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How to update your exteriors for summer

How to update your exteriors for summer

April 4th, 2025

Little Greene

With summer approaching, now is the perfect time to update your outdoor space with our range of exterior paints. Our hardwearing, weatherproof exterior finishes are available in our complete palette, allowing you embrace colour outside too.

Explore simple ways you can transform your exteriors with beautiful colours and finishes that will protect your home all year round.

1. Paint your outside walls

Painting your outside walls can make a real impact in your exteriors, providing a beautiful backdrop for garden furniture, planting and accessories. Use our Intelligent Masonry Paint, which is suitable for painting brickwork, stone and render.

This water-based finish makes it easy to transform outside walls with paint – it’s touch dry in 2 hours, with recoats possible after 4 hours. Combining strength with beauty, this smooth matt finish (5% sheen) is designed to last up to 15 years before repainting is required.

Intelligent Masonry Paint is available in almost all our colours, giving you plenty of choice when it comes to designing your outside space. Consider sumptuous, bold shades like Hopper or Mid Azure Green, or achieve a softer finish with earthy neutrals like Lute, Nether Red and Rolling Fog.

Paint colours for outside walls…

2. Update your garden furniture

If you’re looking for a smaller project to refresh your exteriors this year, consider repainting your garden furniture. You can use our exterior finishes to paint bare wood and metal furniture, as well as previously painted surfaces.

Intelligent Exterior Eggshell provides a simple way to update and protect your garden furniture. This low odour, water-based and washable paint delivers a subtle low sheen of just 15%. Touch dry in 2-4 hours, Intelligent Exterior Eggshell is self-priming on bare and painted wood. This means you can complete many projects using a single tin of paint, from start to finish.

Painting your garden furniture provides a wonderful chance to add a pop of colour to your exteriors. Cheerful bright yellows like Giallo and Indian Yellow can boost the mood of your outside space. Whilst bold red and orange hues like Heat or Atomic Red add instant impact.

Paint colours for garden furniture

3. Refresh your exterior doors

Painting exterior doors is a great way to create a focal point in your outside space. Whether it’s your front door, patio doors or an overlooked side door, choose any Little Greene colour for a beautiful exterior update.

We offer a range of finishes and sheen levels for painting exterior doors. Intelligent Exterior Eggshell and Tom’s Oil Eggshell both provide a smooth low sheen and durability to protect against the elements. Or consider our Intelligent Gloss or Traditional Oil Gloss for a reflective high sheen finish that looks very elegant on front doors.

When choosing a shade for exterior doors, it’s important to consider which colours will complement the surroundings. Natural greens can look very sophisticated alongside redbrick or stone. Or consider neutrals and greys to accompany light rendered walls.

Paint colours for exterior doors

4. Create indoor-outdoor living spaces

Over the spring and summer months, we spend a lot more time in our gardens and outside spaces. For the perfect indoor-outdoor living, consider how you can refresh your interiors to create a sense of flow and transition to the outdoors.

In spaces in your home that lead out onto greenery, choose paint colours that feel harmonious with nature. Earthy shades like Portland Stone, Green Stone or Rolling Fog provide a soothing and tranquil backdrop.

Coordinate your scheme with indoor houseplants and botanical prints, as well as natural wood, jute and rattan finishes. This style works particularly well in homes that have little or no outside space, helping to establish connection with the natural world.

Paint colours for indoor-outdoor living

5. Bring colour to your outdoor dining area

During the summer, our outdoor space can become somewhere to enjoy relaxed lunches and al fresco meals with friends. Use our range of exterior paints to create an inspiring outdoor dining area where you can make the most of sunny weather.

There are many ways you can create a beautiful exterior dining space. Consider painting adjacent walls in a bold colour like Córdoba to provide a luxurious backdrop. Or refresh your outdoor dining furniture using a palette of bright and lively hues, perfect for a sociable setting.

When considering colours for your outdoor dining area, consider the atmosphere you want to create. Soft, muted blues like Celestial Blue work wonderfully to create a coastal-inspired scheme for a calm, relaxed feel. Alternatively, a rich chocolate brown like Scullery will sit comfortably in an exterior setting, combining impact with an elegant, earthy quality.