The colorful world of southern Arizona is alive and well! Besides working and doing a recent art show, I have been doing some home improvement, both large and small projects! Some projects involved boring stuff like septic tanks (Lots of holes dug in the yard), re-piping the old part of the house from the street (Lots of trenches in the yard), and some projects involved color! Ever wanted to see what a color consultant does with their own house? Here is your chance. Keep in mind that home ownership is one giant on-going project (i.e: not finished yet), here are some of the new changes.

First up, painting the house!  This stucco house originally was three shades of off-white with very pale aqua blue on the metal work and doors. This before photo shows the entrance courtyard with a palm tree in a stone planter, a balcony on the second story (The tile is right along the edge of the railing), and the arches delineating the small entrance gate.
The new color scheme is unusual but works with this house's quirky architecture. (Greek-Italian style addition fused with 1950's ranch house).


The color scheme was inspired by some Mexican Talavera tile trim used on one section of the house. So the body color is a dusty, desert-y yellow called "Pasta", the metal work is a blue called "Aqua Bloom", and the doors are a deep terracotta called "Southwestern Clay". Basically a yellow-red-blue scheme. All paint is by Dunn Edwards.

And here are some after pictures! There are two views of the same area since it's hard the get it all in.

You can see how the dusty yellow is friendlier and less harsh than the off-white. The aqua blue railing adds a fun bit of color. It was also used on the ceiling panels of the balcony, you can see it on the left hand photo near the top of the palm tree. The red door complements the coral and orange flowers of the blooming aloes as well as the reddish brick pavers used to create the walkways. Now that the house is painted, people now think the tile trim is new when it was there all along.

Here is another view, showing the front of the gate and a tiny bit of the 'swimming pool blue' on the ceiling of this arch. Note how bright the sun is and this was taken in the late afternoon. The sun is so strong here in southern Arizona, that many neutral exterior colors wash out and white is usually way too bright and harsh. So you can get away with more color here (Depending on the architecture) than in cities in more northern climes.

Next project: painting the inside of the courtyard wall! See that boring white wall in this photo? That's the one.

I will probably do a deeper shade of the body color of the house, something like "Burmese Tan" or "Burst of Gold". These colors are right near "Pasta" on the fan deck. Or maybe some more "Aqua Bloom"! Either way, I'll keep posting pictures of my projects!
Ciao,
reb