Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Restoring Old Homes: Picking Historic Paint Colors

One of the great challenges in restoring old homes is trying to pick the right colors.  When choosing exterior colors, consideration needs to be given to the age and style of the home, surrounding neighborhood, ect.  On the interior, the style of the home will typically demand a certain palette.

The home that I am restoring with my business partner finally has the paint finished both interior and exterior. Here is a sneak peak.

This is an awkward view of the back of the home.  Nevertheless, it looks dignified and refreshed.  We removed the old industrial looking shingles, scraped, primed and painted this with a "Cayenne" color from the Eddie Bauer Bungalow color palette at Lowe's.  The trim is "Vanilla Bean".

For the interior, I have found that my tried and trued colors are real winners in the market place.  These colors will look familiar to you if you have been watching our restoration videos.


  The trim is painted "Canoe" from the same collection at Lowe's.  We use a glossy or semi-gloss finish.  It gives the paint the look and feel of wood without all the tedious and expensive stripping.  The base is "Pecan" from the palette.

I joke that the objective is to make the home look edible.  If you start salivating when you walk in the room than you have done a good job.


You can check out more paint colors online here.

Happy rehabbing!

Posted by Jeremy Peterson
Ogden, Utah Real Estate Broker
Mountain Real Estate Companies
801-390-1480

4 comments:

DFBridge said...

I appreciate your efforts at rehabilitating homes, but I have to say that when I saw the new color of this cute cottage, I was very disappointed. A cottage should be light, and bright. You mentioned that these were colors for Bungalows . . . this home is not a bungalow, it is a quaint cottage. Good colors for one style of historic home does not automatically adapt to ANY historic home. And whether Eddie Bauer or not - and I mean no disrespect to you - that Cayenne color is the grossest color of brown I have seen.
Although I love the Canoe color, it does not replace stripped wood and, again, is too dark for this style of home.
Please, for the sake of this could-be-adorable home and others take care that the colors match the house style and historic nature of the home.

Jeremy Peterson said...

D.F.

For Pete's sake, let's get moving and fix some homes the right way. We need folks like you buying more of these places and fixing them properly.

Perhaps you might be interested in purchasing the home so it can be painted to more authentic tones?

Give me a call and we can talk terms. :)

We need less rock throwing in this town and more hard work if these homes are to be restored to perfection.

Just consider this home a great step in a "better" direction. I'll let the next owner perfect it.

DFBridge said...

Actually, I did look at this very home and was interesting in buying it.I have looked at several homes in inner Ogden. I would love to buy one of these homes, bring it back to life and live there. Unfortunately, they are quickly sold to investors who turn them into rentals. I'd really like to see home owners, who are willing to put the work into them (they are out there), buy these homes as a residence for their family. Their investment in the home and the neighborhood would improve the community greatly in a way renters just aren't willing to do. Although I have criticized your paint choice, this house has been improved from what it was. A little more education in home restoration and this town will be on the right track.

Jeremy Peterson said...

I think you may a tad misinformed about who is buying what in the inner city. Investors are not buying the restored properties because they are too pricey and don't cashflow. The investors are typically the ones doing the restoring and then reselling to owner occupants. There are a segment of investors that purchase fixer uppers and convert them to rentals but they are nowhere close to quality. Here are video of homes purchased by owner occupants: http://ogdeninsights.blogspot.com/p/before-and-after-historic-restoration.html (with the exception of 2223 and 2211 Jefferson Ave. which are rentals)