40 Stunning House Exterior Ideas Perfect for Every Style

If you’re known to walk through your neighborhood and admire the various house exteriors, you’re not alone. Between different architectural styles, paint colors, and lush landscaping, there’s plenty to be emboldened by for your own home. 

To help inspire you, we’ve rounded up 40 house exteriors that are admirable in one way or another—or, more likely, many ways. Take notes of the color schemes, ingenious yard designs, and whatever else sparks exclamations of "I love that!" for you to recreate for your own space.

Go Bold

Craftsman bungalows, with their spacious porches and charming architectural details, are as classic as can be. To add some newfound life to the traditional exteriors (which are often painted in earth tones, such as deep greens and browns), take a page from A Beautiful Mess’s renovation.

This energetic shade of salmon pink makes it a head-turner, especially when paired with crisp white trim that accentuates the columns on the front porch and trim around the windows and doors.

Give Your Yard a Complete Makeover

After a young family took on a complete remodel of their home in Austin, Texas, they called on Eden Garden Design to update the exterior spaces. What that meant: giving the brick a new coat of white paint, adding a new front door and windows, and giving the courtyard a makeover.

Eden created entry and courtyard areas with nods to both the Mediterranean and the Hill Country in a whimsical plant palette.

A closely sheared creeping fig vine covers the courtyard columns and one wall of the home, while a custom-cut lueders pathway provides a modern entry experience.

When It Comes to Porches, the Bigger, the Better

Picture it: long summer days at this house with the beverage of your choice. Designer Cortney Bishop nailed the laid-back bungalow feel of this Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina home, which features gingerbread architectural details and a sit-and-stay-for-a-while porch.

Don't Be Afraid of Dark

Kate Marker Interiors opted for deep charcoal paint with bright white trim to add a forever-in-style look to this cottage renovation. It’s crisp and clean, with an expansive step-up porch that begs for guests to sit and stay a while.

Enhance Contrast

For this Puget Sound vacation home, Mindy Gayer Design Co. (along with Dana Webber Design Group and Fairbank Construction Company) emphasized the entryway with a warm white paint. It stands out against the sprawling facade's dark siding and wood accents for a multidimensional house exterior.

Add a Pop of Color

All-white-everything, in terms of a house exterior, is rarely a bad decision. Such a streamlined look can emphasize architectural details. Still, you'll always benefit from adding one bold touch—like a brightly-hued door, perhaps—as A Beautiful Mess did here.

Stick to Stucco

When Forge & Bow got their hands on this Fort Collins, Colorado remodel, they not only redesigned the entire interior, but also gave the exterior a refresh. Through new stucco, arches, and woodwork, the once charmless home flourished into a European-style cottage.

Look to Nature

When in doubt, Mother Nature’s color combinations always inspire. Take this lakefront home by Crisp Architects, which coordinates with the surrounding trees with its soothing olive green paint color.

Its rhubarb red front door ensures the house isn’t too camouflaged though, and the two-toned garage door provides additional visual interest.

Stay Historical—Mostly

Although Victorian homes traditionally have more ornate exterior color palettes, designer Sarah Cole opted for a lighter, simpler scheme for this beauty. She selected a medium slate blue, a deep navy on the door, and a rich ivory on the trim for a fresh, coastal feel. 

“The muted shades and off-white are key to making this home look updated but still historic,” Cole says, who also restored the home’s original gas lantern by converting it to electric.

Go Green

One can imagine there’s a lot of pressure when reimagining the exterior of an 1897-built German villa. Fantastic Frank, as always, lived up to the high expectations by painting the porch and auxiliary buildings a deep forest green.

It allows the intricacies of the architecture to stand out, while keeping in line with the elegance of the stately white home.

Embrace Privacy

Samantha Slaven embraces the built-in seclusion of her 1934-built Los Angeles home. Its French country style has a storybook feel, sitting at the back of a large lot, providing Slaven complete privacy from all windows—even in the middle of a city.

"It’s just green and nature everywhere you look—and amazing views of L.A.," she says.

Install a White Picket Fence

It doesn’t take much for a Swedish cottage, like this one from Fantastic Frank, to exude charm. This home stands out (while blending in) by pairing a warm chocolate brown exterior with a red tile roof and bright white details—trim, door, and shutters included. Don’t miss that idyllic white picket fence either.

Add Impactful Shutters

When designing your home’s exterior, it's easy to get overwhelmed with paint colors and landscaping ideas. Don’t overlook one important accessory, though: shutters.

Here, Kate Marker Interiors chose tall wooden shutters to flank each side of the first story’s French doors. They add an organic touch of texture, but didn’t need to be repeated on all of the home’s windows—that would take away from their eye-catching impact.

Pair Old and New

The exterior of interior designer Sara Johnson’s Dallas Tudor home sticks to a simple black-and-white palette. Its white brick and black shutters highlight the home’s traditional architecture, fitting in perfectly with its Highland Park neighborhood.

There's plenty of modern touches to bring the home into the 21st century though—take a peek at the gridded and arched front door and cabana-stripe pillows adorning the lawn chairs.

Add Warmth

To add warmth to this Bay Area home's black and white exterior, Collected Interiors included wood accents. Opt for a little (like a door) or a lot, like full walls of wood cladding.

Either way, when paired with crisp white paint and plenty of black elements, from the window trim to the shingles, the combo makes for a beautiful exterior.

Leave the Exterior As Is

In this historic Georgetown renovation, EL Studio made the most of a heartbreaking situation. The client’s home had caught fire, destroying nearly everything inside, but leaving the brick exterior (originally built in the 1890s, then expanded in the 1930s) intact.

The finishing renovation resulted in a reimagined interior with an exterior that sticks to its roots.

Honor Your Home's History

To make her 1880s farmhouse look closer to its original design, blogger Liz Marie selected bright white pre-painted siding for its exterior. The clean white-on-white-on-white look of the outside carries through to the interior of her rustic farmhouse-style home too.

Think Old-World Europe

If you daydream of an "Under the Tuscan Sun" getaway, soak up inspiration from this Fantastic Frank house.

Whether you call the Tuscan countryside your home or couldn’t be further from it, there’s plenty to love about this stone exterior with sliding glass doors that encourage an indoor/outdoor life (perfect for pool parties).

Embrace Modern Lines

This oh-so-modern home in Denver, Colorado is a showstopper for several reasons, including its contemporary lines, oversized windows, and eco-friendly landscaping.

To prevent it from being too harsh, Fantastic Frank dampened its hard lines with a coat of off-white paint—a soft, not stark, shade.

Think Upwards

What began as a one-story bungalow was expanded upwards thanks to EL Studio’s careful integration of an appropriately scaled addition. That resulted in a covered porch and plenty of patio space, both great places to admire the property’s mature Japanese maple tree.

Keep it Simple

If a black and white exterior is simply too stark for you, take note of this Portland, Oregon home, a Kollective Design project. Its black shingles and warm white siding (painted with Benjamin Moore’s Swiss Coffee) set the tone for a timeless, simple facade.

It's jazzed up further by a dose of eye-catching color, courtesy of the sage green windows. Add in a natural fir door and unlacquered brass hardware, and voila.

Install Wood Accents Vertically

What's black, white, and wooden all over? This Jessica Mintz Interiors-designed home, which emphasizes the slight peak of the ranch's roof by installing the wood planks vertically.

Pair Black and Green

It’s hard to choose a favorite feature of this home. Is it the soot black paint color or the manicured greenery? Or perhaps how they work together to create an enviable exterior? We vote for the latter.

Plant Polished Landscaping

Two roofs, one manicured lawn, and dozens of hydrangeas, shrubs, and trees that bring color and texture to this Cape Cod home. It’s perfectly polished.

Know Your Home's History

When designer Sarah Cole was tasked with this Gothic Revival home, she stayed true to the architecture style’s roots. It was built in 1874, when the architectural style was peaking in popularity in America. Note the ornate gingerbread trim, steeply pitched rooflines, and gables—all classic Gothic Revival features.

“In terms of color, choose ones that highlight the beautiful woodwork but stay true to its age—no super bright whites,” Cole says. “On this house, a deep cream on the gingerbread trim makes it stand out against a mixture of greens and reds that blend beautifully with the landscaping and brick walkways.”

A Little Landscaping Goes a Long Way

This Marie Flanigan Interiors-designed home proves thoughtful, precise landscaping goes a long way for a backyard oasis. With a couple tall trees, a plant-bordered fence, and a small lawn adjacent to a dip-worthy pool, this exterior has it all.

Consider Voysey Style Architecture

This craft-driven manor home, designed by Cortney Bishop, features eye-catching Voysey style architectural details. That’s not all though. This custom-built beauty in Kiawah Island, South Carolina also leans into organic lines, a tonal palette, and lively landscaping. 

An A-Frame in the Woods

You can't beat the charm of an A-frame in the woods—especially one as warm and inviting as this AHG Interiors-designed house exterior.

With the lush setting of the Catskills in the background, the black-painted home takes on a woodsy storybook feel. Recreate the same hue on your own home with a coat of Benjamin Moore's Black Beauty.

Lean Into a Storybook Feel

We wouldn’t be surprised to find Hansel and Gretel dropping breadcrumbs up the walkway to this 1930s Tudor revival home in Boise, Idaho.

Its storybook appeal is highlighted with an unexpected deep blue paint, which is paired with the signature half timber detailing of Tudor architecture. That smokey color provides a pop of contrast with the white and brick of the rest of the facade.

Add and Subtract

The renovation of this D.C. home, led by architecture firm EL Studio, was an exercise in addition and subtraction. That meant subtracting the front dormer and porch infill that overwhelmed the original structure to present a more open and genial facade to the street and visiting neighbors.

As for additions, the apertures to the garden were extended (as well as a large open kitchen and dining space) and plenty of charm was added back too.

Pair Blue and Pink

When Martha O'Hara Interiors painted this family home in Prior Lake, Minnesota, she could have kept a traditional feel with the deep blue exterior and white trim. Instead, she gave the home an extra dose of personality with a soft pink door.

The finishing touches included a couple of terracotta planters to flank the entrance and front porch furniture that allows you to catch up with neighbors.

Think About All Four Seasons

Consider how your house exterior will look all year long. If your climate includes a white winter, you may want to select a house and roof color (Brava Roof Tiles is to thank for this roof) that ensures you'll be able to spot it through the thickest of snowstorms.

Incorporate Tall Flowers Plants

No matter how big your garden is, you can always draw the eye up with tall flowering plants. Try planting cosmos, like the ones seen here, which add pops of color in a particularly standout way.

Paint Your Front Door

Leave it to A Beautiful Mess to add a punch of personality to her home’s exterior. All it took was a few swipes of paint to brighten the facade with a cheerful pink door (psst: it’s the shade Noble Blush by BEHR), with petite cacti lining the walkway.

Mix and Match Materials

Take it from this Meredith Owen Interiors-designed house. You can mix and match a variety of materials—brick, siding, and concrete, for example—to create a dynamic home exterior.

Accentuate Architectural Details

If you're overthinking your house exterior's landscaping, take a peek at this sweet home. To highlight the home's 1920s-built architecture, the plants veer on the simple side, with just a few easy to care for succulents added to frame the entryway and complement the trees that have been there for decades.

Landscape in Levels

Tall trees, low bushes, and nothing in between—this modern farmhouse leans into extreme levels for its landscaping. That allows the house to be its own statement piece, while still framed with beautiful greenery.

Add Window Boxes

Landscaping-wise, what's more charming than window boxes? The windows on the right side of this home were spruced up with window boxes filled with greenery, which complement the lush hydrangeas and two trees that ground the rest of the landscaping.

Stay Traditional

If your house exterior veers on the traditional side, don't be afraid to lean into that Pleasantville-like look. Take this house, for example. It features white siding, black, shutters, and a white picket fence—an ultra classic look—and still looks fresh and modern.

Mix Up the Lines

This home (a collaboration that included AZEK Exteriors and TimberTech) adds visual interest with a melange of shapes. Between the straight peaks, curved entryway, and mix of materials, every details is alluring in its own way, yet they all harmonize together.

Read Next: Exterior Door Buying Guide: How to Choose the Right Door

Read the original article on The Spruce.