Victorian Homes & Their Exterior Colors

There is a place in Louisville, Kentucky that is famous for something that has nothing to do with the Derby or baseball bats. This beautiful area is affectionately called “Old Louisville.”

The Old Louisville area consists of about 48 city blocks of nothing but Victorian homes. One after another, they are an amazing site to see. It is the 3rd largest historical preservation district featuring almost entirely Victorian home architecture. Also, the neighborhood contains the highest concentration of residential homes with stained glass windows in the U.S. Most of the homes are in the Victorian-era styles of Romanesque, Queen Anne, & Italianate.

No matter where your Victorian home is located, you’ll want to keep its exterior looking grand. Do you know which colors look best on Victorian exteriors?

Exterior Colors for Victorian Homes

A pristine Victorian home needs to be paired with an equally regal color for its exterior look. CertaPro Painters know how to walk the line of stylish and classic for these homes. Since these homes come with their own characteristics, you don’t want to overdo it with an off-style color. We polled our pros to gather colors for exterior painting for Victorian homes.

Victorian homes traditionally came with rich colors in the families of green, gold, red and blue. Color was used widely both inside and outside of the houses and drama was en vogue. We have created color schemes that are easier to work within but still show the historic charm of your house.

Contrast

Traditionally, a high contrast option comes in gray-blue paired with white trim and rusty red accents. It’s a contemporary historically appropriate color palette rooted in traditional looks.
A gray-blue body color, white trim, and rusty red accents on this Queen Anne create a crisp and contemporary three-color scheme that’s also rooted in tradition.

Historical

Especially when dealing with specific architecture like clapboard or fish-scale shingles, you’re going to want to stick with what works. A Queen Anne style house is best treated with tan, beige, white and accents of orange or rust. For the more exotic tastes, try woodsy greens from nature.

Warm

Exotic styles like the Italian from early Victorian decor demand a more appropriate color scheme. Try tan and taupe with deep brown for accents. Other successfully done colors are pink and peach. Try these with terracotta pots and brick steps.

Eye-Catching

Victorian homeowners looking for a more stand-out color scheme can look into bringing in bright red and buttery yellow accents on more plain colored homes.

Architectural Elements

Victorian homes are more intricate than your average suburban home today. Because you have so many places to put color, you can work with a much bigger palette. Be cautious not to go too far overboard with colors you include. A couple to a few are plenty for a color scheme to work.

Bright

Berry colored homes with light trim and green accents might seem like a lot of color on a split level house, but it seems perfectly homey on a historic venue. Again, because the home offers quite a few architectural elements as different places to put colors, this is a good option.

Pastels

Pastels add to the whimsy of Victorian-era houses. They feel very dollhouse and painting it a light pink, blue or yellow is an untraditional but welcoming choice. When choosing this option, most homeowners pick darker and lighter hues of the same color to pair with it.

About painting Victorian homes

Victorian homes by nature are very intricate in design. Painting a home like this means a lot more than just ladder climbing with a bunch of different buckets of paint.

These homes tend to be on the larger side, with at least a couple of floors. These are all considerations for you to think about before deciding if you want to paint your home all by yourself.

Let CertaPro Painters help you create a beautiful exterior for your historical home.

Call CertaPro Painters at 518-631-4116 or go online to Schedule a free estimate & get your project started today.