Since the HOA in the neighborhood we’re currently building in prohibits white, or even light-colored home exteriors, (go figure – white homes are incredibly popular right now) I’ve been exploring other color options. And what I’m finding that I love are homes with striking dark exteriors.

I really don’t want a plain brown home, which is what I think our HOA would prefer, since they consider it a “mountain home” community which they translate as “brown stain with stone and timbers”. Instead, I’m bucking against tradition and headed towards a more modern look with dark paint for the exterior of our new home.

Ever since I learned about the white ban, I’ve been googling, pinteresting, and in general scouring the internet for ideas on dark colored homes, and I thought it would be fun to share with you all the direction our home exterior is headed.

So here are 10 dark exteriors I’m really loving right now.

1) (Pictured above) I love the dark gray exterior of this beautiful Nashville home by Bonadies Architect. Paired with the black windows and the stone, it presents a striking, streamlined facade.

2) Studio McGee

This is probably my favorite combination of materials – dark siding (in this case, it looks like metal), combined with light-stained timbers, light rustic wood siding, and a light stone. Perfection in my book! (And extra heart eyes for those copper downspouts – gorgeous!)

3) Studio McGee

This Studio McGee project also speaks to me. I love the blend of materials they used on this mountain home. It’s modern in style while still feeling warm and approachable. I also love that it’s in a mountain setting, similar to the lot we’re building on, so it helps me understand how our exterior could fit into our setting.

4) Ike Kligerman Barkley

This beautiful home has a dark painted exterior combined with bright white windows. I love the crisp contrast of the dark/light pairing. Sadly, I’m not even allowed to use white (or light colors) on my trim either, so while I love this look, it won’t be happening for me.

5) Designs Northwest Architects

This lakeside home in Seattle has a beautiful dark siding that I love, and while I don’t love the orange tones in the wood beams, I saved this home because I like seeing all the wood with the dark siding. It helps me to picture how the two go together.

6) Source Unknown

I saved this pretty barn a while ago because I love the dark stain with the beautiful rock foundation (sorry – can’t find the source now. If you know it, give me a shout!). Our garage will be connected to the house via an enclosed annex, but will still be a completely separate building. Most of the garage will be faced with stone (because of the same goofy HOA restrictions), so I want it to look like an old stone barn. Even though this siding is brown, which I’m avoiding, I do love this shot for inspiration.

7) Locati Architects

This pretty home has a creamy paint color for the window and siding trim, which I can’t use, but I saved it because I love the black windows with the dark siding. I was a little worried at first that using black windows AND dark siding might feel, well….dark! But I’m actually loving the pairing – when combined with a little more modern lines, the pairing is striking!

8) Carlton Edwards

As in example #5, I feel like the wood tones on this home are too orange for my liking, but I do love seeing how well the wood works with the dark siding and darker windows.

9) Koenig Homebuilders

Pretty much ditto what I said about home #8 (orange-toned wood is not for me), but I do love the dark trim around the windows as well as the pretty stone foundation.

10) Design Milk

I’m almost certain that this pretty home served as the inspiration for another home in our new neighborhood. That homeowner also originally wanted a white farm house with black windows, but ended up with a very similar combination to this home. I think it’s so pretty, although I won’t use this combination because I don’t want to copy my neighbor. But it’s such a pretty pairing of materials.

There you have it – my top 10 picks for dark home exteriors (at least for my surroundings). What do you think? Too dark? Oppressive? Modern and streamlined? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be posting more regularly with design choices for our new home now that the framing is starting and I feel like things are actually happening! Hope you’ll follow along!

Have a great day!