Wendy Floral: Quick, Year-Round Color in the Garden

Taking me away from the horrors of my newsfeed this week has been transforming the look of my Greenbelt, Maryland rowhouse from its dull, 35-year-old grey vinyl to the fully restored International Style of its origins in the New Deal.

During my 8 years living in here, I felt resigned to the siding until I realized I had a very do-able option – paying to have the siding removed and the surface patched, then painted with my favorite of the colors my coop allows – what it calls Wedgewood Blue. COLOR, glorious color!

In the words of my friend who created the most colorful house and garden in town, “Color therapy is for real. I say paint with bold colors that make you happy. The great thing about it is if you decide that it doesn’t work you can easily paint over it with a new color. The effort is SO worth the pleasure you derive from it on a daily basis. I find that vibrant colors stimulate the creative juices. And who couldn’t use a little stimulation? Life is too short for plain white!”

And plain white is what my house was originally, as are almost all International Style buildings. To the more extreme architectural purists I just repeat my friend’s sentiments – Life is too short!

What finally nudged me to make the change was taking a History of American Architecture course at the University of Maryland, which included quite a bit about International Style – a European import that inspired some prominent American buildings in the 1930s to 1950s.

Also, I’d gradually learned to appreciate the odd iconic features of my home – the affordable cinder block material, the flat roof, emphasis on the horizontal and the lack of ornamentation except for some horizontal “speed lines” alongside the windows. But as I wrote for my local blog, it was the course that really won me over to the restoration project.

More Color? Ideas Welcome!
My first target is to add an accent color around the doorway – on the pole, the house numbers and maybe also these grey pots. An approved color I’m going to sample first is a sage, officially called Lynchberg Green but my associations with that town and its name aren’t great, so I’m just going to call it sage.

The other permitted color I’m considering is called Sunbeam Yellow.Opposite the front door are these dull-looking pots that could be lots more fun.

And on the front patio there’s a little table and two shell-backed metal chairs that arrived on the market in 1939 – so just the right era for the house.

I posted these photos to Facebook, asking for color suggestions, and boy did people deliver, suggesting hot colors like purple, yellow, orange, red, and turquoise. A couple suggested leaving the weathered pots as they are but no one suggested using paint to tone down the whole look. On the contrary, almost everyone egged me on to make it even MORE colorful.