Expert: Rikki Nyman - 10/8/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello,
My family has recently moved into a 1929 two-story stucco home.  It is time to do some repair work on the stucco and also to replace the roof.  We love the home and love it's history and want to work with the house's era, not ours.  We would love any suggestions you might offer for historically appropriate color schemes for the body and trim and also for roofing materials.  Currently , the house is painted a creamy beige with a deep red front door, dark green slatted shutters on the upper windows and a small green striped awning on the lower front window.  The roof is a pyramid hip roof and has asphalt shingles (almost red in color).  I'd like to think about a metal roof, but don't know if it's even close to appropriate for the house.  I'm happy to share pictures with you if that would be helpful.
Thanks so much for sharing your insight.

ANSWER: Could you please post a picture or two? It would really help.

Best,
Rikki Nyman
www.antiquehomestyle.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Here's a photo of the house.  Hope it's helpful.
Thanks - Julie

Answer
Julie -

Hi. Let's start with the roof. Most of the stucco homes I've seen in vintage publications had either a tile roof or composition. At the time, you could get concrete, vitreous shale, rubber, and terracotta tiles, or metal shingles that were available in cement, copper, zinc, galvanized steel, and tin. I don't know how extensive the current availability of these materials might be. Asphalt and asbestos composition were also common and roofs of mixed colors were seen regularly. Colors included a variety of reds, terracotta, browns and tans, grays, and other hues including blue and green.

As for the color of the stucco, there were many options available as well. In addition to the very popular buffs and creams, there were tans and pinks. (Shell pink with just a hint of ivory in the white trim and a terracotta tile roof was popular in warm climates like California and Florida.) Butter yellow was common across the board in almost all siding types.

In the 1929 House Builders Catalog, for example, stucco colors listed include pink, salmon, brown, deep cream, cream, light yellow, light green, and light blue. The colored houses shown in drawings were generally the cream, dark cream, and pink. The other colors were less commonly shown.

As for what color you should consider, the options were fairly broad so you have quite a few choices. Start by considering the homes on either side of yours. Unless they're going to be painted fairly soon, you'll probably want to avoid a color that is too similar. Because you're in Texas, you can do bolder color than us Northerners. Salmon or coral (orange-red) was common during the 1920s. Trim was usually ivory or white with colors, but brown or brick red with light pink, cream, or tan walls.

I usually recommend making a preliminary color selection based on the roof, but since you're changing the roof too, it really opens up your options. For example, you could stick with the brick red roof and use a taupe body and ivory trim scheme; or gray-blue and ivory trim with a dark gray roof. A sage green with pale gray trim might be nice. A dark ivory or buff with black, mahogany brown, or brick red trim would be striking and historically correct. Another scheme that is less common, but might be gorgeous there would be cream with medium teal blue trim. The image I'm looking at shows a brick red terracotta roof (1929 Home Builders Catalog).

If you want to experiment with something we don't often seen done now, you could try ivory stucco with brown roof and trim. Back in the day, window sash was painted a contrasting color ... green was popular.

Nowadays, we tend to like to paint the front door a different color to "pop" and attract the eye so visitors know where the main entry is. (It's good feng shui too, FWIW.) However, many of the period images show the front door painted or stained the same color as the trim.

Once you narrow your preferences, try painting your complete palette in a large enough area that you can see what it looks like in different light and under different weather conditions. It often works to paint an 8x8 square that encompasses a window in back.  

The awnings are a good way to add period style, so don't hesitate updating those.

Your house is really pretty and would have been considered very modern when it was built. It's traditional, but has a Mediterranean flavor. And the box type is reminiscent of the Foursquare. It's a nice eclectic. I'm curious about the window on the main floor adjacent to the door; it's smaller than one would expect for the street façade. The front door and porte cochere are really nice features.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Rikki Nyman
www.antiquehomestyle.com