As a siding contractor in Bergen County NJ we install vinyl,wood and the new James Hardie Concrete Siding using only the finest materials available coupled with our expert installation team. There are a variety of colors and many new materials available .

Choosing the Right Color Scheme - Balancing the Elements of Your Home

Making certain all the exterior visual elements of your home are in balance is key to a unified look. People take a perfectly balanced home, use an over-complicated the color scheme and unbalance it. That is not to say don't use multiple colors, but it is the reason why it's important to follow some basic design rules and think about a comprehesive look for your home design.

Some tips to consider:

When using two body colors, in most cases you should use the darker color on the bottom half of the house. This visually anchors the structuree to the ground because in nature most environments fade from dark to light. For example a painting of the forest — the earth is dark and there is generally a gradient to a lighter sky.

Your trim color does not have to be the lightest color in your combination. The eye is attracted to light colors before dark colors so having light color trim will attract the viewer to the trim first. But dark trim can also be very effective when done properly or just dark sills as an accent.  

Design Basics

Contrast
Visual contrast is created when colors appearing next to each other vary in value, brightness or shade. When using contrast, keep in mind that high contrast brings more attention to the area of the home. A home exterior that’s very detailed with high levels of contrast can look too busy.  Using the correct amount or level of contrast though can be stunning.  Envision the beauty of the Chiaroscuro [chiaro-light and scuro-dark] effect in a Rembrandt painting. 

Scale
Scale refers to how the different elements of your home proportionately work together. Does one element of the house stand out more than others? Are the windows smaller or larger in comparison to the body area? If you need to minimize an element of your home, make it darker, but not so drastically dark that it stands out. If you want other elements to appear larger, use a lighter color.

Color for Emphasis
Color is one of the most effective tools for emphasizing specific elements of your home. This is accomplished by using contrast. Many homeowners want the viewer to be attracted to details like shutters, the front door or dormers. By painting these elements accent colors, they are the first things people notice when approaching your home.

NOTE:A very common error is to take common elements such as vents, ducts and piping and use colors that contrast to the body of the home. These are not attractive and should blend into the exterior design not be accented.

Architectural Home Styles
Before you start thinking about specific exterior colors, you have to figure your goals. Do you want to use colors that are traditionally associated with your home’s architectural style? Or, do you want to deviate from those colors? Most of the time, if designed well, either solution can be attractive.

However, there are many traditionalists who believe that there should be limited deviation. People who work to make certain that an area maintains a sense of harmony, both historically and in terms of design. This is a good thing! Purists are concerned that homes with “pink house syndrome” -( we've all seen those)  can be an eyesore within the neighborhood, and in most cases they are right.