Choosing a masonry paint colour is a bigger decision than picking an interior wall colour, it's the finish that defines how your entire house looks from the street, and it's not something you'll want to redo every couple of years. Sandtex has built one of the broadest masonry paint colour ranges in the UK, and we stock around 27 of those genuine Sandtex shades across our full size range, cross-checked against Sandtex's own official 2024 retail colour card. This guide walks through every colour family we carry, with real product tins so you can see exactly what each shade looks like, plus a few pointers on choosing well for your specific property.
Whites and creams: the safe, classic choice
Whites and off-whites remain the most popular masonry paint choice in the UK, and for good reason, they suit almost any property style, from Victorian terraces to modern new-builds, and they tend to hold their value well when it comes to resale appeal. Pure Brilliant White is the crispest, brightest option in the range, giving a clean, contemporary look that works particularly well on smooth render. Magnolia softens that brightness slightly with warm undertones, a good option if you want a classic look without the starkness of pure white. For a warmer cream, Cornish Cream and Light Cream both give a soft, traditional feel that pairs particularly well with period brick detailing and stone window surrounds.
Warm stones: understated and versatile
Stone shades have become one of the most requested colour families for UK exteriors over the past several years, offering warmth without the commitment of a bolder colour. Oatmeal and Ivory Stone both sit at the paler end of this family, close enough to a neutral to suit most properties while adding more depth than a straight white. Sandstone and Cotton Belt, one of the newer Microseal-range additions, push slightly warmer and richer, good choices if you want a wall colour that echoes natural stone. Country Stone, Chalk Hill and Mid Stone move further into deeper, more grounded stone tones, a strong option for larger properties where a paler shade might read as slightly flat.
Pinks, terracottas and reds: colour with character
Somerset Pink is a genuinely popular choice for period cottages and countryside properties, a soft, muted pink rather than anything bright or bold, it reads as warm and traditional rather than statement-making. Terracotta and Brick Red both bring genuine warmth and work particularly well on properties that want to echo natural clay brick or Mediterranean-influenced architecture, though as with any bolder, more saturated colour, expect it to show more visually if the surface has an uneven or patchy finish underneath, prep matters even more with these shades.
Greens: a quieter statement
Olive is our main green in the range, a muted, earthy shade rather than anything bright or garden-fence green, it suits properties with a lot of surrounding planting or a more rural setting particularly well, blending with the landscape rather than standing starkly against it. Bay Tree, one of the newer Microseal colours, offers a deeper, more sophisticated green-grey that works well as either a full wall colour or a striking contrast on a porch, bay window or garden wall.
Greys and blues: the contemporary choice
Grey has become one of the defining exterior colour trends of the last decade, and Sandtex offers real range within it rather than a single "grey" option. Light Grey and French Grey sit at the softer, more versatile end, easy to pair with most brick, roof and window colours. Vermont Grey and Plymouth Grey move into mid-tone territory, contemporary without being stark. Slate Grey and Gravel push considerably darker, a strong, modern choice for anyone wanting a real departure from traditional white or cream. Silver Blue, another newer Microseal addition, brings a cooler, blue-grey tone that reads as genuinely distinctive against typical UK streetscapes without tipping into anything too bold.
Darks: the boldest choices in the range
Anthracite, another of the newer Microseal colours, has become one of the most searched masonry paint shades in the UK over recent years, a near-black charcoal that gives a sharp, architectural, thoroughly modern look, particularly striking on new-build render or as a contrast on a bay or porch section of an older property. Bitter Chocolate offers a warmer, browner dark alternative, and Black is exactly what it sounds like, the boldest, most dramatic option in the range. Dark colours absorb more heat than pale shades, which is worth bearing in mind on south-facing walls in particularly hot spells, though this is a minor consideration for UK weather rather than a genuine limitation.
The Microseal colours: what's new
Anthracite, Silver Blue, Bay Tree and Cotton Belt represent Sandtex's newer Microseal-technology additions to the Smooth Masonry range, and they tend to skew toward the more contemporary end of the colour wheel, reflecting current UK exterior trends toward deeper greys, blue-greys and sophisticated neutrals rather than the paler, more traditional creams and whites that dominated exterior colour choices a decade or two ago.
The wider Sandtex colour range
The 27 shades above are the ones we carry as ready-to-buy stock, but they're part of a considerably larger official Sandtex palette. Sandtex's own 2024 retail colour card lists further Smooth Masonry Microseal shades beyond our stocked range, including Cotswold Cream, Soft White, Smokey Beige, Gallery Grey, Pebble Beach, Stonehedge, Stone Harbour, Birch, Sandblast, Deer Park Light Grey, Crystal Collectors White, Coral Rose, Vintage Pink, Clay White, Mill House, Riverbank, Scarecrow and Waterville, alongside an even broader in-store colour-mixed (Sandtex Trade) range covering everything from Oxford Blue and Racing Green to Cranberry Swirl and Tivoli Gold. We don't hold these as ready stock, so if you've got your heart set on one of them, get in touch and we'll advise on availability and lead time rather than risk sending you a colour we can't actually match reliably. For anything in our stocked list of 27 above, though, you can order with confidence and expect it on your doorstep from stock.
How colour affects the way your house reads from the street
Paler shades, whites, creams and light stones, tend to make a property look larger and its details (window surrounds, porch, brickwork accents) more visible and sharply defined, since they don't compete visually with darker architectural features. They also reflect more light back onto neighbouring surfaces and into ground-floor rooms, which can genuinely brighten a shaded garden or interior. Darker shades, anthracite, slate grey, black, do the opposite, they make a property feel more solid and grounded, and they tend to make architectural detailing recede rather than stand out, which suits a clean, minimal, contemporary look but can visually shrink a smaller property if used across the whole elevation. A popular middle ground is using a darker shade selectively, on a single-storey extension, a porch, or a garden wall, rather than the entire house, giving contrast and interest without the full commitment.
Coordinating with doors, window frames and roofline
Your wall colour doesn't exist in isolation, it sits alongside your front door, window frames, fascias and roof tiles, and getting this combination right makes a far bigger difference to overall kerb appeal than the wall colour alone. As a general rule, white and cream walls pair well with almost any door colour, giving you the most flexibility if you like to change your door colour periodically. Grey and stone walls tend to look particularly sharp against a bold contrasting door, a deep green, navy or burgundy front door against a Light Grey or French Grey wall is a genuinely popular, well-tested combination. Darker walls like Anthracite or Black generally look best against pale or natural wood-toned doors and window frames, since a dark-on-dark combination can read as flat or heavy from a distance.
A note on colour names and matching
Sandtex colour names are consistent across the Smooth Masonry range, so a shade like Plymouth Grey or Cotton Belt should read the same whether you're buying a 150ml tester or a 10L trade tin, and should match if you're topping up a previous project with the same colour name years later. That said, always keep your original tin (or note the exact colour name and range) for any future touch-ups, and be aware that very old tins of a discontinued or reformulated shade may not match a current tin of the same name with complete precision, manufacturers do occasionally refine formulations over time even while keeping a name unchanged.
How to actually choose
A few practical pointers: look at your roof tile colour, brick colour and window frame colour together, your wall paint doesn't need to match these exactly, but it should sit comfortably alongside them rather than clashing. Consider your street, a colour that looks striking in isolation can look out of place if every neighbouring property is a similar pale neutral, while a bold choice can also look fantastic as genuine individuality, it's your call, but worth being a deliberate one. And always, always test a 150ml sample directly on your actual wall before committing to a full-size tin, texture, light and surrounding materials all affect how a colour reads in reality far more than a screen or a small swatch can show.
Every shade at a glance
Here's the complete list of Sandtex Smooth Masonry Paint colours we stock, with the sizes each is available in and current availability, so you can check at a glance before clicking through to a product page.
| Colour | Family | Sizes available | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pure Brilliant White | White | 1L, 2.5L, 5L, 7.5L, 10L | In stock |
| Magnolia | White | 5L, 7.5L, 10L | In stock |
| Cornish Cream | Cream | 5L, 10L | In stock |
| Light Cream | Cream | 5L | Limited stock |
| Oatmeal | Warm stone | 5L | In stock |
| Ivory Stone | Warm stone | 5L | In stock |
| Sandstone | Warm stone | 5L | In stock |
| Cotton Belt | Warm stone | 5L | In stock |
| Country Stone | Warm stone | 5L | In stock |
| Chalk Hill | Warm stone | 2.5L, 5L, 10L | In stock |
| Mid Stone | Warm stone | 5L | In stock |
| Somerset Pink | Pink | 5L | In stock |
| Terracotta | Terracotta/red | 5L | In stock |
| Brick Red | Terracotta/red | 5L | In stock |
| Olive | Green | 5L | Limited stock |
| Bay Tree | Green | 150ml, 5L, 10L | Limited stock |
| Morning Sky | Grey/blue | 5L | In stock |
| Silver Blue | Grey/blue | 150ml, 5L, 10L | Limited stock |
| Light Grey | Grey/blue | 5L | In stock |
| French Grey | Grey/blue | 5L | Limited stock |
| Vermont Grey | Grey/blue | 5L | In stock |
| Plymouth Grey | Grey/blue | 2.5L, 5L, 10L | In stock |
| Slate Grey | Grey/blue | 5L, 10L | In stock |
| Gravel | Grey/blue | 5L | In stock |
| Anthracite | Dark | 150ml, 2.5L, 5L, 10L | Limited stock |
| Bitter Chocolate | Dark | 5L | In stock |
| Black | Dark | 1L, 2.5L, 5L | In stock |
"Limited stock" means our current stock of that colour is lower than usual, some individual sizes may show as temporarily out of stock while others remain available, check the specific size you want on its product page for live availability.
Browse the full range
Every shade mentioned here, and the full colour range beyond it, is available across our stocked sizes from 150ml testers to 10L trade tins. Browse the complete Sandtex Masonry Paint collection to see every colour, check current stock, and find the right size for your project.
