Outside House Color Schemes in the 1960s

High Contrast

• Photographs of modern-style homes in the 1960s often show a brightly-colored front door that makes today's color choices appear tame. An orange-red or bright teal door combined with trim in dark or light neutrals against various colors of brick exteriors created drama that was commonplace. In ranch or traditional-style homes, siding was more often painted a shade of blue or green than white, with doors and shutters sometimes painted in colors such as yellow or coral for high contrast.

Analogous Colors

• A series of colors found alongside one another on the color wheel provided a variety of paint color palettes for houses in the '60s. Hues of yellow, orange and orange-red, or of green and blue-green, were commonly used in the early 1960s. In the second half of the decade, these colors became more earthy. Rust combined with brown, or avocado green combined with mossy green, gained popularity.

Ice Cream Pastels

• Colors of peach, strawberry pink, blueberry, and pistachio ice creams were widely used in the early part of the 1960s for exteriors of smaller homes, particularly in coastal settings. Sometimes two colors were combined: one for siding and one for trim. Creamy white was an ideal compliment for these ice cream colors, whether on doors, shutters or miscellaneous trim.

Rich Neutrals

• Gray ruled as the neutral of choice during the decade, followed closely by brown. Rich, deep-to-medium grays were used for doors, shutters and trim, particularly on modern-style homes. Lighter grays were more common on ranch and traditional homes. Deep browns were paired with tones of cocoa and beige. Grayish greens worked as neutrals and complemented homes whose architecture was intended to blend with the surrounding environment.