The Before
Paint almost never fails all at once. It goes a little at a time, a chip by the front door, a peeling edge on a column, a wall that looks a shade lighter every summer, until one day the whole house looks tired.
This home in the Santa Maria neighborhood of St. George had reached that point. Overall, it was in average condition.
The architecture itself was strong: two stories, brick accents, arched windows and an arched entry, columns, a rear balcony, and a covered porch.
The finish just wasn't keeping up with the house underneath it.
Paint failures showed up in several places. Some areas were chipping, some were peeling, and much of the exterior had faded unevenly. On a home with this much trim, this many columns, and railings on more than one level, every one of those problems gets repeated across a lot of surface. Once you start noticing them, you can't stop.
There were also some minor stucco defects. Stucco looks tough, and it is, but only while the surface stays intact. Small cracks and damaged spots give water a way in. Paint laid over a surface that's breaking down underneath won't hold for long, no matter how good the paint is.
Then there was the color scheme. The house carried a dated contemporary palette, and the homeowner was simply tired of it. He wanted something brighter, with contrasting colors that would make the details of the house stand out instead of blending into one flat tone.
Weather plays a big part in how a house like this gets to where it was. Homes in East Baton Rouge Parish deal with strong sun, heavy rain, heat, and humidity for much of the year. Sun fades color. Moisture looks for any weak spot it can find. Together, they wear down an exterior faster than most homeowners expect, and they punish any shortcut taken during the last paint job.
The Problem
The homeowner came in with a clear list of what he wanted, and each item shaped a different part of the plan:
- Address the maintenance issues on the trim and stucco
- Brighten up the look of the home
- Get guidance on a color scheme he'd be happy with
- Achieve maximum longevity, so he wouldn't be repainting in a few years
The first item was the foundation for everything else. A new color over failing paint and damaged stucco is just a nicer-looking version of the same problem. The failures would come right back through, usually in the same spots, and usually sooner than anyone would like. Repairs had to happen before a single coat of new color went on.
The color question was harder than it sounds. He knew the feeling he wanted, bright with contrast, but he didn't have a finished scheme. That's common, and for good reason. Picking an exterior color from a two-inch chip is tough. A white that looks warm and soft on a card can read stark on a large wall in full afternoon sun. A dark trim color that seems rich in the store can look nearly black once it's up on a two-story house. Getting it wrong isn't a small mistake either, since you'll be looking at the result every day for years.
The last goal mattered most to him. On past projects, he'd seen paint jobs that needed redoing every 3 to 5 years. Anyone who's been through that knows how frustrating it gets. You pay for the prep, the materials, and the labor, you live through the disruption, and before long you're scheduling the whole thing again. That cycle costs far more over time than doing the job right once.
Breaking that cycle takes more than one good decision. The damaged surfaces have to be repaired so the new paint has something sound to bond to. The paint itself has to be built for exterior exposure. And it has to go on the right way for each surface. Skip any one of those and the finish starts failing early, which is exactly what he'd experienced before.
The Solution
The project started with color, because every other decision depended on it.
Prestigious Painting set the homeowner up with a design consultation with a Professional Interior Designer. Together, they reviewed color palettes until he landed on the look he'd been picturing: a white for the body of the home, with a contrasting color on the windows, doors, and gutters. Having a trained eye in that conversation takes the guesswork out of it. You're not choosing alone from a fan deck and hoping it works on the house.
For the body, he chose SW7012 Creamy from Sherwin-Williams. It's a warm white, bright enough to give him the lift he wanted without the cold, clinical look some whites take on in strong sun.
For the contrast color, he had a specific dark brown in mind. Instead of settling for the nearest stock color, the team formulated a Custom Color Match to the exact shade he selected. It's a small step that makes a real difference. "Close enough" on a trim color is something you notice every time you pull into the driveway.
Next came the repairs. Some of the soffit had water damage, so the crew performed minor carpentry repairs to address it. Soffit sits right under the roofline, and when it's damaged, it can let moisture into places that are hard to see and expensive to fix later. On the rear of the home, a damaged stucco corner was repaired as well. Corners take more abuse than flat walls, and a broken edge is one of the easiest places for water to get behind stucco. With those areas fixed, the new coating had a solid surface to bond to.
With the homeowner's longevity goal in mind, the project used Sherwin-Williams Emerald Exterior, one of the brand's top-tier exterior paint lines. Premium exterior paint costs more per gallon than contractor-grade products, but it's built to hold its color and protect the surface longer. For someone trying to get off the 3-to-5-year repaint cycle, that's exactly where the budget belongs.
The Creamy body color went on in two sheens, flat and satin. Flat has almost no shine, so it hides texture and small surface variations and gives large areas an even, uniform look. Satin carries a soft sheen that's easier to wipe clean. Using both lets each part of the house get the finish that suits it.
For the metal railings, the team used Sherwin-Williams DTM Alkyd Semigloss in SW6258 Tricorn Black. DTM stands for direct-to-metal, a coating formulated to grip metal and stand up to wear. Metal is smooth and non-porous, and standard paint often struggles to hold onto it. The right coating is what keeps railings from flaking a season or two after the job wraps.
Application method mattered just as much as product choice. The crew used a sprayed finish on the stucco, the ceilings, and the railings. Stucco is textured, full of small ridges and pockets, and spraying works paint into all of them for thorough coverage. Ceilings and railings have edges, corners, and spindles that a sprayer coats more evenly and cleanly than a brush can.
The custom brown on the windows, doors, and gutters was brushed. Brushing gives more control on detailed trim, which keeps the lines between the brown and the Creamy body crisp. On a high-contrast scheme like this one, those lines are where you'd spot a sloppy job first.
The full project, repairs included, took 8 working days to complete.
Before & After
The After
The house went from drab and dated to a beautiful, modern color scheme that can be maintained for years to come.
Up front, the Creamy body brightens the entire facade. The dark brown on the windows and doors frames the arched openings so they stand out the way the architecture intended, and the brick now works with the colors instead of fighting them. The contrast the homeowner asked for is there, and it's clean.
Around back, the two-story balcony, the columns, and the railings look sharp and even.
Under the covered porch, the ceiling and columns got the same careful finish as the front of the house, so the outdoor living space feels just as complete.
Over at the garage, the brown doors tie the whole scheme together from every angle.
Most important, the homeowner loved the result. He was happy with the craftsmanship, and he was happy with the new colors he'd chosen with the design consultation's help. He got the brighter, contrasting look he wanted, backed by repairs, premium paint, and the right application on every surface, which gives this finish a far better shot at lasting than the paint jobs he'd lived through before.
Worth knowing if you're in a similar spot: even the best exterior finish lasts longer with a little attention. Rinsing off dirt and mildew before it builds up, keeping gutters clear so water isn't running down walls and trim, and dealing with small chips or stucco cracks early all go a long way. Small problems caught early stay small.
If your home is showing chipping, peeling, fading, or a color scheme you've outgrown, you don't have to sort it out on your own. You'll get help choosing colors, an honest look at what needs repair, and a plan built around a finish that lasts. Call (225) 614-9520 or request a free estimate, and the Prestigious Painting team will come take a look.