Painting to Match Your Home’s Exterior Architectural Style

Every home has an exterior painting style. Not just the one that you’ve designed and curated on the interior, but the one that is built into the bones of your home. Architectural styles of homes can vary greatly by block, neighborhood, or region. The structure of your home may even mix and match multiple architectural styles if it’s gone through renovations as it has changed homeowners. Your home’s exterior is what gives it character. Its structural style on the outside may even be the reason you fell in love with it in the first place.

Figuring out how to best embrace that character and history through exterior color schemes can be overwhelming. You want to honor the style, but make sure to also find an exterior color palette that says something about the person living in it. The team at CertaPro Painters® of San Francisco has worked on homes of all architectural styles. They can help you with a professional exterior painting project that accentuates the beauty of your home’s architecture to highlight its unique elements.

Keep reading as we highlight some of the more popular architectural styles in residential properties and provide some exterior paint color schemes that should be considered for a professional painting project.

The Style: Contemporary

Many people use “modern” and “contemporary” interchangeably to refer to building styles, but they aren’t quite synonyms. The former refers to the modern builds that came out of the early and mid-20th century. Post World War II architecture embraced construction materials like concrete and iron, a stark contrast from the ornate and detail-oriented styles of the Victorian era. Modern homes had a focus on clean lines and function over flair.

Many people found these modern builds to be cold and unwelcoming. With some influence from postmodernism, we now have what is better known as contemporary architecture. There is a larger importance from architects to connect the indoors and outdoors in a functional and sustainable way through space and materials.

Today’s contemporary homes are defined by their clean lines, interesting angles, abundant windows, and eco-friendly materials that fit right in with their surrounding landscape. Homeowners of contemporary homes often take cues from the natural landscape surrounding their home. This can be an interesting contrast to what can be a complex and eclectic architectural design.

Sherwin-Williams has a selection of Suburban Modern color palettes that are rooted in neutrals, but still make a strong and upbeat statement. Take a look at their combination of Silvermist (SW 7621) as a body color, Pure White (SW 7005) as a trim, and Chamois (SW 6131) as an accent.

Silvermist has a blue tint that really makes that mustard Chamois accent pop. Jogging Path (SW 7638) as a body color, Intellectual Gray (SW 7045) as a trim, and Thunder Gray (SW 7645) is another smart palette that would look lovely against a lush green landscape. Explore their other Suburban Modern palettes for some inspiration for your professional exterior painting project.

The Style: Craftsman

Craftsman homes first made their way to America championed by an architect and furniture designer named Gustav Stickley. A Craftsman home is designed to put function first. Each home was built with the owner in mind, so each build truly has something unique and handcrafted about it.

Popular exterior details of Craftsman homes include low-pitched rooflines, exposed rafters, a covered front porch, double hanging windows, and pillars lining the entryway. Stickley is quoted saying that a Craftsman-style bungalow is “a house reduced to its simplest form,” a build for the common man. Popular building materials include stone, wood, and stucco.

When thinking of exterior colors for Craftsman style homes, we love choosing colors that will really enhance the column-heavy front porches. We suggest going with earth tones that are complementary to the natural materials used in the build, as well as the surrounding landscape. Take a look at Craftsman Brown (SW 2835) as a body color, paired with Roycroft Vellum (SW 2833) for trim, and Rookwood Brown (SW 2806) for accents. A white used for trim on a Craftsman home can really make those beautiful columns and window trim pop.

The above color palette is part of Sherwin-Williams’ America’s Heritage Palette that pays homage to key architectural styles throughout American history. Softer, restrained shades for Craftsman bungalows are included in the roundup.

The Style: Greek Revival

Homes in the Greek Revival style are popular in the Midwest, South, New England, and Midatlantic regions. There is a townhouse variation that is a more narrow build in areas like Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond, New York, and Savannah. Characteristics of Greek Revival exteriors include bold details, but with simple moldings, hip roofs, columns and pilasters and symmetrical proportions.

When it comes to color, white is the name of the game for Greek Revivals. The most common color scheme of a traditional Greek Revival home was white or off-white for the body color, green for the doors and shutters, and a black for the window sashes (the part of the window that moves and holds the glass panes together). Painting your window sash a dark color, like a black or navy, will help to enhance the look of the home, while a color like white would detract from the look. Straw yellow, gray, and tan were also popular choices for body paint colors to suggest stone.

Take a look at Benjamin Moore’s Greek Villa (SW 7551) for the body color, Illusive Green (SW 9164) for the doors and shutters and In the Navy (SW 9178) for those darker details.

There are many other styles of residential homes out there that were not mentioned in this article. Gothic Revival, Ranch, Tudor, Shotgun, Victorian…the list goes on and on. CertaPro Painters® is the largest residential painting contractor in North America, and the locally owned and operated businesses take pride in bringing personalized painting projects to customers in every region, in every style of home. Our large footprint means we’ve worked on homes of every style, and have the knowledge to execute a professional painting project that brings out the beauty of your home’s build.

Ready to bring out some exterior charm? The team at CertaPro Painters® of San Francisco would be happy to lend their painting expertise to pull it all off for you seamlessly! If you’re unsure about what paint colors would look best with your home’s style, or aren’t even sure what your home’s architectural style is, give us a call today at 415-661-8400 or schedule online to get a free estimate.