Choosing the best color for the exterior of your home is an important step in the overall curb appeal of the property. Trending exterior vinyl siding colors are farmhouse white exteriors, moody black combinations, dark blue palettes and timeless gray. Colors look 5-10 times lighter outside than inside. Choosing cedar shake siding colors is no different, but the durability is much better with this home exterior and much more low maintenance.

The most frequent mistake that homeowners make is to pick a color that is too light. Whites are especially tricky – pick warmer and darker whites than you would for interior color palettes so that they don’t look stark when you take them outside. For safety’s sake try to keep your entries light and bright. We like to specify the lightest color in the palette as a front porch ceiling color.

Color Scheme

Deciding on a color scheme is one of the first steps to tackle. Start by choosing a color family for the siding, followed by color families for other portions of the facade, such as shutters, gables, battens, dormers, trim, and the front door. Pay attention to the elements you won’t be painting, such as the windows, roof and gutters, and consider how these surfaces will look with your chosen colors. Once you’ve decided on a color family, select the specific exterior colors you want to use for each surface. Test out colors, just like you do for interior paint jobs. If you don’t want to paint a bunch of color swatches directly on your house, just try a starter strip. Observe how the colors look during different times of the day. Also, be sure to observe the color on all sides of your home. A color that looks perfect in a shaded spot might look different on a sunnier side of the home/wall. However, the cedar shake siding is impervious to the elements and won’t change color due to sun fading, as per their warranty.

Popular Colors of 2022

Slate Black or Charcoal with White Trim

This year our clients request charcoal black exterior paint colors all the time to match their cedar shake siding. They are especially beautiful when you have lots of greenery. Balance the garage door with the lighter black color. White is a great “white” trim color. It’s warm enough to stand up to the darker colors. When you specify white trim colors, make sure you don’t go too white. A beautiful interior white trim color such as colonial white can look stark and garish when you take it outside.

Forest Green/Spruce with Black Trim

This is another palette that looks amazing with lots of green foliage or in a wooded lot. It is harmonious with nature, and just looks epic. It’s dark, dramatic and has a beautiful siding style. I prefer this palette with a warm brown roof and black window frames, but it can also be nice with a gray or black roof. Forest green is a popular choice giving the woodland aesthetic to your property.

Colonial White with Black Accents/Trim

A colonial white color combination like this is so lovely. This is a lovely color combination that will look as great today as 20 years from now. You can use it with stone or red brick, and it works well with just about any front door color. This is the cleanest look of all colors and will emanate off of a finely manicured lawn.

Cypress, Mahogany or Hearthstone with Dark Trim

Rich, soothing, and welcoming, warm browns/red cedars are a timeless favorite for homeowners who appreciate a real wood or cabin-style aesthetic. One of the biggest advantages of hearthstone or warm brown, look of cedar shake siding is that it can be mixed alongside other amber-colored features, like brass, and similar finishes with brown natural wood tones to create a rich tapestry of coordinating colors. Doors, trim, gables, and light fixtures can blend well with the natural cedar color, making it a consistent winner when it comes to real cedar shake siding colors.

Light Blues with White Trim

Terrain can play a big part in selecting the right shake siding colors for a house. Coastal and lakeside residences are a great example of this with bermuda blue, pacific and oxford blues . Surrounding blues from the water and sky can offset the look of blue-gray siding in a lovely way so that the home blends in effortlessly with its surroundings. Lakeside homes aren’t the only properties that look great with this color — blue-gray shake siding works well in suburbs and provincial homes as well.

Factory Direct Siding Has You Covered!

Factory Direct Siding’s cedar shake siding is 3X thicker than our closest priced competitor, giving our panel superior strength and durability than any other siding distributor. And due to the design formulation and color-fastness of FDS siding, you won’t have to worry about any weathering or discoloration on the shakes even after years of use, unlike real cedar shingles. We’ll even be able to match almost any custom color out there. The shakes are impervious to woodpeckers and bugs and come in many different color options to help you express your individual style. The premium Cedar Shake Siding is the industry’s leading alternative to painted cedar wood siding. It’s easy to maintain, beautiful and customizable. FactoryDirectSiding.com uses state of the art technologies to produce the most realistic cedar shake panels on the market today. Eighteen real cedar shakes have been digitally scanned and recreated using 3D imagery. Those images are transferred to molds creating staggered shakes in the most authentic looking faux woodgrain siding options available on today’s market with a limited lifetime warranty. Low-maintenance, worry-free option to help protect your home’s value and curb-appeal for years to come!