It’s been a long time coming, but we’ve known for a while we wanted to change our house color. It was yellow when we purchased it. While I have nothing against yellow houses, it just lacked a little luster.

This summer when we redid our backyard deck there were places that had to be re-painted, and instead of trying to match that yellow it seemed like the time to jump in and re-paint the entire house. Boy am I glad we did! I adore this new hue!

It’s a Benjamin Moore paint called Raindance. We paired it with BM’s White Dove on the trim. And I’m thrilled with the results!

Picking a paint color can be intimidating, and choosing a color for the exterior of your home is a big ask. There’s a few things that can really help as you think through the myriad of choices available.

STEP 1—WHAT ARE THE FIXED ELEMENTS OF YOUR EXTERIOR

Start with the fixed elements of your exterior space. Things like your roof color, the undertones of your home’s foundation, your decking or porch materials. All those permanent exterior elements have color and tone. And those tones will help you narrow down what paint color will look best on your home.

For instance, if your home has a red brick chimney wall, well, that’s a bossy color that’ll narrow down the options which look best on your home. Or another example, does it have a green shingled roof? If so, that’s an important piece of information to consider. But even if your shingles and foundation seem to be a neutral color, they’re still gonna have undertones. So when picking a paint color pay attention to those!

ALL the parts of your home that won’t be painted have color undertones. And so the trick is to find a paint hue that’ll play nicely with those.

In my case, the shingles on our home, our stone foundation, and our stone patio were my starting points to help narrow down my choices. Both our shingles and the stone blocks which make up the foundation on the front and sides of our home are grey with a bit of a pink undertone. So I knew I needed to choose a color that would coordinate with those two fixed elements.

I also had to consider our new backyard deck. We had it stained a gorgeous cedar color and I wanted whatever paint we chose to really let the deck shine

STEP 2—WHAT’S THE SURROUNDINGS OF YOUR HOME

Consider the external environment AROUND your home. Do you live in a neighborhood? If so, what are the colors of the homes next door to you? Your neighbors will appreciate it if your home blends in with the hood.

If you’re in a more rural setting, what about your outbuildings? Are they a neutral color or a bossy color? The exterior of your home is just one piece of the puzzle that makes up your surroundings.

STEP 3—DECIDE WHETHER YOU WANT A DARK, LIGHT, OR MID-TONE COLOR

Are you aiming for a dark moody paint? Or are you hoping for a lighter brighter hue? Or like me, do you want a mid-tone color? Pinterest is a great place to go for inspiration. You can even search for homes that are similar in structure to yours. Do you have a country cottage, a 1920’s bungalow, a ranch style home—there’s a lot of inspiration to choose from. Here’s a link to my Pinterest exteriors board to get you started.

STEP 4—TEST AND SAMPLE BEFORE PAINT

Natural outdoor light is much bluer and brighter than the light we experience inside. A paint color outside will quickly become a lighter shade than you may expect. Test your color outside and on a vertical angle, cause that’s how it will actually be viewed!

Samplize is a great place to source 12″x12″ paint swatches. These hand-painted, peel-and-stick paint samples are so easy to use. They use the genuine manufacturer paint, so you get the real deal with each sample.

After I narrowed down my choices to about four, I ordered samples to test. They’re an easy, mess-free way to really get a good idea of how the paint color will look on your project. In my case, I didn’t pull of the peel-and-stick part cause I wanted to try them on different sides of the house, in varying lights.

Raindance looks a bit different in our shaded backyard versus the front which gets a ton of afternoon sun. In the backyard it reads a lot more moody. Thankfully I like it from both points of view!

We have more planned for our backyard, but that’ll be stage two and maybe even stage three. So stay tuned!

But in the meantime, I’m hoping to enjoy some serious fall evenings around our backyard fire pit!

So there ya go, my best tips for picking a paint color for your home exterior.