Here’s How to Transform your Home’s Exterior with BeautiTone Paint

A White House. It was always the vision. That first day we came to check out this house we drove up and both said to each other, “can’t you picture it all white?!” When we lived in Nashville our favourite area of town to hang out in was 12 South. Streets lined with southern craftsman homes with character on character on character. The open porches, porch swings and wooden doors were so inviting, and we always dreamed of living in a place like that. Craftsman’s (an architectural style of build) aren’t as common where we are from. They are few and far between, so finding this place was such a serendipity moment for us. Throwback to when we first moved in and the house was green, with yellow trim, a brown painted front porch, a fire engine red painted wood door, and a different shade of green painted on the foundation of the home.

We had hoped to paint the exterior last year, but the timing wasn’t right and we held off until this summer. Mike’s Dad Dave (the handiest man ever) volunteered to come stay the week and help us out with the job. After going back and forth on it, Mike decided to rent a skyjack for the week and that was probably the best decision we made. We were a little nervous at first because of the cost, but it made the job 100x easier. The only area that we couldn’t use it for was in the back, and we used scaffolding there instead.

What we thought was going to be “just painting the house” turned into us also refinishing the peaks on either side. What good is a freshly painted house if you have peaks that are falling apart? Plus, we wanted to maximize the skyjack while we had it, because going up and down a ladder with shingles would be killer.

Mike and Dave started with the peaks. The original peaks had cedar shingles painted a yellow colour. Our plan was to replace the cedar shingles and trim but leave them as is. I love the way cedar shingles age and change over time (cape cods anyone?) and it seemed like the perfect way to break up all the white (since our windows + front and back porch are white as well). To do both peaks took three and a half days. Stripping them was the fastest part, but putting up the shingles was tedious (they go up one at a time) and a learning curve for sure. The plus about the skyjack was that they could bring up a bunch of shingles at a time. On the first side we were able to salvage the original vent, but on the second side Dave rebuilt an entirely new one. This was an extremely tedious job (the angles), but it turned out beautifully. It helped having the two of them because while Dave was putting up the shingles, Mike could be making cuts and running him supplies down below!

Once the peaks were done, we could really start seeing the house take shape. The warm cedar just popped and brought to life a part of the house that usually would go unnoticed. Next up prep. Our house is 90% wood siding and 10% vinyl. The front peak of our house and a section in the back are not wood. Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t going for perfect here, we know that our house is 130 years old and it’s going to have its flaws, but we wanted to prepare for a paint job that would last a long time (with the exception of inevitable touch ups). The prep for the wood was a lot. The paint had been chipping and bubbling from all of the moisture and direct sunlight and needed a lot of cleaning up if we wanted our paint to stick.

First up we scraped the really bad parts (especially the front where you would notice it the most). It helped that there was two of them, because while Dave was working on the peaks Mike was assisting and prepping at the same time. In the front Mike used a belt sander over the scraped areas to smooth out the siding and minimize the lines from the previous layers of paint. When all the bubbling and flaking areas were scraped, the house was pressure washed! Again, having the skyjack here was so handy, getting to those hard to reach areas and avoiding ladders. All in all, prep took a full two days. It’s important not to skip any of the steps, even if it may seem tedious, because this is not a job you want to have to do it all over again. This is a biggie, so do it right so you only have to do it once!

Next up paint! This is the part where I tell you that if you are going to paint your house I 1000000000% recommend spending the money and buying or renting a paint sprayer. Let me put it to you this way, it took Mike one 12-hour day to prime the entire exterior of our 3000 sqft home. We used the Wagner Control Pro 150 with the pressure adjustment. It comes with a 25-foot hose which was perfect because the paint could stay on the ground and the hose could reach up on the skyjack with Mike. You don’t need to water down the paint at all, it goes directly into the gallon! Note that you do use more paint when you use a sprayer as there is more waste, but it saves you so much time, and the paint goes on so beautifully! Again, it was helpful having two people because while Mike was painting, Dave was topping up the paint (it goes fast!) and helping with clogs (inevitable).

For primer we used BeautiTone Block iT from Home Hardware. It was amazing! I will say we used way more primer than we did latex, but the coverage over our green was incredible. We used about 18 gallons of paint on our first coat of primer and again this took about 12 hours to cover the house in. It was recommended that we use a 100% exterior acrylic latex paint over this, so we went with BeautiTone’s Exterior Designer Series. This has quickly become our favourite line of paint. It’s durable, easy to apply, and the coverage is amazing. It took about 14 gallons per coat of the acrylic, and we went with a suede finish.

There was no convincing me to go with any other colour besides white. It just felt so meant to be for our house. Picking a white was a task, only because I know how tricky whites can be. I decided to go with a warmer white, first deciding on the undertones that I did not want (blues and greens). I picked a variety of taupe based whites and sampled them on the green before committing. In the end I decided on August Moon by BeautiTone. We did everything the same colour (foundation, trim, front porch, siding). I’m so happy with our choice. A big thing with going with white is understanding that it will look different in different times of day and seasons. Personally, I would rather it go creamier than colder. I find that a colder white on siding can tend to make the home look more dated and less impactful (with brick or black windows is a different story), and I wanted it to flow nicely with the cedar peaks.

All in all, this has been my favourite transformation and I don’t see any future reno even coming close to it. It looks just like we pictured and driving up to our home just feels so surreal. Insert the water works. White House, wood door, cedar peaks, porch swing, and I just feel so in love with our home! We would 100% paint another place in the future, and I would definitely recommend it to friends looking for an exterior facelift. Our house looks brand new, and all because of the power of paint!

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