In all honesty, stucco is not my favorite. I’d much prefer cedar shake or thin-slat siding. For some reason, stucco feels a little cold to me; it’s just not quite as inviting. But it’s the card we were dealt and we’ve taken on the challenge of making it work for us rather than against us.
We’re hoping to begin painting sometime in July. While this project isn’t exactly right around the corner, it’s funny how quickly these things will creep up on you. In the meantime, we’re researching the best paint and the best colors.
Let me deal with paint first. We are big fans of Sherwin-Williams paint, so when we saw that they were hosting a 40% off sale about a month ago, we kind of started freaking out. But before purchasing gallons and gallons of paint, my husband—cool, calm, and collected as always—decided to do a bit more research. He caught me just before I bolted out the door to SW and showed me a new paint developed by Lowe’s Valspar brand. It’s called Duramax, and here are the qualities it boasts:
- 100% acrylic latex infused with Crosslinking Ti3 Technology creating an impervious bond with the surface
- Ultimate hiding formula glides on smoothly and evenly for professional looking results every time
- Maximum fade resistance
- Self priming—no need for that extra coat of primer
- Bridges hairline cracks
- Flexible, won't crack or peel
- Triple resistance to mold, mildew & algae growth on paint film
- Early resistance to moisture and light mist means less worry about the weather
- Apply as low as 35 degrees
- Low odor, low VOC
- Lifetime warranty
We especially like that it’s self-priming and will bridge hairline cracks, as we have several tiny fractures in our stucco. On top of all that, it costs a tad less than SW paint, even at 40% off! Now we can take our time deciding on the color we like best, plus we’ll gain an additional 10% off with a Lowe’s coupon. Not bad.
When it comes to stucco colors, I feel semi-limited. Because of its earthy look, I tend to think that stucco looks best when it’s painted a warm neutral color, although my friend Elizabeth would argue that cool tones on stucco look just fine. Being the good friend that she is, last summer she joined me in snapping photos around the downtown area of stucco houses that we liked. It was helpful seeing the different color options, but I found that many of the homes we looked at have more trim than our house, and therefore possess more options for accessorizing with other colors. Take a look at what we found.
While I like the look of sage green, I’m worried that it will clash with the Kelly green color of our grass (if it ever grows!). Most of you know that I’m a sucker for the tan/beige palate, so I’m leaning that direction with hopes of painting our trim in white and either red or green accents.
What are your thoughts on stucco? Does anyone know of a great website or resource that will help us choose our outside paint colors? If so, let us know!
P.S. Funny side story… After taking a picture of one of the houses I really liked, I decided to knock on their front door to ask for the names of their colors. A young man answered the door and then flat out denied my request! He said that another woman asked him for his paint colors last year and then went out and painted all of her rental properties using the same color scheme. He did tell me that the colors were from Sherwin-Williams. Um…thanks for the hint? It was kind of a bummer at the time, but since then I’ve decided that his color scheme is too warm. Take that secretive man! Seriously, life is just too short to hold out on paint colors, right?!
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