Finding an exterior color for your home isn’t the easiest to do, well not in comparison to indoor painting. There are lots of factors to think about and reasons as to why you’d want to paint the exterior of your home in the first place.
In this article, we’ll be looking at how and why you’d want to paint outside your home, the benefits and three tips for choosing your exterior paint color. So with that being said, let’s dive in!
Why use exterior paint?
Exterior painting can often be mainly to give your home a more visually appealing look, especially when it comes to introducing your home to guests and for passersby to see. It’s also important that you enjoy the space you’re in, both inside and outside the home. There are lots of reasons for using exterior paint that go beyond aesthetics, as some can benefit the overall health of the exterior walls and features.
Three tips for choosing exterior paint
So what are the best tips when it comes to choosing exterior paint?
1. Consider your neighbors
As much as you might want a bright neon color to make your home stand out, that might not always go down well with the other homeowners in your neighborhood. If you’re in the middle of nowhere, then there’s nothing stopping you, going with a more outrageous and perhaps slightly out of the box color.
The difficulty when it comes to picking colors is that it needs to blend in or at least look somewhat similar to that of other properties. If not, then not only does it cause an eyesore to your neighbors but it might not benefit your property when it comes to selling it, particularly if there are nearby properties on the market too.
If you’re considering a paint job, then seek advice from your neighbors and be honest with what you would like to do when it comes to the exterior of your home. Ultimately, the color you paint your home is down to you and you alone. However, if you want to keep on good speaking terms with your neighbors, then it might be good to factor in their concerns or feedback regarding the paint.
Simply giving them the heads up can make a difference, even if you’re intending to go for a bold color. At least it won’t come completely out of the blue when they wake up one morning to see you with your paint brush and covering the property in pink paint.
2. Highlight or bring back it’s history
There are a lot of properties out there that have been around for decades, if not hundreds of years. These types of properties can end up losing their history and aspects of their original features. Exterior paint can be a good way to bring these features back and in some cases, highlight them further.
If you’ve got an older property that has a variety of aged features, then consider using exterior paint to solely focus on making these areas stand out. This will be more effective than simply painting the entire exterior itself. It’ll help highlight original window sills to plaques that were typical in their placement back in the 1800s.
It might not necessarily be to everyone’s tastes, but if you’re keen to bring back some of the history to your property, then exterior paint can help with that. A word of advice though is to be cautious about painting on areas that might not take well to the paint you’re using. Always try a small patch test before moving onto a bigger section or area.
If there are any reservations that you have when it comes to painting on old materials or features, then try to get in touch with the relevant organizations and individuals that might be able to help you paint successfully. You want to try and cause as minimal damage or mistakes as possible when it comes to your home. Colorsnap is a great company to use if you’re looking for the right paints and for any expert advice when painting your home.
3. Remember the inside of your home
When painting or decorating your home in general, chances are, you want everything to flow pretty seamlessly throughout each space. The themes may be slightly different but certain colors and designs are going to have a similar appearance. The same goes for the outside of your home. If your home interiors are all monochrome, then it might be a little disjointed to have an exterior paint that’s green or red.
Try to partner up the inside of your home to the exterior so that it matches the expectations of those when coming inside of the property. However, that’s not something you have to stick by and you could do something completely different on the outside if you really wanted to. However, it’s always good to have a bit of consistency in order to provide both value and satisfaction.
The benefits of using exterior paint
Exterior paint certainly has many benefits and if you’ve been considering exterior paint for your own home, then perhaps you need a bit more convincing before taking the plunge and getting out the brush. Here are some benefits of using exterior paint on your home, now that you have a few tips for choosing the exterior paint color.
1. The value of your home increases
One of the biggest benefits and why many choose to paint the exterior is that it adds a bit of value to your home. It can end up being more aesthetically pleasing and unique, which is what some buyers will be after when it comes to selling your home.
Even if you have no intentions of selling your home yet, it’s always a good idea to focus on adding value and investing into your property’s worth.
2. Helps protect it from weather conditions
Weather conditions will always play a part when it comes to both the appearance and stability of your home. If your property doesn’t have a good structure, then chances are, it could end up being subjected to damage of some kind. With exterior paint, one of the benefits to painting your home is that it will help protect it from the elements.
Weather like rain, sleet and snow can all impact the quality of the brick work or whatever materials your home is made out of. This is due to moisture but also other minerals that can be found in the more harsh weather conditions.
By protecting it with paint, you’re avoiding the more costly structural work that will likely be needed after a while.
3. Corrects any damage
Damage is one of the main reasons why paint is used to tackle the exterior. There’s not always much you can do when it comes to damage that’s perhaps on the surface or only is minimal in it’s depth. Painting the exterior of your home might do well in covering it up and making it look like new.
It’s all dependent on the color you go for and how close you’ll need to get before the damage becomes obvious. There are some great exterior paint types out there though that are worth trying.
4. Gives your home an update
Sometimes a much-needed update is needed for some homes. Whilst other homes might be vintage in their appearance and beautiful to look at, some properties can age badly, particularly if the job of building the property wasn’t done as high standard as we see in today’s building trade for the most part.
Having a bit of an update is often needed and can really give your home a fresh face and appearance overall.
5. Makes your home stand out
Unless you’re wanting to make a bold statement and paint it a unique color, then that might be taking ‘stand out’ to a new level. However, any paint job on the outside of your home, whatever the color, is likely going to be a great addition to your home’s appearance and more importantly, it’s going to stand out. Colorsnap has a great variety of paints that are all worthy of helping a property stand out from the rest of the properties on the street.
Why not be the best looking property in your area? It’s not only good for your home’s value but it will likely make you feel good too!
6. Improves air quality indoors
With exterior paint, it can help to provide a lot more in the way of sealant for the home and that way, you can benefit from a better indoor air quality. This is important, especially with older buildings that might not be so healthy.
When choosing exterior paint colors, think about what you want and what will suit best for your property in particular. Everyone’s choice will be different and regardless of what your neighbors think, it’s you who owns the property and therefore, you should do what makes you happy. It’s only paint at the end of the day and it can always be changed.