Getting Started
The easiest thing to cross off our list, at least the one thing I have experience doing, is painting. Like any average person of thirty some-odd years, I’ve had a chance to run a roller around a few projects. But something of this magnitude— a whole house that would need a color palette from start to finish— is something totally outside my range of experience. But, like any good DIY’er I rolled up my sleeves, pulled out some back issues of decorating magazines, and got at it.
At first I really wanted to do something Balinese. This is a building style that’s become very popular here in Costa Rica. And why not? It feels tropical, and with the gorgeous weather we have —well, at least up here in Atenas—it’s great to have an open home that brings the fresh air, the wonderful sounds and scents indoors. And with the cana brava eaves, the open space for a zen garden, and the serene white noise from the river, that style would be completely doable. But the more we thought about the colors and the textures already part of the house, the domed ceilings and the woodwork, the more we thought it would be best to take this house craftsman.
After careful thought and consideration, here are the colors I thought would look nice with this house. I wanted something classy, timeless, special, but still pretty neutral. We’re planning to sell this house, and there’s no telling what color couch those future owners will own.
Picking paint can be tough, but it’s even tougher here in Costa Rica. I had put together a palette I thought would be perfect, but I thought it might be best to test it out on the house. Good thing! I took my swatch cards down to the local paint shop and bought samples of the six colors I was considering. Of those six, maybe one worked. The others were too dark, or too light, or too red, or too ordinary. Perhaps it was the guy mixing the paint? It’s not like he had a computer to calculate the amount of pigment to add to each can. He just wrote some numbers of a piece of scratch paper and eye-balled it. Or, perhaps it was just the colors, you never know. I think that first time around I learned two things: One, there are a million different colors out there, and you never really know if you have the right one until you see it up in the setting in which it will be used. Two, there are a million different colors out there, and it’s hard for someone to get it right the first time using scratch paper and a little luck.
The second time around we made the trip out to EPA in Escazu. If you’ve spent some time living in Costa Rica and you’ve never been to EPA, you’re in for a treat. It is e x a c t l y like The Home Depot. Right down to the hand drawn lettering on the signs. It’s surreal. But, like any Home Depot, it’s a big store with a large selection and – this is key—computers for dispensing pigment into the paint. Now it’s a 60 mile round trip out to Escazu, so we were playing for keeps this time. We picked out new swatches, some a little lighter, others a little darker, some a little less red, and others a little less ordinary. Then we picked out 5 gallon buckets of paint, took it all up to the paint counter, and crossed our fingers.
Thirty minutes later, we had our paint, our brushes and rollers, some other handy items and were on our way. We’d already hired someone to do the actual painting. It’s not that we can’t do it ourselves—but at less than $3 an hour we decided to support the local economy and hire out the job. The gentleman we hired, Gilberto, is the kindest, most honest, hard working, and down to earth guy you will ever meet. Did I mention he’s 70? But even at that age he’s more spry and hardy than I am. He listened ever so patiently as I told him I couldn’t dig out the garden because I’d done that before and had developed a mean case of arthritis afterwards. I told him so he wouldn’t feel bad about hiring the job out himself. He nodded his head and was so sympathetic. And then he proceeded to do it himself and 10 other things as well. That man is amazing.
Trackbacks