Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Color

A few weeks ago, I started thinking about the finish of our house. I used jarn vitrol to allow the wood to weather naturally over time. Since our house is so square, I liked the idea of helping it blend into its surroundings, by colour if not by shape.

Recent photos show the front of the house is weathering well, perhaps too well. There is a bit of mottling on the exposed side of the house, although it's not so bad in person. Margaret has reminded me that jarn vitrol takes a few seasons to settle in, and my timescale on the house is long, so it's not really a problem. But still... there are a lot of variations in the look of the wood. It goes against my Miesian tendencies.

I've attached photos from the x-house website of a few homes stained with an opaque colour, like the blue stain we used on the doors and window frames. I rather like the look. Instead of trying to mask the squareness, big square planes of colour would embrace it.

Of course, I want to be a good neighbor so something too bright is out. Maybe Pantone 405 or 437? Something brownish-greeny-grey? I am famously colour-blind, though, so maybe I'm not the right person to make such a decision. There are practical considerations, too. At the moment I have pretty much a no-maintenance exterior. If I do stain, I'm signing up for lots of cost and labor over the upcoming years.

Comments on this subject very welcome.

2 comments:

Margaret said...

I've just read your post for Janne and he says that another family on the island have recently painted their home with an oil-based color, which doesn't need as much maintenance. Janne says it looks great, and he can show you the house when you arrive. If the folks are there, Janne will introduce you and you could find out more about the paint.

Anonymous said...

I can only say one thing: "Needs more COLOR!"

E