The 5 Best Shutter Colors for Brick Exteriors (HOA-FRIENDLY!)

Brick, Shutters, & More

Are you looking for the best shutter color for your brick home? Wondering whether your particular brick suits black, navy blue, green, or gray? I’ve got you covered.

But before you start sampling, it’s important to know that it’s not just about choosing the shutter color YOU love; it’s about finding the one that best suits your home and its finishes.

And guess what – it’s not all about your brick. 

For sure, your brick plays a big part, but when it comes to shutter color, so does your roof (big time), window color, trim, front door, and more. So, while you’ll want to check out the colors below, sample carefully to see how they settle with ALL your home’s exterior finishes before slappin’ paint on those shutters.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES/COLORS OF BRICK

Red brick is, hands-down, the most common exterior brick. This red is most often red-orange, red-violet, or red-pink. However, there are many other shades of beautiful brick, including…

• Beige and brown
• Gray and taupe
• Black
• Cream and orange
• The odd flash of purple or green

And because it’s not all about your brick, there isn’t one color that’s a FOOL-PROOF SHADE for each type – there’s so much more to consider!

Note how your brick facade coordinates with your roof, window color, trims, and windows (and landscaping), using these colors as your starting point!

1. THE BEST DARK BLUE SHUTTER COLORS

When it comes to blue shutters, you have three big questions to consider (aside from choosing the actual color)…

1. How DARK do you want your shutters to be – light, medium, or dark?

2. How INTENSE (colorful) do you want your blue to be—bright and striking, subtle and muted, or somewhere in the middle?

3. Which UNDERTONE best suits your home? Blue tends to favor blue-violet or blue-green. More brick homes suit blue-violet over blue-green, but depending on the roof/trim color, etc, there are definitely exceptions.

4. Does your home’s exterior (not just your brick) SUIT blue?

This next home has mostly siding in this photo, but you’ll see some pink-toned brick to the right. My client had a glorious, hot pink front door and wanted a shutter color that complimented it, didn’t compete with it, and also suited her roof, siding color, and brick—ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE!

I gave her three or four options to explore, and she settled on Sherwin Williams Cyberspace, the perfect choice for this gorgeous home.

My next client had a hot mess of colors going on, which were shockingly distracting from his GORGEOUS brick (mad love)…

This brick has some obvious red, orange, and pink tones, but also has a beautiful flash of violet, which lends itself well to a blue hue…

The front door is the same color as the shutters on this home

This home is breathing a HUGE sigh of relief (me too) with Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron shutters. Wrought Iron is a soft black blended with blue-violet and gray, offering a softer contrast than the previously sharp black.

Here’s another before with a beautiful brick overwhelmed by varying shades of green (shutters and trim) and a cedar-look orange-toned shake color…

With homes like this, sometimes it’s hard to see past the current colors to imagine something that adds visual (and actual) value to the home. Luckily, they had a little Ginger tucked in their back pocket…

The front door and shutters are the same color

These shutters are painted either Benjamin Moore’s Cheating Heart or Wrought Ironn. It was several years ago, and I think I mixed up the labeling (three slaps with a wet noodle). While the above photo makes the color look a bit blackish, both have a beautiful blue undercurrent in real life (thank you, Online Color Consulting clients, for sending them in!) This is easier to see in this next photo (which shows the French doors on the back of the above home)…

But the list doesn’t end there. These are just the ones I happen to have photos of. You’ll also want to sample and compare.

• Benjamin Moore Hale Navy
• Benjamin Moore Deep Space
• Sherwin Williams Sea Serpent, found in this blog post re: The Best Dark Blue Paint Colors
• Sherwin Williams Naval
• You can also explore the BEST DARK BLUE-GRAY PAINT COLORS

2. THE BEST MEDIUM-TONED BLUE SHUTTER COLORS

Let’s explore some softer, more moderate shades. Again, you have a few questions to consider…

1. How INTENSE (colorful) do you want your blue to be—bright, striking, subtle, muted, or somewhere in the middle?

2. Which undertone best suits your home? Blue tends to favor blue-violet or blue-green. In this medium-depth range, blue-green is FAR more popular and suits a wider range of homes.

4. Does your home’s exterior (not just your brick) SUIT blue, especially a lighter one?

If things look all good in the hood, you might want to check out Benjamin Moore Hamilton Blue…

Hamilton Blue is a medium-depth shade of blue with a reasonable green mixed in and some gray to calm it down. Not every roof or brick can pull this bad boy off, but when they can, it’s friggin’ gorgeous.

Because I’m at the mercy of my Online Consulting clients and dedicated readers who send in their after photos, I don’t have any other examples of moderate blues. Still, I have a great list of colors to sample and compare. Remember that when it comes to medium-depth blues, less ‘color’ is often more when coordinating with brick.

• Sherwin Williams Blustery Sky
• Sherwin Williams Foggy Day (for more gray mixed in)
• Benjamin Moore Britannia Blue
• Benjamin Moore Providence Blue
• You can also explore The 13 BEST BLUE-GRAY BLENDS – Light to Medium

3. THE BEST BLACK PAINT COLORS FOR SHUTTERS

Black is definitely the most popular paint color for shutters. However, not every brick (or roof) can handle its stark contrast. Again, sample carefully and consider your home’s features before biting the bullet.

This next brick exterior is pretty traditional with its dark charcoal black roof and red brick. Along with a beautiful medium-depth taupe trim, the black shutters create a classic combo that doesn’t look like it’s trying too hard.

Here’s another wicked pretty brick with striking black shutters…

Don’t get me wrong, the beige on the garage door and trim is butt ugly (which is why I was hired), but the black shutters are bangin’. All the same, my client removed the shutters and shifted the garage doors to the previously mentioned Cheating Heart (the trim STILL has to go)!

If you need help with your shutters, purchase my FRONT DOOR PAINT COLOR package and use it to get shutter color help instead!

Sherwin Williams Iron Ore is another favorite exterior color (shutters, trims, doors, and more). It’s a soft black with a very minor green undertone…

While the above home has painted brick (Romabio Avorio White); if you compare the Iron Ore shutters to the crisp black of the windows, it’s easier to see their softness.

If you need help choosing a shutter color, order my FRONT DOOR COLOR PACKAGE to get shutter help instead (which is different from shitter help, which I’m not licensed for). 

A FEW BLACKS TO EXPLORE

• Sherwin Williams Iron Ore
• Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black
• Benjamin Moore Black 2132-10
• Check out a CURATED color bundle of my TOP BLACKS TO SAMPLE & COMPARE

The 8 Best Black Paint Colors

4. THE BEST TEAL (BLUE-GREEN BLEND) SHUTTER PAINT COLORS

While teal can look stunning on the right brick home, it can look like it’s trying WAY too hard on the wrong one.

This is because many middle-aged women (it seems, more so than men) have a lady boner for teal doors and shutters. Of the popular shutter/front door colors, teal is the most likely to look out of place, as fewer roofs and surrounding finishes can handle them. But this isn’t to say your home won’t so let’s see what I’ve got.

This next red brick exterior has Sherwin Williams Riverway on the shutters and the front door with Greek Villa trim. Sometimes, painting the shutters and front door the same paint color keeps the palette simple, whereas multiple colors can look cluttered.

Riverway works so well on the above home because the brick is a pretty consistent color—it’s not multi-toned. The more colors/tints/tones your brick has, the more challenging it can be to add a new color to your palette (challenging, but not impossible if you have connections—wink, wink).

Now, because you should never sample a color based on itself, you’ll want to compare popular, similar shades to see which settles best on your home, including…

• Sherwin William Still Water
• Benjamin Moore Caribbean Teal
• Benjamin Moore Bella Blue
• Sherwin Williams Underseas
• Benjamin Moore Sioux Falls

While I might not have the above colors on shutters, I have a few of them on some fabulous front doors…

Benjamin Moore Sioux Falls

Sherwin Williams Still Water

The 9 Best Front Door Paint Colors

5. THE BEST MEDIUM-DEPTH & DARK NEUTRAL SHUTTER COLORS

Not everyone is in it for dark shades of blue, black, or green. Others want to stay as far away from teal as possible. Instead, they’re looking for a more modest, muted approach—one found with beige, taupe, and greige.

Again, I only use photos from my clients (I don’t pirate from other Creators to support my own content). So, while these next homes don’t have shutters, let’s consider what I might suggest…

Look at the gorgeous brick detailing around this front door. While the stone plays a big part, I would pull into the brick for my shutter color, likely landing on colors in the MEDIUM-DEPTH TAUPE range (or slightly darker).

Why?

The more colors, tints, and shades a home has on its exterior (including stone, brick, roof, trims, etc), the harder it can be to add a NEW color to the scene. I feel black would be too harsh for this home (as the black door is pretty but a bit overwhelming), whereas a darker taupe would pull into the brick nicely.

This being said, I might consider a more thoughtful contrast using a dark greige with a green undertone like Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze.

Check out my CURATED LIST of the TOP DARK GREIGE PAINT COLORS

Check out this next badass and beautiful exterior…

I’m obsessed with the brick and its overall color profile. Notice how subtle the trim and front door look as they pull into the MORTAR around the brick and the beige/tan windows rather than introducing a new color to the palette.

Some homes are so gorgeous that they don’t need shutters (like this one). If I were to consider a shutter color, I might add some contrast. Overall, this palette is pretty simple, with no drastic variations between the brick, mortar, roof, wood shingles, and trim (I mean, there’s a lot there, but in the exterior world, it’s all well-coordinated).

Long story short, I might consider a dark, muted green paint color like Sherwin Williams Thunder Gray or maaaaybe a dark shade of greige. These would contrast the warm tones without adding too much color (greige has a subtle green undertone). I also considered a super muted blue like Cheating Heart, but it seems it could look like it’s trying too hard (nobody likes a try-hard).

MY TOP MEDIUM-DEPTH & DARK NEUTRAL PAINT COLORS FOR SHUTTERS

• Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze and Porpoise
• Benjamin Moore Amherst Gray
• Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray
• Sherwin Williams Roycroft Pewter (gray-blue-green)
• Benjamin Moore Pashmina
• Sherwin Williams Keystone Gray
• Benjamin Moore Kingsport Gray

SHOULD THE FRONT DOOR & SHUTTERS BE THE SAME COLOR OR DIFFERENT?

This is a tough question as it 100% depends on the house and its existing finishes. I’d love to give you an easy way to figure out what best suits your home, but here’s some food for thought…

• If you’re thinking of using two COLORS (not neutrals) consider whether your home can handle that much color (two colors can be a LOT).
• If one of your colors is a ‘color’ and one is ‘neutral,’ it will be much easier to use two shades, especially considering black (more commonly on the door).
• Does your home already have a wide variety of colors/features? If so, it could be smart to simplify your palette using the same color on your front door and shutters.
• Does your home have a relatively flat front? SOMETIMES, it looks best if the front door and shutters are the same, but it can depend on the combo.
• Look at the images in this blog post to see which ones have matching doors/shutters and which ones have different colors. What look do you think suits your home?

READ MORE

The Best Front Door Colors Even Your HOA Will Love

Does Your Home’s Exposure Matter When Choosing Paint Colors

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