We did a lot of exterior renovations on the house this summer. Our plan was extensive including replacing all exterior rot, replacing a few broken gutters and downspouts, as well as re-grading the back yard with new hardscaping. As often is the case, mid-project, the plan changed. The contractors told us we had to replace ALL the gutters and downspouts. It turned out they were in terrible shape and had to go.
And, in order to put up new gutters and downspouts, you have to paint first. OK, that wasn’t planned for.
So we hatched a new plan. Re-grading and hardscaping out. Painting the house in.
And so began the process of picking colors. I have never picked colors for stucco before. We did the typical: drive around, see houses you like, and try to copy them. We agreed on a few color schemes, but on our house they looked terrible. Not just bad. Awful. What I learned is that stucco is a completely different ball game from wood. Stucco sucks up color in a different way and it reflects light in an odd way. Epic fail after 2 visits to the paint store.
I even invited a girlfriend who is a designer to help. She was at a loss, too. After a few more weekends obsessing, I finally realized that the place to start was with the color for the gutters. There are so few choices. Pick that and then work backwards.
We eventually decided on a warm gray for the house and a medium warm gray/olive called terratone
for the trim, gutters and downspouts. It’s just the right amount of contrast. It will look great with the bronze windows. You’ll have to wait for the “after” photo as it’s hard to see our color selections on top of the pink.
Soon we will no longer live in a pink stucco house. I can’t wait. Now I just have to get the crews to come back. And hope that one more year won’t make a difference for the re-grading of the back yard. I write this as a huge rain storm hits Boston.