Our long-time customer owns a stunning Victorian home that recently required expert paint mixtures and paint application. Years ago, early in our relationship, he was concerned with finding the right company for his painting work. Our client is very well-versed in the trade and has a basis of knowledge sometimes made it harder for him to find the company that would live up to the standards he would have if he were doing the work with his own two hands. Our client takes a lot of pride in his home and it’s important to have things done right and with care and attention. That was the context of our early work with him and it was also the context of this recent project. Just last month we wrapped up this big Victorian exterior project. For this project, the challenge was ensuring that the paint colors were mixed properly and applied in the exact color scheme required by the design. The Victorian exterior featured several different colors. Because some of the colors had very subtle differences between them, the project demanded a precise coordination process and a lot of attention to detail. The detailed colors chosen for the house and the manner in which we applied them to the innumerable architectural details reflect how the owner values a traditional, expert paint job as well as his pride in his home.
Victorian homes are known for their brightly colored exteriors. We used more than seven colors for this exterior project which required a substantial amount of prep work and detailed painting. The majority of the siding required one base color. The home also needed a color for the trim and five different colors to highlight the intricate features of this architectural treasure. All of the exterior paint is by Benjamin Moore.
The details of the home include dentil mouldings, curved headers over the upper windows, varied shapes of shingles, ornamental balusters, a beadboard ceiling and many other structural details that are all accentuated with a complex and beautifully layered color scheme.
The base and trim colors are neutral hues. We painted the accent features with darker neutrals, and framed them with two accent colors that really pop, a blue and a clay hue. Because we did not use any stark white, we were able to achieve a gorgeous harmony between all colors. Using stark white would have made the palette look jarring and unsettled.
Our prepwork for this project included carpentry and a lot more scraping than is usually required. We always prep and scrape exterior surfaces, but because of the complicated architecture and design, scraping was much more involved and laborious. We also needed to repair areas of the wooden siding with compounds so that the surfaces would be smooth and able to accept paint.
Even with a large home, the painting is usually the part of the project that moves along at a fair pace, but this house was different. We needed to apply multiple coats of paints in various colors. We had to revisit the same surfaces and areas on the house four, five, and six times depending on the details of that particular section. We applied Brandon Beige for the neutral base of the exterior, and Cloud Cover, a muted white, for the house’s trim. For the highlights, we used Coastal Fog for the lighter highlight and Stampede for the darker highlight. Woodcliff Lake was the perfect color for the very dark highlight. For the dentil moulding highlight colors, we applied Blue Nova and Baked Terracotta.
Victorian homes are found worldwide. They were named for the home styles built during the reign of England’s Queen Victoria. Victorian homes are always special. Our client’s home is a Victorian gem. Painting this Victorian exterior was a treat. It was a great way to end our season and rewarding to see such a well-loved home brought back to life.
Bill
