How Do You Choose Exterior Paint Colors That Improve Curb Appeal and Buyer Appeal?
Quick Answer: Start with the permanent features of the home, such as the roof, brick, stone, windows, and architectural style. Choose body, trim, and accent colors that work with those features, improve curb appeal, and still feel appropriate for the neighborhood. If resale matters, favor combinations with broad buyer appeal and test large samples outside before making a final decision. No single paint color can guarantee a higher sale price, but a well-chosen exterior palette can make a home look more attractive and market-ready.
Choosing an exterior color sounds simple until you stand in front of hundreds of paint chips and realize the color has to work with your roof, brick, stone, windows, landscaping, architectural style, sunlight—and possibly future buyers.
For homeowners in Lawrence and surrounding northeastern Kansas communities, the same basic principles apply: start with the roof, brick, stone, architecture, and actual light on the house before choosing a color.
There is also a lot of advice online claiming that one particular color is “best” for resale. The evidence is more nuanced than that. Some national studies have found associations between exterior colors, front-door colors, and buyer response, but the results can depend heavily on the rest of the house.
A better approach is to understand how to choose exterior paint colors for the particular home in front of you. That means starting with the parts of the house you cannot easily change, considering its architecture and surroundings, testing colors outdoors, and using resale research as evidence—not as a rule.
Does Exterior Paint Color Really Affect Home Value?
There is evidence that exterior color can affect how buyers respond to a home, but homeowners should be careful about turning that evidence into a promise about sale price.
Zillow has conducted national paint-color research examining how buyers respond to different colors and exterior combinations. Those studies are useful because they show that color can affect buyer perception, but the findings should not be treated as proof that repainting a particular house a certain color will automatically increase its sale price.
Exterior color preferences change over time, housing styles differ, and real estate markets are local.
Exterior color can influence buyer perception and curb appeal, but there is no reliable formula in which painting a house one particular color automatically adds a predictable dollar amount to its value.
What Does Newer Research Tell Us About Curb Appeal?
More recent Zillow research provides an especially useful lesson:
Context matters at least as much as the color itself.
In 2026, Zillow’s behavioral science team studied how recent buyers and home shoppers responded to different front-door colors paired with different exterior types. Participants evaluated the homes for appeal, likelihood of touring, and what they would consider offering.
There was no universal winning door color.
A color that performed strongly against one type of exterior could perform very differently when placed against another exterior material or color.
That is a much more useful lesson than simply saying:
“Paint your door blue.”
The better question is:
“What door color works with the exterior already on this house?”
Read Zillow’s front-door color buyer-response research.
Neutral or Bold: Which Exterior Paint Colors Appeal to More Buyers?
There is no strong evidence showing that every homeowner preparing to sell should choose either a completely neutral exterior or a bold one.
The newer Zillow research demonstrates why a universal rule is risky. A stronger accent color can work well when the surrounding exterior is simple, while a visually complex exterior may benefit from a quieter door.
That suggests a practical compromise.
If resale is a priority, the main body of the house is usually the place to be more cautious. Whites, off-whites, muted grays, greiges, subdued greens, taupes, and other restrained colors can be easier to coordinate with permanent materials.
The front door and smaller architectural features offer more room for personality.
That is design guidance rather than proof that neutral siding will make a Lawrence home sell for more money.
Start With the Parts of the House You Are Not Painting
Before looking for exterior house paint colors, stand across the street from your home and temporarily ignore the existing paint.
Look instead at what is staying:
- roof shingles
- brick
- stone
- unpainted masonry
- window frames
- garage doors
- gutters and downspouts
- permanent metal finishes
- concrete
- decks or natural wood
- landscaping
Sherwin-Williams recommends considering fixed exterior elements such as roofing, stone, and brick before choosing the rest of the exterior palette. See Sherwin-Williams guidance on selecting exterior colors around fixed elements.
If your brick has warm red, orange, or brown undertones, a very cool blue-gray siding color may fight with it.
If the roof has strong warm-brown tones, the same problem can happen with an icy gray or blue-white.
If your stone contains several colors, one of its quieter undertones can become a useful starting point for the body or trim color.
The goal is not necessarily to match everything.
It is to make the permanent materials and the new paint look as though they belong on the same house.
Pay Attention to Undertones, Not Just Color Names
“White,” “gray,” “beige,” and “green” are not precise descriptions.
One white may lean creamy yellow.
Another may have a gray undertone.
A third may appear slightly blue.
Two gray paint chips that look nearly identical in a store can behave very differently when one is placed next to red brick and another beside limestone or warm stone.
This becomes especially important across large exterior surfaces.
A subtle undertone on a small chip can become much more noticeable when that same color covers an entire side of a house.
Let the Architecture Help Narrow the Choices
Architecture does not dictate one historically “correct” color for every house, but it provides useful boundaries.
Lawrence has a broad range of residential architecture. Historic neighborhoods include older homes with porches, masonry, wood siding, detailed trim, and architectural features that may support more layered color palettes. Other parts of Lawrence contain postwar ranch homes, split-levels, and newer suburban construction.
Those differences matter when selecting exterior paint colors for houses.
Craftsman and Bungalow Homes
Craftsman architecture often includes visible structural and decorative elements such as porches, columns, brackets, wood, and masonry.
That gives homeowners opportunities to use a restrained body color with contrasting trim or architectural accents.
Earth-inspired greens, muted browns, warm neutrals, subdued blues, and similar palettes can complement natural materials, but those are design suggestions rather than resale-price findings.
Ranch Homes
A ranch typically has a long, low horizontal profile.
Using too many unrelated colors can break that long façade into visual pieces.
A simpler palette often lets brick, stone, rooflines, and landscaping do more of the work.
If the home combines brick with painted siding, use the brick as a major reference point rather than selecting the siding color independently.
Traditional Suburban Homes
Many newer homes already contain several permanent colors through roofing, stone veneer, brick, garage doors, and windows.
Adding three or four unrelated paint colors on top of those materials can make the façade unnecessarily busy.
In this situation, simplifying the palette may be more effective than adding another statement color.
Older and Historic Lawrence Homes
Older Lawrence homes can support more detailed color schemes because the architecture itself may contain more trim, porches, brackets, columns, and other features worth distinguishing.
But there is another question:
Is the property historically designated?
The City of Lawrence maintains local historic landmarks and historic districts and has a Historic Resources Commission that reviews certain changes involving designated properties.
Do not assume that every old house is regulated simply because it is old.
If your home is a designated landmark, is within a designated historic district, or may be affected by historic-review requirements, review the City of Lawrence Historic Resources information before making exterior changes.
How Many Exterior Colors Should a House Have?
There is no research-backed number that every house must follow.
A useful starting point for many homes is two or three primary color roles:
Body color — the largest painted surface.
Trim color — fascia, window trim, corner boards, and other architectural details.
Accent color — usually the front door, shutters, or another smaller feature.
That does not mean every house needs three different colors.
A simple ranch may look better with one primary color plus trim.
A detailed older home may support a more complex palette.
Brick and stone also count visually even though you are not painting them.
A house with red brick, gray roofing, white windows, black gutters, and painted siding already contains several colors before you add an accent door.
Count what your eye sees—not simply the number of paint cans being purchased.
How Should the Front Door Fit Into the Exterior Palette?
The front door is one of the safer places to experiment because it occupies relatively little area and can create a clear focal point.
But Zillow’s research makes one thing particularly clear:
Do not choose a door color independently from the house.
A color that performed well with one exterior performed much differently with another.
Instead of asking:
“What is the best front-door color?”
ask:
“What does this exterior need?”
A mostly white exterior may be able to carry a stronger accent.
A house with red brick, stone, dark roofing, and several other materials may benefit from a quieter door.
A door can either create contrast or add one more competing element.
Those are not the same thing.
See Zillow’s front-door color study for the underlying buyer-response research.
How Sunlight Changes Exterior Paint Colors
Exterior colors should never be selected under store lighting alone.
A paint color can look different depending on whether it is viewed in direct sun, shade, morning light, or late-afternoon light.
The south and west sides of a Lawrence home may receive very different light from a shaded north-facing wall.
This does not mean Kansas has its own special exterior-color formula.
It means homeowners here need to evaluate colors under the actual light falling on their own house.
What About UV Exposure and Fading in Kansas?
Sunlight does more than change how a color looks.
Over time, sunlight and weather also affect exterior coatings.
Different pigments and coating formulations can age differently, and strong sun exposure can make certain sides of a house weather differently from others.
For a Lawrence homeowner, the practical lesson is not simply:
“Choose a light color.”
It is:
Consider both the color and the coating system.
If one side of the house receives strong afternoon sun, ask how the proposed product and color are expected to perform under that exposure.
A beautiful color in an inappropriate exterior coating is not a good long-term color decision.
Test Exterior Paint Colors Before Committing
This may be the most important practical step in the entire process.
Do not choose an exterior color solely from a phone screen, Pinterest photo, manufacturer website, neighbor’s house, tiny paint chip, or sample viewed only under store lighting.
Benjamin Moore explains that paint samples can be used to evaluate how colors look as lighting conditions change and when considering exterior color. See Benjamin Moore’s paint color sample guidance.
Look at your finalists:
- in the morning
- around midday
- in late-afternoon light
- in direct sunlight
- in shade
- beside the roof
- beside brick or stone
- beside windows and trim
- from across the street
Do not judge only from three feet away.
Exterior color is experienced at the scale of the entire building.
Should You Consider the Neighboring Houses?
Yes—but not because your house must match them.
If every neighboring house is beige, yours does not also have to be beige.
But it is worth seeing your proposed palette as part of the street rather than as an isolated paint chip.
A distinctive house can be attractive.
A house whose colors compete with its own architecture, materials, and surroundings can create a very different impression.
That is design reasoning, not a Lawrence-specific sales-price finding.
When Do HOA Rules Matter?
If your property is governed by a homeowners association, check its current architectural rules before buying the paint.
Some associations maintain approved color palettes or require architectural-review approval for exterior changes.
Do not assume that because your neighbor has a particular color, the same color will automatically be approved for your property.
This is separate from Lawrence historic-preservation review.
An HOA is private governance through community covenants.
Historic review involves applicable city or preservation rules.
A property could potentially involve one, both, or neither.
What Do We Actually Know About Exterior Color in Lawrence, Kansas?
This is where it is important not to overstate the research.
I could not find a credible Lawrence-specific or Douglas County study demonstrating that a particular exterior paint color produces a measurable increase in sale price, listing clicks, showing requests, days on market, or buyer offers.
I also did not find credible Kansas-specific evidence establishing one particular exterior color as the strongest resale choice for Lawrence homeowners.
So it would be misleading to say something such as:
“Greige adds $3,000 to a Lawrence home.”
The Zillow research discussed earlier is national research.
It provides useful evidence about buyer behavior.
It does not prove what a particular buyer in Lawrence will pay for a specific house.
What is locally documented is Lawrence’s architectural diversity and historic housing stock.
That makes a house-specific approach especially important.
The right exterior palette for an older Old West Lawrence home with elaborate trim may be very different from the right palette for a postwar ranch or a newer suburban house with stone veneer and dark windows.
If You Are Selling, Should You Follow the Research or Follow the House?
Both—but start with the house.
Use resale research to identify possible risks and opportunities.
Then filter those findings through:
Architecture → permanent materials → light → neighborhood → condition → buyer audience.
Zillow’s front-door research demonstrates how dramatically the effectiveness of one color can change when the surrounding exterior changes.
That points toward a more useful principle:
Context matters.
If you expect to sell soon, it can also be useful to ask a Lawrence-area real estate professional what buyers are responding to within your particular price range and neighborhood.
National data can identify broad patterns.
A local professional sees the actual competing homes.
A Simple Process for Choosing Your Exterior Colors
- Identify everything that is staying. Start with the roof, brick, stone, windows, gutters, garage door, and other permanent materials.
- Identify the architecture. Decide whether the house benefits from a simple palette or has architectural details worth emphasizing.
- Choose the main body-color family first. Do not start with the front door.
- Check the undertones against the permanent materials. Eliminate combinations that fight the roof, brick, or stone.
- Choose trim that supports the body color. It can contrast without becoming a second unrelated statement.
- Choose the accent last. Decide whether the front door or another feature actually needs contrast.
- Sample the finalists outside. Observe them throughout the day and from across the street.
- Check HOA or historic requirements if they apply.
- If resale is the goal, consider local buyer expectations. Treat national color studies as evidence, not instructions.
- Only then make the final decision.
Exterior Paint Color Selection Checklist
Titleist Painting
Lawrence, Kansas
Website: titleistpainting.com
Phone: (785) 218-6223
Print this checklist or save it on your phone while you compare exterior paint colors.
Permanent Features
☐ I identified the color and undertones of the roof.
☐ I identified any brick, stone, or masonry that will remain.
☐ I considered the existing window-frame color.
☐ I considered gutters and downspouts.
☐ I considered the garage-door color.
☐ I considered decks, natural wood, concrete, and other visible fixed materials.
☐ I looked at landscaping that strongly affects the colors around the house.
Architecture and Surroundings
☐ I considered my home’s architectural style.
☐ I identified architectural features that may deserve a separate trim or accent color.
☐ I looked at the house from across the street rather than only close up.
☐ I considered neighboring homes without assuming my house must match them.
☐ I checked whether HOA exterior-color rules apply to my property.
☐ I checked whether historic-district or landmark requirements may apply.
Build the Exterior Color Palette
☐ I selected the main body-color family before choosing the front-door color.
☐ I checked the body-color undertones against the roof.
☐ I checked the body-color undertones against brick or stone.
☐ I selected a trim color that works with the body color and permanent materials.
☐ I decided whether the house actually needs an additional accent color.
☐ I considered the front-door color only after the main exterior palette was established.
Test Before Deciding
☐ I viewed large samples outdoors instead of relying only on small paint chips.
☐ I looked at the samples in morning light.
☐ I looked at the samples around midday.
☐ I looked at the samples in late-afternoon light.
☐ I checked how the colors look in direct sunlight.
☐ I checked how the colors look in shade.
☐ I viewed the samples beside the roof, brick, stone, windows, and trim.
☐ I stepped across the street to judge the colors at the scale of the whole house.
Final Decision
☐ The body color works with the permanent features of the house.
☐ The trim supports the body color rather than competing with it.
☐ The accent color has a clear purpose.
☐ The palette makes sense with the architecture.
☐ The colors still look good after viewing them throughout the day.
☐ I confirmed any HOA or historic requirements that apply.
My Final Exterior Colors
Body color: ______________________________________
Manufacturer/color number: ________________________
Trim color: ______________________________________
Manufacturer/color number: ________________________
Front door/accent color: ___________________________
Manufacturer/color number: ________________________
The Best Exterior Color Is the One That Solves the Whole House
Choosing exterior paint is not really about finding one attractive color.
It is about putting together a palette that makes sense with the roof, masonry, architecture, light, and surroundings—and, when resale matters, avoiding choices that unnecessarily narrow buyer appeal.
Research can help.
So can trends.
But neither should override what is physically on the house.
Start with the permanent materials. Respect the architecture. Test the colors outside. Look at them in Lawrence and northeastern Kansas sunlight. And if you are selling, use national buyer research cautiously rather than treating a particular shade as a guaranteed investment.
If you’re also weighing interior colors, our guide on the best paint colors to increase home value covers room-by-room buyer-response research for the inside of your home.
Homeowners outside Lawrence can also find location-specific information for painting services in Shawnee, KS, painters in Overland Park, KS, and painters in Olathe, KS.
If you would like help looking at how exterior colors work with the permanent features of your own home, learn more about exterior house painting in Lawrence, KS or request an estimate.
Sources and Further Reading
Zillow — Front-Door Color Buyer Research
Research examining how buyers respond to different front-door colors in combination with different exterior styles.
Sherwin-Williams — Choosing Exterior Colors Around Fixed Elements
Guidance on considering the roof, brick, stone, and other fixed exterior features before choosing the paint palette.
Benjamin Moore — Paint Color Sample Guidance
Manufacturer guidance for using paint samples to evaluate color as lighting conditions change and when considering exterior colors.
City of Lawrence — Historic Resources
Official City of Lawrence information about historic landmarks, districts, preservation resources, and review.
