Rustic Exterior Paint Color Schemes from Four Paintings
Rustic exterior paint color schemes use deep browns and olives, with a clean trim and a forest or deep blue door. The four schemes here take their colors from paintings and are drawn on a craftsman bungalow with a brown, weathered wood or black roof.
Quick answer
For a cabin look, use #584638 on the walls, #E1E0DC on the trim and #4C693D on the door and shutters. Keep the roof brown.
Every wall, trim and door color here was measured from one of these public-domain paintings.
4 complete exterior color schemes
Walls, trim, front door and roof together. Each scheme takes its colors from public-domain paintings, so the pairings are ones a painter already put side by side.
Brown Lodge
Walls #584638
Trim #E1E0DC
Front door & shutters #4C693D
Roof: brown
Deep brown walls with snow white trim and fern green door and shutters give a bungalow a classic lodge look. A brown roof keeps it warm.
Exterior paint is seen in much stronger light than a room. Full sun bleaches a color by a shade or two, while the shaded side of the house and overcast days pull it cooler and darker. Test a large sample on two sides of the house.
Color
Swatch
Full sun
Overcast
In shade
Golden hour
Cabin Brown LRV 7
Weathered Gray-Brown LRV 21
Dark Pine Olive LRV 4
Bronze Ochre LRV 17
Soft Snow White LRV 75
Try these colors on a house
Pick a color for the walls, the trim, the front door and the roof, and switch between house styles. Shadows and siding lines follow your choice.
Roof colors are typical shingle, tile and metal colors, not paint. Every other color comes from a painting on this page.
Colors for the walls
#584638LRV 7
Cabin Brown
A deep brown with a red-orange undertone and an LRV of 7, a strong wall color for a lodge-style house. It comes from Carracci's "The Coronation of the Virgin".
A deep warm yellow-brown with an LRV of 17, the warmest body color here. It was measured from Ranson's "Woman Standing Beside a Balustrade with a Poodle".
Rustic walls come from nature: bark, soil, moss and weathered wood. The four body colors here range from LRV 4 to 21. The darkest, #3A3D26 at LRV 4, is almost black-green and suits houses with plenty of trees. The lightest, #867E6C at LRV 21, looks like weathered wood and works on siding in open sites.
Before choosing, look at your roof, stone and landscaping. A brown roof sits well with the browns. A black roof sets off the dark olive. If your house has a stone base, hold a sample against it.
Behr and Sherwin-Williams have close measured matches, such as SW 7027 Well-Bred Brown for the cabin brown.
Which trim and door colors work?
All four schemes use the same trim color, #E1E0DC, at LRV 75. It is a clean, neutral white, so the walls are the main color. Against a dark wall the contrast is strong, which gives the house a crisp outline.
Door and shutter colors change the personality. Fern green #4C693D feels traditional. The moss #899261 is lighter. The deep teal #376567 is the boldest choice, and it works with bronze walls. Cabin brown on the door of a gray-brown house keeps everything in the same family.
Paint the garage door the trim color so it stays in the background. If your house has a porch, remember that the underside of the roof and the porch ceiling are often in shade, so a mid-tone door will look darker there than on a bright day. Try the door sample in that spot before deciding.
How do dark rustic colors behave outdoors?
Dark colors look lighter in full sun and cooler in shade, so it is wise to choose a shade darker than you expect. Even so, a dark color such as #584638 at LRV 7 stays rich in both.
Dark walls absorb heat. In hot climates, the lighter gray-brown or bronze may be more comfortable than the darkest choices. Dark colors can also show dust and fading earlier, so use a high-quality exterior paint.
Olive and green doors can look more yellow in warm light and bluer in shade. Look at the sample on a day when the sky is clear and again on an overcast day.
How do you test exterior samples?
Paint a sample of at least three feet square on two sides of the house. Place the trim color beside it, and hold the door color board against the entry.
Look at the samples in the morning, at noon and in the evening. Step back to the street to see how the colors read from a distance.
Compare the sample against the roof and any stone or brick, since fixed materials will not change to suit the paint. Leave the samples up for at least a few days, ideally including one overcast day, because a color that looks right on the first morning can feel different once you have lived with it. The paint matches given here are the closest measured colors, so always check real chips before buying.
FAQ
What colors are rustic for a house exterior?
Deep brown, gray-brown, dark olive and bronze are used here, each with snow white trim.
What door color goes with a dark brown house?
Fern green #4C693D is used with the deep brown scheme. It is a deep green with an LRV of 12.
What roof color suits a rustic house?
The schemes use brown, weathered wood and black roofs, depending on the wall color.
Is #3A3D26 too dark for a house?
It has an LRV of 4, so it is very dark. It suits a wooded site and a black roof, but may absorb a lot of heat.
Which trim color is used?
All four schemes use #E1E0DC, a very light neutral at LRV 75, for trim, fascia and the garage door.
Save these colors
A card with these house color schemes: walls, trim, front door and roof. Pin it, or take it to the paint store.
Painting images: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, public domain (CC0).
Colors measured by Light & Pigment. Paint names belong to their brands and matches are approximate. Colors look different on screen than on a wall, so always test a sample.
