Exterior Window Trim Color Picker

How to use the exterior trim color picker

1. Pick your siding color. Tap a chip, type its color code, or tap Read it off my photo and then your siding.
2. Say what color your windows are. White, almond, bronze or black: the trim sits between the windows and the walls, so the picker measures it against both.
3. Read the trim colors. Three come first: Benjamin Moore’s own trim for a siding close to yours, a deeper shade of your siding and the siding’s own color. Then the trim colors that suit your siding, each with its LRV and its gap from the siding and from the windows.
4. Tap a trim color and every window’s trim on the sample house is repainted in it, or pick any color on the board below.
5. Try your own house. Use your photo, pick a color and tap the trim around each window. Thin trim is easier with the Brush.

What the paint makers say about trim

Benjamin Moore’s answer to Should exterior trim be lighter or darker than the house? is that there is no fixed rule: Try an analogous color scheme for visual interest, using colors for the siding and trim that sit next to each other on the color wheel—or go even bolder with complementary colors that sit across from each other. Its other advice gives the three usual choices:

• A bright white. Want to add more definition and tie the whole color palette together? Try a bright white paint color on your exterior window or door trim.
• A deeper hue. For drama without a garage door to paint: choosing a deeper hue for the front door, porch, or exterior window trim. The picker’s deeper shade is your siding’s own color, darker, so it stays in the same hue family.
• The siding’s own color. Benjamin Moore shows a house in Black HC-190, shown here, used on both siding and trim: the trim disappears and the windows become the outline.

Warm or cool matters for the whites. Sherwin-Williams’ color experts, quoted by the window maker Andersen: because your siding and brick are warmer, a colored trim or a creamy white might look more cohesive than say, a white with gray undertones, which would look cold. So on beige, tan, cream or brick the picker lists the creamy whites and the bronzes first; on gray, sage or blue, the bright whites. Black is listed for every siding: Benjamin Moore calls blue, green and black popular choices for making a statement with your exterior accents.

The picker reads your siding the way its roof and gutter pickers do: no clear hue and an LRV of 75 or more is white; otherwise its hue says warm (beige, tan, cream, brick) or cool (gray, sage, blue). That reading is ours; the advice is the makers’.

Benjamin Moore’s own siding and trim pairs

Benjamin Moore’s 14 Exterior Paint Colors We Love gives a body, a trim and an accent for each of its popular exterior colors. Thirteen name a trim. When your siding is close to one of those bodies (a color difference of 8 or less), the picker offers that trim first, by name.

Most of its trims are whites and off-whites a few shades from the body; two go the other way, a dark trim on a pale body (Ashwood Moss on Horizon) and a light gray on a warm tan (Stonington Gray on Morrel).

Stands out, or blends in

Each trim color shows how far its LRV (how much light it reflects, 0 black to 100 white) is from the siding’s and from the windows’. The yardstick is the UK’s Approved Document M, paragraph 0.26, which calls two surfaces contrasting when the difference in light reflectance value between the two surfaces is greater than 30 points, or at least 20 in good light. It was written so people can find a door, not to choose a trim, so here it only answers “will the trim read as a frame around the window”.

Trim colors by siding color

With white windows: how the picker reads each siding, Benjamin Moore’s pair where one is close, the deeper shade, and how far a bright white and a black trim are from the siding. “Stands out” = over 30 points, “daylight” = 20 to 30, “blends” = under 20. Color names other than Benjamin Moore’s are the picker’s own.

On siding already darker than an LRV of 20 (brick, charcoal, navy) the picker offers no deeper shade: deeper than that is black, which is on the list anyway.

Three worked examples

A white house with black trim. Black trim is 86 points from white siding: every window gets a dark outline, the look behind the “white house with black trim” searches. White trim on the same house is 4 points away and disappears; Benjamin Moore’s pair for its near-white Horizon OC-53 is the dark Ashwood Moss 1484 (78 points).

Tan stucco. The siding reads warm, so the creamy whites and the bronzes come first. Black stands out at 39 points, a bright white at 51. The deeper shade (#76654E) is 27 points from the walls: a tonal frame that shows in daylight. Benjamin Moore pairs its Morrel AF-125, close to this tan, with Stonington Gray HC-170, 18 points away, which blends.

Gray siding with white trim. On a light gray (#C9CAC6) a bright white trim is 33 points away and stands out; Benjamin Moore pairs its Silver Gray 2131-60 with Brilliant White OC-150. On a mid gray (#A3A5A1) white stands out at 55 and black at 35, so both read as a frame.

Common mistakes when choosing a trim color

• A gray-white on warm siding. Sherwin-Williams’ experts warn that next to warm siding or brick a white with gray undertones would look cold; a creamy white looks more cohesive.
• Forgetting the windows. The trim sits between the window frames and the walls. Black trim around white windows is a double frame; black trim around black windows reads as one wide outline. Set the window color above to see both gaps.
• Choosing from a screen. Benjamin Moore: exterior colors can look vastly different as the light changes throughout the day, we strongly suggest using color samples. Paint a sample on a board, hold it against a window, and look in the morning and in the evening.
• The wrong sheen. Benjamin Moore lists Low Lustre as the most popular sheen for siding and trim, and Pearl or Satin and Semi-Gloss or Soft Gloss for trim, shutters and doors. A glossier trim is easier to wipe and catches the light.
• Too many colors. Benjamin Moore: Homeowners typically use three to four colors when creating an exterior color scheme. The siding, the trim, the front door and perhaps the shutters already make four.

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