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Grey weatherboard house colours

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I get asked about my house colours all the time. Every week I think! So I thought I’d put a post together for those who are interested 🙂

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The weatherboard has been painted SHALE GREY. I used Taubmans Endure (we painted the whole outside of the house ourselves). We asked Taubmans to tint the paint in full strength SHALE GREY. It doesn’t matter what brand you use, as long as it’s tinted ‘Colorbond Shale Grey’. I knew this paint colour would be good. I’d used it as a feature wall inside our previous home so I was confident the grey was the right grey. Not blue, not brown, not purple (you know how some throw the wrong tinge?). I also knew shale grey would be the right grey because it originated from Colorbond (used for a roofing) and I had seen this colour on houses in our area.

My roof colour is SURFMIST. It’s light (but not white). It’s a pale grey. I matched the gutters and fascia to this. So there was no hard thinking here. Sometimes people get so confused with roof/gutter/fascia. For me it’s easy – all the same. Now, the swatches I’ve put on the image above are small, so they may look darker, but outside over a large area, they do look lighter as you can see from the photos of my house.

The window frames, shutters, posts and fretwork are WHITE. No tint in that bucket of white. Nothing. Don’t get confused with whites. You don’t have to tint everything. This leads me to INSIDE my house. The walls are all WHITE. No tint. Just a wash and wear brand on the walls (with no tint added) will do, and the SAME white went straight on to the ceiling. My entire house has the same white paint from the bottom of the walls up and over the ceilings. It was Taubmans Easy Coat Walls. Now, if you did need to put a tint in your white (some painters will request something because they say the paint covers better), I would ask them to put a “shot” of black in that white tin. Like an incy bit just to keep the white balanced. But I don’t normally do that. I just like the whiteness which comes straight out of the tin. My internal doors, skirting and architraves are all GLOSS WHITE (again no tint).

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So you can see that I picked THREE colours out the front – shale grey, surfmist and white. You can also see that the house looks darker in the shade and quite light in the sun.

The reason I know all of these colours work well is because this is the 3rd house we’ve built and we’ve renovated two houses as well (I’ve made some doozies along the way too!).

♥ KC.

112 comments

  • Matt

    Hi Katrina

    Love the your house. You’ve got a great eye. Was wondering whether you’d offer some advice? We’ve renovating and have decided on a Shale grey roof, woodland grey gutter and surfmist fascia. We searching for ideas re painting the exterior including walls, deck posts, deck balustrade, window trims etc.

    We have decided (we think) on white for windows, bifolds to front deck and the balustrade. Possible the main posts of the deck to the roof will be woodland grey. Not sure what to go for with the exterior? Continue with Shale grey? This may look too monotone? Interested to hear your thoughts….

    Regards
    Matt

  • Julie spinks

    Hi Katrina,
    We are painting our weatherboard house shale grey and white trim , has zinc roof. Thinking of painting the fences Colombond Basalt. What do you think.

    • Katrina (author)

      That would be lovely! X

      • Julie spinks

        Thank you so much; will keep in touch.

        • Jodi Ann

          What about garage colours and texture then ? If we use your three colours do you suggest the garage door should be the same as the house or rooftop

  • Denice

    Hi Katrina. I have a country home mainly brick but the front fascade is timber which is covered by a verandah. The colourbond roof is eucalipt green. Do u think grey on the timber fascade would work or beige be better. Also what colour would work on the ceiling of the veranda? Love your home.

  • Rekha Arnott

    Hi Katrina, I have just finished painting our house in Dulux Monument- the roof is also Monument. With a Chinese red front door. Natural white windows. I thought I was being fashionable- alas the weatherboards look awful. Soooo dusty. Also no rain has not made things any easier. I am thinking of changing the colour of the boards to Tranquil Retreat.

  • Sara

    Hi Katrina
    I absolutely love love love your colour scheme! We’re going with the exact same one, so thanks for the inspo. I have been struggling on pavers for my driveway though – would you think anything gray is too much?

    Thanks
    S

  • Sharon

    Hi Katrina
    I’m building a hampton house with surfmist roof and gutter and fascia. Exterior boards as shale grey and vivid white trims same as your place. I am looking for a grey to match inside as shale grey as I’m doing boards and trims vivid white but need a grey to match exterior as it will follow outside to verandahs. Can you make a suggestion. I did like tranquil retreat but I think it is lighter than shale grey and I want a contract to the white. Thanks

    • Katrina (author)

      Terrace white is a nice colour!

  • Katie Davies

    Hi Katrina,

    I loved your shale grey exterior colour scheme so much that I have used it on my weatherboard house. So the boards are shale grey, we have used white for the balastrades around the veranda and the trim and guttering. But now we are totally stumped on what colour to paint the old veranda boards. I dealt we wanted natural boards but it is too far gone. We have tossed up a dark grey, Browns and a sandy colour but really not sure which way to go. Any tips you have will be much appreciated. We have house stumps also which are white with undercoat and so even toying with the idea of white formeverything you look at and then darker for the boards you walk on. We have colour block!!!

  • Karla Barrett

    Hi Katrina,
    I really admire your design style and was wondering if you could lend some advice?
    We are building a Hamptons style home and have gone with a Basalt roof and white trims. The only problem is, I will be completely grey by the time we narrow down an external paint colour.
    We’ve purchased that many sample pots and our our house is looking like a paint by numbers, that we have now confused ourselves to a point where we no longer know what we are trying to achieve with our facade.
    If you were starting from scratch with a basalt roof and white trims and facias, what dulux colour would you look at using?
    Thank you a million times over for your help and for saving me from a lifetime of monthly hairdressing appointments to cover the greys.
    Karla x

  • Jackie

    Hi Katrina
    Your colours are great. The front garden is great. Can I ask what plants you used in the front bed? We have standard iceberg roses and they seem to not enjoy our spot.
    We are looking at a grey and creamy white as we have a lot of the alumium sliding windows in cream. Just to blend.
    Thanks
    Jackie

  • Amanda wilson

    Hi Katrina, your home is amazing. Just a really quick question on the interior paint section. I’m worried about having completely white on the walls and it looking too stark. Bit like a hospital. I have reasonably dark wooden floors. I haven’t seen the interior of your home but I’m assuming it doesn’t look stark so what have you don’t to eliminate this. Also, if you had to choose a light grey that would work with everything what would it be? Thanks so much Katrina

  • Mark

    Hi Katrina

    What colour did you go with for the garage door?

    Thank you

    Mark

    • Katrina (author)

      it’s surfmist 🙂

  • Linda Barwick

    Hi Katrina,

    I love your site, it’s helped me so much through the process of building my home so thank you!

    I have a question… I have to choose a colour for my Poly Water tanks (2 x 22,000 litres) which will be next to the house and my house is white weatherboard with a surfmist roof and guttering. Should I go with surfmist or perhaps a dark grey?

    Thanks, Linda 🙂

  • Jenny

    Hi. Love the exterior colours. What colour are your aluminium windows ?

    • Katrina (author)

      Just white 🙂

      • Ellen

        Hi Katrina
        But there are sooooo many “White” options for windows. I’ve been told Pearl White Gloss is a popular colour choice in our area. Also, could you please let me know what brand/range you went with for the aluminium windows?

  • Julie

    Hi Katrina,
    I have recently retired and doing on my own, but employing someone to paint. I have mission brown aluminium windows…I know terrible, but I have been here for about 37 years and love my areas. Any ideas would be grateful.
    I have recently received a new roof, guttering and downpipes and got them in shale grey.
    I have a few jobs to ready the house for painting so hope you can give me some ideas.
    Sadly my house would look lovely if I could do the grey and while somehow. The house is not dissimilar to the one you have above. I would love to even do the pale pink door.
    I have thought about new screens and somehow covering up with a trim the ugly surrounds.
    I am 68 and do not have a handyman lol.
    If you replied to me I would be an extremely overjoyed woman.
    Kind regards
    Julie

  • aussiebushgirl

    Hi Katrina. I know this is cheeky of me, but living in a remote regional community in Victoria has proved to be tricky for me when trying to nail the ‘right’ colour for our old 1870s weatherboard cottage. No colourist travels this far, so I’m pretty much left to my own gut feelings on getting colour choices right. I feel like I’m in a rabbit hole most of the time! A couple of hundred $$ and a dozen paint boards later, I still cannot land on a colour that would suit this old girl. Help desperately needed!! My original plan was to go with Dulux Ghosting on the boards, Dulux Lexicon 1/4 on all the trims and Dulux Domino on fascias and front fence, but when I tested the Ghosting on all four sides of the house at various times of the day, it threw a sludgy pink. I then turned to a blue palette, but again all my choices proved to be either too bold, too pale or too blah. Next came green. Again, I just can’t seem to land on my preferred choice of a light silvery-grey-sage shade of green, despite sampling all the big name brand equivalents. I’m now trialing the Haymes Pale Mushroom series # 4, 5 & 6 which, up against the house are throwing a green, as well as Haymes Sweet Sage (which throws a blue).

    The biggest problem for us is that we have a wraparound verandah on the north-facing front and east-facing side, and a deep bullnose. The roof is a dull galvanised colour, and some of my choices have clashed with the roof colour’s dullness, which in turn makes the colours appear darker than they are. The bullnose on the verandah tends to make even lighter shades darker, so this has really been a major issue with darker colour samples. The west side cops all the weather – rain and sun, so whatever I put up against it looks washed out. The south side at the back also cops rain, but colours are more true to form on this side.

    I have considered Dulux Natural White for the weatherboards, but my husband isn’t as enthusiastic about it, although could be persuaded with a little push in that direction! 😉 I have always maintained that I do not want a grey house, having just relocated from Brisbane where nearly every Queenslander is one grey or another! I’ve told myself that it is so ‘yesterday’, which is why I am trying to land on the next best neutral alternative. I am happy to send you a picture of the house, if you’d be willing to give me a few pointers? When I saw how good your own colour scheme looks, it got me thinking that maybe I should get a sample pot of the Shale! The darker shade of the Shale though could conflict with the dark, dull galvanised roof (which we may paint one day, if push comes to shove).

    I would gratefully and thankfully accept any help or advice you can throw my way. Not living in the ‘burbs means that I am limited on professional resources and the help I need. Apologies for the lengthy comment here, but thanks definitely heading your way! Best, x Heather

      • Liz

        Hey Katrina,
        We have a two story brick cubed home with flat roof…1967 built..atm it’s all white with brown wide trim around the top and a 3 mtr balcony enveloped in brown as well..painting very soon and thinking of either painting all white and where the brown is will be Surfmist and window trims which are faded dark grey atm….or the other thought I have is all surfmist with white trims where the brown along with white trim around windows…
        Getting it professionally painted…really doing our heads in to make the decision which will look best..appreciate your time and expertise to put us out of our misery… :)?

  • Lisa desmond

    Hi,
    Love your colours, I’ve chosen shale grey weather board and surf mist roof and fascia. My windows are white. I want to do a white picket fence but my builder is trying to convince me to do it surf must. Can you help please.

    • Jess

      Hi Katrina,

      Just wondering what colour you painted the underside of your eaves? Vivid White to match your trim, or Surfmist to match your facia? We’re doing the same colour scheme as your house but as this is our first build I’m unsure what the convention is for painting eaves colours.

      • Katrina (author)

        Yes just white 🙂

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