Does choosing the right exterior paint for your Jacksonville, FL home seems like a daunting task? If you choose a boring color, you may feel like your home is featureless and blah. But if you choose something too bold, you may find yourself overwhelming the architecture and looking out of place in your neighborhood. So what do you do? The following tips will help you find that “just right” balance between boring and bold. You’d be surprised at what the right exterior house color and trim combinations can do!
As you are thinking about choosing exterior paint for your home, you should keep your home’s features and architecture in mind. Knowing a little bit about the residential architecture history of your neighborhood can help you figure out what will work best for your home. After all, there are some beautiful and historic areas in Jacksonville - you may have decades worth of color options to choose from! Either way, great use of exterior color can boost the curb appeal and market value of your Jacksonville, FL home.
Ready to get started?
Historical flair with a modern twist
If you happen to live in one of the City’s older areas, it can be a great idea to choose exterior paint colors that honor the past. If your house’s exterior has layers of old paint, you can dig through to the bottom layer and see what the home originally looked like. If your older home has a simple architecture, your color palette may only need two shades - one for the main house and one for any trim. Take a look around your neighborhood for color combinations that speak to you! It can also be a fun family activity to go to a local Historical Society and look at pictures of your neighborhood (or similar neighborhoods) in the past. This can help you honor the past as you update your home.
Or go the complete opposite direction… Flair it up!
If you’re lucky enough to live in a neighborhood with an HOA that appreciates style, you may be able to really jazz your home up. There are so many unique modern paint color trends popular for interiors - and you can bring some of those choices to the exterior of your home. Consider what a beautiful midnight blue trim would look like against a more neutral home exterior. You’ll have to really get a sense of what your neighborhood is all about - so make sure you look around before you buy ten gallons of fluorescent purple to paint your shutters!
Speaking of neighbors… Work them into the equation
Nobody wants to be “that neighbor” that the rest of the neighborhood talks about for some reason. And exterior paint color can be one of those big bugaboos that drives a wedge between an otherwise peaceful neighborhood. So, as we said before, get a real feel for what your neighborhood is all about. Does the architecture of your home look like the one next door? In many Jacksonville, FL neighborhoods, we’d bet it does. It’s a good idea to choose exterior house paint colors with an eye for what’s around you. Different colors work in beachy neighborhoods than work in more traditionally suburban areas. Your home’s exterior paint color is a deliberate choice that you get to make - do you want to blend in, complement, or stand out? (Believe it or not, there’s no right answer here!)
Look inward for inspiration
No, we’re not getting philosophical here! But you can certainly use the interior of your house as inspiration for the paint colors on the exterior. Take some time to consider the color schemes that are already at play inside your home - or the color schemes you intend to use inside your home - and you can choose exterior paint colors that harmonize with one another. You can take your inspiration from anywhere, too… Choose a throw pillow, a set of curtains, a tablecloth… and use that as the jumping-off point for the rest of your colors. Your interior furnishings can even serve as a guide, too. Look to your furniture to lead you to the right interior paint colors, and then use those to influence the colors that you use on the outside of your home. Harmony can be amazing! (Okay, maybe we did get a little philosophical.)
And it’s all about balance
Balance and harmony, balance and harmony… When you are ready to paint the exterior of your home, it’s important to maintain visual balance. A heavy area of color in just one part of the home may make it appear lopsided. The same goes for the color families. There are some that would disagree with this bit of advice, but we feel the best look for Jacksonville, FL homes is a balanced, unified look without any extreme contrasts. Choose exterior colors that are at least related - either near one another on the color wheel, or a color and a neutral. This will help you achieve curb appeal, a look that can be timeless, and increase the value of your home.
The exterior of your home is the first thing people will see when they visit your house. Make sure the exterior speaks as much to your design aesthetic as the inside. When you’re ready to begin an exterior painting job on your Jacksonville, FL home, look no further for the latest tips and tricks to help you get it done right.