How to Choose Colours & Finishes for Your Exterior
by Carlisle Homes
Make an unforgettable first impression with a beautiful exterior that incorporates the latest modern house facade colours and finishes – here’s how.
There are several things to consider when designing the facade of your new home, including colours, finishes, and whether you want extras such as solar panels. To help simplify the process, we’ve made a short film covering all the essentials – you can watch it here.
In the meantime, here’s a quick overview of the specific elements you’ll need to choose for your new home exterior, and the fantastic options available at Carlise Homes. It also provides helpful tips for choosing house façade colours, and house façade colour combinations to suit your home’s location.
Selecting your roof
One of the biggest decisions you’ll make when it comes to your home’s facade is your roof. As the largest surface of your home’s exterior, it sets the tone for the rest of your facade. Depending on the style you choose, your roof can play a practical role too, helping to reduce your energy bills, and minimise outside noise. Discover how to choose a great-looking roof that performs well too, here.
For your new Carlisle home, you can choose a tiled or metal roof, both of which come in a wide variety of colours and tile profiles. If you’re looking to increase your home’s thermal performance and cut your power bills, you might consider upgrading your roof with Bradford Thermoseal sarking.
Beyond its visual impact, a well-designed roof ridgeline contributes to the overall durability of your home, ensuring a harmonious blend of style and resilience.
Your roof’s ridgeline is located at the peak of your roof. If you specify a concrete tiled roof, a classic lapped ridge is included in the design. For a more contemporary look, some roof profiles can be upgraded to an A-line ridge. Learn more about making the right roofing decision for your home here.
You’ll also need to choose the colours of your gutters, fascia, and downpipes. At Carlisle, we have over 20 colours to choose from, allowing you to create a bold, contrasting look, or to have these details blend into your facade by matching them to the colour of your render or brickwork.
At Carlisle, we have a huge range of options that allow you to personalise your home’s exterior and create visual impact, including different brick styles, chic and energy-efficient Hebel, stunning exterior tiles, and customisable gutters and fascia.
Choosing your facade finishes
This is where you can get creative and really make your home stand out. When you visit our Spectra Showroom, play around with different combinations of colours and textures for your home’s main finishes, so you can create the perfect look to suit your style.
If you’ve selected a brick home, you’ll find hundreds of colours and finishes available from leading brands such as Austral, PGH Bricks, and Daniel Robertson Bricks.
If you’re building a Hebel home, your exterior will be rendered. Generally, there are three areas of your facade that you’ll need to choose render colour for (top tip from our designers: select contrasting colours for these different sections to give your exterior depth and interest!). You can learn more about building your home with Hebel here.
When creating a façade that fits seamlessly with your home’s setting, consider key factors, such as your home’s location, orientation, and the colours and finishes you’ve used in your entry and living spaces.
Choosing your house facade colours
When it comes to choosing house exterior colours, there are a few things you’ll want to consider. “First, your surrounding environment,” says Ricky D’Alesio, Senior Designer at Carlisle Homes. “Consider where your home is being built: are you in a coastal setting, near parklands, or in a well-established urban street? Select colours that complement your home’s surrounds.”
“When choosing house facade colours, you should also factor in your home’s orientation. Is your facade in light or shade for most of the day? This will help determine how pale or dark your façade colours should be.”
“Finally, look to tie the external colours and elements of your home with what you’ve used inside – this will help create seamless visual flow from outside your front door right through to your interior,” he says.
Looking for house facade colour ideas for your new Carlisle home or wondering what your home facade colour choices might be? Check out our inspiration gallery of stunning exterior looks here.
Feature finishes
Looking to add unique flair to your exterior? Add an accent feature such as tiling to your porch pier, PermaTimber cladding, or masonry blocks laid in a striking pattern.
External pillar lights
Complete your exterior – and make it easier for guests to navigate their way to your front door at night – by adding pillar lights. Both functional and beautiful, we have over 40 styles to choose from.
Picking your doors and windows
Your front door, windows, and garage door play a crucial part in the overall finished look of your home. At our Spectra Showroom, there’s no shortage of stunning classic and contemporary styles to choose from.
Garage doors are available in a huge array of profiles, colours, and finishes, including popular timber-look and classic Colorbond steel styles.
Bricks, mortar and roof tiles aren’t the only elements that make up the look of your exterior – details such as a well-chosen front door, a sleek and stylish balcony, and beautiful window frames will also help shape its aesthetics.
There’s also a vast choice of front door styles on offer, as well as multiple paint and stain options. As well as standard-size front doors, you can also specify a generous pivot door to give your entrance a sense of grandeur.
Finish off your front door to perfection with stylish front entry door hardware, available in a variety of lever designs and colours.
The style of your front windows is designed to complement your chosen facade, but you can customise the look with a variety of different timber stains and aluminium colours.
Your balcony is also designed as part of your chosen facade, but you may have the option to select the colour and finish of your handrail and balustrade to give it that personalised touch.
Layer different colours and finishes, such as brick, render and tile, to give your exterior depth and interest, just as we’ve done here in our beautiful Sorrento Grand 43 display home at Redstone Estate, Sunbury.
Upgrade options
Once you’ve covered the basics, it’s time to consider your upgrade options. Whether you want to add wow factor to your facade, enhance security, or boost energy efficiency, the Spectra Showroom everything you need.
Some of our most popular exterior upgrades include:
- Solar panels to increase your home’s energy rating and reduce electricity bills.
- An A-line ridge on your roof for a contemporary finish
- Roof sarking to boost your home’s thermal performance.
- Off-white mortar to your brickwork.
- Dulux AcraTex Acrashield to give your rendered finish extra protection.
- Smart upgrades like an intercom or alarm system for your family’s peace of mind.
- Security features including camera packs and barrier doors.
- Garage enhancements such as weather seals, insulation, security and smartphone controls.
Making a great first impression has never been easier!
At Carlisle, we have hundreds of products and colours you can choose for your facade, so you can design the best-looking house on the street (and don’t worry if that sounds overwhelming – our expert Sales Consultants will be right be your side to help!). Make a time to pop along to our display homes, which are located across Melbourne, to see them for yourself.