As any good Surrey painter will tell you, house trim is the icing on the cake – the cake being your house. Exterior trim paint makes the rest of the paint job “pop”, enhancing the exterior’s character and showing off its architectural detail. The trim colour choices you make are dependent on many factors, including your own colour preferences, the rest of the exterior’s colour scheme, whether you want subtle or strong contrast, and what effect you’re after in the end.
Although colour choices are infinite, a little knowledge about colour can help you narrow the field. The Blue Chip Painting team has over a decade of experience painting home exteriors. This guide is a distillation of what we’ve learned about trim paint over the years.
Trim Paint Colour
Trim colour is usually lighter than the main body colour with white or off-white being the most popular choices. Dark trim can be the right choice though, particularly in cottage-style homes or faux-Victorian homes with a lot of exposed structural framing and detailed window frames. A house with dark trim won’t stand out as much as one with white trim, although some people love the subtle, stately effect.
For more information about colour, read our blog post “Do Your Surrey House Exterior Painters Understand Colour Schemes?”.
House Trim Paint Tones and Shades
While white or light trim are preferred by many homeowners, choosing tints or shades of the main body colour can also work.
Tone refers to the addition of white to a main hue (colour). Shades are created by adding black to a hue. Choosing to paint trim in tones or shades of your home’s main body colour creates a harmonious effect because they have the main hue in common.
If your home’s main body colour is quite light, a tone of the colour can provide contrast while still being “related” to the main colour. If your home’s main body is quite dark, a shade will do the same. The contrast you achieve in the end depends on how much white or how much black you add the body colour.
If your home has a lot of filigree and a beautiful or strong structure that you want to emphasize, choose high contrasting tones or shades. If you want to achieve a subtle, more serene effect, choose a low contrasting tone or shade.
How Many Trim Colours?
Most Surrey painters would agree that with trim, the fewer colours the better and a colour that is lighter than the body colour is usually the safest choice.
Trim generally refers to:
- Exterior corner boards
- Window headers and window trim
- Fascia: the vertical boards that finish the roof edge
- Soffits: the siding beneath the overhanging portion of the roof
- Staircase railings and posts
- Porch railings, top rail and rail cap (the “sill” of the railing)
- Porch sills, columns and filigree
Paint colour choices are usually as follows:
- 1 colour for all trim
The safest choice in most cases. - 1 colour for trim and 1 colour for accents
Accents are usually thought of as the front door, rear patio door, and shutters, although any item from the first list above can be chosen as an accent if you’re a little more daring. - Trim colour the same as main body colour
We’ve included this as a last choice, because houses that use one colour for both trim and the main body colour can look unfinished. The effect can work if your house doesn’t have a lot of detail like a porch with columns and railings, but even then, you’ll probably want to choose an accent colour for a few highlights.
Looking for House Trim Painters in Surrey, BC?
If you’re looking for a reliable, experienced painters in Surrey, consider the experts at Blue Chip Painting. Whether you need to freshen up your house’s exterior colour scheme with new trim paint or need the entire exterior painted, we can help. We’ll guide you to the right choices and the quality of our work will result in a house exterior you’ll be proud of.
Call 604-779-0040 for a free estimate today!