Vacation homes, lots of them bought, some get rented out in Maine.
And what colors to apply to the exterior, interior of the places for rent for those sampling Maine on a vacation? Your second home on a ski slope may have to be a certain color because of the condo bylaws. And in many of the hamlets and villages the color speed is slow and conservative as a rule. Don’t take a change on anything too trendy or racy because it costs money to change it back or keep searching for the perfect color to suit your fancy but still blend in and avoid extra ribbing from the locals.
In many small Maine towns, white with black shutters is a common house color theme. If there is a barn it can be the traditional white or barn red or dark green, dark blue or left to go all natural with silver cedar shakes.
But vacation homes in Maine, on the coast, on a lake, tucked in the Great North Woods. You can be less conservative and let loose with the paint wheel choices. Even the color of your front door it seems makes a statement about your personality. In Maine if you tour up in the St John River Valley, you will see more liberal use of colors beyond the black, white, gray. Cheerful, vibrant, not same old like the home colors around it.
Growing up did your Mom and Dad let you pick the colors, the scheme of your bedroom? What the entire inside of your house egg shell white or one continuous color of beige? It’s only paint but I think kids should be able to pick the color for their space. It is one or two cans of paint and easily changed if the mood shifts as kids grow older. You should enjoy your home and color it up whatever shade excites you. You can not always think about selling your home, about staging or resale of the house right? In Maine, it is often all reduced down to the price, not the color that decides the fate of the listing for sale.
The older bathrooms with pink fixtures and black and white colors for walls, trim, ceilings is common in Maine homes.
There was the harvest gold, avocado, blue, green, brown colors for bathroom ceramic features that linger in places not updated for a few decades. But more natural native cedar tongue in groove or beadboard is showing up. Sometimes pickled with a stain to keep it light and bright but still know to the naked eye that that’s real local lumber on those walls.
Rec rooms in finished basements with knotty pine are very common in Maine. Many recreational camps are completely finished on the inside with tongue in groove 5″, 6″ knotty pine or cedar. Because it grows here, is cheap and does not require a lot of maintenace. Some varnish, light sanding and more layers of protection and the warm glow of the natural wood left to look wet and polished can be cozy in the right applications.
When you are restoring the yesteryear Victorian home, staying true to the colors of the time when it was built comes into the what to use for a paint color decision making.
Painted ladies had at least five colors to show case the trim, the ginger breading, around the windows and foundations or porches, the steps and any doors. More on Victorian era house colors that are period correct.
Just because the home in Maine is this color, the the cottage on the coast or on a lake wears this particular shade does not mean you can not change it up. With a little research you can find out from a neighbor or someone down at the corner watering hole what the buildings looked like in the past. How they were colored and also about buildings lost or torn down that use to be in the collection of say a rural farmstead property.
There is one local gentlemen in my small Maine town that is the self appointed paint police chief. Who is quick to lobby for return to an original color of a building that went astray with a past owner that had different ideas about the palette for color applied to the inside and outside of the Maine home.
Native cedar or pine logs a warm rusting golden with a green metal roof is very common in the vacation camps we see popping up. They blend in with the outsides surrounding them.
Just changing the front door color or making the shutters a new shade can dramatically alter the curb appeal on a Maine home. Some in the audience resist change. Others figure the original owner who was a friend or family member or work colleague would not approve of the new color of siding. But they don’t own the home any more. The new owner should be able to pick the colors that they enjoy making it their own feathered nest.
The olive green or dark gray exterior may be a trend now but what will last and endure best with the test of time? Do you care if you are not thinking of posting the place for sale in the near future? Does it clash with the other Maine homes around it? Do you keep the light aqua wainscoting? You do in the restaurant trying to looking original, a flash back into the past to make it a local landmark tradition that pops in the head. When the stomach grumbles like scanning the menu at the Porthole in the Old Port in Portland, ME. I think the old distressed colors adds character, authenticity but that can come off as trendy or spin if not kept sincere. Maine, keeping it real.
When selling a house calming down the busy colors through out of the home is a good ideal.
But don’t be afraid of color. Or two of the four walls being one shade, the others another. Dare to experiment with paint and see how the colors affect your moods, the brightness of the room or look as you I spy the home on a vehicle approach.
The cheerful yellow cottage, the bold shiny red cape waterfront property stand out in a playful way. They also make it easier to find your way back home as day approaches the night dusk. And visibility is a factor locating the safe harbor to beach your boat.
I am working on a neighboring Maine lake property from one end to the other.
And what common theme to use has been eagerly suggested by some of my grown children. Make it Danish… light, white, simple and useful on the inside. Here are some examples of Danish interior design and colors.
What color to paint, what window treatments, furniture shades to apply to a property in Maine? They say if you plan to rent it out, your have to broaden the colors you would first pick. To select more shades of paint suitable for your vacation renters that often come back year after year to the same digs.
To stand out. When there is a long long line of rental properties on a stretch of Wells, York Beach, having a splash of color brings up the chain and helps create an internal GPS to spy the vacation rental property that is your for the long weekend of seven days of fun in Maine.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA
