Sunday, June 13, 2010

Overanalyzing Paint Options

Now that a significant amount of the aluminum soffits and fascia are down, we have started to try to figure out how we are going to paint the exterior.

I also now have a pretty good idea of how the exterior was originally painted. The aluminum was put on the soffits in 1971, and underneath there were about 3 layers of slightly varying shades of cream. The green trim the house has now is a recent addition. The stucco was painted white some time ago and it is tough to tell what color it originally was. I am thinking it has probably always been a lighter color and there was never a ton of contrast between the trim and the stucco. The windows and storms appear to have been painted a bright, kelly green based on what is under the current white on the windows and the few remaining storms I have. We have waffled between about 100 color options at this point and the people at Sherwin Williams are starting to make fun of us for all the samples we have purchased. We also have one window in the back of the house with about 20 color samples on it. We have gone back and forth a ridiculous number of times between light trim, dark trim, light storms, dark storms, etc. The current frontrunner is a light green/olive color for the stucco, a light cream color for the trim, and a dark brown/olive for the storms and accents. One thing that is a bit tricky is that we need to make sure that we factor the color of the bricks and roof into our decision. In reality, this is probably a good thing because it helps narrow down our options somewhat. I also like this look because it is kind of a combination of how the house was originally painted and our own taste.
I think the possibility above looks pretty decent. We are trying to be very careful with the green so that our house doesn't end up looking like a giant tic tac.

Also, if anyone knows a reliable handyman in the Twin Cities to help me remove the remaining aluminum (specifically the high parts), please let me know. So far my handyman search is going very poorly. Thanks.

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