Les volets

In France nearly every house has shutters. Where you and I would call it charming, many of the French just see them as "always-been-there-but-really-wish-we-had-some-of-those-nifty-electric-PVC-ones--maybe-when-we-win-LOTO-Paulette" thingys. Example: I adore them but my recently retired in-laws have just replaced all of theirs with the electric PVC variety. They seem very proud of this but psst...their house was much more adorable before with its quaint, wooden shutters.

I have been mulling over what color or tint to redo ours in for some time. After all, the color I choose will certainly define the entire house as in: "You turn left in front of the house with the (insert color) shutters and then continue..." So you see it's not a decision to be taken lightly.

Finally after two years of studying good and bad color choices I have, on a whim, decided on Tuscan Green. I'm very excited! Actually Cora had this paint at a great price so I was doubly pleased. I know, not exactly five star paint but work with me here on the making progress aspect. That ugly, tan shutter has been on our house since 1969!*



I've started with the front door volet, washing it, lightly sanding off the old paint and removing all of the hardware. I used a concotion of caustic soda to remove the grime and paint from the painted hardware and then repainted it all black. Black is the default color for hardware by the way, or anything metal for that matter. If you aren't sure then paint it black (kind of like the Rolling Stones song). Black always looks elegant and best of all blends well.

I will reassemble this first shutter tonight and evaluate its placement on the front of the house. It will hopefully evoke an "oh wow..." rather than an "errr, uh no,no,no,no..." In which case we will consider the other colors in the Cora gamme.



*see..., last painted in "l'anneé érotique"