Advice on Historic Row Home Exterior Paint Color Scheme

4 years ago

Hello Everyone,

I just purchased a group of 4 apartments and 2 retail units in a historic downtown section of a small town. The buildings need new exterior paint and I am in a dilemma on what color scheme to paint each building. I would like to paint each building a different color scheme but something that coordinates. Also, the only color I would like to work with would be the light blue in the middle building and only change that as a last resort since it would cost a good amount to change. I have attached photos. I would appreciate any input or thoughts, thanks!

Buildings consist of the tan building on left, the middle light blue building with recessed storefront and the old carriage house on the right that is now a retail unit.

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Creative Visual Concepts, Kevin Strader

4 years ago

If you haven't already, you need to check with your local Historic Preservation Board or Architectural Review Board, if the town has one. If there is one they will most likely have a list of approved paint colors for you to choose from.

I recently retired as a city planner and was the staff person for our Preservation Commission. I worked with several downtown property owners on their renovations. One developer owned two side by side buildings and had a desire like yours, to make them coordinate. I worked with them to accomplish this. We used three colors, a tan, a black and a white. The main part of one building was done in tan with white as the secondary color and black as the accent. The other building was done with white as the primary, tan as the secondary and black as the accent. The finished product met both the developers and the Board's approval. The buildings are the coffee shop and the oil & vinegar ones to the far right of the picture.

If you're interested in seeing some virtual makeovers of your buildings check my web site, Creative Visual Concepts.

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Comments (7)

tatts
4 years ago
Haven't we seen this before?
decoenthusiaste
4 years ago
I suggest a visit to major paint stores in your area (Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore are Houzz favs.) Ask about historic colors and find a color palette that starts with something close to your blue building. They probably have your colors already matched in a nice glossy flyer.
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tatts
4 years ago
Valspar has historic colors developed in conjunction with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Start there. But, obviously, that blue is probably not historic.
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Patricia Colwell Consulting
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Your first step is a vist to your historical society to see what colors are appropriate in your area. It takes some planning to make this look right.I have always loved the painted ladies in San Fransico but it depends on your area and the era and IMO you need some interest on that bare wall.
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Creative Visual Concepts, Kevin Strader
4 years ago
I addition to painting there are other things you can do to bring back some of the historic character of the buildings. Doors of an appropriate style will add more historic character. The commercial entrance on the blue building needs to be more of a feature. One way to do that is to paint the red door to the right of the entrance the same color as the siding so the eye is not drawn to that area.

Kickplates could be added under the windows on building with the purple(ish) door. Since picture windows were on most commercial buildings adding them to these windows would return some of the character of a commercial space.

Awnings could be added over some of the windows.

See if you can find some historic photos of the buildings to see what was there previously. There might have been dentil molding or corbels on the cornice along the top of the blue building that could be recreated.

Signage is another area that can aide in bringing more historic character to a building. Using overhanging signs is appropriate, and also, since the buildings are so close to the street allow people to know who and where a business is.

You need to put together a list of things you want to do and then rank them in order of what has to be done, what you really want to do and finally what would be nice to do but is not a priority. If there is a local Historic Preservation/Planning Department they can be an valuable resource for you. Good luck.
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Old House Guy LLC
4 years ago
Whatever you do avoid white.https://www.oldhouseguy.com/white-replacement-window/