Older Homes · 7 min read
Painting French Eclectic and Norman Homes: Stucco, Stone, Towers and Doors
On a French Norman or Provençal house, most of the walls are masonry. The paint lives in the details, and the details are where care shows.
Key takeaways
- Brick, stone, slate and copper are usually left unpainted; the paint work is the stucco, trim, shutters, doors and woodwork around them.
- Where stucco meets brick or stone, the line is the hardest detail on the house and should be cut by hand, not rushed.
- Tower, dormer and arched details take patience and safe, stable access, so they belong to a professional crew.
- Muted palettes work best, but chips and screens mislead; test real samples beside the masonry that cannot change.
Sherwin-Williams colors in this guide
Painting a French Eclectic or Norman house is mostly a question of what not to paint. Brick, stone, slate and copper are normally left as they are. The work is the stucco, wood trim, shutters, doors and tower details, and the lines where those meet masonry. A careful job washes, repairs, primes bare areas, and cuts those lines by hand.
What makes French Norman and Provençal houses different to paint?
French styles, both Norman and Provençal, were popular in Grosse Pointe and across Metro Detroit from the 1920s into the 1940s. Norman houses are known for steep roofs, facades of stone, stucco or brick, round towers with conical roofs, arched entries, tall narrow chimneys and asymmetrical layouts. Provençal houses lean symmetrical and often a little calmer.
For a painter, that mix of materials is the whole story. A single elevation can include stucco, brick, stone, wood timbers, a copper-roofed bay and a wooden door set into a curved opening. Each one needs a different preparation, and each one meets another in a short, visible line.
Many of these houses are also now close to a century old. Original wood trim, wood windows and plaster-era construction are common in homes of this age, which affects how gently the surfaces should be handled. The overview of painting older Grosse Pointe homes covers that wider background.
What gets painted, and what should be left alone?
This is the first decision, and it is better made on purpose than by default.
- Usually painted: stucco, wood trim and cornices, dormer and tower woodwork, fascia, shutters, doors, window sash and some metal details.
- Usually left alone: brick and natural stone, slate or tile roofing, and copper, which develops its own green patina and is not painted.
Painting brick is a permanent decision, and the way it ages is not always kind. We cover the trade-offs in should you paint brick. For masonry that will stay natural, problems such as failed mortar joints or white efflorescence should be addressed by a mason before any paint is applied nearby, because moisture moving through a wall will lift paint on the stucco next to it.
For roofs, the paint job is the trim, gutters, flashing and wood around them, and care means keeping paint off the slate or tile entirely. We go through the metal pieces in painting gutters, flashing and metal details.
How do you paint stucco next to brick and stone?
Stucco on these houses should get a breathable coating made for stucco, applied after washing, crack repair and a masonry-suitable primer. Elastomeric coatings are debated: they can bridge hairline cracks, but they are less breathable, and over stucco that already holds several layers of paint, their weight can pull old paint away. Check the label and test a small area first. Our guide to Tudor stucco and half-timbering goes further into breathability and cracks, and the same principles apply to French stucco.
The challenge here is the edge. Brick and stone are porous and textured. If paint is rolled onto the stucco right up to the masonry, it creeps into the pores of the brick, leaving a ragged, shadowy edge that cannot be removed. A careful painter cuts in with a brush, following the masonry line by hand, rather than relying on tape that can leak on rough surfaces or peel off dirty edges.
It also helps to treat the joint itself. Where stucco meets stone, a hairline gap usually opens over the years. That gap is sealed with a flexible, paintable sealant, and silicone is the wrong product because paint will not stick to it. The sealant should fully cure before the finish coat so the sealed line stays smooth.
What about conical tower roofs, dormers and curved trim?
A round tower with a conical roof is the signature feature of a Norman house, and it is also the hardest piece of the exterior to paint. What gets painted is not the roof itself, which is typically slate, tile or metal, but the cornice at its base, the wood trim, the windows set into the curve, and any gutters or flashing around it.
Curved work is slow. Straight tape does not follow a curve, brushes have to be held at changing angles, and the coverage should stay even around the full circle so there are no heavy edges where the painter changed position. Tall towers also demand safe, stable access, which means scaffold-type setups or extension equipment used correctly by a professional. This is not a place for improvised ladders, and nobody should climb on a slate or tile roof to reach a detail.
Dormers and tall chimneys have their own considerations. Wood at the dormer’s base and sills takes the most water. Flashing between dormer and roof is a roofer’s or sheet-metal specialist’s job; the painter’s role is to keep paint off it unless it is a paintable metal intended to be coated.
| Detail | Usually | Care point |
|---|---|---|
| Stucco walls | Painted | Breathable coating |
| Brick, stone | Left natural | Hand-cut lines |
| Slate or tile roof | Not painted | Keep paint off |
| Copper | Not painted | Patina is natural |
| Tower and dormer trim | Painted | Safe access, even coats |
How should doors, shutters and arched entries be handled?
An arched wooden door is often the focal point of a French house, so any flaw shows. Careful door work begins with removing or masking hardware, cleaning off dirt and oils, scraping loose paint and sanding the edges so the old finish does not ridge. Bare wood gets primed, then two finish coats go on in even strokes that follow the wood’s direction. Plank doors and panel doors have grooves and edges that collect drips, so each coat should be checked as it is applied.
Also check the top and bottom edges of any door. Unpainted bottoms soak up water and swell. Paint that reaches every edge of the door will last far longer than paint on the face alone. Our front door paint guide goes through the full sequence.
Shutters have six sides, not one. The edges, backs and cut ends are where moisture enters, and a careful painter coats all of them. The shutter color guide helps with choosing a color, and the same principle holds: paint the whole shutter, not just the part you see.
Arched entries and trim around them need steady lines and well-sealed joints. The curved frame meets stone or stucco, and water follows the line of any gap. Fill the gap, caulk it with a paintable sealant, and cut the line by hand.
What colors suit a French-style house?
Muted, softened palettes sit comfortably on French houses. The masonry already supplies a lot of color, so the painted parts often work best when they are quieter. A few Sherwin-Williams ideas to test, always on the real house:
- Stucco: Greek Villa SW 7551 (a warm, gently creamy white), Shoji White SW 7042 (a soft off-white with a greige cast) or Alabaster SW 7008 (a warm, creamy off-white).
- Doors: Evergreen Fog SW 9130 (a gray-green sage), Pewter Green SW 6208 (a deep, moody green-gray), Naval SW 6244 (a deep navy), or Rookwood Red SW 2802 (a deep historic red) for a more traditional note.
- Shutters and ironwork: Iron Ore SW 7069 (a soft black), or Pewter Green for something gentler.
- Soft accent areas: Sea Salt SW 6204 (a pale green-gray that can read blue or green by light) in sheltered spots such as a garden door or a window box.
Screens and printed chips mislead. Colors look different next to stone, in a shaded entry and under a copper roof. Paint real samples on the wall and look at them at several times of day. Our whole-house color palette guide and the Color Studio can help you narrow the field. If your home is individually designated, check with your city before changing exterior colors, materials or windows.
What does careful detail work look like on a French house?
With so many materials meeting each other, a quality job is easiest to judge by its edges. These are the details to check, and to ask about:
- Is there a written plan for each material, not just “paint the exterior”?
- Are soft wood spots at tower bases, sills and door thresholds repaired before painting?
- Are joints between stucco, wood and masonry sealed with flexible, paintable sealant?
- Is washing gentle around old windows, with no high-pressure water driven into joints?
- Are lines where stucco meets stone or brick cut by hand, with no paint creeping into the masonry?
- Are hardware, house numbers and light fixtures masked or removed instead of painted around?
- Are doors painted on every edge and shutters on every side?
- Is there a walkthrough in daylight at the end, with a touch-up list?
Guiffre’s follows the steps on its process page, with Sherwin-Williams paint and Bob and Bobby on every project, and the detail work at towers, arches and masonry edges is where that care shows. See the process page for more, and the exterior painting page for how we scope a house.
One safety note: many houses built before 1978 may contain lead-based paint. Work that disturbs painted surfaces in those homes falls under the EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting rule. Older plaster and textures can also contain asbestos, so have suspect materials tested before disturbing them.
Questions
Should I paint the brick or stone on a French Norman house?
Usually not. Brick and natural stone are part of the architecture, and paint on masonry is difficult to reverse. Most of the painting is the stucco, trim, shutters and doors. If you are considering painting brick, read our guide on the trade-offs first and make it a deliberate decision.
How do you keep paint off the brick where it meets stucco?
A steady hand and a good brush. The painter follows the masonry edge by hand rather than rolling up to it, and the joint is usually sealed first with a flexible, paintable sealant. Tape can leak on rough brick and stone, so it is not relied on alone.
Do copper and slate parts of the roof get painted?
No. Copper develops its own green patina and slate is left natural. The paint work is the wood trim, gutters made of paintable metal, and other surfaces around the roof, and care means keeping paint off the roofing itself.