White House Paint: Exterior Color Combinations

How do you choose a white for the house walls?

Start with what will not change. A roof, brick, stone, a chimney or a driveway all have an undertone, and the wall white has to sit well beside it. Hold a big sample next to each fixed material before you decide.

Warm whites with a yellow undertone, like the first shade on this page (LRV 75), suit charcoal or brown roofs and tan or cream stone. Whites with a faint pink-red undertone, like the second (LRV 78), soften red brick and warm gray roofs. Cool blue-leaning whites, like the third (LRV 73), sit well with gray stone, slate and charcoal or black roofs.

All three are very light, so they reflect a lot of light and read as white from the street. If your siding or stucco faces strong sun, a white between 73 and 78 is plenty bright. Pick the undertone first and the exact name second.

How much contrast should trim and the front door have?

Trim is where a white house gets its shape. The trim color on this page is nearly black, with an LRV of 1. Against walls at LRV 73 to 78, that is the strongest contrast you can get. It makes windows, fascia, corner boards and the garage door read crisply from the street.

The front door and shutters can be a step softer. The olive is LRV 10, the red-brown is LRV 4 and the slate blue is LRV 17. All are dark enough to stand out against a white wall.

Pick one door color and use it on the shutters too. Then keep the rest simple: one wall white, one trim color, one door color, one roof. The near-black trim has no close commercial match, so take the hex value to a paint store and ask for a color match.

Why does white look different in sun and shade?

Light changes white more than any other color. In full sun, an exterior white looks lighter and brighter than the chip, and a large wall of it can feel close to glare. In shade, or on the north side of the house, the same white looks cooler and a little grayer.

Because of this, choose a shade darker than the one you think you want. A white that looks slightly creamy or tinted on a small chip often looks clean and right once it covers a whole wall outdoors.

Undertone matters too. A yellow undertone keeps shaded walls from turning flat and gray. A blue undertone can look crisp in warm afternoon light but cool under a gray sky. A pink-red undertone can show more in low morning and evening light.

Dark trim and doors do the opposite. They stay dark in any light, so the contrast with the wall looks strongest in bright sun.

How do you test white exterior paint?

Test large, and test outside. Paint a sample board at least two feet square, or paint a patch directly on the wall, with two coats. Small chips mislead on exterior walls.

Put samples on two sides of the house, ideally one that gets full sun and one that stays in shade. Look at them in the morning, at midday, in late afternoon and on an overcast day. Check them again after dark if you use porch lights.

Set each sample next to the things that will stay: the roof, brick, stone, the driveway and the front walk. Hold the trim and door colors beside them too. Then walk to the street and look at the whole house from there, not from a foot away.

Give it at least two days before you decide. White is the color most likely to surprise you, so let it show you how it behaves.