A Craftsman Palette Part III

Hi Christine,

 

I recently found your blog and LOVED it.  You have great taste, give sound advice and sound so likeable!

 

I live in the Berkeley, CA area in a craftsman-type home and am about to embark on a paint job.  I love the grey-greens and want to do a monochromatic look with darker trim and lighter body.  Please advise on possible color combinations.

 

Chat Room is mentioned a lot in your blog on craftsman color choices but it feels very grey to me.

 

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

- Melissa

Hi Melissa,

You are not so far from me- I drive past Berkeley every time I go to the design center.  It is a beautiful area. 

First of all, you need to select at least three colors,

1.  You need one color that is the "field color."  You put this color on the shake siding.  DO NOT use this color anywhere else.  Except the garage doors- your garage trim should be trim color- and doors should be the field color. 

2.  A second color will be used on the trim, lattice shade, eaves, everything else.  If you wanted to break this into more colors- this trim could be broken up.  I am saying to overall use a MINIMUM of three colors.

3.  A third color will be used on the front door.  The trim around the door should be the trim color, not the door color. The door is the focal point of the exterior of a home with your architecture.  (Not the case with all architecture.  Frank Lloyd Wright tried to practically hide the front door of a home.)  The journey your eye should take should start with the front door.  Your landscaping and paint colors can helop to facilitate this.  Look at the Victorian home below- this is a perfect example.  (Also a great example of your green on green palette, with the same black windows that you have.)

Grayish greens would be beautiful on your property.  Please send me an "after" picture.  Here are some good ones to try:  (all Sherwin Williams)

body: 7543 Avenue Tan, with trim: 7544 Fenland

body: 7533 Khaki Shade, with trim: 7535 Sandy Ridge

body: 7738 Cargo Pants, with Trim: 7739 Herbal Wash- or use Herbal Wash as the body, and 7740 Messenger Bag as the trim.

Go get some sample quarts and play with them.  You can combine these colors above to make your own combinations as well.  I have them in combinations that would be more similar to each other, but for more contrast, mix and match.

For your door, I would use a shade of red like 7598 Sierra Redwood, or 7701 Cavern Clay, or you could do black.  What would look really great with your greenish grays are some new wood doors.  They would be an instant update for your home.

A fresh paint job COMBINED with new wood doors at your entry, and on your garage, and your house would look amazing.

Then again, if you'd like to spend a LOT of money- and who doesn't- you could get wood windows too- like the house on the show Numbers:

Look at that- do they have the trim color the same as the field color?  It doesn't have to be drastically darker or lighter- but it should be different.  Kiefer Sutherland really should call me in for some consulting- wait,  he's in Touch- huh?

Good luck with your paint job!  

For my previous posts on Craftsman Color palletes, see here and here.

A Craftsman Pallete Part II

 Hi Christine,

I ran across your blog and I was wondering if you might be interested in weighing in on possible color choices for our 1912 craftsman. As you can see from the attached photos, the 'before' colors are absolutely appalling. I just want to make it clear that we didn't choose them, it's the previous owner's fault!

One of my main struggles is that the previous owner also replaced a lot of our windows with vinyl, so we are stuck with keeping white for the 'inner' trim on the windows. A lot of the most attractive paint jobs I've seen on craftsmans often use a darker shade of the main siding color on that inner trim, with a contrasting color on the outer trim around the windows, knee braces, and fascia. But that's not really an option. :(

Another thing to note is that we are having the shingles replaced with a more traditional 5" lap horizontal siding, sort of like what you can see on our neighbor's house in one of the pictures, but not quite as narrow.

Clearly any colors we choose will be a vast improvement, but colors aren't really my strong point. I'm partial to grey-greens, while my husband leans towards the grey-blues, but the only color I'd rule out entirely is yellow...any brilliant ideas for us?

Thanks!
Jess

I hope everyone read that, and knows that Jess DID NOT SELECT these horrible colors.  ;-) 

What a great opportunity you have to transform your home!  I want you to consider a few things.

1.  A traditional Craftsman pallet.

2.  Blend with your white windows as to not draw attention to them.

3.  Make sure you paint the home correctly- having different colors where you should have differennt colors, etc.

First of all, I will discuss the traditional Craftsman pallet.  The Craftsman movement, also known as Arts and Crafts, started in England in the mid 1800's by William Morris.  The whole idea of it was an attitude of rejecting modern machinery, and a return to handcrafted ideals.  The architecture is simple and unadorned.  And so, when you are painting a Craftsman home, I would use subdued, natural colors.  Shades of browns, grays, and greens would be very appropriate.  Pink and blue- not so much.  ;-)  Not that blue is a bad color, actually, but it should be very grayed, not pure in color. Stay away from bright colors. 

Secondly, let's address your white windows.  The key here is to have them blend in, not stand out.  That is made possible with a low contrast trim color, in other words, light, close to white colors on the window trim.  (off white is fine- don't think you have to match...)

 

Last, but not at all least, make sure you paint the home correctly.  I addressed this in this post a few weeks ago.  Since I already addressed it, instead of going over it again, I will give you a little test.  See how you do.  (Peak at the other post if you want to cheat).  What is wrong with this green home below?

Answer:  The columns should not be the same color as the field of the house.

OK- how about this house, how is it painted incorrectly?

Answer: The eaves are painted the color of the body of the home.  This is fun huh?

How about the yellow home?

Answer: The horizontal siding is painted the same color as the shingle portion.  Keep in mind- I am not saying that they need to be totally different colors- even a subtle color difference is a great idea.  (Ideally, or course, the shingle portion would be stained.)

Did you want some specifics?  Ok- I will go ahead and give you a plan that goes with your husband's idea- since I just posted a green one last time.  I like this one:

 Sherwin Williams Paints:

Body- 6205 Comfort Gray

Trim: - 7008 Alabaster

Door: - 2802 Rookwood Red

OK- are you all experts now?  Go outside, look at your home, and see if you should make some changes with the next paint job.  What do you think?  Does anyone agree with me?  Does anyone think I am way too picky with all of my little painting rules?  Can you tell the difference between the homes that I said were painted correctly, and those that were not?  What do you think?

A Craftsman Pallete

Hi Christine,

I'm so glad I found your blog! I love your advice about using subtle greens and am leaning towards SW6171 Chatroom or SW6150 Universal Khaki like you mentioned on one of your blogs. Can you please let me know if you think those colors will be OK with this house? I'm concerned that it won't look good with the Austin stone.

 

Your help is greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Mia

Hi Mia,

From my computer monitor, I would say that either color you mentioned will look good with your stone.  Your main challenge will be finding the right color of off white trim that blends really nicely with the stone.  Perhaps something like wool skein 6148  (never take my work for it- get sample quarts- computer monitors are not reliable enough!)

Chatroom is going to be more colorful, (but still subtle enough that it is a very tasteful way to go), whereas, Universal Khaki, although it has a lot of green in it will come out more neutral.  Again, neither is better than the other, just a difference of opinion.  Get sample quarts of both, put some on the house, and see what you think.  Do not put the samples right next to one another, unless you are considering using them both.  The Chatroom will make the Universal Khaki look more beige than it is. 

I found this home below online, and they gave the colors used.  I thought it was a very nice combination.

(photo from Certal Painters)

7507 Stone Lion- Lower stucco (from the horizontal trim down) and brick

7036 Accessible Beige- All other stucco and siding

7002 Downy- All trim, eaves, and top of brick

7647 Crushed Ice- Porch ceiling

7643 Pussywillow- Porch floor

6362 Tigereye- Front Door

Comparing, I found that Stone Lion is just a touch darker than Universal Khaki.  Very very similar to what you are considering.  My advice- use more than two colors.  Even if they are subtle differences, it looks SO MUCH nicer.  Where you have the horizontal line, with the shake siding above...  the shake siding should be a different color than the horizontal siding.  The broken pediment over your porch should not be the same color as the field paint either.  The horizontal line is also painted the trim color- not the field color.  Don't have ANY tirm painted the field color- EVER! Trim gives a house it's character. 

Sometimes people are tempted to keep it simple, or inexpensive, but it really is a world of difference to have a more appropriately complete color combination.  The photo below used wood shake, but use it as a guide to see where you would change your paint colors. Use at least 4 colors.

1.  Trim- look at the white on the photo below.

2.  Shake siding

3.  Horizontal siding

4.  Door

(photo from For the Nest)

Check out the home below, where they took a single color too far:

The home above needs at least two more colors-one for trim and one for shake siding.  It honestly makes me sad to see such a beautifully classic home painted so incorrectly. (Am I the only one sad...  are any of you about to cry out there?)  Well, I can't end my post on such a downer- so I'll show you one more good example:

I say a minimum, and above is an example of how you could use two different colors for your trim.

These guidelines for painting the exterior of a home are not just for Craftsman homes.  If anyone else has a similar project with any questions- just send me your photos.  I love telling people what to do.  ;-)

George and Judy from Maine

Hi Christine

My wife and I would love to get some advice re. some our remodel project here in coastal southern Maine.

We were trying to give some character to a very boring and box like house. We recently added a full front porch with hip roof, tapered columns with stone column bases and have given the house an "Arts and Crafts Bungalow style" look with which we are extremely pleased.

As we move to the interior, we'd love to continue with an Arts and Crafts Bungalow style look, but we don't really like the dark, oak, "Mission" style look often associated with this style.

Is it possible to bring in a brighter and lighter painted "Cottage" style look which we really like that would work with the tapered columns and other A and C details we used on the exterior? Are the 2 styles compatible?

Any suggestions/resources are welcome and will be appreciated.

George and Judy

Wells, Maine

Hi George and Judy,

Absolutely you can combine the two looks you are describing. They are both still traditional and casual- very compatible with one another.

Bring in your cottage elements in your colors and furnishings- but keep your interior architecture consistent with your exterior architecture.

Whereas a traditional bungalow will have lots of wood work- keep that consistent- but go ahead and use a paint grade material- and have it painted a nice white. Your interior architecture will include all things attached to the home- the trim work- the moldings, the windows- the flooring- the ceiling.For example- if you have an Arts and Crafts Home- use arts and crafts wood work, wood floors, arts and crafts windows, baseboards. With that done- go ahead and use lighter colors. Don't feel like you need to use any mission style or other Arts and Crafts furniture or fabric patterns- you can if you choose- but it is absolutely not necessary.

In a nutshell- the interior architecture should be consistent with the exterior architecture.

The interior decor and furnishings can also be- but do not have to be style consistent with your architecture.

Photos from Coastal Living