The color of your home plays a big role in setting the tone–inside and out. Choosing the right paint will help create a space that you enjoy living in. So, when selecting mobile home colors, it’s important to keep a few basic principles in mind.
If you’re considering painting your manufactured home, read these tips first. They’ll help you and your family find a color combination that you love and select high-quality paints that will keep a crisp look.
Before the Paint Store
Before you walk into the paint or hardware store, take some time to establish what you’re looking for. First, think about whether you want to paint the inside of your manufactured home, the outside or both. This will determine the type of paint you need to buy and how much.
Remember that there are many parts of your home that can be painted besides the walls. For exteriors, this might include your porch, front and back door, railings and shutters. For interiors, consider your baseboards, molding, doors, door jambs, window panes and ceilings.
Many paint companies now offer free online paint visualizer apps. These are great for getting an idea of how certain colors will look in your home, and they’ll allow you to go to the paint store with a better idea of what you want.
What Kind of Paint Do You Need?
You’ll also need to ensure that you’re buying the paint products you need for successful painting. First, check to see if your home manufacturer recommends any specific brands or types of paint. These will usually give you the best results.
Whether you’re painting the interior or exterior walls, you want paint and primer products that are designed for your wall materials. Vinyl siding, metal siding, and wood siding all require different types of exterior paint, and the vinyl-on-gypsum board that many manufactured homes use for interior walls requires high-quality paint products.
You’ll almost always want to buy primer along with your paint. Primer helps the paint stick to your walls, and you’ll want to put on at least one coat (usually two) before painting any wall.
When in doubt, work with the professionals at your paint or hardware store to find the best paint for your home’s needs.
Choosing Exterior Mobile Home Colors
The exterior of your manufactured home will determine the first impression it creates, so most people want something elegant and welcoming. Here are some key tips for choosing exterior colors:
- Some people choose bright mobile home colors such as red or purple for their exterior paints to give their homes a distinctive and vibrant appearance. Note that if you live in a mobile home park, your community may restrict the allowed color for exterior paints.
- Pure white isn’t usually a good choice for an exterior color, as it quickly becomes labor-intensive to maintain.
- Cool colors such as off-white, beige and light blue can help keep your home cool in hot weather. These colors can also create a lovely look when combined with colorful landscaping.
- Painting your door, shutters, or porch railing is a classic trick for adding just the right amount of pop. Adding a splash of color in one of these areas will provide contrast and visual interest without appearing overly bold or busy.
Choosing Interior Mobile Home Colors
- Think first about whether you’d rather have a single consistent color scheme or paint different rooms in different colors. A single scheme doesn’t have to be boring. There’s all kinds of ways to add accents and offsets while keeping colors consistent. Painting rooms in different colors, however, can give your home a sense of vibrancy and excitement.
- Cool colors such as white and sky blue can provide an easy way to make your space seem larger and airier. Warm colors such as brown and burnt orange, on the other hand, create an appealing coziness. Some people like to use both, although it can take some careful analysis to make sure that they don’t clash.
- Think about the mental states that you associate with different colors. Soft, soothing colors such as blue are often found in bedrooms, while more energetic colors like orange are typically considered kitchen or living room colors.
- If you have kids, consider asking them if they want to choose a color for their bedrooms. Choosing how to paint their room can help kids feel like they have a personal space that’s all their own.
Want to learn more about maintaining, customizing, and improving your manufactured home? You’ll find it all on the MHVillage blog, from the basics of curb appeal to our complete guide for mobile home decorating.
