Exterior flair: Can you go bold on the outside?

From the Resene decorating blog

It’s not just what’s on the inside that counts.

The interior spaces of our homes are where we typically can let our design flair shine, experimenting with colours, patterns and styles. When it comes to painting the outside of our homes, our choices typically veer towards the more conservative – for good reasons – but if you wanted to think a bit more outside the box in your exterior colours, what do you need to think about?

Cost, street appeal and longevity are typically our biggest considerations when we’re choosing an exterior paint colour scheme, which all tend to suggest off-white neutrals as a good option. Resene House White, for example, has been described as the perfect greyed-edge white for exterior house painting. But, depending on certain variables such as the cladding material you’re painting, the style of your home and what you’re trying to achieve with a repaint, it is possible to get a little more individual and bold with your colour choices.

Where to start

Resene Colour Consultant Amy Watkins says before committing to any exterior colour scheme there is a range of both aesthetic and practical things to consider, including:

• What is the architectural style of your home? Some styles of home design, such as classic villas and bungalows, may lend themselves to more neutral palettes if you want to stay true to their classic heritage. Other modern or Art Deco homes may lend themselves to bolder, unexpected colours. There aren’t really any strict rules; it just comes down to how well the paint will last and the look you want to achieve.

• How much heat and direct sun will your exterior painted surfaces be exposed to? This is an important one as dark colours will absorb more heat from the sun, which can have a negative impact not just on the paint itself with the potential for bubbling and cracking, but it can also damage the substrate material underneath the paint. Resene CoolColour technology can help mitigate this as it reflects more UV light.

• How bright is the light around your home? As well as heat, it’s worth thinking about the intensity of light shining on your painted house. In our naturally bright light conditions in this part of the world, bright whites can be too glary over large areas outside. Check the light reflectance value (LRV) handily noted on the back of Resene paint chips to guide you. Any colour with an LRV of higher than 85% may be too bright for exterior use unless your house sits in a shady wooded dell. That same bright sunlight also makes paint colours look much lighter on the exterior of a house than they do inside, so try Resene testpots in a couple of shades darker as well to check how it looks.

• Are you painting for resale appeal, or for yourself as the homeowner? Street appeal has a big impact on buyers when you’re trying to sell so you may want to factor in what kind of first impression your colour scheme gives from the street if you might be selling during the lifetime of your paint.

• What surfaces are you painting, and what condition are they in? Lighter shades in a matt or low-sheen finish will be more forgiving on older, imperfect surfaces. Resene Lumbersider Low Sheen can be a good choice to help disguise rougher wood finishes.

“Once you ask yourself these things, you can work with Resene experts to narrow down the paint products you’ll need and what colours will work best to give you the finished look you want,” Amy says.

Beyond the beige

Opting for a bolder exterior colour choice doesn’t need to mean going all-in on black or dark blue (though shades like Resene Element or Resene Carpe Noctem can look beautifully dramatic in the right conditions), or going for vivid brights.

Instead, look to muted shades that have enough colour to be individual and stand out, while being soft and complex enough to work in the same way as a neutral. Try sophisticated subtle blues and greens like Resene Wabi Sabi, Resene Eau De Nil, or Resene Unite that can look elegant and refined on house exteriors. One good tip is to look for shades that have a “blackened” or greyed edge to them, so they create a gentle haze of colour rather than a wall of in-your-face brightness.

If you do want to go for a bolder, more colour-saturated look, definitely check that your substrate will be able to cope with heat and UV light, and check with Resene that your preferred shades come in Resene CoolColor.

Another way to add higher impact colours on your exterior is to add a different shade on trim areas like window sashes, soffits, and exterior doors, Amy says.

“Using a second contrast colour is a great way to add character, depth and uniqueness to your home. One of the most common ways to do that is on window sashes or shutters – or, more recently, think about how a really bold, bright contrast colour would look on your front door.” Deep brick reds such as Resene Shiraz or Resene Paprika work well on front doors as a bold contrast against a lot of mid-toned neutrals, to give you that all-important street appeal. You could also try rich oranges like Resene Fire against stony neutrals like Resene Half Stonewall, bright blues like Resene Key Largo against off-white Resene Sea Fog or herbaceous greens like Resene Parsley against cream Resene Half Pearl Lusta.

If you are wanting to keep the front of your house more neutral to preserve its street appeal or its attractiveness to potential buyers, you could try experimenting with bolder colours on parts of the house, not visible from the street, Amy suggests.

“Try a feature wall, on the side or rear of the house, or even just a panel in a high saturated colour such as Resene Red Berry or Resene Aqua,” she says. Using blocks of bold colour can be a really effective, fun way to not only satisfy your desire for bright shades, but it can help you create different zones for outdoor areas.

A richly painted seating around in deep Resene Forest Green, or stained in Resene Colorwood Crowshead, can bring cosiness and personality into an outdoor space.

Colours mentioned in this article

Products mentioned in this article

June 21, 2025

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