Grosse Pointe Shores, MichiganHouse painting in Grosse Pointe Shores, facing the lake

Guiffre’s Painting Co. paints home interiors and exteriors in Grosse Pointe Shores, the northernmost of the five Pointes, where Lake Shore Road runs past large lakefront homes, the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House and the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club. On the lake side, paint faces more wind, sun and moisture than almost anywhere else in the Pointes.

Bob Guiffre has spent more than 37 years painting homes across Grosse Pointe and Metro Detroit, more than 1,800 of them, and his son, Bobby, works beside him on every project. We paint with Sherwin-Williams.

For paint purposes, a large lakefront house is really two houses: the lake side, which weathers hard, and the street side, which weathers like any other. Planning around that difference keeps the whole house looking even, and the work sensibly paced.

What does Lake St. Clair do to exterior paint in the Shores?

The lake side of a Shores home takes wind off open water, wind-driven rain, humid summers and freeze–thaw winters, sometimes with little shelter from trees or neighboring houses. That exposure shows up in predictable ways:

• Fading and chalking on sunny, lake-facing walls, especially in deep or saturated colors.
• Open joints and failed caulk where wind drives rain into the seams around windows, doors and trim.
• Peeling on railings, decks and porch floors, where water sits and sun bakes the same boards.
• Mildew on damp, shaded elevations and under deep overhangs.

Scale brings its own demands. Tall elevations, long soffits and wide expanses of window trim need lifts or extensive ladder work, and wind off the water can blow grit into wet paint or dry it too fast to level. Good exterior painting on the lake side means watching the forecast as closely as the surface.

What do large lakefront interiors need?

Big lake-facing windows are the point of a Shores interior, and they change how paint behaves.

• Raking light shows everything. Low sun across a long wall reveals every patch, ridge and roller mark, so wall prep has to be meticulous, and lower sheens hide more than glossy ones.
• Condensation finds the sills. In winter, warm indoor air meets cold glass, and water runs down onto interior sills and sashes, lifting paint. Those surfaces need sound prep and a durable enamel, and the indoor humidity is worth a look.
• Sun fades color. Strong, direct light can fade saturated wall colors over time, especially on walls opposite the windows. Softer, lighter colors tend to age more evenly.

All of it is part of interior painting planned for the light a room actually gets, not the light in a showroom.

How should you choose colors seen from the lake and the road?

A lakefront house is seen from a distance, from the road and from the water, usually in strong light. Both change color: large sunlit walls tend to look lighter and brighter than a chip in your hand, and bright whites can turn stark.

• Body color: Pure White SW 7005, a soft, clean white with a touch of warmth, is less stark than Extra White on a big facade. Sea Salt SW 6204, a pale green-gray, can read soft blue or green depending on the light, so it shifts through the day on a lake-facing wall.
• Shutters and doors: Naval SW 6244, a deep navy, or Evergreen Fog SW 9130, a gray-green sage, grounds a pale body.
• Porch ceilings: Upward SW 6239, a soft, airy blue-gray, keeps a covered porch feeling light and open.

Screens and chips mislead, and a lakefront wall in full sun misleads most of all. Test large samples on both the lake side and the street side, and judge them from the end of the drive as well as up close. Our guide to Sherwin-Williams whites for exteriors compares the options, and the color studio is the place to start.

How do you plan and maintain paint on a lakefront home?

On a lakefront home, think in cycles rather than one big repaint every so often.

1. Inspect the lake side every spring: caulk, sills, railings, porch floors and any spot where paint has lifted. Our exterior paint maintenance checklist walks through it.
2. Touch up and recaulk early. Small repairs keep water out of the wood and stretch the time between full repaints.
3. Repaint by exposure. The lake-facing elevations may need repainting before the sheltered sides do, and they can be done on their own with the same color formula and sheen.
4. Book the season early. Michigan’s exterior season runs roughly from late spring to early fall, and windy or wet stretches by the lake can stretch a schedule. If summer is when you use the lake side most, consider late spring or early fall for that elevation.