2011EL@5338SHP

Paint Update

LOUSY weather for painting the past couple of weeks!  Wind.  Cold.  Damp.  Fog.  Repeat.  Finally, today a good break, so some Christmas Eve decking of the halls!  

Here are some process pictures even as the painters continue to work.  

below:  sample boards of the final color tests.  i bought 24x30" canvases on sale at Jerry's Artorama, and painted each one a test color, two coats, a total of nine boards.  Once they served their purposed, the test boards were re-purposed and hung in a grid in the living room.

Here are the final sections, all within one shade of the first palette based on tiny swatches. They all feel a bit lighter and brighter on the house itself, due to the expanse of siding and the sheen.

below:  the photo is somewhat misleading, but here is the Moderne White on the siding, Take Five (blue) on the soffit, Mindful Gray on the fascia and gutter.  The downspout isn't painted yet.  The red above the window will be gray, too.  The cmu will be painted last, a color called Dovetail.  The windows here are taped off.  In the photo, the soffit and fascia look almost the same, but they aren't.  

below:  detail of same area as in photo above.    

below:  detail showing soffit and fascia/gutter colors.  the top bluegreen is actually the sky! i'm glad we kept the soffits blue, in the tests it felt more gray, but it was all relative to the old colors.  compared to the old soffit color, this one is much more neutral, lighter and cleaner.   so far, the colors are coming together perfectly!  and after the final coats and touch up work are done, it will look great.  I'll still need to paint all the doors and metal work, and hope the weather is good over the next couple of weeks so it can all be finished.

Splitting Hairs

Tweaking the house paint colors.

Here are three off-whites for the siding.  The original pick, when tested on a larger area, proved too yellow.  These options are virtually the same, minus the yellow-tinge.  The metal work needs to relate to the siding, so the final choice for that will happen once the siding is painted, hopefully within the next two weeks!  

The bottom, darker color is Repose Gray.  The middle is Repose Gray lightened 50%.  The top is Moderne White.  

On the rails are a few colors, Balmy, Repose Gray, Misty, Alabaster, etc.  All are good, and all are within a fine line of the original palette (see previous post below).  At this point, it's all about how the colors look in a large expanse and how they relate to each other under various lighting conditions.  It helped to ban certain colors, both inside and out -- green, bright red and brown. OK as accents, but just got really tired of them as the dominant scheme.  Have to draw the line somewhere!  

While waiting for a final bids from the painters, work moved inside.  Painting the interior doors white to match the walls.  Changing out some hardware here and there.  Have the concept drawings for the landscaping from Digit, and love the direction that's going!  In another year, with all these projects completed, the house, inside and out, will finally realize its potential. The style is understated, but not dull.  Elegant in a somewhat industrial way.  Vernacular in the landscaping and in the basic bones of the house as well.  

Lots to do this month, more photos to come.