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Choosing The Perfect Exterior Colour

1 January 2021

As we get closer to summer, you’ll no doubt be busy planning in your exterior masonry redecorating projects.

Using masonry paint such as X-Treme X-Posure®, High Cover Smooth and Fine Textured Matt, which provides long-lasting protection, is a great way of refreshing a building and bringing it back to its best. But with a wide choice of colours available across our range of masonry paints, what factors should be taken into consideration when it comes to choosing the perfect colour?

Location
The location of a building affects exterior colour choices, with coastal, urban and rural areas each fitting into different colour palettes. Cities, towns and villages can all vary in colour depending on their location and surrounding landscape, so respecting local colour schemes is key to choosing the right colour.

Coastal buildings are the most likely to use vibrant colours, with many seaside towns across the UK boasting a mix of colours from pink to blue – it’s thought that the reason for this is so that in the past, fishermen returning from sea could easily spot their houses as they approached the shoreline.

In contrast, colours of buildings in non-coastal cities, towns and villages are usually more muted shades of red, brown and beige. You can find colour inspiration for each UK region in our Exterior Colour Book.

History

As with the location of the building, its history should be factored into deciding which colour to paint its exterior. Most importantly, if the building is listed you’ll need to choose a colour which meets the approval of the local council.

The colour of a building often reflects the materials that were available in the area when they were built, such as stone or timber, which should influence any exterior colour choices now. For example, structures built during the Tudor era are famed for their black and white timber beams while those built during the Victorian era are mostly dark thanks to pollution at the time making it impractical to use white paint for exteriors.

For advice on all things colour you can request a copy of our Exterior Colour Book by emailing info@crownpaintspec.co.uk or calling 0330 024 0310. Don’t forget our technical advice team is always on hand to help you with specification or application queries. If you’ve got a question get in touch today.