How Do I Choose an Exterior Color for a Victorian Home?

Pick out some swatches and palette cards from your local paint store to get your imagination going. Make some preliminary selections of colors that appeal to you, matching muted tones for the base color and more vibrant colors for the trim. The vibrant colors should not be the brightest colors on offer. For instance, instead of a cherry red, go with a milder brick red.

Look around your neighborhood to see the colors of nearby homes. Pay special attention to colors of adjacent or attached homes, if you live in a row house or similar structure. Make some notes on what you see, or take some pictures if that is feasible. If you are a large distance from other homes, or your home is obscured by trees and foliage, this step is less important.

Match some of your selected colors with those of the homes nearby. Using a neutral or earth tone for a base color gives you many options for trim, sashes, shutters and the like. Using colors based on complements--such as red and green, purple and yellow or blue and orange--adds dynamism. You can go more muted with two or three earth tones and one bright color, such as viridian.

Narrow your choices to a final set of three or four colors. More than that creates confusion.

Pick up some test paints for your final colors and apply them to your house in an unobtrusive spot so you can see how they look. This gives you the real picture of how the colors will work together. You may find you want to tweak your final selections a bit once you have seen them in place on your home.