The product for this post was provided by Behr Paint Company but all paint color and product selections, design choices, and opinions are our own.
The day is HERE! Guys – paint is going on the Monroe House and I could not be more excited!!!! As you know, we thought we would be using siding that had the paint color baked on….but then when we found out that by saving the historic architectural details, it would require painting ANYWAY….we said….those 100 year old details were priceless and decided to paint the whole house for uniformity of color and finish.
100% this was the right decision. In the end, by using the same brand and quality siding (without the color baked on), it saved us some money and that savings offset the cost of extra labor to scrape the original fascia boards and to save our carved wood in the peaks of the house.
Also – BEHR® Paint was obviously our first choice when it came to the paint for our exterior (we have used their paint and stain on several past projects and love it!) so we reached out to our friends over there and they supplied the paint for this project. Talk about amazing! It felt like fate! Knowing that we would get 100% the look and the historical detailing with Behr jumping to our rescue was so awesome.
PREP
The first step in this project involved us calling in Carlos – our favorite painter and he was excited to get over here to help us out. Carlos and his wife Yolanda are some of my favorite people because they have the best attitudes in life…
I mean…that face makes me smile 🙂
And on a professional level, they are amazing at knocking out work fast! I recommend him to everyone for painting work both inside and out. The first part of the job was to scrape all the alligator parts of the existing paint and get it as smooth as possible.
They also sanded and smoothed out areas that had flaking or peeling paint like on our wood architectural detailing.
They also had to prep all our windows and caulk every. single. joint.
The front porch also needed covered as the tongue and groove floor will get stained soon!
There were also some minor repairs that needed to happen prior to the painting/caulking….like the original ceiling on the porch needed to be secured.
PICKING OUT A COLOR
My go-to way of picking out a color is to look online. I love the fact that fellow bloggers/instagrammers/youtubers share EVERYTHING because it makes my life easier. I saw several folks recommend Behr Polar Bear 75 or Silky White PPU7-12 and loved the look.
My best tip for choosing exterior colors is to remember that all exterior paints will look brighter and lighter than the paint swatch. That is the opposite for interior paint.
Also make sure you always always always test it on your home because colors can read differently with the orientation of your home. You would hate to pick a color to realize that it doesn’t look the same in full sun and your home is ALWAYS in full sun!
PICKING A SHEEN
I have a Behr Rep at my local Home Depot that I talk to every time I get BEHR Paint. He and I met one time when we were discussing stain options…. I call him Mr. Behr and he calls me Mrs. Blogger 🙂 It’s funny because every time I go to Home Depot to buy paint or stain – he is there! It’s like he knows I am coming and I will need his input 🙂
This time I had a great talk with him about exterior paint sheen and how the matte finish is a new trend that is sweeping modern homes. I asked him if it was something that I should consider. In general, the matte finish is not as scrubbable as satin or semi gloss and it requires more frequent repainting. That is because the low lustre generally doesn’t resist stains and dirt as well either. He said that he likes the look but since I am doing white, it would require more cleaning (light pressure washing) so satin would be the lowest sheen he would go. We ultimately decided to use the satin enamel finish with BEHR PREMIUM PLUS ULTRA® Exterior Paint in Silky White PPU7-12.
I really appreciated that advice and we went with a satin on the exterior siding and honestly I don’t think it looks even slightly glossy. Maybe it’s the color but the siding looks like a softer finish and somehow makes the little gator effect on old wood less noticeable. It’s crazy how it blended the old with the new!
When it came to testing, I just picked up a couple sample jars of BEHR Paint at The Home Depot® and put them on the siding. The top one is Silky White and the bottom is Polar Bear.
The Silky White is ever so slightly warmer and darker….whereas the Polar Bear is slightly cooler in color and brighter. I preferred the Silky White for the exterior because I know some whites can read VERY stark.
PAINTING
Painting a house is a labor intensive job – especially here in the South where it can be extremely hot and take a long time. We calculated the cost of babysitters and time that it would take us to DIY this project and in the end it would have taken us 2-3x longer than hiring it out and also there was no guarantee that we wouldn’t have fallen off a ladder. In the end, we decided to hire Carlos for the job because of one reason….ladders. Bowers don’t do ladders 🙂
Obviously Carlos is right at home on them. That’s him giving me a thumbs up 🙂
So after the caulking is done on an area, they first painted the bottom line of the house and used a shield to protect the brick. We told them it didn’t matter if they got paint on our brick because it all needs some work and eventually we will paint it.
Then they sprayed the inside of the eaves and the edges before tackling the main parts of siding.
My favorite part was watching that first coat go on. The sprayer was so fast that if I was gone for ten minutes, I would have missed an entire side being sprayed!
Look at that SILKY WHITE! SO SO GOOD!
All of our window trim, soffits, fascia boards and siding were getting the same color and the same sheen.
It never ceases to amaze me how much of a difference paint makes. It is like turning a cardboard box into a Rolls Royce….it’s incredible.
MULTIPLE COATS
I was so happy when that white color had no bleed through after only two coats on the siding! We had crazy weather and being able to get the paint on the house DONE before the rain came in was great! Most paints do require multiple coats but that is after the primer coat is done. Bravo Behr for making a paint and primer in one that does a great job!
Here are some more shots of our exterior in all it’s painted glory…
I have more to share about the front porch and the story there but I wanted to keep that information all together so stay tuned on that post. Also I am doing the same thing with the doors and window information….each thing is coming together in weird timelines and I wanted to be able to organize all the sources and issues and pictures together in one place so forgive me if I haven’t shared it just yet! I will! It’s coming! But for now let’s just celebrate the goodness that is Silky White on this sweet little Monroe House!