Color Consultation

Picking a Color Somebody Else Has to Approve

A color consultation for a single family house is a taste conversation. For a condominium in Santa Monica it is a taste conversation with a committee attached, and the two need different work. What we do here is help you land on a color you like that a board will also vote for, and then build the document that makes voting easy.

Most owners start at the paint store with a fan deck. That is a reasonable place to start and a terrible place to finish. A chip is small, it is printed, and it is being judged under store lighting against a white counter. The same color on eight hundred square feet of stucco, in coastal glare, next to a red tile roof, is a different color in every way that matters.

Drawdowns on the Actual Wall

We brush large samples directly onto the building, on more than one elevation, and leave them up for about a week. You look at them in the fog at eight in the morning, in flat noon light, and again when the afternoon sun comes in low off the water. Colors move a long way between those three moments. Warm neutrals that look elegant at noon can go distinctly pink at five. Cool grays can read blue on a foggy morning and dead flat by lunchtime.

A board that has watched a sample do that on its own building does not need to imagine anything, and a committee that does not have to imagine rarely defers.

Light Reflectance, Sheen and What Each One Hides

Light reflectance value is the number that predicts how a color behaves at scale. Very dark values absorb heat, fade fastest on the south and west elevations, and are unforgiving on stucco that has been patched. Very light values show every dent and every repair in raking light. The middle of the range is where most exterior schemes on this coast settle, and not because it is timid.

Sheen matters as much as color and gets a fraction of the attention. Flat hides surface irregularity, which is exactly what you want on older troweled stucco, and it is the hardest to clean. Eggshell and satin give you some washability and start to reveal texture. Semi gloss and gloss belong on trim, doors and railings, where they shed water, take a scrub and frame the field color. Putting a satin on a wavy stucco field is a common and expensive mistake.

What Goes in the Submittal Package

The package is the deliverable. Marked elevations showing which product and which finish goes on each surface, so nobody has to guess whether the railings match the trim. Manufacturer data sheets for every product named. Photographs of the drawdowns on the building in different light. A written scope with the exclusions stated in plain language. The insurance certificate naming the association. A schedule.

Many management companies also have their own submittal form. Ask for it before you write anything, because filling out their form is faster than rewriting yours.

Timing It Against the Meeting

Committees here typically meet once a month, so a complete packet costs you four to six weeks and an incomplete one costs you eight to twelve. If your meeting is four weeks away there is time to walk the building, get drawdowns up, leave them a full week, and submit with days in hand. If it is two weeks away, we will tell you plainly that you are aiming at the following meeting and that rushing the samples is how packets come back.

When Not to Spend the Money

If your building is repainting the entire exterior next year under a reserve study, a unit level color change now is money you will paint over. If your governing documents specify an approved palette and you like one of the colors on it, you do not need a consultation, you need a scope and a start date. We will say so.

Call (424) 561-9870 and tell us when your committee meets.