Choosing Exterior Colours That Hold Up to Wellington Sun and Salt

Exterior colour is usually chosen on a small card indoors and then lives outside for a decade. A few things are worth knowing before you commit, because some choices are harder on the paint than others, and some are harder on the building.

Dark colours absorb heat

This is the single most consequential choice you make. A dark exterior colour absorbs considerably more solar energy than a light one, and the surface behind it gets hot. On timber that means more movement, more stress on the coating and on the joints, and a harder life for the sealant. On some substrates and some cladding systems, manufacturers restrict how dark you may go, and going darker than the specification allows can affect both the paint warranty and, in some cases, the cladding warranty.

Paint suppliers publish a light reflectance value, usually shortened to LRV, for each colour. A lower number means a darker colour and more heat absorbed. If you are drawn to a deep charcoal or a near-black, it is worth asking what the manufacturer says about that colour on your particular cladding before you order it.

None of this means you cannot have a dark house. Plenty of them look excellent. It means the decision should be made knowingly, and often with a product formulated for the purpose.

Some pigments fade faster than others

Wellington gets strong UV, and UV breaks down pigment. Reds, bright yellows and some deep blues are historically the least stable and will shift noticeably before a grey or an off-white does. Modern exterior paints are far better than they were, but the ranking still holds.

If you want a strong accent colour, put it somewhere that can be recoated easily and relatively cheaply. A front door is a good place for a bold colour. A whole south-west elevation three storeys up is not.

Salt, and where you live

If you are near the south coast, along the harbour or anywhere exposed to onshore wind, salt is part of the environment. It does not change your colour choice much, but it does change the maintenance: salt deposits hold moisture against the surface and accelerate breakdown regardless of the colour.

The practical response is an annual freshwater wash rather than a different colour. It costs very little and it is the cheapest thing you can do for the life of the paint.

Testing a colour properly

A colour card held against the wall tells you very little. Paint a decent test area, at least a square metre, and look at it on the actual elevation where it will live.

• Look at it in morning light, in the middle of the day and at dusk. Wellington light changes character quickly and a grey that reads warm at noon can read blue at four o’clock.
• Look at it on more than one elevation. The same colour on a sunny north wall and a shaded south wall will not look like the same colour.
• Look at it next to your roof, your joinery and your paths, none of which you are changing.
• Leave it up for several days rather than deciding on the spot.

Choosing the trim

Trim is where most exterior schemes are won or lost. A common and reliable approach is a restrained body colour with a lighter trim, which makes the joinery read as deliberate. Going darker on the trim than the body is more dramatic and less forgiving of imperfect lines.

Whatever you choose, remember the trim is usually a gloss or semi-gloss, and a colour behaves differently at a higher sheen. It reads deeper and it shows more of the surface underneath.

The things you are not changing

The roof is the largest fixed colour on most houses and the one people forget. So are aluminium joinery, brick or stone features, the driveway, and the neighbours’ houses on a tight Wellington street. Choose the body colour to sit with those rather than in isolation.

A sensible default

If you want the choice to be low risk: a mid-tone body colour in a stable pigment, a lighter trim, and the bold colour saved for the front door. It will look considered, it will not fight the roof, and it will still look good in eight years.

Getting advice on your place

We help with colour selection as part of quoting a job, including what the manufacturer allows for the colour you have in mind on your cladding. Get in touch, or read more about exterior house painting in Wellington.