Bungalow-style and brings out the best of the color tones in the brick.

A second paint color, Forest Night, added to the peaks over the door and window areas, draws the eye upwards. Although the paint covers a small area, the color takes most of the attention away from the color of the brick.

 

 

British Brown was my choice as an accent color for the urethane brackets above the door and near the dormer windows as well as the pot shelves under the lower windows. The Chocolate Brown window frames—another color choice that honored the history of this style of home — inspired my choice of British Brown.

Chamois was used on the rest of the trim including column wraps to carry the color across more of the home and keep the focus on the entry and front porch details.

 

 

Rather than paint the front door, I recommended replacing it with a classic- looking fiberglass entry door stained in cedar with a doorlite and sidelites that had decorative glass. This makes the entry a welcoming focal point for the home and stays with the type of door style found on original Craftsman bungalow homes.

Finally step back and ask yourself, “Is Any Other Color Needed?”

Look carefully at your home. Make note of which of the colors you have selected will be applied to each architectural detail of the exterior. Is there an area of the exterior that you haven’t chosen a color for? On this bungalow the privacy lattice on the side porch was replaced and stained cedar to match the front door color. Once you’ve looked at the entire home and selected the colors for each element following my FRESH approach, congratulate yourself…

 

Designer Roof

 

Now you see how easy it can be to find the perfect colors for your home exterior. If you haven’t already downloaded the download for FREE ebooks in the DaVinci Roofscapes Color Studio go do that right now. Then make sure to stop back here over the next few weeks as I share more of my experience and insights on choosing exterior colors.