Reimagine Your Mid Century Exterior With Trending Color Combos

Mid century modern architecture is renowned for its sleek, minimalist aesthetic with clean lines, ample windows, and a seamless indoor-outdoor flow. This distinctive post-WWII building style originating in the 1930s-1960s makes a enduring impression with its angular shapes, ample natural light, and airy open floor plans.

While many mid century homes retain their original charming spirit decades later, updating an aging exterior is often high on homeowners' lists. The dilemma arises in figuring out how to give a mid century pad a fresh look without compromising its retro vibe. The good news is that rebooting a mid century exterior through creative new paint combos allows you to honor the architectural roots while breathing new life into your decades-old diamond in the rough.

Body Color Palettes

When considering mid century exterior colors, a neutral, muted, or pastel body color will anchor the home while allowing bolder accent shades to shine. Current color trends offer lots of alluring options that boost curb appeal without detracting from nostalgic mid century charm.

Warm, Earthy Neutrals

Earthy beige or light brown hues complement mid century homes beautifully. These soft yet saturated shades enhance the natural textures of materials like brick, wood siding, and stacked stone accents commonly found on mid century exteriors. Warm brown paint colors also splendidly showcase some hallmark mid century features like angled walls of floor-to-ceiling windows and distinctive triangle, diamond or hexagonal motifs.

Shades like light mocha, sandstone, toasted almond and Khaki evoke senses of welcoming and comfort. Apply an earthy neutral body color to cultivate a peaceful oasis nestled into its wooded and hilly mid century surroundings.

Cool Pastels

For those favoring a more serene vibe over warm undertones, pastel paint palettes in dusty blues, muted sage greens and hazy grays beautifully freshen up mid century exteriors too. These gentle hues splendidly contrast dark rooflines and trim accents to highlight architectural dimensionality.

Colors like airy light blue or a pale olive green give a relaxed yet playful nod to mid century style. Their soothing effects calm busy or heavily angular designs. Washed out mid century hues like these gracefully weather over time, organically enhancing the home's connection to nature.

Vintage Brights

Want something more cheerful and eye-catching? Consider splashing your mid century exterior with happy hues straight from its heyday era. Classic 1950s and 60s colors like mustard yellow, aqua blue, atomic turquoise or coral pink teleport viewers straight back to the mid century timeline and make a lively statement.

These chromatic tones wonderfully modernize mid century homes in fun, retro fashion. Their cheery dispositions inject lots of personality into otherwise nondescript designs. Vivid paint combos liked these sampled straight from mid century pop culture can make an outdated home suddenly hip again!

Accent Color Ideas

Beyond a neutral backdrop, adding pops of colors via accent elements wonderfully spotlights a mid century home's architectural details. Strategic vibrant accent colors draw the eye to all the right spots for highlighting a structure's unique personality.

Saturated Hues

Using rich, dramatic accent colors like emerald, sapphire and aubergine purple on doors, window frames, decorative concrete screens and brickwork make exterior features really stand out. These deep, saturated colors make excellent accent choices because they pack bold visual punch without overwhelming the eyes.

For example, a single pop of lush forest green on the front door makes a lively statement against neutral beige siding. Or vivd violet window boxes gracefully peek out from a soft gray facade. Dark saturated accents like these add plenty of mid century modern drama when used judiciously!

Two-Tone Combinations

Beyond just color pops, using two highly contrasting tones covering large swaths of the exterior creates arresting dimension. Pairing a dark and light color on the body and trim forms color blocking at its best. This eye-catching two-tone treatment spotlights a mid century home's striking lines and angles for proper modernist impact.

Contrasting schemes like black trim edging crisp white siding helps further articulate the architectural push and pull of multi-dimensional forms. Or, for softer contrast, go for a warm brown body with bright white accents. Two-tone color combos like these make small details stand outs and big ones shine.

Tonal Schemes

On the more understated end but equally enticing are single-color tonal schemes where different shades of one color family unite to form exterior cohesion. Light, medium and dark variants of a single hue - like light blue with navy blue accents - provide subtle yet graceful interest through clever modulation.

Tonal schemes emphasize a mid century aesthetic commitment to harmonious proportions and graceful simplicity. Monochromatic tonal color combos help modest mid century dwellings leave lasting modern impressions through refined restraint.

Strategic Color Placement

Though mid century homes come in many shapes and sizes, a few prime spots to showcase accent colors keep popping up across various structures. Knowing where to amplify certain architectural details through paint unlocks a mid century exterior's full potential.

Emphasize Architectural Details

Unique mid century characteristics like angular rooflines, floor-to-ceiling windows, decorative brick or concrete block work and integrated planting beds all provide excellent opportunities to highlight form with color. For example, use emerald green window boxes to underscore an entire bank of elongated clerestory windows. Or paint exposed end beams an eye-catching shade of tangerine to celebrate structural supports with sculptural flair.

Paint the Front Door

As the focal entry point welcoming residents and guests, the front door merits special treatment. Painting the front door a darker, saturated accent color to contrast the lighter surrounding exterior creates a nice shift in texture and tone. Visitors experience an inviting push and pull motion from the beckoning bold front door to more demure siding.

As a highly visible architectural component, colorful front doors telegraph a home's charisma from curbside through creative self expression. So don't be afraid to use deeper shades of crimson, cobalt or eggplant to make a dramatic statement!

Coordinate Accessories

For added exterior unity, echo accent colors in smaller complementary details like planting pots, mailbox designs, outdoor furniture and decorative sculptures. Repeating an accent color throughout exterior vignettes stitches together individual elements into a holistic 360-degree design. Touches of turquoise adorning the front door facade, modernist monolithic planters and patio furniture forms curated harmony through coordinated hues.

Tying together bigger architectural moments with smaller supporting accents amplifies exterior aesthetics as total packages - not just paint on a house. Thoughtful color coordination ensures style synergies across exterior spaces, furniture and functional features.

When rebooting a mid century exterior, today's trending paint combos balance new life with nostalgic restraint. Current color preferences like earthy neutrals, light pastels and splashes of vivid vintage brights wonderfully bridge old and new design eras through fresh appeal and playful restraint.

Strategically placed accent colors spotlight striking architectural details to highlight a mid century home's extroverted angles and oversized windows. And holistic color coordination across exterior accessories and architectural elements curates an all-around sensory experience beyond just admiring shapes and forms.

Updating your mid century exterior with paint allows for ample creativity. So embrace colorful confidence when reimagining your outdated yet endearing mid century pad!