Should Gutters Match House, Roof, or Trim Paint Color?
June 1, 2007 § 37 Comments
Gutters are the functional part of your house and you don’t want to accent them in any way. Match the gutters to whatever color is behind them. If the gutters run along the trim, match the gutters to the trim color so the gutters disappear. If a gutter runs along the house, then match the gutter to the house color. That way the gutters will not be the first things you notice from the street.
Just like metal roofs, however, there are some fancy gutter materials like copper that will stand out against any trim and will become a design feature of your house. Just something to keep in mind.
Your Home & Color Coach 
thanks for the the comme nt it does make sense. doris
hello barbara. i am trying to pick eavestrough/fascia/soffit colours for a side-hall 1920’s home. the bricks, which are quite dirty, are a mixture of dirty yellow, mossy green, some peachy-orange and dark gray-brown. the mortar is a neutral light brown. i have chosen windows in a very dark brown with more of a greenish tint than orange. the roof is a textured dark brown w/gray in it. i will try to send a picture – not sure how to do this in this format.
i would like to keep the gutter/trough colour the same as the roof/windows and have an exact match. however, i don’t want that dark brown to extend into the fascia/soffits so i am thinking of a taupe with a slight green tint for those, as well as matching this colour for a small section of stucco and the small amount of wood trim on the front porch.
is it odd to have the fascia and soffits a different colour than the troughs/gutters? i don’t want to put too many colours on the house but i don’t want it all to be brick and dark brown.
thank you very much.
karen
Hi Karen,
Not a problem at all to lighten up the soffit area and carry that color onto the rest of the trim. How about something like Ben Moore’s Wheeling Neutral HC-92 or Greenbrier Beige HC-79? Both of those have green undertones and should look really good with both your dark brown windows and the green tones in the brick. See what you think. You can always go creamier but I wouldn’t bring too much gray into the taupe — you’ll want the entry to be warm.
Let me know it you need a front door color. ??
Thanks again.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I want to match the gutters/ eavestroughs to the wood trim- but- what can you paint the aluminum with that will withstand the elements?
Heather,
With a good primer, you can paint anything. Ask your paint store for a recommendation.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara. Our house is a single-storey 50s ranch in Atlanta (hoping this info helps in picturing it). There’s a gabled porch centered in the front of the house, and the garage which we have now closed in is to the right (if you’re facing the house). The roof is a very dark, almost slate grey and we’ve just painted our house Benjamin Moore’s gettysburg grey, which in certain light almost has a slight green tinge. It says in the article to match the gutter to the house colour, but my concern is that our soffit is white. Will a gray gutter look strange against the white soffit? Should we paint the soffit and fascia gettysburg grey?
Others are saying the gutter should match the trim. Our trim is white and our issue with a white gutter is staining from the elements and upkeep. We want it to be pretty but long-term low maintenance. What about matching the gutters to the roof? Could we have a slate gray gutter or black gutter? And if so, should we still paint the soffit to match the house? Our concern with matching gutters to the roof or having a darker gutter is that the roof already looks heavy on the house, dominating about 40-50% of the facade, and the top of the windows are very close to the eaves, which could make it feel like the gutters are almost concealing part of the windows, making the whole house look very top heavy. And we haven’t picked out the shutters, which judging by the way we’re selecting our colours is likely to be black or very dark. We’re confused. Please help!
Hi tmccrac,
Match the gutter to the trim behind it so the gutter will disappear. Then if the downspouts run down the corner of the house along trim boards, keep the downspouts white too. But if the downspouts run down the middle of the house, paint them Gettysburg Gray again so they disappear. Unless you have fancy copper gutters, they are strictly functional and we need to conceal them as much as possible.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
We are renovating a small ’70s house. Word Picture: The exterior is brick of rose-beige/clay-colored tones. The windows have beige-colored frames and the roof is brown. I know the guttering should be the same color as the facia, but before we paint the facia, I would like to know if the facis and guttering should match the roof or the brick? Help!
Hi Joyce,
I suggest matching the fascia/gutters to the window trim beige or a version of that. The fascia can contrast with both brick and roof. We do often paint downspouts to camouflage against the siding color but it’s not necessary if downspouts are on top of trim.
Hope that helps.
Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
HI Barbara,
We have a cape fear brick with dogwood white mortar and are trying to pick a gutter choice that will blend in and make the gutters go away. Our shutters will be a version of BM blue ( haven’t decided but aiming for a layered french blue look) I have chosen a linen color but any ideas here?
I have chosen a trim color which is custom blended and w grey/blue undertones so I am hesitant to pick a color that would contrast so playing it too safe with the linen?
Thanks so much!
Margaret
Hi Margaret,
In this line of gutters, check out Linen, Almond, and Sandcastle next to your trim color and brick. The color should fade away — that’s the plan.
http://www.eagleseamlessgutter.com/Gutter-Supply-Company-Colors-Lynnfield-MA.html
Hope one works.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We have a two story brown brick house with a grey mortar. We currently have beige gutters, facia, and soffit. We just changed out our windows to brown. Our garage door is pebble grey. I’m thinking of changing all the gutters, facia, soffit’s to brown. What do you think?
Greg
Hi Greg,
You didn’t mention your roof color, but I do think it is a good idea to consolidate the color on your house and change what is currently beige to brown. Even though it’s dark, it sounds like an older home and the dark trim should look fine. I also like tying in the garage door and mortar colors. I hope you have a solid dark wood door, but if it’s painted, consider a lighter warm gray in a high gloss that will contrast nicely with the trim and brick. And you might switch to silver-toned metal for lights/mailbox/door hardware.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thanks Barbara,
The roof is a medium to dark brown. We’ve currently ordered a dark brown door (fiberglass) same as window trims. The house is approximately 30 yrs old. We thought that the brown would update the look. But, we were worried that we needed some pebble grey/beige (garage) to break it up somewhere.
Greg
Hi Barbara,
I have a stained house the color of a pumpkin, white windows and dark brown fascia,soffet and spouting. My question is do I paint the trim around each window the dark brown or what they are all trim with wood around each window. What would look awesome?
Hi Julie,
Try a “bridge” color — something like Ben Moore’s Cameo White for the trim color. It will look fine with the white windows but be softer with the orange than either the brown or just plain white. See what you think.
http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/cameowhite
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hous e is tan and painted trim hunter green gutters are beige and white what to do
Hi Bruce,
You might want to paint your trim white or even the house color (tan) and reserve the hunter green for shutters and the front door.
Just a thought.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I have a French country 2 story stucco new construction. I am looking at doing copper on the front of the home with collection boxes and doing either a musket brown or white/limestone color to match the rest of the house on sides and back? Have you seen this done or will it look like I took the cheap route.
Hi Nate,
Although I don’t think it’s necessary to have the copper collection boxes to have an authentic-looking French country home, I do think that consistency is key to authenticity. An old French home would most likely have the same material all the way around. The “cheap route” happens when we make the view from the front only. Having said that, of course, I do look at “gutters and downspouts” as functional so I don’t have a problem camouflaging them with the house/trim color. But I would go all the way around with your decision.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I am trying to figure out if I should get brown gutters to match my roof (blend in with roof, so you don’t see the gutters, or get a lighter color to match my accessible beige stucco? The front entrance to my house is stucco (SW accessible beige) and the rest is old Chicago brick with white marter. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Christy,
It kind of depends not on the gutters so much but rather on the location of the downspouts. Do you want the downspouts to show or blend? If the downspouts are on the stucco and you want them to blend, then go with the lighter beige color. If you like the look of a brown downspout along the house, then go with the darker color. Either will work.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
We have a reddish orange brick house with white trim and gutters and white downspouts. The downpouts have a decorative leaderhead box and contrast against the brick background. We had planned to paint the downspouts to match the brick but wondered about tying them into the light gray roof to make them stand out less against the brick but to avoid painting them and the decorative piece an orangish red color. What do you think about tying in the downspout color to the roof color instead of the trim or siding?
Thanks!
Hi ctb61607,
Brilliant strategy. We often see bronze downspouts, why not gray to tie into your roof. I like that idea very much. Go for it!!
Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
We have a Bucks County style colonial and are in the process of renovating the garage. The new garage features a large shed dormer and cupola, and is entirely clad with a dark bronze metal roof with Benjamin Moore Annapolis Gray hardinplank and white Azek trim with board and batten accents. As I need to install gutters, I was contemplating matching the gutter color to the metal roof. This would be in contrast to the rest of,the house which currently has white gutters, white Azek trim and Annapolis Gray hardiplank siding (with a brown asphalt shingle roof), but I’m willing to change the existing white gutters to match if necessary.
That said, I have two questions – 1) would dark bronze gutters look good on the 2-story garage structure? 2) if I do dark bronze on the garage structure, should I change the white gutters on the main house to match?
One note – we are fortunate in the house design to not require any leaders on the front of the home. They are all tucked around corners or are on the rear of the home in less conspicuous areas.
Thanks in advance for your opinion.
Hi Michael,
Dark Bronze gutters are an architectural statement. I love them on certain houses, and yours sounds like one of them. Regardless, with the dark bronze metal roof (my favorite metal color!), the bronze gutters are completely appropriate. So yes!! Go ahead and then I would match them around the rest of the house just for consistency and to avoid the “garage-add-on” look from the street.
Thanks for posting.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi I have a light gray siding mobile home and I want to paint the gutters burgundy will that look okay and my doors are white.. So unsure please advise me of my choice.. Thank you!
Hi Betty,
Ordinarily gutters are not much of a design element. We don’t usually highlight them with color but rather camouflage them to blend in with the house color. (The exception is copper gutters on big old homes.) In your situation, if you have another paintable surface, like the front door (?), I suggest painting that the burgundy and making the gutters a dark gray to outline the home without attracting too much attention to the fact that they’re gutters. However, it is your home. And if the gutters are the only “paintable” surfaces for color application, then go right ahead and paint them burgundy. You may start a really cool trend! Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Hi Barbara,
I have a 70’s tri level with pumpkin/peach colored brick and chocolate brown siding. White trim around windows. We are considering painting the siding a gray with greenish tint and then painting the trim a creamy color. We’re also getting new gutters, our roof is weathered wood, dark. I was thinking about a bronze gutter to disappear into the roof, but our soffit/fascia is still white. What do you think? We could also paint the soffit/fascia the cream color.
Hi Sara,
As much as I like the idea of a bronze gutter disappearing into the roof, with white or even cream fascia, the bronze will pop right off of that and show up even more. If you had an old Tudor and wanted to show off the gutter system, I would say go with bronze, but with your style house and the different elements (brick and siding), I suggest cream fascia/soffits to match the rest of the trim and then cream gutters/downspouts to blend with the trim and coordinate along the rest of the house. That will pull everything together and not look too busy.
Hope that helps.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
I just found your site and love all of your tips. I have read through all of the comments on the rain gutters, and I am still stumped on what to do. Here are the details…the house is a Craftsman/Hawaiian Plantation style. Darkish brown metal roof (probably was a bronze color before fading), creamy almond trim for facia and windows, naturally oiled Ipe wood front entry door/windows and lanai railings, dark brown painted garage door, some faux copper light fixtures. Stucco is kind of a mid-tan/pebblestone. So, lots of colors going on and since we recently purchased the house we need to work with what we have. My first thought was an almond/cream color to blend with the facia, as you suggest. But we get a fine covering over everything of red lava dirt which stains and the gutter guy says that a light color will show the dirt and it won’t look good in a couple of years. He suggests a brown to match the roof, but the available browns are either too light or too dark, too red, etc. I figure the facia also has that fine dirt on it, so if I match the futters to the facia it will all blend eventually. But then the guy does install gutters for a living and has seen what happens to them. What do you think? Many thanks!
Hi Teresa,
Dirty or not, the gutters will go away if you match them to the fascia. If you go with a brown that doesn’t match the roof color, the gutters will stand out as another feature on your house. And since the dark Ipe wood is the main design element — I would not want to challenge that. Go with the almond/cream and forget about them. Hose them down when they get too dirty.
Hope that helps!
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
Thank you!
Our house is a ranch 30 years old. Two years ago we sided the house. This year we received hail damage so the roof and rain gutters need to be replaced. The house color — depending on the light of the day can have either a grey or brown cast. I found clay colored gutters match the color the house perfect — however I cannot find soffits the same color. The window trim and garage door are white. Most of the houses in our neighborhood have white gutters but I want something different.
Any suggestions as to how to handle the soffit issue?
Vera,
Try matching the roof color. That way the soffits will disappear — a nice alternative to white. However white is the color that will reflect the most light back into the house. And as long as your window trim is white, there is precedent for more white on the house. Either way will work.
Thanks for posting.
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach
HI, Any recommendations for door color? Have a ranch style home with clerestory windows that make it appear like a two story from the front. Am painting the exterior with Kelly Moore Tranquility body and Dream-catcher trim… thinking something still in green family but want it to pop a bit.. not sure if that means darker or lighter hue. Thanks
Hi Rochelle,
Try Kelly Moore’s Icy Waterfall. It’s a light blue that will coordinate beautifully with your green house/trim.
Thanks for posting
-Barbara
Your Home & Color Coach