Few decorating choices are more important than picking your exterior paint color scheme. After all, your paint job is one of the first things people are going to notice when they come to your home. You only get one chance at making a first impression, and you want it to be a good one.

But what does “a good one” mean in this context?

The best exterior painting schemes excel at helping their property come alive, mesh well with the rest of the property, and bring something new to your old home.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best exterior paint colors to dabble with.

1. Yellow and Lemon

In an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray and his father Frank are painting Ray’s house and arguing about it, the latter painting it yellow instead of the Chantilly Lace Ray and his wife Debra wanted.

Why?

“Because yellow covers better! It won’t fade as fast…It makes your house pop a little…and it goes with your trim…!”

Well, Frank says it better than we ever could, because all of those reasons hold true. Both subtle lemon meringue like the one used on the show and brighter yellows cover quite evenly, their vividness means they won’t fade that fast, and they can really help your home stand out and “pop!”

2. Blues and Greens

These are both decorating classics, of course, but what separates the best blue and green exterior paint jobs from the merely middling ones might surprise you.

Lovely as these colors are in all their vibrancy, a little grey can go a long way toward making them appear all the more vivacious. Not only is grey a great accent color, but it can help light or deeper blue and green home colors from appearing too monotonous.

You also want to consider your surroundings. If you have a lush green yard and big tree, you may want to go for a deeper green to match, or else you might want to contrast it with a complementary blue. The same applies in reverse for backyard poolside paint jobs.

3. Warmer Browns

These are a good choice if you’re looking to evoke a more rustic setting with your property. At the same time, while coffee and deep warm browns can be great at helping your home appear woodsy, they also do a good job of hiding any potential rust.

That means you’ll have to look that much harder to detect rust during maintenance, of course, but it does mean that your home won’t show spots and blemishes easily, which is a nice touch for making it appear “cleaner.”

4. Lilting Whites

Let’s return to Debra’s Chantilly Lace and similar white colors. 

On the one hand, these can be great for giving your home a sense of minimalist understated class. On the other hand, as Frank observed, they can be a bit dull if you don’t pair them with something. This is where those greys come back into play. Cool and medium-dark greys can make for an elegant contrast while still keeping the understated integrity of this color scheme.

By choosing one of these colors, you can bring a splash of decorative excitement to your home’s exterior.