The Power of Paint (or Stain!)

You’ve seen this headline before—so much that it’s almost become trite. But omigod it’s so true, especially when it came to this new house. We loved every bit of it—except the mustard-y color on the exterior, which in this case, was distinctly unappetizing:

The color is actually a solid stain. Who knew they made stains in such shades? But what I did learn is that while paint will start peeling after a while, stains merely fade—and that makes them a good choice for wood siding. With this light color, though, the fading stain looked like mildew on the side of the house, which nearly gave me a heart attack:

I knew from the beginning that I wanted the house to be more connected to its natural surroundings. I didn’t want to paint the brick at the foundation, which had some mottled colors in it. I wanted to find a mossy color that picked up some of the darker shades in the brick.

Thankfully, we found the right stain color at Sherwin Williams:

We didn’t want the house to be too brown or too green or too gray, so we went with Tobacco:

And all I can say is, WOW.

No more “mildew,” either. With the help of Wheat’s Landscape, our beds and paths look better than ever, too—and the overgrown holly bushes and trees have been tamed.

 

The new color looked so incredible, that all of a sudden the steps and lamp post looked terrible (you can see the difference if you look back to the top photo). So we had our guys stain them. At first, I thought the steps turned out too red, but they’ve really grown on me. It’s like they’ve become an extension from the brick, amplifying that section and setting it off nicely against the darker house.

Inside remains a different story, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The kitchen should be completely done by the first week in October, and we can begin putting plates and food items back this weekend—whereupon that will clear space in the family room, so we can move back there, too. A welcome relief! More on that soon—have a great weekend, everyone.