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Picking A Perfect Color Scheme For Your Ranch Style Home

When choosing exterior colors, I have found that homeowners often envision what the home will look like once it is completed. All they lack is the know-how that will give them confidence in making the decisions necessary to turn their dream into their dream house.

This is the primary reason I have taken my years of experience choosing colors for hundreds of homes and put it into easy-to-follow steps. This valuable information is ready to download for FREE in my free FRESH Colors eBook series, available in the DaVinci Roofscapes Color Studio.

The recently revised ebook, FRESH Color Schemes for Your Home Exterior, provides step-by-step color guidance for creating color schemes for seven different home styles.

Don’t worry if your home doesn’t fit precisely into one of these 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.

FRESH Colors for a Ranch 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.

Today, an asymmetrical rectangular, L-shaped, or U-shaped design is still the most popular design for these single-story homes. The simple open floor plan fuses modern style with casual living.

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

Start at the Top

Upgrading from gray asphalt to a polymer shake roof in the Mossy Cedar blend was the first step in creating this home’s warm, natural look. The shake roofing tiles add a casualness to the house while adding more distinction to the roof itself.

Identify the Fixed Features

The fixed features include the warm, creamy Cultured Stone Foundation Hewn Stone and Brownstone Slate roof and a flagstone walkway in a blend of warm brown and green-gray tones. The new roof’s warm, muted tones and stonework inspired a color scheme that blends beautifully with the home’s natural surroundings.

    Choose Your Primary Color and Trim

For a Ranch-style home, keeping the façade’s color consistent is best to create a large field of color. Even if architectural details such as an alcove provide a natural place where the color could break, think carefully about changing color. It could divide the front of a house into three or more small parts rather than the eye taking in the whole house.

Select Color for Shutters or Accents

For a ranch style, the shutters’ color is an excellent way to create a rhythm that keeps the eye moving across the façade. Muddled Basil on the shutters against the mid-tone primary color has enough contrast to stand out and add visual interest.

When the shutters are as dark or darker as the roof color, they also move the eye vertically, making a single-story home feel taller. For the trim, Aged White is a clean, unifying color.

Find Your Front Door

Like many Ranch-style homes, this house’s front door does not stand out. You can enhance the architectural details or add a contrasting color, like Aegean Teal, that fits your scheme to draw attention to the entry.

Other 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: