HGTV’s Favorite Beach House Color Palettes

Close your eyes and imagine the shoreside home of your dreams. Does it blend in with the dunes’ neutral tones, like a hippie-chic home in Malibu or Montauk? Might it sport crisp nautical blues with preppy red accents? Are you envisioning Caribbean-inspired brights like you might find in the Florida Keys?

If you find yourself at sea when it comes to coastal and beachy exterior color palettes, fear not; finding the combination that suits your home is as simple as strolling along the shore and keeping your eyes peeled. We’ve collected our favorite inspirational, designer-approved pairings, and we’ll explain exactly how they work together and which paint shades to try. All you need to do is enjoy the views.

The whisper-light blue on this New Jersey beach house looks like a distillation of the cloudless sky itself. “Finding the perfect blue in a sea of blue can be a challenge even to a designer,” says designer Karen B. Wolf, who planned the home’s ethereal board-and-batten exterior and carried the same color scheme inside. “When selecting your perfect blue, think about the undertone of the blue. Do you prefer a green/blue or a purple/blue? Deep or light in value? For me, my perfect blue is a ‘baby blue.’ It is mid value and sits between a purple and green undertone. Baby blue is calming, has just enough reflective value, is not muddy and is typically universally loved.,” she explains.

Paint color: Sherwin-Williams Blissful Blue

This charming home on Long Island Sound in New York comprises both the main residence, seen here with a bold balance of deeper and pastel blues, and additions that have sprouted up over the years (a barn here, a pool house there). Trimmed in white, the combination suits the home’s style and creates cohesion across the site, explains Ryan Salvatore of Burr Salvatore Architects, the Connecticut firm that’s spent a decade helping this magical property’s owners develop their home. “It is wrapped in gables and animated with restrained but intentional ornament. The multi-color palette reinforces the Victorian lineage and energizes the exterior,” he says.

Try These Paint Colors: Benjamin Moore Brilliant Blue + Benjamin Moore Serenity

Nestled in the sea grass on Oak Island, a barrier island in North Carolina, this charming home is in no danger of blending in with the block, thanks to the jewel-bright color Alison Victoria and her team of Battle on the Beach competitors chose for its exterior. Since much of the street-facing side of this shingled retreat is shaded and tucked back behind the natural wood deck, the painted portions we do see feel confident rather than garish. Deeper colors like this one also come in handy on sunstruck, uncovered decks, where the eye needs a chance to rest when dazzled in direct light. This oceanic teal green is the perfect fit for a beachy Southern home.

Try This Paint Color: Behr Terrace Teal

Speaking of Southern charm, designer Taniya Nayak and her team conjured up a winning Battle on the Beach palette at this Gulf Shores, Alabama beach home, where a traditional beige sets the stage for both a new natural wood pergola and a front door in look-at-me red. Using a primary color as a guest star rather than the main event here enabled Taniya to repeat that fiery tone in the classic Adirondack chairs she perched on the deck and complementary accessories at the rear of the house. Make the most of her strategy by reaching for a similarly neutral shade of exterior paint, then letting yourself go a little wild for your big entrance.

Try These Paint Colors: Benjamin Moore Meditation + Sherwin-Williams Real Red

Jasmine Roth’s “beachy-chill” home in Huntington Beach, California exudes its owner’s effortless chic with a rich, cocoa-nib exterior for its board-and-batten siding. Crisp white window trim gives that organic look just a bit of polish, then the serene green she chose for her front door functions as a natural gem. It’s also a hint at her interior color story, and the heart of Jasmine’s family: That same shade of green recurs on the walls in her little girl’s nursery.

Paint Colors: Sherwin-Williams Homestead Brown + Sherwin-Williams Frosty White + Sherwin-Williams Halcyon Green

We’re not saying there’s a local law requiring homeowners on Oahu to match conch shells’ delicate pastel interiors, but we’re not saying there shouldn’t be a law like that; how lovely is this petite beach home? The same shade carries across the diminutive deck and down its steps to the lawn, alternating with white risers that match the rail and trim.

Try This Color: Sherwin-Wiliams Youthful Coral

When Karen E Laine of Good Bones zeroed in on this Wilmington, North Carolina beach cottage for her retirement oasis, she knew the 125-year-old building needed a breath of fresh air. She chose a crisp, ice blue exterior paint that reflects the skies sailors dream of sailing beneath — then chose a historic green color for her deck and interior flooring drawn directly from the space-conscious interior of the Battleship North Carolina, a World War II-era relic docked in town. This understated, atmospheric shade lets Karen’s hanging garden and cozy porch accessories draw the eye.

Try This Paint Color: Benjamin Moore Icy Blue

On the second season of Battle on the Beach, Alison Victoria led her team to victory in Surfside Beach, Texas by going gloriously green. They finished off this farmhouse-inspired cottage on stilts with a mid-tone olive green that feels organic and stands out against the textural grasses between it and the shore. Choose a warm green like this one if you fancy a not-so-neutral neutral that picks up on tones in the vegetation beyond your own landscaping.

Try This Paint Color: Farrow & Ball Sap Green

If you’re lucky enough to have a tropical garden framing your beach house, keep the party going with exotic hues echoing that lush vegetation. This kaleidoscopic retreat features tawny ground-floor pillars that draw in the color of the flagstone surrounding the pool, vivid blue pillars, decking and window trim, verdant green above the ground floor bar and splashed across the second story and pops of pollen yellow. The aggregate effect is a visual vacation in its own right.

Try These Paint Colors: Behr Lily Pads + Dunn-Edwards Cornflower + Behr Radiant Sun

If you like the idea of a botanically-inspired beach house but aren’t quite ready to go wild — or are looking to complement a green roof — consider a two-tone, slightly-desaturated riff on some of the same tones. This four-story beauty’s roof lines owe their elegance to a pale green hue that simulates the look of verdigris, or the natural patina that forms on copper through oxidation. The vertical planes’ delicate yellow within white railings and hardscaping, in turn, suggests the hint of color at the center of plumeria petals. This paler palette suits the house’s grand scale. Can you imagine how overwhelming it might look with, say, the goldenrod-yellow tone of the smaller home beside it?

Try These Paint Colors: Benjamin Moore Butter Yellow + Behr Gingko

For old-school Atlantic-seaboard appeal — which this diminutive home in Westport, Connecticut has in spades — it’s hard to beat classic, creamy white. Standing out ever so gently against charismatic details like its cupola and cross-gabled roof, its cooler white trim provides all the differentiation this storybook cottage requires.

Try This Paint Color: Sherwin-Williams Creamy

To give your preppy coastal home a playful tweak, consider this charming beach bungalow in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where a bolt of blue at the front door carries into accents that give the traditional home surf-shack style. You don’t need to lean a longboard beside the portico, (though it looks fantastic here, we must say) but doubling down with a few container plants in vessels that complement your door layers the look beautifully.

Try These Paint Colors: Glidden Antique Parchment + Benjamin Moore Bird’s Egg

While we’re highlighting neutral homes with statement doors, might we suggest making your statement just a bit lengthier and incorporating your windows? This sweet-as-can-be home in Galveston, Texas is pretty as a picture with a combination of neutral siding and shingles, creamy trim and a delightfully unexpected, peachy-keen front door that matches its windows, rocking-chair cushions and striped porch drapes. The colorful trim also highlights the windows’ nifty mismatched upper panes, charming details that deserve to be distinguished.

Try These Paint Colors: Benjamin Moore Warm Sand + Benjamin Moore Coral Reef

For his own first crack at Battle on the Beach glory, Ty Pennington helped his team transform this Gulf Shores beach house from a faded beauty to a crisp, contemporary getaway with on-trend-yet-also-classic battleship gray. This deep charcoal tone gained popularity as a working color because it both camouflages wear and tear and helps other neutral tones shine; as for curb appeal, its moodiness with subtle hints of blue is a cool (no pun intended) alternative to faded pastels (like the timeworn pale green this paint job replaced).

Try This Paint Color: Dunn-Edwards Battleship Gray

Ty stuck to his guns in his third round of Battle on the Beach and went even darker for his home’s exterior transformation. He and his team painted their board-and-batten siding a dramatic, on-trend shade of black — and the look it delivered beside fresh white trim was enough to win the whole competition. If you’re nervous about a bold move like this one, consider the context in which you’re introducing the black paint; here, natural wood and white accents temper the statement. There’s nothing spooky about this luxe darkness.

Try This Paint Color: Sherwin-Williams Black Magic

Another sweet Galveston coastal cottage offers a stylish statement in support of cheery accents. In lieu of neutrality, this coastal home pairs exterior paint the color of a tropical gulf with coral trim; that vivid window treatment is especially lovely accented with a swath of white. Painters take note: Frame out your windows the same way you’d frame mementos for a gallery wall!

Try These Paint Colors: PPG Isle Royale + PPG Coral Serenade

Nestled in an eclectic coastal neighborhood where the house next door is traditional Mediterranean neutrals, this cheery beach home in La Jolla, California wears its contemporary peppiness like a badge of pride. The misty gray exterior paint color suits the sunny climate and offsets the portico’s unpainted brick pillars pediments. The luscious red front door pops like a beach umbrella on the shore. This timeless combination will be as chic decades from now as it is today.

Try These Paint Colors: Benjamin Moore Gray Cloud + Benjamin Moore Heritage Red

This squared-off midcentury beach house could feel no-nonsense and, let’s be honest, a bit boring, but this is Oahu we’re talking about. It sports a fantastic shade of salmon pink with just enough of a golden undertone that it’s sophisticated without being cartoonish. A creamy white freshens up its lattice-topped fence and creates contrast on the garage door.

Try These Paint Colors: PPG Smoked Salmon + Benjamin Moore White Dove

For a Brother Vs. Brother showdown in Galveston, Texas, Jonathan Scott updated his beach house with a masculine, tailored blue-green. The curb appeal here is all about the home’s staircase—with a coat of white paint, all of its glorious angles are on full display—and its buttoned-up black garage door. When your home sits atop a carport as this one does, it’s worth investing in a showstopping façade that gives it character instead of hoping it’ll disappear.

Try These Paint Colors: Behr Caribbean Splash + Sherwin-Wiliams Snowbound