Red brick Georgian house with white trim and a clipped boxwood path

The outside of the house, decided in the right order

Trim before masonry, reversible before permanent — the exterior decisions that are cheap to change, and the ones that are not.

Brick Cedar shingle White farmhouse Stone Colonial Board + Batten Shake vs Shingle Dark Shingle Coastal Shingle Shingle Cottage Stone Cottage Stone Base Stone Farmhouse Stone + Clapboard Colour Schemes White Curb Appeal Farmhouse Porch Metal Roof Farmhouse Lakeshore Shingle Greek Revival Stucco and Spanish Cottage Victorian Lake and Coastal White Houses Black Shutters Cabin and Barn Garden ideas

Red brick Georgian house with white trim, black shutters and a clipped boxwood path

Home Exterior

Brick House Exterior Ideas

For the ones deciding whether to paint it — before it is too late.

Cedar shingle house with crisp white window trim and a planted front garden

Home Exterior

Cedar Shingle House Exterior Ideas

For the ones panicking because their new cedar went orange.

White clapboard farmhouse with black shutters and a covered front porch

Home Exterior

White Farmhouse Exterior Ideas

For the ones whose white house came out colder than the photo.

More exterior guides

27 guides

Fieldstone farmhouse with black shutters and clipped boxwood along the front path

Home Exterior

Stone House Exterior Ideas

For the ones who inherited the stone and have to work around it.

Cream colonial house with sage green shutters and columned portico

Home Exterior

Colonial House Exterior Ideas

For the ones whose symmetry needs to be exact.

Board and batten cabin with corrugated metal porch roof

Home Exterior

Board and Batten and Clapboard Exteriors

For the ones deciding between vertical and horizontal.

Blue shingle house with copper bay window

Home Exterior

Cedar Shingle and Shake House Exteriors

For the ones panicking because their new cedar went orange.

Classic coastal cedar shingle cottage with white trim and gabled roof

Home Exterior

Dark Shingle House Ideas

For the ones deciding whether to go dark and never return.

Cotswold stone cottage with log store and blue door

Home Exterior

Stone House Exterior Ideas

For the ones learning the mortar matters more than the stone.

The four rules

What every exterior we plan comes back to.

Whitewashed brick colonial house with black shutters and symmetrical front elevation

Reversible Before Permanent

Almost every exterior decision can be undone except the ones involving coatings. Paint seals masonry, traps moisture, and cannot be removed without damaging the surface underneath.

Every exterior guide here starts from the same order of operations: change the trim first, then the reversible treatments, and only then anything permanent. Limewash before paint. Always.

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The Trim Does More Work Than the Walls

On most houses the trim, shutters, and front door occupy a fraction of the surface area and carry most of the visual weight. Repainting them costs a fraction of anything structural.

Judge the house again after the trim is done. A surprising number of exteriors people were planning to render or paint turn out to have needed nothing else.

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One Dark Anchor

A pale facade with pale trim disappears against an overcast sky. Every white or cream exterior that works has one dark element holding it down — black window frames, a dark door, a slate roof, or shutters.

That single anchor is what makes a light exterior read as chosen rather than washed out.

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Structure, Not Seasonal Colour

Facades are visually busy. Flowerbeds compete with that busyness and both lose, then disappear for five months of the year.

Evergreen structure wins: clipped boxwood, yew, hornbeam, standard bay. Green mass beside masonry reads as calm, and it holds the composition through winter when the exterior is most exposed.

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