Our home was built in late 2011, we moved in in early 2012, and we are the first and only owners of our home. After living here for 8.5 years, we have decided to have the exterior of our home painted! It is suggested to have your exterior painted every 8-10 years. I have also noticed fading and spots around the exterior that just look dingy. I’m excited for a refresh! Here is how to choose a white exterior paint color. Spoiler alert, it’s hard!
We live in a Kansas City suburb and it seems that most of the homes near us are painted a shade of brown, including our own. We call it Johnson County beige around here! We currently have three colors on our home (main, trim, accent). We are taking it down to two colors for this refresh. I always knew when it was time to paint the exterior that I would go white! It’s classic and modern at the same time. It feels “trendy” right now to go white, but I think it is timeless and will never feel trendy. We recently painted the entire interior of our home white too! It just feels fresh to me. Here is our current exterior.
Starting the Process of Choosing White Exterior Paint
After we made the decision to paint, we hired a painter, and then I got to work deciding on colors. This is a process for me because I want to get it right. And whites are hard and easy to get wrong! I’m also a visual person and need to see them and feel them and do my research. The first thing I did was scour the internet for information on appealing exterior white paint colors (probably similar to what you are doing now!). Then I narrowed down several colors I wanted to get samples of.
Painting Samples on the House
I ended up with Moderne White (top left), Oyster White (top middle), Natural Choice (bottom left), Alabaster (bottom middle), Swiss Coffee (top right), and White Dove (bottom right). I decided right away on my top three colors and ended up putting those on all of the walls of the exterior to view them at different times of day and in different light. My favorites for our home were Moderne White, Oyster White, and Natural Choice.
I’ll say it again…whites are SO HARD! At different times of day, they look so different! Many times colors you might like on interiors don’t translate well to exteriors. It’s a whole process for sure! I painted two coats of paint on pieces of card stock and carried them around the house too! Below are the many things I considered/thought of when making a decision about choosing an exterior white paint color.
Consider Your Windows
You can see in the photo beloved’s that we have cream/bone colored windows on our home. This is not something we are changing or painting, so I need a color that will work with this, not against it. I knew I needed a warm white because of this. I’m okay with contrast (we have creamy trim inside and warm white walls and I love it), but anything too white would make the windows look more creamy and more yellow.
Consider the Finishes on Your Home
We have warm stone on the front of our home and a brown roof. Once again, the new paint colors need to work with these finishes that are not changing. Too stark of a white would have competed with the warm finishes. Our home is traditional so I’m also avoiding anything too modern looking. I’m also trying to stay away from “farmhouse” because that is not the look I’m going for! I also want to warn you of your existing paint color skewing the colors you are looking at! I think the beige on our home skews the look of the whites when painted on it (some can go more yellow which doesn’t translate). Be careful when painting the sample next to each other and be aware that the existing color can make the color look “off”. So hard, right?!
Don’t Trust the Internet With White Exterior Paint
Of course finding images of the colors you like are important and necessary! But don’t trust that every website and every white home you see on Pinterest is the exact color it says it is. Unless you have seen the owner write it in a blog post, you know the owner, etc, don’t trust it. I have pulled up so many homes that look like the colors, but I could never really source them. You helped out a ton when I asked on my instagram stories for photos of your white homes. This helped so much!
Consider the Homes Around Yours
As mentioned earlier, most of the homes in our neighborhood are a shade of brown. We have no white homes on our street and very few in our neighborhood, which is part of the reason I want to go white! However, I don’t want to be “that glaring white house on the street” either. I know it will seem bright from the start because it will be such a change, but I don’t want bright white where you feel like you have to wear sunglasses to look at it! Choosing a warm, subtle white is the goal! We also have stone and will have an accent color to break up all the white.
When in doubt, ask around! Ask your neighbors for their input. Scour the internet. Don’t be afraid to ask a homeowner or a builder what color the exterior of their home is if you really like it. The color we ultimately chose is the same color that one of my sister’s friends and neighbors has on their home. I have seen it in person many times and I trust the homeowner’s opinion (we’re friends too). My mom and my sister are my go-to sounding boards for all things home, and my choice is their choice too!
The Colors We Chose
In the end, we chose Sherwin Williams Oyster White for the full exterior. We are using Benjamin Moore Graphite for the accent color (shutters, pillars, garage doors, etc). Graphite is currently our accent color and it is the perfect dark charcoal color. I also have two bathrooms painted in this color and our basement bar cabinets and island are painted this color. When you know, you know!
Sherwin Williams Oyster White has a low LRV (Light Reflectance Value) for a white paint which means it won’t be glaring or offensive. It is a warm, dirty white. And by dirty, I mean it has some black in it so it kind of has a gray/taupe feel when it’s not in direct sunlight. The color is a very rich white. It pairs well with our cream windows and warm stone and with the accent color and the look of our home. You can see here how warm it feels next to extra white which is a true, bright white. Crazy, right?!
I hope I made the right decision! Eek! The painters are supposed to come Monday. I’ll probably be that girl who is hovering over the painters to see the paint in case I want to change it at the last minute – ha! We need to prep the house this weekend by removing anything on the walls. And we still need to decide exactly where the accent color is going. Needless to say, I’m excited for a refresh! I’m all about the curb appeal! XO
