Beach Colors

Enjoying the decor of Coast restaurant at Shutters on the Beach, 1 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA, I'd like to recreate the feeling here. (Coast and Shutters on the Beach are the work of Michael S. Smith.)

It seems to be a gloss, bright white (SW 7757 High-Reflective White) trim, with a satin near-white (SW 7005 Pure White) on larger surfaces. Woodwork and beadboard. Light and airy, which my house needs because most of the windows face away from the sun in the shade of tall trees.

I particularly like the simple wood framing on the ceiling--perhaps that would be all painted satin "near white," rather than treating the wood separately from the ceiling itself. There was a low ceiling at the restrooms at Coast "coffered" 3/4" like this, and it worked well.

Update 3/23/19: I drew up a "coffered" ceiling plan (all but the kitchen and BA1) and found that it represented 778 LF of 1x4 (8 sheets of 4x8 MDF--see below). $300 worth of materials for the ceiling.

The color experiment I tried in 2015 used Glidden Ultra-Hide 220 (~$22/gal, apparently no longer sold by Home Depot). I used three colors in that: light (Distant Ocean Grey), medium (Blue Grey Sky), and a dark blue (Approaching Storm). I think the Distant Ocean Grey still goes well with the white enamel window on the Living Room east wall. The other two have too low a LRV (light reflectance value). High-Reflective White is 256, Pure White is 255. An accent, like light blue "French Moire" is 173 or a light green "Oh Pistachio" is 150.

To avoid requiring top quality boards, a carpenter on YouTube suggests ripping a 48" x 96" sheet of 3/4" MDF into 3 1/2" strips (and taller baseboards, etc.). You could get 13 strips, or 104 LF of 1x4 that way. The sheet is $30.63 at Lowe's, so (not counting cutting costs) it's .30/LF. 1x4 Poplar is $1.92/LF.

While we're looking up prices, 4'x8' of hardboard beadboard is $20 ($.625/SF). "HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams" high-gloss trim paint is $33/gal. Infinity satin latex is $45/gal.

I considered the exterior a bit, but it needs more study--looking around the neighborhood and thinking about style trends. Painting the house's exterior will be a much bigger project. For one thing, the fascia under the gutters all around is the dark blue used at the mid-band.

The exterior is currently three sections: Lower, horizontal clapboard; upper, vertical T&G (and the same on the wide eaves), and a horizontal band between them. The current colors are:

• Upper and Eaves: Bright white (like SW 7757 High-Reflective White)
• Mid-band and fascia: Dark blue (like SW 9179 Anchors Aweigh)
• Lower: Gray blue (like SW 9161 Dustblu)

This sets up a high contrast between upper and lower and tends to make the house seem squashed and even more horizontal, to me. Maybe I'm wrong.

I'd like to tone down the white a little, but use it for eaves, uppers, and lowers. Actually, I wonder if the bright white/near white approach discussed for the interior might make a nice distinction between walls and eaves. Sherwin-Williams exterior whites include a slightly creamy Iconic White (SW 4004) and a slightly grey Belgian White (SW 4025).

The mid-band molding could be similarly painted out, but I wonder if a pop of color, like a Seahawks green, might make an unusual ribbon around the house. It's only about an inch tall; it might not even show from the street. We could pick up that color for the front door and garage doors--you'd see them from the street certainly. Sherwin-Williams has a pretty intense avocado that they call Venomous (SW 1232).