I thought it would be fun to share with you my design-related comments for the modernization of the exterior colors at Del Prado. It looks like Ashlie Hadley deleted my earlier comments. If you are interested in what I have to offer, please read this right away before she deletes it again.
Personally, I am concerned because I know that a quality paint job on my building could increase the value of my investment by at least $30,000. I don't think we are going to create that sort of increased value if we go with the "free" designer that we used last time. Look at the choices a competent designer needs to make...
1. Break Up the Flat Look.
The best feature of Del Prado is the variation in the surfaces of the buildings. Ideally, the colors should be chosen to highlight that variation. This means darker cooler colors for walls closest to the center of the buildings and lighter warmer colors for the walls furthest from the center.
2. De-Emphasize the Trim
One of the ugliest features of Del Prado is the cheap trim. This trim is frequently afflicted with dry rot and peeling paint. Right now, this poor quality trim is painted a glaring bright white color. The current bright white color is the mistake of a hopeless amateur. Colors always look brighter on the exterior of a building than they do in the paint sample. Competent designers compensate for this by choosing exterior paint colors that are darker than normal. Once those colors are in the bright light, they perform well. Going forward, we should de-emphazize the trim by picking a darker color. Ideally, the trim should be the same color as the roof tile or the buildings themselves. Above all, we need to fix the underlying problems that cause the trim to rot on us.
3. Repair the Roofs Before Painting the Roof Trim.
Unfortunately, we have a severe design problem at Del Prado. There isn't an adequate moisture barrier between the tiles on the roofs and the white wood fascia on the edges. The moisture is leaking through and causing us all sorts of headaches including continual rotting of the wood and peeling of the paint. Clearly, no paint job should be initiated until we change the roof design and install standard moisture barriers. Otherwise, we are simply wasting our money.
4. Avoid the Dated 1980s Look
Right now, much of Del Prado is painted the exact same color. This makes us look tired and old-fashioned compared to our up-to-date neighbors. A contemporary color scheme makes sense today because of improvements in paint technology, particularly in the stability of darker paints.
All in all, I still have the same recommendations. Let's interview three designers before we pick one and ask them to pick colors on our behalf. Let's fix the underlying moisture problems that are causing the fascia to rot and the paint on the fascia to peel. Let's study our neighboring complexes to see what they have done. After all, we are talking about an extra $30,000 or so in the pockets of our homeowners. The choices we face and the processes we follow are too important to leave to a free designer who will invest the sort of effort needed to do things exactly right.
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