Expert: Rikki Nyman - 7/2/2009

Question
We recently bought a home built in 1966 in what we believe is the Southern Colonial style.  It is a 2 story red brick (veneer) home with 6 two-story pillars across the front supporting a porch that is the length of the house.  The pillars appear to be wood and were painted white and are now peeling like crazy.  The front doors are painted black and the trim work on the house is mainly white with some accents painted a light yellow, including the shutters.  I would be happy to send you a photo, but basically we have three questions:  1) We plan to paint all the trim other than the doors white.  What would be a typical/complementary color to paint the shutters or should we also paint them white?  2) We currently have shutters on every window on the house, including the back windows.  Is it customary to have shutters all the way around or can we remove all but the front or front and side ones?  
3) Do you have any tips for painting the pillars so that they won't peel in the future? Thank you!!

Answer
In graphic design one of the strongest color schemes is red, black, and white. It's true for painting houses too. The Southern Colonial style house has a lot of presence by definition. The red brick with white or ivory trim and black door sound very appropriate to me. I would probably continue the black in the shutters.

Shutters were originally intended to protect windows so they were put on every window around the house. Today, windows on the front look fine to us with shutters, but funny on the back. We've departed from the need to protect our glass windows and the shutters are now like buttons on the sleeves of suit jackets ... vestigial reminders of an earlier age. If you want to remove the shutters, I think it's entirely up to you. Keep them though ... the next owner will appreciate having the original shutters.

You don't mention where you are located, the siting of the house, or whether the pillars were properly prepped and primed before they were painted. (Since you recently purchased the house, you may not know what they did.) When wood is prepared correctly, you don't usually run into peeling, cracking, and bubbling issues with paint. It sounds like you'll need to scrape off the paint, then prime before you try repainting. Go to a good paint dealer that handles high quality paint and tell them what's going on. Better yet, take a couple pictures so you can show them.

Hope this helps!
Best regards,
Rikki Nyman
www.antiquehomestyle.com