Exterior Painting Prep in Progress: Part II

The paint is going on, it's an exciting time! Here's a little patchwork of our samples and the wall color being painted on the walls first:

Exterior Painting Prep in Progress

Now that we've been through the arduous process of selecting colors, the long-awaited work has finally begun. We consider ourselves capable do-it-yourselfers, but there's no way we are prepared to research the process, acquire the equipment, and have time for such a big project. Maybe if we took a couple of weeks off this summer, but that's not going to happen. We are happily hiring professionals to paint the house.

Our guys are Custom Finishes. They came highly recommended by a family friend who has an 1800s Victorian in the neighborhood. We've been in the planning stages with Custom Finishes since March, so we were really excited to get on their project list for the summer.

They've power washed and have started scraping, sanding and filling. There are a few troubled spots on this old house - a few gaps and odd areas where the new windows were put in. It's been interesting to watch the process and layers of high-tech finishes to seal up those holes. From my perspective, it looks like this: power-washing, scraping, pulling out rusty nails, priming the bad spots, and putting a goopy black latex sealant for the scraped down areas. I'm really grateful to not be up on that ladder making it up as I go along!

Getting Crafty with Custom Paint

The skirting color we chose was a bust: too dark, and would fade and peel almost immediately (we were told). So our painter suggested we get crafty and mix the existing skirting color with the wall color to make a custom color, then we could get it matched at the paint store.

We tried mixing them both equally, it was a great-looking color, but too dark (colors 1 - 3). Adding the lightest trim color created a gray that was blue - which didn't go with our scheme at all. We tested custom colors until we got one that worked, the 7th one was a charm!

I can't even really tell you what colors are in here. I mixed the wall color (Benjamin Moore/Willow Creek) with the original trim color (Benjamin Moore/Wrought Iron), then threw in a little this and that from all the samples we bought. I don't think I could arrive on this color again if I tried, but I don't have to! The color has been immortalized on a greasy pizza box and the color-matching software program at the paint shop will mix it up.