A delightful client/became a friend to work with – conservative in business, liberal/artistic in his personal life. I first was commissioned by hm and his spouse around thirty some years ago to do something about their boring HOA spec built home. I don’t usually do anything to brick but this was so ugly I had too – looked like a special buy/blend for mediocre projects to appeal to the masses. So, we stained it – not paint, as that causes huge problems in freeze/thaw zones. The siding as well as stain does not peel – it breathes and allows moisture to escape. This client was the exception not the (average) rule. The proportions and composition needed work as well. We changed the windows and popped the roof out over the entry. The windows were not good quality and did not enhance the design aesthetically – they were clunky. She was not good at visualization so I did sketches of the design. New people bought the house and resuburbanized it – it’s OK.

Years later they literally moved around the corner – same boring HOA driven color schemes but good bones to work with again. He contacted me again about livening up the exterior and any number of other projects. The house has a mild builder’s feel of the South West so i initially looked at that palette of colors. Some of them felt pretty good/close but the turquoise always bothered me as a bad fit. I put some on the bigger block of the house – the garage to see what it looked like thinking the blue would have less visible impact than the red. The neighbor did not care for it either. Consultants come in many firms.

I stunned her into silence by agreeing with her. She was right. I moved the blue to the smaller block and tried out the red there which she and he were on board with. We (client and I) decided to stain the entire three foot wide soffit/overhang withe red to tie the whole composition together. I still didn’t care for that particular blue and worried over it. I put the red into a plastic cobalt blue paint tray and knew immediately it was the perfect blue. The SW yellow color was fine from the samples. For the back of the house and the fascias we used a slightly modified version of the grey/green stain on our home – more sympathetic to the colors of the extensive landscaping and toned down for the socializing space.

The opposite of a mullet haircut – party/art up front, pleasurable business in the back. People driving by have been known to stop, look and smile. It is a bit surprising at first but once one is acclimated to it it would be missed if it was gone. It is a landmark in a sea of background. The client said, “It doesn’t really go with the neighborhood,” with a big grin in his face. I agree. It is so cool. But we weren’t done yet. It does not photograph well – it is very 3D.

His family business is farm real estate for over 100 years – he wanted to add elements to the facade to celebrate that. This bold design could support that. So we composed their placement with the facade and I suggested highlighting them with super saturated LED spot lights to create a 3D light sculpture. They light up the elements and then cross “shadows” on the wall of colors created from the different light sources. We got to the color/fixture picks and locations and ran out of time for this year. The two ground mounted lights were easy, the top one will be more challenging but will happen next spring. He hedged at the additional expense at first but I did a lot of his quoted work for about half what was quoted by others, and better, so he said go for it. After seeing the mock ups he understood and got on board.