Color Me Indecisive!

From the instant the house became ours, I thought of little else but possible color schemes for the exterior.  As we walked our dogs around the neighborhood, I scrutinized every building for pleasing combinations, slowly developing lists of likes and dislikes.

With a largely unused degree in art, I was confident in my formal training in color.  But appropriate Victorian color choices were certainly not part of my education!  Where to turn for help?  I started with--what else?--the internet.

When I searched for Victorian color palettes, a beautiful Sherwin-Williams page popped up.  The page was labeled "Heritage Colors 1820-1920" and featured 40 colors that have been authenticated by Dr. Roger Moss, who documented them in his book Century of Color: Exterior Decoration for American Buildings, 1820-1920.  The color names carry wonderful prefixes such as "Rookwood," "Downing," and "Tiffany," conjuring thoughts of century-old beauty.

I immediately printed the page and cut out each of the small swatches of color.  It really didn't take long for me to come up with a number of combinations that I found pleasing.  The one thing I was certain of was that I wanted to use at least one shade of green as a foil to the red brick.  That decision eliminated just a few of the 40 choices--those that were cool blues and grays.

Color choice is no small task.  You have to live with your decisions for many years to come...perhaps for your entire life inside your home!  And then there is some added pressure in that you are fairly certain many of your neighbors are waiting and watching, ready to judge your choices.  Maybe that shouldn't matter, but I wouldn't be truthful if I said it didn't matter to me!

I narrowed my options over several weeks and finally marched off to my local Sherwin-Williams store to order up 15 samples of paint.  This was no small task for the young man behind the counter, so I returned later that day to collect a large box of quart-sized samples.

I had purchased 17 x 20 inch sheets of poster stock, and I painted each one with one of the 15 samples of paint to create very large paint chips. Several more weeks went by as I shuffled my homemade chips, searching for good fits with the house as well as with each other. When I felt I had a magical combination of 4 colors and a decision as to which colors where to go where, I painted one of the turret window sashes in a couple of different combinations. It was a cloudy, late summer day and the sun was setting... and I didn't like what I saw. How disappointing!

I tried to explain away my disappointment with the understanding that the lighting wasn't right, that the surface hadn't been prepared, that more coats would be needed. But even with these considerations, the colors didn't achieve whatever it was I wanted to achieve. Frustrated, I returned to the paint store to book an appointment with a Sherwin-Williams Decorative Products Specialist.

On a chilly November day, Jaime Turinsky arrived to provide much-needed help with an enormous bag of paint chips in tow. Perhaps the best part of the experience lay in the fact that she didn't immediately rush to negate my earlier choices. She looked over the 4 colors I had chosen, listened to what I expressed as important to me, and began to suggest some tweaks. In the end, while she made the suggestions, I made the final choices based on her suggestions. I felt confident because of her guidance and subsequently ended up with broadly the same 4 colors I started with (brown, green, tan, and red) but all in shades with much more personality.

          Sheraton Sage

          Harmonic Tan

          Polished Mahogany

          Roycroft Copper Red

This somewhat crooked photo of the garage gives a nice view of the sage, tan, and red.

You can just glimpse the Polished Mahogany on the window frame.  The sashes are Sheraton Sage.  The hardware for the new storm windows will be painted a deep bronze, the same color as the garage downspouts.  Can you see the little detail in the storm windows?