Turning Heads

You’re on vacation, strolling down a quaint street in a small town, letting your gaze slide on the facades of lively houses, all similar in architecture. What calls you back for another look at that particular one, as if you were responding to a wink? Colors! Colors in harmony, vibrating, singing… Exterior house painting is a large statement, to say the obvious, and it is costly—several thousand dollars—and time-consuming. Here are some tips to help you get it right.

Choosing Exterior Colors

“If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Abraham Lincoln

Due to the sheer size of wall surfaces and exposure to sunlight, a small color mistake on an exterior wall becomes glaringly (thank you, Sun!) obvious, so it is essential to do as much homework as possible before making your final color choices.

Where to Start?

Everything in our world has a color… including every surface of your home and surroundings, and these colors need to be taken into account when choosing a palette. Colors have undertones and how they harmonize with each other, not so much how light or dark they are, is a key to success. Think of it as a chord played on a piano; whether or not the individual notes are all in harmony with each other is more important than how high or low they are on the register.

These are the elements you might consider in assembling your color puzzle:

The Color of Your Roof

Although you will not paint your roof, it has a distinct color (with undertones) and must play a part in your overall color palette. Whether it is 20% or 50% of the overall view of your house, it is essential to take it into consideration. Clients often propose a color they saw online or on someone’s house and I have to point out that their roof color is so different that they would not obtain the same result. It is all about color interaction.

The Vegetation Around the House

Is it mostly urban? Dark-green pines? Yellow-green cedars? Blue-green Manzanita? Mostly oaks? How about lawns?

Other Architectural Elements

Rock walls, columns, bricks, stone, deck, wooden beams, railings? Remember that wood has undertones that can vary from orange (Douglas fir) to green blue black (walnut stain), to yellow (pine.)

Window Sashes or Frames

White vinyl? Wood? Dark bronze? If you want an off-white trim, how does that interact with the color of your window frames? Windows with a light trim will appear larger, while a darker trim will make them appear smaller.

The Architectural Style of Your House

Is it a historical building? In Grass Valley and Nevada City, there are many Victorian houses, a category that features several sub-styles, and it is a good idea to consider the era during which your house was built. It does not have to be a full-blown “painted lady,” but that is certainly an option. If you live in the zoned “historical district,” you will have to obtain the approval of the Nevada County Planning Commission. In other parts of town, such as Lake Wildwood or The Cedars, Homeowners’ Associations will need to approve your exterior colors.

Inside/Outside Harmony

The colors on the outside of your house should be somewhat related to those on the inside. They don’t need to match or be replicated, but simply harmoniously related.

Now, Down to Work!

Body Color First

Although it is tempting and exciting to imagine the color of the front door or other accents, the most difficult thing to choose is your overall house color—everything else will flow from there. How light or dark do you want that body color to be?

Note that exterior colors will always look lighter on your walls than on the one-square-inch sample on the fan deck. Even for a light exterior color, you will often need to pick a darker shade to create the desired impression—unless you are looking for an off-white.

Houses often have a mix of surfaces—shingles, stucco, Hardie Board siding—and although you may wish to distinguish each surface from the others, you do want to preserve the overall visual integrity of the house, and avoid a chopped-up look.

Hue Selection

How muted would you like the color to be? How bright? In my experience, the more complex a color is, the more satisfying the result. A gray blue green will have a complexity that will change over the course of a day and with the changing lighting conditions during the year, making it more interesting to the eye.

Warm or Cool Colors

Would you like a warm or cool body color? A warm gray, a brown, a warm beige gold? Or a cooler blue gray green, a navy, a cool white?

Some hues are warmer than others, but there is also a range within each hue. For example, green is much cooler than orange, but within the spectrum of greens, you will find some cooler greens (blue green), and some warmer ones (yellow green or olive tones).

Accents

There are many options for exterior accents. Features such as wooden beams, a wooden deck, and stone on the foundation, for example, already have… yes, a color! And it should be taken into account. Some other options for accent colors are the fascia boards (that can be painted in two tones), the front door, the railings, and the trim on windows and door frames.

You can opt for an understated effect, with all the colors on your house blending in a subtle way—all cousins, all muted. Or you can pick colors with strong Light Reflection Value (LRV).

A front door does not have to be red. It can be black, blue, green, all depending on your color saturation and hue preferences. It can be a complementary color (the other side of the color wheel) or a cousin color.

Experiment!

The major decision is always the overall “field color” or body color. I suggest using some samples from the store; paint a board and move it around the house in different light conditions and near different surfaces (the roof, the rocks, the beams, etc.). Make sure your sample is large enough (2’x3’ is recommended). Avoid painting the samples on the house itself, because by the time you have two or three samples on your house, you will unknowingly start comparing the colors to each other rather than to your landscaping and other architectural elements.

Intentionally select the vantage points from which you will evaluate the colors on your sample boards: where you first approach the house, perhaps the street or driveway, from the back porch where you spend a lot of time in the summer, from the garden overlooking one side of the house.

The trim color can be much lighter or darker than the overall body color, in the same family of colors, or an off-white, or something else. In choosing the trim color, consider the color of your window sashes and the amount of trim on the house.

Note that not all sections of trim (belly band or corner trim, for example) need to the be painted in the same color as the window trim.

What to Do with the Garage Door?

Since the advent of the car, architects have placed the garage door at the front of the house, a decision based on convenience, rather than aesthetics. There are several ways to make the garage door less prominent. Paint it the same color as your house body, so it acts as an additional “wall” (keep the trim color the same as windows and door trim), or paint it a shade darker than the house color, and it will appear smaller.

Decks and Porches

My first rule is to choose a color (paint, stain, or other material) on which footprints don’t show. If, like me, you like things clean and tidy, unless you have elves cleaning your house at night, choose a low-maintenance color that will harmonize with the palette.

Overhangs and Porch Ceilings

Depending on how bright the inside of your home is, it is usually a good idea to choose a light color for porch ceilings and any overhang wider than three feet to allow for the maximum amount of light to be reflected into the house.

For years I have been aware of an old tale about an aqua blue that bees, hornets, and spiders will avoid. I eventually painted all the porch ceilings of my house in a “sky” muted aqua. Two years later, one afternoon, I realized that I never have to hose down any hornet nests or clean spider webs anymore. I was amazed—the story is absolutely true! Perhaps those critters do not like to build a nest for their young “in the sky”.

For a specific list of colors that bees, hornets and spiders avoid, please visit us in the store or contact Rachel.

Remember — You do not have to be a musician to notice a note out of tune. In the same way, if all your colors harmoniously fit together and are pleasing to you, you will know, without the shadow of a doubt!

Rachel is available at Knight’s Paint by appointment—if you wish to run your color choices by her. Sundance Colors has prepared 12 exterior palettes with Benjamin Moore colors that are specifically designed for our Foothill area and look good with several common roof colors.

About Exterior Paint

Coverage is crucial: unlike interior walls, exterior walls protect your house from sun, rain, frost, snow, wind, and all the temperature changes from one season to the next and between day and night. Therefore, paint durability is vitally important for successful exterior painting.

Three Main Factors Determine the Longevity of a Paint Job

1. Prep work — If your house was not prepped correctly—power-washed, caulked, sanded, primed, all dry rot or faulty substrate replaced, and the correct temperature and moisture conditions observed—you can apply the best paint on the market and it will not last.
2. Paint quality — High-quality paint will last (both the color and the protective surface) up to 10-12 years! Note that the actual paint will only be 15%-20% of the cost of your exterior paint job. Paint companies offer products with “25-year” or even “Lifetime” warranties mainly as a marketing ploy. What they do not say is that they might possibly—if you are lucky—replace the paint, but they will not pay for the repainting! Therefore, always choose high-quality paint, especially for exterior jobs! Benjamin Moore has several options.
3. Color retention — Most colors fade a little over a decade. However, remember that colorants don’t all fade at the same rate. If you think, “Well, if it is 10% lighter in 10 years, I am fine with it,” you might eventually be disappointed. For example, if you chose a neutral green gray, the yellow colorant in the mixture will fade first, so the color will not only fade, but actually change, from a green gray to a blue gray. This is particularly true for strong, deep colors.

So, let us dispel some myths and offer clarifications:

1. There is no such a thing as “primer and paint in one can”. Such products have been advertised in the past, but primer is very different from paint. It is a bonding material designed to cover up raw building surfaces and to facilitate paint adhesion. A primer that is not painted will only last in the elements for 60 to 90 days, then will start to deteriorate. Priming is essential for newly constructed surfaces that were never painted, surfaces that flaked or peeled, and all other surfaces such as masonry (stone walls), metal (gutters, vents, railings), or cement (foundations). Benjamin Moore offers an excellent primer called “Fresh Start.”
2. “UV protection” is another term for “color retention”. The sun is a powerful “fader” of paint, sheen, and color. In our area, we have long, hot summers and, depending on elevation, cold winters, often with snow and freezing temperatures. Paint must endure it all while protecting your house and keeping its color fresh for years. The best paint by far for color retention is Aura by Benjamin Moore. I have seen buildings exposed to full sun on the western side and to heat radiating from a parking lot, on which the paint color was as fresh and true after eight years as on day one—a bit of a chemical miracle, but true.
3. How many coats? Painting contractors often give their clients the option to apply one or two coats of paint. Whether paint is brushed or sprayed on a surface, there are microscopic “holes” in its surface, even with the best, thickest paint, applied by the best painter. In order to obtain full color and full wall-surface protection, ALWAYS apply two coats on every surface! Remember, once all the masking is done, the drop cloths installed, the plants near the house covered, the ladders set up, the scaffoldings built, the priming done, and the paint poured in the sprayer, all of which represents most of the work, applying a second coat is not that much more work and it is well worth the effort! I would even recommend not hiring a painter who has asked, “One or two coats?”
   • Cement and masonry — Use a primer.
   • Metal — For some vents, gutters, and down spouts, although there are DTM (Direct To Metal) paints and primers, if you use a good primer, you can use a regular latex paint over it.
4. Paint or Stain? In our area, many of us live in a wooden house—log cabin, or large areas with natural wooden beams. We are often asked, “Do I use stain? In what opacity? Oil or water-based? Do I paint over stain?” Oil-based stain nourishes the wood more efficiently. However, it is also more difficult to apply, and the quality of today’s water-based stains is very good. The opacity will depend on how much of the wood grain you would like to see (with lower opacity amounting to more grain showing). Remember that stain interacts with the wood color; it does not cover it as paint does. Therefore, with low opacity (as with a semi-transparent stain), the original color of the wood and/or stain will be part of your new color. If you wish to change the current color of your wood, particularly if it is dark, you may choose to prime and paint, which is a more long-lasting option. Stain does not last as long as primer plus paint. Knight’s Paint has an excellent stain product called Arborcoat, offered in many colors and with three levels of opacity.