The One Thing You MUST Do Before Choosing Exterior Colours

It’s exterior season! Even though your house might still have snow all around it and you can’t call the painter quite yet, I know you’re thinking about colours. Don’t miss this important step BEFORE you choose exterior colour.

My tulips are already blooming!

I am starting to receive Ask Maria questions for exteriors, and I get it. You want to spruce up your home’s curb appeal, maybe introduce a new siding or trim, or perhaps you’re considering a bright and bold front door colour for spring. Maybe you have no idea how to coordinate with your brick or stonework. You’re here because you know I can look at your house and know exactly what you should do to make it look its best, but let’s clear something up first: I need to let y’all know that I will not be posting Ask Maria exterior questions.

Let me tell you a story.

There’s a popular business fable about a machinery expert who was called out to fix a problem in a factory. Production in this huge factory had ground to a halt because of some mystery breakdown, and machinist after machinist had tried and failed to solve the problem.

Put yourself in the shoes of that factory owner. How frustrating must it have been to know something was wrong, but not be able to solve it? How hopeless must it have felt to pay “experts” for their solutions, only to be disappointed? How much was the right answer worth at that point — not just in service fees, but in lost revenue, reputation, and peace of mind, too?

When the factory owner had had enough of being disappointed (and being charged for that disappointment), he finally called in the true expert. The one with the most experience. The one who should’ve been called first.

The true expert walked in, instantly found the broken machine, tapped on it, and brought it back to life.

Done.

When the bill came, the fable says, the factory owner may have been shocked at the $10,000 charge. He asked for a breakdown, to which the expert replied, “$1 for the tap itself, and $9,999 for knowing where to tap.”

Fast forward through the Industrial Revolution to today, when homeowners are the ones feeling frustrated and hopeless about mystery colour problems in and around their homes. Too often, exterior colour choices are made by developers, builders, neighbourhood planners, or others whose expertise is not colour selection. No wonder you’re frustrated with your house: it’s the (colour) blind leading the (colour) blind!

Some homeowners are looking to fix old mistakes with a complete exterior facelift, from new siding and trim to a new front door colour and brick or stone. Others want only one of those options, or only a few of them. Most homeowners, though, have no idea what they want or what their homes need. Are you one of them? Do you know which solutions you need? Do you even know what the problem is that you’re trying to solve? Probably not; you just know something is off.

I can look at any house and know almost instantly what’s wrong with it (if anything), how to fix it, and which colours will work. I’ve done it a thousand times, and I’d love to do it a thousand more for all of you.

I’ve received so many questions about exteriors so far this season that I’ve come up with a way to help everyone who’s had enough of being disappointed:

Exterior Colour Solutions
Custom tailored to your home, personally delivered by yours truly

Here’s how it works: take some photos of your house and front door during the day (not when the sun is rising or setting), and send them to me. Choose the package you need from the link above, and within seven days, you’ll receive your custom colour solution in your inbox.

Done. (And it won’t cost you anywhere near $10,000.)

Front Door Solution

Did you know my green front door is the ONLY painted door on my street? This is a tragedy.

This was my front door when we took possession.
See the befores and afters of our yard transformation here.

Now you, too, can have a colourful front door! This adds instant curb appeal, but ONLY IF you choose the right colour. The right colour not only increases the interest in your home, but also just makes YOU happy when you arrive home every day.

Click here to take all the guesswork out of finding the right colour for your front door.

Siding Solution

Siding colours are a major decision for any homeowner. This is often the defining colour of your home, meaning it’s what you will tell new people to look for when they’re visiting for the first time. “Look for the ugly orange house!” doesn’t really sound very inviting, does it?

Whatever colour you choose needs to work holistically with every other exterior colour on your home, and has to take into account your neighbourhood as well. If you happen to live in a multi-family dwelling, well, you can just go ahead and double the headache of trying to find coordinating and complementary colours that make you happy and still fit in with the surroundings.

Here’s one reader’s dilemma:

Look closely at the photo below, everyone. Who can see exactly what’s wrong, and who knows exactly what to do about it? If you have no idea, then you, too, need the Siding Solution. 

Here was my response:

“Here’s the problem with your house. While yellow in general is a good colour for that peachy/orange brick, it’s too clean with both the brick and your roof, your roof looks dirty in comparison. It’s greeny/gold while your brick is more orange, which makes using any colour besides a muddier yellow or cream bad because it’s just introducing a third colour that relates to nothing.

The ONLY option for your house here is cream because the white of your neighbour’s side is way too stark with the earthier brick and roof. I would also paint out the black underlining the bay windows.”

Tell the truth: did you see any of those problems before I pointed them out? Or did you just know something was wrong?

Trim & Accent Colour Solution

Accent colours are your home’s exclamation points: they draw attention, they invoke interest and excitement, and they set your home apart from the crowd. The problem is that too many people put their exclamation ! points in the ! wrong places !

One reader had to deal with exactly that problem:

“I am wondering what I could do to improve the look of the house we just bought. I like the white trim and am thinking that white or lighter coloured garage doors would go a long way to update the look. I’m attaching a picture. I know there is snow on the roof but it’s a dark grey roof.”

Here was my response:

“Garage doors should rarely relate to the roof (which I’m guessing is what’s happening here); rather, they should coordinate with the colour of the house and in most cases, be painted the same colour as your siding, especially if they are at the front of the house where they are the most noticeable. You don’t want your garage doors to be the first thing you see.

Here, we are dealing with brick, so I would paint them white to relate to the white gables and trim. Then I would paint the shutters black to relate to the black in the bricks and the roof instead of the current, unrelated green. The shutters can’t be white to relate to the white trim because that would feel too ‘cottage’, and then the shutters above the garage would not have contrast with the existing white siding.”

You know your home needs attention paid to its trim and accent colours. Let me help you do it right.

Exterior Colour Solution Bundles

If you don’t know what you need, or if you’re about to embark on a total exterior colour course correction, contact me immediately. Bundled pricing is available for all three of the above options, and an all-inclusive offer for new builds and big renovations is available here.

Don’t do anything without FIRST getting a consultation from a True Colour Expert; we both know by now how costly (and frustrating) mistakes are when we fail to bring in the true expert first. I’ll help you figure out exactly what to do, and I will do it quickly so you can get on with your home’s transformation.

It’s easy.

Exterior colour advice from a True Colour Expert™.

Done.

Go here to see all the options.

Which part of your exterior needs a makeover ASAP?

Learn how to Choose Exterior Colours here.