Whether it highlights your entrance or anchors your house to the landscape, you want to show off your home’s exterior natural stone features by choosing a color scheme that complements it well. There are many different types of stone, each with their own unique beauty.

Exterior paint colors for homes with stone should enhance the natural color variations in the rocks. Stonework is an attractive architectural element. If you can coordinate your color with its tone, it will add to your home’s curb appeal.

A FRESH Approach to Choosing Stone Exterior Color Schemes

The FRESH approach is a five-step method for selecting an eye-pleasing color palette for your home’s exterior. Use FRESH thinking to choose the right color for each element — roofing, siding, doors, windows, shutters, trim, and accents — guaranteeing a unified look that exudes curb appeal.

Fixed Features

When choosing your home’s stone exterior color scheme, consider the fixed features as they have the most impact.

These are the elements of your home that won’t change. They include:

• All or partial brick, stone, stucco, or concrete
• Roofing style and color
• Chimney structures
• Porch, steps, retaining and walkways
• Decks, patios, and hardscape

Look at the fixed features of any attractive home, and you’ll begin to see some tone repetition. Using similar color tones in different materials and textures helps them match well. This is especially important for homes with a full or partial brick exterior.

Let the Color Cast of Your Stone Be Your Starting Point

Choose colors that blend with or complement the stone’s predominant color or color cast. All colors need to harmonize with the stone to create the best look. If you are building a new home, select the stone and roof first and then make a color scheme to enhance this feature.

“Color cast” typically refers to a tint on a photo caused by sunlight or incandescent light. In a home situation, the term “color cast” describes the dominant color in a material of different colors, such as stone, brick, roofing, or other materials. Generally, these essential elements of the home exterior are not a solid color but a mix of colors. To describe these materials as a solid color would not do them justice since the beauty is in the variations of colors.

You can find the details of how to do that in the ebook FRESH Home Exterior Color Schemes for Brick and Stone, which is available with our compliments. Just click the link. Then consider the other four FRESH steps.

Choose Your Ideal Stone and Roof Color Combination

For your stone or partial stone exterior, consider the overall color cast of your stone and any colors that stand out in the mix. The overall tone could be gray, tan, brown, greige, cream, white, and so on. The primary color of your home must blend with your stone’s tone. That doesn’t mean it must be in the same color family.

For example, you could select blue for your primary color to pair with gray rocks. In that case, a grayed blue will blend with the stones better than a bright, clear blue. If there is a color in the stones that truly stands out, it might work well for accents.

Color Schemes for Tan Stone

The warmth of stones with a tan cast makes them a popular choice for home exteriors. Tan can be neutral or lean towards another color, such as gold, green, peach, or coral. Noticing your stone’s subtle nuances will help you find a suitable color scheme for a tan stone exterior.

Brown Stone Color Schemes

Like in the world, earthy brown can stand alongside all color families. Hues based on those you see in nature are perfect for your brown stone exterior color schemes. Colors that are toned down will look best.

Gray Stone Color Schemes

Versatile neutral gray stones look great in an all-neutral scheme. Or you can use shades of color: dark, medium, or light to create excellent gray stone exterior color schemes.

Greige / Cream Stone Exterior Color Schemes

Greige / Cream Stone Exterior Color SchemesIt may seem odd to describe the stone as “soft.” But that is exactly how the color in a greige or cream stone exterior color schemes feel when contrasted to the color options for darker stones. For the best results, match the softer qualities of the stone to the primary colors in the palette you create and keep solid contrasts for your accents.

White Stone Exterior Color Schemes

White stone makes a statement, whether alone or combined with brick or other materials. When putting together a color palette for white stone, you can choose contrasting colors or let the texture take the lead with a tonal plan.

More Inspiration for Stone Color Schemes

The tips above can get you started. To dive deeper, download our guide, FRESH Home Exterior Color Schemes for Brick and Stone. It’ll give you all the details on creating your best stone exterior color schemes.

Picture Your Perfect Roof

Use our Color Visualizer tool to see what your natural stone home can look like with a DaVinci roof. Explore Color

This blog was originally published in 2019.

About the Author

Kate Smith is an internationally recognized color expert, consultant, and designer. She is a skilled colorist & a color consultant who, for more than a decade, has lent her expertise to DaVinci Roofscapes. Kate helps YOU select colors you will love for many years.