Our Top Exterior House Color 2023
By: Sarah
After many hours of deliberation, looking both at our body of work and client requests over this past year and what we’re seeing in the broader world of home and exterior design, we’re ready to announce the top exterior house color 2023 will usher in. First, we looked back at our top paint colors of 2022 and 2021. Benjamin Moore’s Seapearl (our 2021 pick) is still a go-to of ours, proving its versatility and timelessness. And Black Beauty (our 2022 favorite) found its way into many of our designs over this past year, something we don’t see changing any time soon. In fact, we included Black Beauty in our roundup of the best exterior paint colors from Benjamin Moore for 2023. However, this year’s top pick was pulled from our best of Sherwin Williams list. We cut both the Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams lists down to our top 15 exterior paint colors we expect be on-trend. Without further ado, we’re declaring Mountain Road by Sherwin Williams as the best exterior paint color of 2023.
The brick&batten team acts as exterior paint color consultants for our clients, helping property owners make smart decisions when selecting on-trend and/or timeless color schemes for their façades. But we’re more than that, too! We’re expert exterior designers ready to help you visualize the home of your dreams, showing you how paint AND other updates like garage doors, front doors, and exterior lighting can dramatically improve your curb appeal. We also give you a plan to make it happen. Learn more about our exterior design services.
Why We Love Mountain Road
We’re leaning in to the earth tones right now, and Sherwin Williams’ Mountain Road is the quintessential paint color for an earthy exterior palette. It’s a warm, deeper mid-range gray-green that delivers in so many executions. Mountain Road has a soft, gentle feeling to it, making it an easy complement to a wide variety of building materials. It’s right at home on rustic façades, like the one above, but we also love using this color on traditional or transitional homes.
The Nitty Gritty: Technical Specs
Sherwin Williams’ Mountain Road has an LRV of 23, meaning it falls in the darker range. (Learn all about LRV here.) However, we tend to think of this hue as a warm, deeper mid-range color.
Mountain Road is similar to another Sherwin Williams paint color we love, the complex neutral Anonymous. While Mountain Road reads green-gray, Anonymous has a strong brown note to it. This is because Mountain Road has a near even mix of red and green in its RGB (red-green-blue) breakdown, while Anonymous leans heavier on the red.
Mountain Road will feel more green when surrounded by lush green landscaping, and we particularly love it with purple plants (lilacs, lavender, coleus, etc.).
Mountain Road As an Accent
While we love Mountain Road as a field color, it’s also an excellent choice as an accent. On the designs above and below, we used Mountain Road with Shoji White on the cladding. In this choice color scheme, our favored gray-green provides depth and dimension to the larges swaths of warm off-white.
WE ALWAYS RECOMMEND SAMPLING AND TESTING PAINT COLORS BEFORE COMMITTING. FACTORS SUCH AS NATURAL LIGHTING, UNDERTONES, AND YOUR PROPERTY’S FIXED ELEMENTS WILL HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON HOW A COLOR WILL APPEAR ON YOUR EXTERIOR. OUR FRIENDS AT SAMPLIZE OFFER EXTRA-LARGE 9 X 14.75 INCH PEEL-AND-STICK PAINT SAMPLES OF THE COLORS WE LOVE FOR EXTERIORS. ORDER YOUR ‘REAL PAINT, NO MESS’ SAMPLES FROM SAMPLIZE HERE.
As a counterpoint to the brighter color schemes above, the rustic home design below features Mountain Road on the window trim and deck alongside Sherwin Williams’ Rock Bottom — a deep, dark green that verges on black — on the siding and eaves. It all comes together for an organic aesthetic excellent for the home’s deep forest environment.
The Versatility of Mountain Road
We love using Mountain Road as a field color and pairing it with rich wood, blacks and near-blacks, and warm off-whites. It can also ground homes with lots of stone cladding or deep black hues. Note how the greens in the stone above pop when juxtaposed with our top exterior color of 2023!
Plus, Mountain Road looks fantastic on homes across exterior design styles. The modern lake house above is stunning with Mountain Road on the siding, Iron Ore on the trim, and the prominent chimneys clad with warm stone.
Sherwin Williams’ Mountain Road: In Conclusion
We can’t wait to see the ways our team will use Mountain Road in exterior designs in the year ahead. We’ve already put this hue to great, varied use — and we have plenty more where this came from!
Would you like to see the exterior of your home (or business) rendered in Mountain Road? Or perhaps more of an olive green, or a tan, or a blue? Or to compare a few different color scheme options? That’s what we’re here for! Get started on envisioning the exterior of your dreams — and making it a reality — today.
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