Registered Heritage Projects
Mock up of decorative barge board detail for Irving House,
heritage house and museum New Westminster, BC
Irving House
302 Royal Road, New Westminster, British Columbia
Built in 1865 in the Gothic Revival style for Captain Irving. The house still stands on the original property and is the oldest intact home in the Lower Mainland. This 4700 square foot home contains 14 rooms and was built by T.W. Graham. The house was purchased by the city of New Westminster in 1950 and since that time has been run as a local heritage centre and museum.
I was hired by Eric Pattison of Pattison Architecture who was overseeing the exterior restoration of the house.
This is how the house looked prior to its restoration and re-painting.
There wasn’t much that was defining the house, with little variation of contrast between the majority of the trim and the main body or field colour. The only thing that really stood out was the bit of red trim, the exquisite carved detail in the barge board had been completely overlooked.
The over riding feeling one got from looking at the house was a kind of blandness.
Irving House with its new colours. Not only is Irving House a listed heritage property, it’s also owned by the city of New Westminster, that meant strict adherence to heritage colours however, we really didn’t have a whole lot to go on. Some scrapings had been done in the past but scrapings can be very unreliable. It’s difficult to tell from this photo but we actually stayed with a green field colour on the siding, my goal was to lighten up the field colour and to draw attention to the amazing trim on the house. Two trim colours were used. Unfortunately, the paint brand used was not the same as the brand I had specified, so the two trim colours didn’t have quite the same feel as I was originally hoping for.
Falding House.
434 Fourth Street. New Westminster, BC
Built in 1891 for Robert Falding, who was a registrar at the Supreme Court, this lovely cottage represents the Queen Anne Revival style.
The ornamentation demonstrates the introduction of new technology at a time when steam-driven hand saws, drills and lathes had become available.
This is how the house looked on a gloomy day in January when I showed up to do the exterior colour consultation. You can actually see some samples of the new colours just under the semi-octagonal bay window. I had already worked with the owners on some of the interior of the house and was so excited when they said they were ready to choose new colours for the exterior - she sorely needed it!
The colours were just sad and the dark trim wasn’t doing anything for the charming trim details.
The after photo, including the fence - not a white picket fence!
A total of seven colours was used, when we include the fence colour. All the trim detail was made to draw the eye to it’s lovely shapes and curves.
The house went on to receive the Royal City Builders, Special Jury Prize. The compliments on this house and inquiries as to the paint colour scheme continues to this day.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again; paint colour placement is equally as important as paint colour choice, this is as true of a heritage house with considerable amounts of trim as it is for a house that is very simple.
Bloomfield Studio
2532 Columbia Street. Vancouver, BC
Built in 1899-1900 in a combination of both Queen Anne and Edwardian styles, this was the studio of Henry Bloomfield
an important stained glass artist of the time.
This elegant colour palette completely transformed the house. Even the owners admitted that the old colours made the house look cartoonish. What I strive for in every consultation is to create a very smooth transition of paint colours and to find just the right amount of contrast while at the same time bringing the inherent and important architectural details to the fore.
By the way, I had to get up on a four foot ladder from across the street in order to get a straight on photo of the house.
The before photo of the Bloomfield studio house. The owners had done their best with a theme of blue and white but the colour scheme really did nothing for the house, mostly what you noticed was the big strip of belt trim and the soffits. This house is tall and sits up high on the street, you are usually looking up at it. This is something that must be kept in mind when thinking of paint colour placement.