ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE AUGUST 2013

A question posed by a reader to the "Ask the Expert" column.
In "Ask the Expert," (I allus referred to it as "Axe the Eggspurt"), I shared the weekly forum with several other columnists, all contractors, some with a less developed sense of the prosaic than myself. Why Linda Calliouette (psic) let me write for her at all, I dunno. Hey Linda! Let's get a drink! I don't care who you're married to!
E.B. White spinning again..






DETERMINING ORIGINAL PAINT SCHEMES ON QUEEN ANNE STRUCTURES

(AND CHOOSING WISELY)

My husband and I just bought a Queen Anne Victorian house in a historic district and the exterior is in need a of new coat of paint. We want to paint it in historically accurate hues. What's the best resources to turn to to make this decision? Thanks in advance!

To which I replied:

Queen Anne style homes are sometimes referred to as “Painted Ladies,” as they’re original paint schemes were often multi-hued. We at CM Construction paint a lot of these, as they are quite numerous in downtown Little Rock’s Quapaw Quarter. The clapboard siding is often one color, window sashes another, and fishscale shingles a third. Accent colors are often used on window trim, corner medallions, and the fancier parts of porch column turnings. Keep in mind that this is a rather simplistic explanation, and that some homes have much more elaborate color schemes.

There are a number of ways to determine what is right for your own home. The first thing to do is to drive around your local historic district and see what other people have done to their Queen Annes. Treatments of these structures range from a simple monochrome to vivid multi-hues; your own tastes will determine the scope you want to use. The places for accents I mentioned above are the most common, and certain rules are universal.

Foundation brick, if unpainted, should remain unpainted. This is true of all brick; paint will cause brick to fail earlier than it would normally due to moisture retention. If the foundation brick is painted a strange color, it should either be stripped or be painted brick red.  Original sheet metal porch roofs are nearly always painted brick red (ironic, don’t you think?), though they are seldom visible from the street. Wood porch floors are usually a light gray and porch ceilings were often painted sky blue back in the day. This is said to deter wasps from building nests there.

There are several good books on the subject of painting Queen Anne homes, including an excellent pictorial series called “America’s Painted Ladies.” Perusing these will give you a great overview and will narrow your choices to what you want and what looks good versus what is too gaudy for your tastes. Keep in mind this rule; just because you can add more tiers to your paint schedule doesn’t mean you should.

We at CM Construction often do historic preservation as opposed to restoration, and that requires a lot of research into original structure, field archaeology, and investigation of original paint colors. There are high-priced companies that do this as well, but I learned to do it myself over twenty years ago.

My favorite method is to choose a number of places where differing colors might have been used (see the first paragraph for which components to test) and using sandpaper, bring spots on those components down to bare wood. It’s best to start with 80 grit and work to higher numbered, finer grits successively, ending with 220. Using an oscillating or ¼ sheet sander (not a belt sander) sand a circular spot about the size of a quarter, and once bare wood is reached, concentrate on hand-sanding the edges of the paint that surround that circle. You’ll want to feather those edges to create a slightly angled shallow divot; this will expose many tiny layers of old paint. The final step is to use a magnifying glass or jeweler’s loupe to examine those layers up close. Wetting the spot will help to bring out the colors. You’ll be amazed at the information gleaned from examining these layers, and trust me, one of the middle levels of paint will undoubtedly be a light green, which was extremely popular in the 1950s. Everything was painted Institutional Green back then.

Ick.

Once the colors have been decided upon, the slight divots can be skimmed and sanded and no one will know better. But if it was me, I’d varnish one of these sections and leave it as a window on the past.

Then you can paint. Keep in mind that painting is 70% preparation, 10% high quality paint, and 20% proper application.

CM Construction has been repainting Queen Annes as well as other historic structures in Arkansas for decades. Go to www.cmconstructioninc.com to learn more.

Then get some sandpaper and get to work on those components. I promise that you’ll learn as well as have fun.