Jim Thomas calls himself a house painter, not a ”colorist”-a fancy title for someone who selects colors for a home and decides how to use them together. But he has developed the skills of the classic colorist through experience.
Thomas is one of Oak Park`s best-known masters of the ”painted ladies,” those Victorian residences that have been restored to their early glory with complicated paint jobs involving as few as three and as many as eight colors. Even owners of non-Victorians are getting into the act.
The day of the plain-white Victorian house, its gingerbread and fish-scale shingles rendered bland with a one-color paint job, is mercifully over. Thomas, a friendly man of 41 who lives with his wife and two daughters in a Victorian house to which he has given a subtle, tasteful painted lady treatment (”I like a paint job to be interesting and stand out, because that`s my best advertisement”), estimates that 10 percent of Oak Park`s frame houses now have four-color paint schemes, with more added every year. And for those who think they`d like to give it a try on their own homes, he has plenty of practical advice.
”To be a painted lady, a house has to have at least three colors, and typically four or five,” he says. ”I`ve done up to eight, and six or seven is not that unusual. If the colors are close, you can have five or six colors, and still have trouble seeing them all in sunlight. I think it`s best to have several subtly contrasting tones.” Usually, most of the shades should belong to the same color family, with one completely contrasting tone to zing things up.
What colors you should use depends on several factors, including where you live. Fashions vary from neighborhood to neighborhood.
”Go to the North Side, where there`s a lot of clustered money and lots of rehab, to see the current colors,” Thomas says. ”Green is the trendy color now-combinations of tan, white and teal green. You find a more postmodern look on the North Side; Oak Park is a little more traditional. Something that would fit in really well in Lincoln Park might stand out too much in an old-fashioned neighborhood.”
Something else to consider is the color of your roof. ”I look at well-wrought color schemes from a distance, and the best are always tied together with the roof,” he says. ”A black roof will go with anything. Grays will tie in well with a rust-colored roof. A lot of people don`t consider the roof, and that`s always a mistake.”
Incidentally, Thomas cautions, if you`re planning to reroof-particularly if it`s going to be a tearoff-you should always do it before you paint.
The grand tour
”It`s hard to envision what colors are going to look like on a house, so I always recommend that people drive around and look at other houses. And I`m always looking for good ideas,” he says. ”Houses are all so different that you can copy what someone else has done even a block away, and no one is going to realize that your colors are the same.
”But if you don`t want it to look too much like like anything in your own community, just go for a drive or a bike ride anyplace where there are a lot of old frame houses-Western Springs, Hinsdale, Elmhurst, St. Charles, Evanston and Lake Forest are all good. Look at them from down the block and across the street, not just up close.”
Thomas says that quite often the proud owners of other painted ladies are happy to provide such information as the brands and shades of the paint they used to encourage others to join them in the quest for residential beauty.
(And even if they don`t know the specifics, sympathetic owners might lend an outlet cover or porch spindle for analysis.)
And knowing the brand is important in trying to replicate colors: All of the manufacturers have their own proprietary formulas, and matching a given shade, even with the aid of a computerized analyst, can be next to impossible. The charitable house seller will save information on paint, and leave it with things like the dishwasher manual for the next owner.
Trial and error
If you want to start from scratch with your own color schemes, begin with a selection of color charts, Thomas suggests. ”And if you`re not sure how it will look, you can buy quarts (of the chosen hues) and paint part of the house. Do a section, experiment. It`s not that expensive, and if it turns out that you don`t like it, you can just do it over.”
What families of colors work well for painted ladies? ”I try to steer people toward the more muted grays and earth tones,” says Thomas. ”I don`t like pastels-those usually work best as interior colors, where you don`t have much light. And you should be aware that dark colors will fade much faster than light ones. But accent colors can be very bright. Emerald greens and tartan reds work well, although they have to be used sparingly-and, of course, the accents should be tied in with the roof.”
Thomas warns that bright colors that seem alluring on a color chart are often disappointing when applied on a house. ”Thoreau`s theory of colors was to keep it simple, and I agree with that,” he says. ”You`ve got to live with it, and so do your neighbors. You should even consider the colors of your neighbors` houses, especially if they`re close.”
Two colors is the standard; how much does transforming a house into a painted lady add to the painter`s tab? ”Generally, it`s between 15 and 25 percent more, depending on how elaborate the color scheme is. For a few hundred bucks you can do a lot of colors, because you`re up there on the scaffolding already.”
Outrageous excess
But some people get too elaborate and labor-intensive-and that can cost more than the effect is worth. ”I was asked for an estimate on a job where they wanted four colors on each ornate (porch) spindle. That would have cost them $1,600, instead of $300 for a simple job,” Thomas says. ”Besides, I think the pickets on a Victorian should be the same color as the house, so they don`t stand out too much. It`s a better idea to make the rail a different color.”
Indeed, there are as many possibilities for things to paint a contrasting color as there are varieties of Victorian architectural detail. The eaves can be painted the same color as the house, while the frieze and fascia boards are a different tone. ”It`s an old-fashioned way of getting a little liveliness out of a basic color scheme,” says Thomas. ”It`s not so much using a lot of different colors, but of breaking up the colors to make them more interesting.”
The most elaborate job Thomas and his crew have done is on Elizabeth Court, in the heart of Oak Park`s Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District.
”That one was very ingenious in the way the colors were broken up. We striped the big crown moldings horizontally, and we had to cut them in three ways. It was an attractive, very subtle use of color-and very time-
consuming.”
Know your limits
It can be tough to take non-Victorian houses beyond three colors, he cautions, even though increasing numbers of owners are trying to make their simple exteriors more elaborate than they were intended to be.
”What you want to do (in a painted lady) is highlight architectural detail, but if the detail isn`t there, it can be a mistake. One thing you can do is to highlight each windowsill, for a lively look. And keep to thin stripes instead of broad ones,” Thomas says. He also recommends awnings for extra color and interest; properly cared for, they last for years.
If you decide to go with an elaborate paint job, be prepared to spend some time making your decision. ”There`s no easy, simple way to get an interesting, lively color scheme; by its very nature, it`s going to be time-consuming. Fortunately, most people get bored by it long before I do,”
says Thomas. ”I try to help with the choice as much as my customers want; I don`t want them to get anxiety-ridden about it. I`ll go the whole route to make them happy.”
And the color scheme is, in the end, the decision of the owner. ”I may try to show them why something would be good, but in the end it`s `De gustibus non disputandem est: In matters of taste, there can be no disagreement. If you really love it, go for it, and don`t worry about others,” he says. ”Use your own instincts, and don`t be talked into what`s easiest for the painter or the paint store. Just keep the whole thing in perspective.”
