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Picking A Perfect Color Scheme For Your Colonial Style Home

Colonial-style home with DaVinci Multi-Width Shake in Mountain blend.

I have some excellent news if you are wondering how to choose colors for your home exterior. I’ve taken my years of experience selecting colors for hundreds of homes and put it into easy-to-follow steps for you to download in my free FRESH Colors eBook series available FREE in the DaVinci Roofscapes Color Studio.

In my recently revised ebook, FRESH Color Schemes for Your Home Exterior, I provide step-by-step color guidance for creating color schemes for different home styles.

Don’t worry if your home doesn’t fit precisely into one of these seven styles. By peeking inside my mind through the explanations and illustrations, you can see how to apply the same thought processes when planning your home’s colors.

You will see how I use a “top-down” approach, giving you insights on adding eye-pleasing color palettes to your home exterior. I start with the roof and then work my way down to consider your siding, window frames, front door, and trim. You will see how these looks come together and quickly learn how to do the same for your home.

FRESH Colors for a Colonial Home

Here are examples of palettes for a colonial home. As you will do for your home, I considered each part of “FRESH.”

Two-, three- and four-color schemes are all possibilities for a Colonial-style home. The correct number and placement of colors will depend on the house’s architectural details and your likes and dislikes, personal style, and vision for your home.

Start at the Top

For a home with an existing composite shake roof color in a warm natural cedar, like Tahoe, Stone Hearth trimmed with Hushed Hue keeps the scheme refined. Blue Spruce allows the front door to stand out.

Identify the Fixed Features

Many colonial homes have brick or stone exteriors. When choosing any other color, you must consider the fixed features. With Mountain Shake and Eldorado Stone Hartford TundraBrick, Gauntlet Gray harmonizes with both materials’ warm gray color cast.

Choose Your Primary Color and Trim

While often painted white or muted tones, traditional homes can be charming in historic colors like the deep red of Boston Brick and high contrast Paper White trim. Rather than black on the front door, Wolf Gray connects the European Slate to the body of the home.

Select Color for Shutters or Accents

If your home has shutters, select their color next. To boost a neutral scheme, Loyal Blue, a cool tone about the same darkness as the roof, balances Rave Red on the front door.

Find Your Front Door

The front door of a Colonial-style home is the main focal point on the façade. A contrasting color gives even the most classic Colonial added personality. Black Slate tops a Colonial with Versetta Stone and Celect® Cellular Composite Siding and Trim. The only color left to select was Classic Burgundy for the front door, an excellent choice to boost a neutral scheme.

Is Any Other Color Needed?

Look carefully at your home. Note which color goes on each architectural detail of the exterior. Is there an area of the exterior that you still need to choose a color for? On a Colonial, this might be a porch ceiling, floor, or door. If so, select it now.

All home styles included in the ebook FRESH Color Schemes for Your Home Exterior:

  • Colonial-style homes are known for their symmetrical design, with the front door in the center. The windows are aligned horizontally and vertically. The architectural detail varies depending on when and where the builder constructed your home.
  • The type of home known as a Ranch or Rambler is an architectural style that originated in the United States. Noted for its horizontal, close-to-theground profile and minimal use of exterior and interior decoration, the Ranch originally epitomized the idea of a casual lifestyle.
  • Bungalow, a term that originated in India and found its way into English, was used in the late 19th century to describe large country or suburban houses built in Arts and Crafts or other Western vernacular styles.
  • The colors historically found on Victorian-style homes were inspired by nature and ranged from light browns, tans, and greens to darker, muddier colors than we often associate with this home style today.
  • A Spanish Mission home has solid Latin influences and fosters a connection to nature. Generally built with thick stucco walls and clay tile roofs, the courtyards are enclosed to extend the home’s living area and merge with the environment.
  • Homes referred to as European-style are generally larger, elegant-looking homes rich in exterior detailing. Brick, stone, and stucco are commonly combined to create a look reminiscent of Old-World European influences. Most of these style homes are 1-1/2- or 2-story structures inspired by Italian-, Italianate-, French Country-, Mediterranean-, or Tudor-style homes.
  • The New American-style combines the best of many different elements to create a home design that is uniquely ours. Born during the affluent years of the 1990s, it originally celebrated living life “large” with sizeable homes on oversized lots. Today, the New American-style encompasses homes of all sizes that can fit into any neighborhood, budget, or lifestyle choice. A mix of architectural influences brings together easy living and technological innovations.

All eBooks in the FRESH Colors series: