house colour - cream or something different ?

[greentree]

Hi guys, i am currently restoring my victorian terrace front, its a two storey town house in a tree lined ave. In the middle of the ave is a block of around 8 larger houses all joined together, mine is one. I have spent the last two weeks burning every speck of dark blue paint from the lovely old windows and have them all running and in tip top order. (i feel very proud to have given them another life!)
My question is : do i kind of follow suit and paint mine the same colour as the first 4 which is cream and white or go for something slightly different so it stands out a little from the rest ? cream and white does not do the house any justice as it is very ornate.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Both look very smart, I always associate white with Georgian and a Cream ( not too dark) with Victorian, and have a fabulous deep colour for the front door.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Do you mean you'll be painting just the windows, or the house as well?

Have you seen Nigel's website? http://www.fitzwalter.com/house/home.htm

I think it's a very hard decision. Either you want to be the same as your neighbours or you don't. If everyone has white windows, one house with the authentic dark green or near-black would really stand out. Terraces were meant to match to create an impressive, unified whole structure. I think Nigel's very brave to stand out from the crowd but I love how the house looks.

If I were you I'd have a good look round to get an idea of what you think looks nice, and how brave you're willing to be.

I've decided on yellowy- stone colour (ochre), for the render, and soft, lightish green for the windows - but then it's a country cottage and I kind of want it to blend with the surroundings a little more. I'm also really conscious that if we had to sell it (God forbid, but you don't know what disaster can befall) that's what middle-class buyers expect to see on a "posh" cottage round here. This will sound terrible, but the last time the house was sold it attracted the wrong kind of buyer because it was such a scruffy mess. The people who were seriously interested wanted to turn it into an Alsatian breeding business because of the land and the privacy. They weren't remotely interested in the Georgian stuff. I think the previous owner marketed it towards the wrong sector, and so we got it relatively cheaply. It really is sensible to have an exterior that's going to appeal and make your house the value it deserves to be.

I think on a red brick Victorian property near-black would look great, but most people I've talked to about this (and I've now bored everyone on this subject) strongly disagree.

 

[Penners]

do i kind of follow suit and paint mine the same colour as the first 4 which is cream and white or go for something slightly different so it stands out a little from the rest ?

This may seem like a cop-out answer, but it's your house - your decision, according to your own taste.

If it were mine, I would try to choose a colour that I like, but which sits happily with the rest of the row.

 

[Feltwell]

I chickened out. Having spent ages stripping the woodwork on the outside of my house in order to linseed paint it, I wanted a colour that would not go out of fashion and that would appeal to he broadest possible audience - as with linseed paint you should only need to apply 1 very thin coat of paint every 14 years, with a coat of linseed oil inbetween at 7 year intervals.

So, my red-brick Victorian semi is getting buttermilk coloured windows and roofline woodwork - a sort of very pale creamy yellow. Inoffensive is the word, but others may say boring.

 

[Nigel Watts]

My website is so out of date (none of my current computers can talk to it so I've not updated it for five years or so) but I stand by what I wrote about house colours.

 

[philpjuk100]

Great website Nigel,had not seen it before,wonderful plasterwork! and the railings! My grandfather who died in the late 60s had his railings removed for the war effort, always when going out he used to say,"they took my railings in 1943 and told me they would replace them if we won the war!" the little 1" stubs were left there and reminded him,he would then say"did we win then?"anyway yours look great Nigel,just wish we could have replaced grandads.

 

[greentree]

thanks folks, i will put my thinking cap on and get the farrow and ball colour chart out!

 

[Penners]

get the farrow and ball colour chart out

Other paints are available.

 

[greentree]

Well after months of thinking and countless tester pots (i could open a shop!) i have decided to paint the stonework and stucco to the front of the property in Farrow and Balls Bone with off white windows. Its not far from being finished and looks wonderful. I feel it sits nicely with the creams of next door and long the terrace but stands out in its own right.
My neibour yesteday asked me if i would paint hers the same colour, which as being my job i will.
But i am not very happy at sharing my new found love of these stunning colours.
On reflection though i supose a pair of houses that sit together in the terrace would have more impact with the stonework and stucco painted the same ? than mine on its own. (her windows are black mine off white)
When the scaffolding is down in a couple of weeks i will post some before and after photos.

 

[Jill]

get the farrow and ball colour chart out

Other paints are available.

What is it with F & B that makes it so popular? Nearly everyone seems to use it, even in the countless house magazines that I have, it appears that the majority of rooms are decorated with F & B. I'm not at the decorating stage yet but have one of the colour charts and it has some lovely shades. Is it really good in comparison to other paints or is it that just that everyone thinks it is and follows suit, as they can't be bothered to investigate other products? (Serious question and not a dig at anyone that is using it)

 

[jocelyn plummer]

What is it with F & B that makes it so popular?

I really do not know! 10 years ago I swore by it, but as time went by I noticed changes in the product and finish and there has been much discussion on this forum about that over the years.

My personal favourite is Rose of Jericho, their advice and knowledge being second to none. However, there lots of other good products and an amazing range of colours to choose from, so I suppose it becomes a matter of cost and matching the specifications to the wood/plaster/bricks etc that you are wishing to paint.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I'd really like to try the Rose of Jericho paints as I've seen Jocelyn's lovely decorating schemes. If it was in the shop and I could easily buy millions of tester posts I would have tried it by now.

The Farrow and Ball paints are just lovely though, and in my amateur experimentation the depth of pigment in them is far superior to Dulux or other, cheaper, paints. The colours are mixed to be dirty, sludgy, and indefinite which sits really well on period properties, and there's a huge range of colours too - much better than say, the Holkams linseed paints (who recommend you mix your own). There's a strong leaning towards gentle, pastel colours in the Farrow and Ball chart (though they have a wonderful selection of historic reds too) - yesterday I was comparing blues and Little Greene and Fired Earth just couldn't compare for historic blues.

The problems of Farrow and Ball paints are the non-breathing properties, the thickness (constant gentle thinning is needed) and the fact the full impact of colour can only be achieved with three coats. Brush strokes remain visible in FnB oil eggshell far more than in Dulux, but brush strokes is an historic look anyway apparently.

The other lovely thing about Fn B is the matching wallpapers - they're fab. I just wish they'd do fabric too.

Greentree- that sounds like a great decison and I can't wait to see the pics! Bone is lovely, what did you choose for the off-white colour?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Just visited Isaac Newton's birthplace which has a downstairs decorated throughout in guess what - FnB's "Bone". It looked stunning. The upstairs was Dimity and String, with all the woodwork in Mouse's Back. Gorgeous!

It's very curious that although when the National Trust took over the property they stripped off all the paint to reveal Newton's sketches on the walls, they then made the decision to repaint with a non-breathing paint. Is it only recently that the breathability of paint has received attention?

 

[Flyfisher]

It seems rather a shame to have painted over the original sketches. Still, I presume suitable records were made.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I didn't make myself clear -oops. They've left the original sketches (a peacock, St Wulfram's, farmer's tallies, witch marks - all sorts), covering them with a simple sheet of glass. But everything else is covered with oil eggshell and estate emulsion - i just find it puzzling they didn't choose to use lime wash when they'd gone to all the effort of stripping the walls to find the original sketches. But maybe I got a bungled version of what happened from the tour guide, who after all are only volunteers and don't seem very well-informed.

 

[AMc]

What is it with F & B that makes it so popular?

I'm not sure what makes F&B so popular, I don't have an axe to grind we just didn't find what we wanted.

We've used Little Greene (direct) as well as Craig & Rose (B&Q).
LG work with English Heritage (http://www.thelittlegreene.com/english-heritage) I used their slaked lime distemper for the bare brick walls of the vinery and I liked the finish but it didn't cover as well as I expected. I've also used their emulsion which was nice to work with and covered OK.

Elsewhere we've used Craig & Rose 1829 colours and the ludicrously named "Venetian Glamour" from their Opulence range in Velvet Matt Emulsion which has a great finish http://www.craigandrose.com/brands/opulence/detail?colour=VENETGLAM&type=946VELVETM . Their eggshell is nice too, we've used Velum parchment and Adam cream a lot but it needs 3 coats to get a really nice finish. Thankfully it goes on easily.

The white exterior wood work and some of the interior has been done in a Swedish oil paint from Beckers which is expensive, but I'm expecting a long life from and the low gloss finish is lovely. That range has now been surplanted by a water based alternative. That came from Paint and Paper in Norwich
http://www.paint-paper.co.uk/paints-stains/beckers/exterior-paints/cat_13.html