gray side
Remember my post about choosing paint colors? Well, we finally settled on a gray we liked, and decided to paint the indoor portion of siding, in our living room. It’s designed to be the same color as the exterior, to provide a seamless indoor-outdoor transition.
We tested a patch on the right, with our sample pot. We lived with that for about a week, before committing to painting the whole thing. Once we were sure, we got to work on obliterating the Ebony Minwax stain that went before.
We know that’s what it was, because they left half a tin in the garage. It really didn’t do the wall any favors. It was way too dark, and had a nasty sheen to it. It just looked wrong. Once we began painting, we knew it would be a big improvement.
The color we picked was Benjamin Moore 2121-20 Steel Wool. We plan to complement this with a darker gray for the beams. We took care to choose a pure gray –I mentioned before that everything appeared to have a blue, green or red tinge to it. This was gray.
Or so we thought. Annoyingly, once we painted the whole wall and sat back, it started to take on a blueish tone. I appreciate that all colors will vary, depending on the light, but this is definitely on the blue side. How could we have missed that?
I guess the clue should have been in the name, but it honestly didn’t look blue before. Now we’re contemplating changing it. After all, we’ll be painting the entire exterior in this color, so it needs to be right. As usual, we’ll live with it for a while and see how we feel.
Edit: as predicted, we repainted the wall.
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Merle Duckett
Yikes-your house is even nicer. Can you tell me about the “Cool-Air” system in your/others house? It was mentioned in the brochure on the last page. Haven’t heard of any other Eichler tracts with this feature. I live in Thousand Oaks in a “Gallery” model. There are 103 Eichlers in the tract built between 1964-68. I put in a ductless AC system last year, great during the summer-our radiant heat works well. Your “rehab” is super!
fogmodern
Thanks again Merle! Honestly, I don’t know anything about the cool air system. Everyone seems to have an identical vent in the living space (as seen in the last two pics of this post) though most, if not all, systems (in 60 neighborhood homes) have likely been upgraded to this point. See my other comment about your model –we are familiar with that type and would love to see pics. Glad you like the work we are doing. Catch you soon…
Dave
I am so enjoying your blog.
The siding in the living rooms were originally a very dark brown.
Believe what Eichler called cool air systems,
Is simply a fancy name for swamp coolers also known as water coolers on the roof.
There was a receptacle that held water, turn on the system it would suck outside air over the water theoretically cooling the air down as it came into the house. Summer strategy turn it on as early as you can make the house as cool as you could and turned it the system off before the heat of the day!
Andy
Hi Dave. So glad you are enjoying our blog! I believe the siding in this portion would have matched the exterior –originally a brown Cabot wood stain. And yes, I think the cooling system was a swamp cooler. Pretty much everyone here has tapped into the original vents with new HVAC systems.
Dave
Hello Andy,
Yes, would make sense that interior color on the siding would be dependent on original exterior paint color. Just can’t remember what variations there may have been .
They certainly had central air in the 50s and 60s but at that time was very pricey.
Hard to believe but think swamp coolers in the 50s was considered a luxury!
Andy
Yes, I believe it was always meant to match, to accentuate the indoor-outdoor feel. All the siding was originally stained, using a variety of earthy tones, from Cabot Stains’ Ranch House Hues catalogue. See those colors, along with accents, on pages 5-7 of this Eichler Network article. How times have changed –I guess any cooling was better than none, though, particularly in harsh Sacramento summers!