Tips for Shaking Up Your Home’s Exterior with Color

Designer/contractor Theresa Clement offers tips on adding color accents to the exterior of the home this springtime. Her first recommendation is to start small.

“Select a color you love and then paint a bench, your door knocker or flower planters in that color,” says Clement, co-host of MyFixitUpLife home improvement radio show. “Live with the ‘burst of color’ outside your home for awhile before adding it permanently to your house. Then, when you’re comfortable, go ahead and use that color — or shades of the hue — to paint your front door, shutters and trim to make a lasting impression.”

Clement, who starts every project with a design theme, color and texture palette, encourages homeowners to personalize their home with color. “A great way to gain color inspiration and ideas is to participate in the ‘Shake it Up Exterior Color Contest’ that’s now offered online until April 21, 2013,” says Clement. “Just ‘Like’ the DaVinci Facebook page and submit a digital picture of your home’s exterior along with up to 250-words describing how you want to ‘shake up’ the exterior of your home with colorful products.”

Open to homeowners nationwide, the “Shake it Up” Exterior Color Contest includes a $5,000 cash grand prize to help the winner add color to the exterior of his or her home.

National color expert Kate Smith of Sensational Color will help judge the contest to determine five finalists. She will then work with a professional artist to create renderings and product wish lists of how the five finalists can transform their home’s exteriors by adding both color and colorful products by the contest sponsor and partners.

The original photo submission and the artist’s renderings for the five finalists will be posted on the contest site from May 13 – 26, 2013 for online public voting. The finalist with the most votes will receive the $5,000 cash grand prize.

“This contest can inspire homeowners to think ‘outside the box’ for adding color to their homes,” says Clement. “There are timeless color combinations — like blues with shades of grays and white for homes — but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a pumpkin orange front door to the same house. Color makes a home come alive and allows your personal style to shine through on your home!”

For fast and easy tips on ways to add color to the outside the home, Clement offers these ideas:

    • Color Tip #1 – Use movable potted plants to add “pops” of color on your porch, steps and walkway to help frame your home in a different color. Consider gaining your color inspiration from your garden, so that your entire yard “flows with color” right up to your front door.

 

    • Color Tip #2 – Add colorful pillows and outside rugs to furnishings and porch areas.

 

    • Color Tip #3 – Splurge on colorful accessories for your exterior like garden flags, door mats, metal wall art, decorative wreaths and door knockers.

 

    • Color Tip #4 – Replace your house numbers in a new font and color so they boldly stand out on your home.

 

    • Color Tip #5 – Update the color of lighting sconces or overhead lighting on and around your home’s exterior.

 

Interested? Click here for more information on the “Shake it Up” Exterior Color contest. The contest sponsor, DaVinci Roofscapes, offers polymer slate and shake roofing tiles in 49 standard colors with the option to custom create any color a homeowner desires. Each of the product partners for the contest, including Therma-Tru, Fypon and Simonton Windows, offers colorful product options for homeowners to enhance their home’s exterior.