Whether you’re looking for a unique modern farmhouse exterior palette or a classic exterior color scheme for your home, Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee exterior paint could be the perfect fit. Explore our full review and see before-and-after photos from a real client project.
Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee has long been one of my favorite white paint colors to recommend to our color consulting clients. It’s warm and muted and won’t look stark in bright sunshine.
While we more commonly use Swiss Coffee indoors, the home we’re featuring today is a great example of just how beautiful BM Swiss Coffee exterior paint can be. We wanted this client’s home to look elegant and timeless, but still special.
In the end, a low-contrast Swiss Coffee exterior color palette was the perfect choice. Keep reading to learn more about using a Swiss Coffee exterior for your home.
*This post contains affiliate links for products I use and love. If you click on some links and make a purchase, I will get a small commission at no cost to you. This helps pay for the costs of the blog, so I can continue to offer great content to our readers.
About The Color Concierge
Our Colorado-based paint color consultants make finding the right paint colors for your home easy. Whether you’re painting the exterior or interior of your home, our simple yet effective process lets us get your paint color right the first time. We’ve helped thousands of homeowners transform their homes into a space they love. Learn more about ONLINE COLOR CONSULTATIONS today.
Swiss Coffee Project Videos
Video by @Grace13Media
What Color is Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee?
BM Swiss Coffee (Sample) has an LRV of 82, which makes it a darker, off-white paint color rather than a true white or off-white. This color has enough depth that it’s a great white paint for dark rooms (Article) and perfect for exterior paint color projects.
Swiss Coffee (Article) has warm, invisible green undertones that lean toward yellow. If you want a white room that won’t look cold or stark, BM Swiss Coffee is a fantastic choice.
Is Swiss Coffee good for the exterior?
Yes, BM Swiss Coffee exterior paint is a fantastic option! Swiss Coffee is actually one of the lightest Benjamin Moore whites that we specify for exterior paint color consultations.
If you pick a brighter white, the pigment levels get too low and it can take more coats to get good coverage. This is one of the reasons that we rarely specify BM White Dove, BM Simply White, or BM Chantilly Lace (Articles) as exterior white paint colors.
Does BM Swiss Coffee look yellow?
No, it doesn’t. Because Swiss Coffee has green undertones, it looks warm and lovely without looking yellow, even in the bright outdoor sun.
What colors complement Swiss Coffee?
Swiss Coffee is a really versatile color that goes with a lot of different hues and finishes. Swiss Coffee looks beautiful with warm greige or taupe colors (Article) or warm beige paint colors (Article), especially hues that have similar green undertones.
In the palette we’re sharing today, we paired Swiss Coffee exterior paint with Revere Pewter, a warm greige trim for a low-contrast color palette that looks seriously gorgeous! These photos were taken on a rainy day, but the color still looks fantastic! Expect a little brighter on a sunny day, but still warm and beautiful.
Sample Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee Exterior Paint
We always recommend that you test paint colors on your home because lighting can change a color completely, both with interiors as well as exteriors.
In the old days, this meant we painted a large poster board with sample pots and a huge mess.
Now we have a better way to test paint, with Samplize Peel-and-Stick samples!
- Samples pre-painted with 2 coats of real paint from the manufacturer.
- Large 9” x 14” samples to see the color better in the lighting.
- Delivered overnight
- Colors are accurate
- Less expensive than painting a large poster board with sample pots
- No mess, and no toxic paint to dispose of
I use these in my color consulting practice for exact results. Discover Samplize peel-and-stick paint samples:
Project Spotlight: Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee Exterior Color Palette
The client’s home we’re featuring today is a high-end equestrian property in Florida. We collaborated with a talented South Florida interior design firm called She’s Got an Eye. Check them out on Instagram @shesgotaneye.
We knew the final project needed to be elegant and lovely. And while the property included both the main house and a barn, this was not a typical modern farmhouse home, so we didn’t want to use a black-and-white farmhouse palette.
Instead, we chose a low-contrast exterior palette that featured BM Swiss Coffee siding for the home and barn, BM Revere Pewter (Article) trim and a bold yet classic BM Hale Navy (Article) front door. The result completely transformed this home!
While the home was still lovely before, its original blue-gray siding with black trim and black barn gates was slightly ordinary.
We wanted the updated palette to look timeless and modern without looking trendy. The all-white color scheme, where the trim, roofline and siding were all the same creamy white, turned out to be the perfect fit.
Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee Siding
Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee (Article) reads so bright and crisp outside that we usually only use it as a trim color with lighter paint colors, especially in areas with lots of bright sunshine like Colorado or the deep South. In this case, it was the perfect hue to feel light and bright without being stark.
The muted softness of Swiss Coffee looked really lovely when contrasted with the warm pavers on the sidewalk. A lighter and brighter color would have been too stark.
We painted the house and barn exterior the same color. For the barn, we kept the stall gates their original black.
Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter Trim
Because Swiss Coffee is so light, we knew we didn’t want exterior trim that would offer too much contrast. Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter (Article) was the perfect complement!
Revere Pewter is a warm greige paint color with strong green undertones. With an LRV of 55, it’s really a mid-toned gray paint. But it looks lighter than you might expect when you take it outside.
In this case, it made the perfect low-contrast accent color for the trim and windows.
Benjamin Moore Hale Navy Front Door
Because the rest of this exterior color palette was so timeless, we didn’t want to pick a front door paint color (Article) that was too bold or bright. Benjamin Moore Hale Navy (Article) was a fantastic solution!
This hue is so rich and warm that it looks great even within the shady entry. The homeowners really love navy blue, so this was a great way to add a slight twist on a classic black front door.
Sample This Swiss Coffee Exterior Palette
- Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee: Soffits, fascia, gutters, siding, columns, window trim, window frames/mullions, front and back porch ceilings, gable peaks, breezeway ceilings, downspouts, front door trim
- Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter: Shutters, garage doors and trim, secondary doors and trim, railings, front porch column, secondary doors, french doors
- Benjamin Moore Hale Navy: Front door and transom
Key Learning Points
Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee is a lovely warm white paint color that looks beautiful as the foundation for an exterior white color palette.
- Swiss Coffee is typically the lightest white we recommend for exterior white paint. It looks soft and lovely outdoors without looking stark, thanks to its warm green undertones.
- Using BM Revere Pewter exterior trim was a great way to create a low-contrast exterior palette that is timeless and classic. Revere Pewter looks lighter than you expect outdoors.
- Benjamin Moore Hale Navy is a beautiful option if you like the idea of a classic black front door but want something a bit warmer and more modern.
Remember: NEVER, EVER use paint matches from a different brand than the one specified. Results are poor and there are no standards for the sheens. Even though your painter may truly believe it can be done, don’t do it. See results from paint matching here.
No matter what, always test your paint colors. It’s a standard best practice. Whenever I test my paint colors, they are perfect, and when I don’t test they turn out wrong. Learn how to test your paint colors here.
Online Color Consulting
Still need help picking the best paint colors? Discover our Online Color Consulting Package.
Related Posts:
- Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee Color Review
- Best Exterior Paint Color Schemes for 2025
- How to Choose Exterior Paint Colors
- Revere Pewter Color Review
- Hale Navy Color Review
About the Author
Hi, I’m Michelle Marceny, founder, owner, and Principal Color Designer at The Color Concierge. I believe a fresh coat of paint can completely transform a space. The Color Concierge was born out of my drive to help clients fall back in love with their homes. My clients trust me to help them find the perfect paint color for their home – whether it’s a whole-house paint color scheme or ideas for a single room.
Since The Color Concierge was founded in 2017, we have completed over 3000 color consultations, both online and in-person. I am a Certified Color Expert with 7 years of experience creating interior and exterior color palettes throughout North America.
We love your comments! Please note that the blog is meant as general advice, and it is not possible to give out specific answers to your paint
