Jean Carroll
The porch paint ideas you choose will have a big impact on your home's overall appearance and curb appeal. If you have a front porch, it's likely one of the first thing guests and passers-by will notice about your home, so if it is looking worse for the wear, a paint job will be a big upgrade.
), we went to the pros for advice on creating an inviting, beautiful, and functional porch, all with the help of a little paint.
The paint ideas, below, run the gamut from practical advice and insider insight, to color theory and more. If you're lucky enough to have a front porch with an exciting architectural feature, like the curved entry ceiling, above, paint is the perfect way to give it the attention it deserves. A contrasting color, like a deep, warm gray on a white porch, will set special features apart.
If your front porch flooring is looking worse for the wear, it's tempting to just cover it with a coat of paint. Don't do it, says Matt Mosher, co-founder and CEO of Dzinly (opens in new tab), a home improvement platform focused on exterior design that helps people visualize what upgrades will look like through online renderings. There are a few theories about where it originated, including as a way to help repel bugs, to keep bad spirits away, and draw the eye to the sky. 'The quaint blue porch ceiling helps to visually extend daylight,' says Arianna Cesa, color marketing and development specialist at Benjamin Moore (opens in new tab).
These colors often pair best with more neutral hues to let the ceiling be the focal point in the palette.' Similar to calling attention to an architectural element, painting your entire front porch a different shade than your siding will make it the defining feature of your home's façade.
Even if you have a go-to paint color or your mind is set on a certain hue, the lighting your porch gets during the day will affect how it look. In this case, the Michigan-based designer chose a true black to contrast her home's brick façade and white trim. The porch of this home, by Swan Architecture, matches the white siding for a seamless look, while letting the red front door shine. 'For someone who loves color, I am a major fan of porch paint ideas that use different tones of white and cream alongside grey and black – there's something incredibly soothing about the combination, and it's so easy to accessorize with accent colors when you want to switch up the scheme from spring to summer to fall to winter,' says Lucy Searle, Homes & Gardens' Editor in Chief. The hue doesn't need to match your house, but it should be in along the same spectrum (i.e. don't choose a warm white porch for a cool gray house, or a bright blue porch for a sage green home). Traditional Victorian or Queen Anne-style homes lend themselves to experimentation with color, while farmhouses can be suited to colors like pale green, butter yellow, and brick red, or simple neutrals like white and gray.
For a small front porch, try a shade that contrasts the rest of your home to help it stand out. Arianna Cesa offers these front porch color suggestions from Benjamin Moore. If your preference is for cooler hues, check out White Wisp OC-54, Metropolitan AF-690, and Silver Gray 2131-60. To make a statement on your porch floor, opt for more saturated hues like Georgian Brick HC-50, Kennebunkport Green HC-123, Normandy 2129-40 and Iron Mountain 2134-30,' she says. 'Generally a flat sheen presents best on the outside of a home because it helps reduce reflection,' says Matt Mosher, co-founder and CEO of Dzinly, a home improvement platform focused on exterior design that helps people visualize what upgrades will look like through online renderings. Therefore, a less absorbent sheen such as satin or eggshell should be considered for items such as pillars and walls around a porch that may be subject to heavy traffic.'
