Best Exterior Paint Colors for a Red | Orange Brick House
The red |orange brick color has been around for hundreds of years. Red brick houses started in the 1700s in England, and red brick became very popular in the U.S. in the late 1800s. Houses that have red brick tend to be more traditional in look since some red brick has been used around for so long. Orange brick was introduced much later than red brick. You will see some bricks look more red, others look more orange, while some are a combination of red and orange.
For awhile the trend was to paint over red | orange brick, but thankfully, that trend is reversing and homeowners are choosing to pick exterior colors that complement their lovely red | orange brick as opposed to covering them up. For this discussion, I’m using the red-orange brick color combination and ALL the colors that I talk about here would complement any combination of a red brick exterior, an orange brick exterior, or a red-orange brick exterior.
Black Exterior Paint with a Red | Orange Brick House
Black paint with red | orange brick houses is a classic. Its hard to go wrong choosing this color. Its classic, timeless and dramatic. It definitely makes a statement and the curb appeal looks amazing if you’re planning on selling your house in the future.
Photo: Artsfasad.com
Above is another look at black paint with red brick. This house has a modern twist with black windows and a stately black porch overhang.
Photo: Pinterest
Two classic pure black paints for a red | orange brick house are:
Benjamin Moore Onyx 2133-10
Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black 6258
Both Benjamin Moore Onyx & Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black are true blacks meaning they have no undertones therefore they won’t look like any other colors. As you can see, these colors look identical.
There’s lots of other blacks out there that would work as well.
Warm White or Cream with a Red | Orange Brick House
Photo: Pinterest
In the picture above, you can see what cream and black look like with a red | orange brick as both colors are used side by side in this townhouse. Same townhouse, two totally different looks. The townhouse on the left with the cream trim is soft and stately, whereas the black trim on the right is gorgeous and dramatic. Neither look is right or wrong, its just two different styles.
Warm whites and creams that complement red | orange brick:
Sherwin Williams Creamy or Alabaster are great choices.
Benjamin Moore White Dove or Navajo White are also very popular and great choices for a red or orange brick exterior.
Navy Blue with a Red | Orange Brick House
Navy blue with red or orange brick is a classic. It’s like jam & peanut butter together. Other blues are also popular depending on where you live and what’s going on in your neighborhood.
Photo: Laura Bern Interiors
This house above, is stunning with Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy.
Hale Navy, Benjamin Moore’s iconic gray-blue navy, is their best-selling blue color and one of the most popular paint colors on the market today. Nearly an off-black, Hale Navy has gray undertones that coordinate perfectly with neutral colors, especially warm gray or greige.
Photo: KylieMInteriors
Sherwin William Naval and Benjamin Moore Hale Navy are popular navys that would look great with red | orange bricks.
Sherwin Williams Naval is a rival of Ben’s Hale Navy. Naval looks equally as stunning in against this orange brick above.
Sherwin Williams Boothbay Blue
Photo: Pinterest
If you don’t want a blue that is too too dark, try a softer blue like Sherwin Williams Boothbay Blue above. A beautiful medium blue-gray shade that compliments this orange & red brick perfectly.
Many blue paint colors would also be a lovely choice for red-orange bricks since blue & orange are complimentary colors on the color wheel and always look great together.
Read: Best Blue – Gray Interior Paint Colors
Sage Green with a Red | Orange Brick House
Sage green is becoming a popular choice for red | orange brick as our love for green exteriors is trending this year.
Sage green is a lovely color with red | orange brick. Sage green is a green gray. Its create drama, but its a bit more subdued than black or navy if you don’t want that much drama. In the picture of the house above, it looks beautiful with the sage green, however, in my humble opinion, lol, they went a bit overboard with the amount of sage green. They could have introduced a gray for the garage doors to compliment the roof, or picked up the beige in the brick. The challenge with this house is that they used gray for the roof color, when there is no gray in the brick. They would have been better off to chose a sandy brown roof color to compliment the brick.
I don’t know the exact color in the picture above, but its similar to Sherwin Williams Quietude 6212 or Benjamin Moore
Read: Most Popular Sage Green Paint Colors + How to use them
Read: How to Pick the Best Roof Color for Your House
Read: 7 Steps to Choose the Right Exterior Paint Color for your House
Beige or Taupe with a Red | Orange Brick House
Beige or taupe can look really nice with red or orange brick. Especially when there are tones of brown in the brick as well which is very common considering the history behind the red & orange brick origin.
The beige and medium brown accent colors compliment the red | orange brick perfectly picking up the brown brick colors.
Photo: Houzz
Taupe is dark brown + gray together. Its a great color for red | orange brick. ESPECIALLY if you have a touch of brown in your brick color like many red | orange bricks do.
Gray or Greige with a Red | Orange Brick House
Photo: Pinterest
The homeowner above did a nice job in updating their traditional styled red brick Tudor styled home with a warm greige. It not only compliments the color of the brick but the style of the home as well.
Photo: SheKnows.com
Another great example in a traditional styled red brick home but updated using greige to bring it a bit of a contemporary feel to the exterior.
Photo: Houzz
This red brick home takes a very contemporary look with black trimmed windows and a cool dark gray.
Colors NOT to use with a Red | Orange Brick House
There are two colors that you DEFINITELY should NOT used with a red or orange brick house. RED and WHITE!
Don’t use red!
In this photo above, we can clearly see that the tomato red door is the wrong choice for this red | orange brick house. They would have been better off to go with black to match the shutters. I also would have painted the white garage doors gray to match the siding. To many colors here make the curb appeal feel wrong.
The correct red-orange for a front door on a red | orange brick can look really nice but choosing the right color for red-orange brick is tricky and most people get it wrong!
This red color door (left) was in my townhouse that I was getting ready to sell. My first inclination was to choose a dark navy like Benjamin Moore Hale Navy, Benjamin Moore Van Deusen Blue or Sherwin Williams Naval or a black like Sherwin William’s Tricorn Black or Benjamin Moore’s Jet Black. All of these colors would have looked amazing!!! BUT I didn’t want to get into trouble with my condo board so I went with a red-orange. It looked great, in my humble opinion, lol, and it wasn’t glaring enough to stand out among the sea of the ugly poorly picked red doors that saturated the complex. For the trim around the door, an off-white like a warm white, cream or a greige matching the brick would look great, but again, I needed to somewhat comply with the condo rules.
So I pulled the orange red color from the brick to paint the front door. I used Behr’s Cherry Blink. Its a good match, it compliments the brick, and makes the door pop out instead of being an eye sore that it was previously. Again, I would have used an off-white, cream or a light taupe for the trim & side door if I wasn’t afraid of getting in trouble from my condo board. If you’re able to choose the right shade of red | orange from the brick, using this color really works, however, choosing the wrong shade as we see in the picture above, can make the house look really really ugly.
Don’t use a cool white with a red | orange brick. It’s too stark
Photo: Homestratosphere
Try a Warm White, Cream or Warm Greige Instead
Another popular color that is used with red | orange brick is a cool or stark white. As you can see from the photo above, the cool white as the trim looks harsh with the red orange brick color. An off-white, like a warm white or a cream would look much better.
Photo: Homestratosphere
In this house above, the homeowners used light greige as their accent color for their windows & trim. You can see how this home looks stately and it not jarring like the one above. What a difference choosing the right color can make in your exterior.
Feeling Overwhelmed?
Do you want more options for your red | orange brick? Perhaps you’re looking at updating your whole exterior including the front door, trim, garage door etc and you need some direction. I offer several different color consult, design packages & staging packages. I guarantee my work. I will make sure you’re happy. Let me help you take the stress out of choosing a paint color for you.
Click here to learn more about my online e-design, color & staging consults.
Hi! I’m Debi Collinson. Designer. Color Consultant & Real Estate Investor.
I conducted my first color consult at the age of 7, for my father for one of his design | build projects. I’m an Interior Designer, a Double-Certified Paint Color Expert, with advanced training in kitchens + bathrooms!
Since 2006, I have helped hundreds of clients, just like you, to style their house to make it a stunning retreat, that is functional for the family AND that they love and enjoy their home. I was one of the first stagers in the industry when staging just started out, and I have helped hundreds of clients make money beyond their expectations when they sold their house.
In 2020, I moved my design business online. In my spare time lol, I renovate, manage and am the general contractor for my rental properties.
