Matching Exterior Colors to Long Beach Light

No sample chip keeps its color once it leaves the store, and a wall in Long Beach shows that twice a day. Picking a color for a Long Beach, CA exterior (the sample method laid out at long beach painting contractor anytime mailer is the one a painter here ends up using) comes down to watching a patch of paint on the actual wall through a whole day.

Testing on the wall

A sample brushed on a board and leaned against the house tells little. A patch of about two feet square brushed straight onto the wall, with two coats for true coverage, shows the color against the real stucco or siding. Samples go on the sun face and the shaded face, and they stay up for a few days so the morning haze and the late sun both get a look.

Morning haze and late sun

The marine layer turns the whole street flat grey in the morning, and a warm tan can look dull and green in that light. By late afternoon the same wall goes yellow. Cool grays and blue whites swing the other way. A color that reads right in both lights is the safe pick, and the patch shows it without argument.

Undertones in whites and grays

Whites are never plain. A white carries a hint of yellow, blue, green or pink, and it shows up next to a roof, a stone planter or a garage door. Grays lean the same way. Holding a sample against the roofing and trim color beforehand shows clashes, and a flat sheen shows undertone more than satin does, which hides slightly more of the wall flaws too.

Dark colors on sun faces

Dark colors take in more heat and fade faster on a south or west wall. Fade shows first on the sun faces, and an uneven fade looks worse than a color that was lighter from the start. Latex and acrylic exteriors with good pigment hold longer, and a lighter shade on the sun side is a common compromise when the owner wants a dark body.

Waterfront light and inland light

Near the Queen Mary the light is bright and bounces off the water, and colors read paler. Under the old trees at Rancho Los Alamitos the shade is heavy and the same color reads deeper and cooler. A color chosen in one part of town does not carry over to another, and the same gallon can look like two colors on two streets.