Choosing Exterior Colors That Work With Your Brick and Your HOA

Interior color is a blank slate. Exterior color isn't. Your brick, stone, roof shingles, and any stained wood elements are fixed, and they carry strong undertones that will either agree or fight with whatever you put on the siding and trim.

Start with the fixed elements

• Identify the undertone of your brick — most North Texas brick reads either red-orange, pink-mauve, or buff-tan.
• Look at the roof in full sun; weathered wood and charcoal shingles read very differently against warm brick.
• Note anything stained rather than painted: garage doors, beams, shutters, and front doors.

Sample big, and sample on the house

Paint 2' x 2' patches directly on the elevation, or on large boards you can move around. Check them in morning light, at 3 p.m. when the west wall is blazing, and at dusk. A greige that looks sophisticated in shade can read distinctly pink next to red brick at sunset.

The three-color rule

Most exteriors look best with a field color for the body, a trim color that's clearly lighter or darker rather than a near-match, and one accent reserved for the front door and shutters. Near-matches read as a mistake; deliberate contrast reads as design.

HOA approval

Many Plano, Frisco, and Southlake neighborhoods require written approval before you paint, and some maintain an approved palette. Submit your color selections with manufacturer names and numbers well before your project date — approvals commonly take two to four weeks, and repainting a rejected color is an expensive lesson.