eDesign Exteriors: Finding the Perfect Colour (Before & After)

There is so much to consider in finding the perfect colour palette for your exterior.

Once you work through the fixed elements that need specific colours to coordinate, and what works in the context of the style of architecture and the neighbourhood, you’re often left with very little, if any, room for personal preference.

Haint blue ceiling in New Orleans

Also this is a reminder that since eDesign packages are not totally ‘done for you’, I’m not there to take photos and style up the space–so it’s hard to get good after photos–however, I we recently received two before and afters that I’m so happy to share with you! 

Adding timeless colour to an all-white exterior

First up this sweet house that’s looking a bit tired in all white. As I’ve said many times recently, while white exteriors are technically timeless, in the context of the current black and white modern farmhouse trend, they are looking a bit… well, boring.

I absolutely love choosing colour for a house like this one. It has virtually no bossy fixed elements (the brick steps are completely versatile) and it has the potential to look absolutely stunning in a pretty colour.

Here’s the charming front entrance below. When I look at this, I straight up see potential surfaces for gorgeous colour.

We gave her a range colour colour choices, and she chose a soft and muted blue green that looks so much fresher and shows off the trim and details much better than white.

The house looks so fresh now!

And she went with our suggestion to paint her porch and balcony ceilings a beautiful haint blue. Because why not??

She loves it so much, she’s working with us on her interior now too.

All this house needs now is a great foundation planting, and it looks like the garden beds are ready to go.

Even the brick pavers look refreshed and her choice to leave the rich wood door unpainted to relate to them is perfect.

Here’s another house I snapped while in New Orleans this past Summer with a Haint Blue ceiling. 

A timeless colour palette for this tudor home

And sometimes, a bit LESS of your favourite colour is what is needed. This client inherited this somewhat eccentric blue trim on her Tudor exterior and wasn’t in love with it. While it’s definitely not the worst I’ve seen, the Tudor style looks so classic in a pared back neutral palette. 

She wanted to update her exterior, but NOT to go with something that looked black and white like many houses in her neighborhood.

While it’s common to see high contrast chocolate brown (and now in the black trend black or charcoal) timbers on a Tudor, one of my favourite ways of updating this style is to soften the contrast between the stucco and the timbers while making sure the colours are still rich enough to relate to the brick.

My eDesign client’s response:

You all nailed it. I nearly cried when the trim was painted, it’s so beautiful. 

Here’s the lovely after below.

Now we’re back to timeless yet still sophisticated and fresh! 

Get customized colours for your exterior!

If you’d like help with your exterior colours, see our eDesign packages here.

And, if you’d like a breakdown of the colours that we specified on these projects, you’ll find them on the Exterior Materclass facebook page that you will have access to when you purchase the course here. It’s a game changer for learning all about how to specify and choose exterior colours for you or your clients home.

Related posts:

The Black and White Exterior Colour Mistake EVERYONE is Making

 Update the Brick Columns on your Exterior; Before & After

Historic Log Cabin Renovation: eDesign, Before & After