Verlie Feeney
Are you dreaming about a white house with black trim, but need some help choosing the right paint colors? In this post, I’ll share my favorite paint colors for getting that fabulous modern farmhouse exterior look.
Note: This post contains affiliate links for your paint shopping and sampling convenience, which means I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase, at no cost to you. First, you don’t want to choose a white that is too bright, or you risk your house looking too stark or just too difficult to look at. LRV is a measure of how light or dark a paint color is on a scale of 0 (darkest) to 100 (lightest), and it’s important for white exteriors. White Dove will look crisp and bright on an exterior that gets a lot of sun, and it tends to perform really well in a wide range of lighting conditions that often affect how paint colors look on your exterior (things like shade/sun and warm/cool directional light).
Sherwin Williams Alabaster has an LRV of 82, so it’s slightly darker than White Dove. It’s also a little bit creamier than White Dove, which can be great for north-facing houses that need a touch more warmth to counteract the cooler lighting.
While this is the creamiest of the whites I recommend for a modern farmhouse style exterior, it’s definitely not overly creamy or yellow due to its brightness and more subtle undertones. It has greige undertones that lean ever so slightly more gray than beige, making it a great option for west-facing homes.
Even though paint colors tend to look brighter outside, I really don’t recommend using the darkest black you can find for your exterior trim. The reason being that it tends to look too dark and severe as a house trim color, especially when paired with whites.
Sherwin-Williams Iron Ore is my favorite off-black trim color to use with a white house. It has just enough softness to cut down on the contrast with a white body, while still giving you the black trim look.
There’s something magical that happens when you pair this trim color with SW Alabaster, and it’s become a popular exterior combination.
SW Black Fox is a little darker than Urbane Bronze, with an LRV of 7, and has more brown to it.
In this next picture, you can see Black Fox on the trim and garage door, and how nicely it ties it with the warm wood tones. If you want your trim color to appear a little cooler and grayer, you should definitely give BM Wrought Iron a try.
I love Tricorn Black for exterior shutters and front doors, but I don’t recommend it for trim with a white house. The contrast of a bright white house with a super dark black trim is a little too jarring. The combination of a white house with black trim has exploded in popularity over the last few years.
Even though it’s become a huge trend, white and black is a classic color pairing that will never go out of style.
For exteriors, be sure to view your samples in the morning and late afternoon sun, and also in shade and full sunlight.
