Painting an older Grosse Pointe home: materials, style and care

Painting an older Grosse Pointe home well starts with respecting what’s already there: plaster walls, old-growth wood trim, original windows, and decades of paint layers that may include lead. Good work means testing before sanding, repairing rather than covering up, protecting slate and tile roofs, and choosing colors that suit the house’s architecture.

Most of this applies to older houses anywhere in Metro Detroit, but Grosse Pointe’s many period homes make it worth spelling out.

What kinds of older homes are in Grosse Pointe?

Much of Grosse Pointe was built in the early-to-mid 20th century, when period revival styles were popular. The common ones:

• Colonial Revival: symmetrical fronts, centered doors, shutters, and clapboard or brick walls.
• Tudor Revival: steep roofs, brick and stucco walls, and decorative half-timbering.
• Georgian: formal and symmetrical, often brick, with crisp painted cornices, trim and doorways.
• French Eclectic: tall hipped roofs, often slate, over brick or stucco walls.
• Craftsman: low-pitched roofs, deep eaves, exposed rafter tails, and porches on tapered columns.

After World War II came Colonials, Capes and ranches, especially in Grosse Pointe Woods. Many post-war homes wear aluminum siding, which raises its own questions about adhesion and chalking.

Each of the five Pointes has its own mix of these styles, and we’ve written a page for each: Grosse Pointe Park, the City of Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe Farms, Grosse Pointe Woods and Grosse Pointe Shores.

What should you know about plaster walls and old trim?

Plaster is harder and denser than drywall, and it moves as the house settles and the seasons change. Hairline cracks are common and usually cosmetic; they last longest when bridged with mesh tape and setting compound rather than smeared with spackle. A section that bulges or sounds hollow has likely let go of the lath behind it and needs reattaching before any paint goes on. Our guide to painting plaster walls covers repairs, priming and sheen. When the damage goes beyond a patch, our wall and plaster repair service takes it from there.

Trim in these houses is often old-growth wood, denser and more stable than much of the lumber sold today. It’s usually worth repairing rather than replacing: dents and gouges fill well, and loose joints can be reset. What it tends to carry is a lot of paint, which we’ll come to below.

Which exterior materials need special care?

Original wood windows

Many older homes still have their original wood sashes, often behind storm windows. With maintenance they can last for generations: sound glazing putty, paint lapped slightly onto the glass to seal it, and sashes that still slide. Our guide to painting old wood windows walks through the details.

Brick

Many period homes are brick, much of it never painted. Painting brick is hard to reverse, so it deserves a deliberate decision rather than a default. Where brick meets painted trim, careful cutting-in keeps paint off the masonry.

Stucco and half-timbering

Tudor Revival homes pair stucco with dark wood half-timbering. Stucco calls for a primer and paint suited to masonry, so check the label. The joints where timbers meet stucco are where water gets in; open joints and soft wood need repair before paint, or water works in behind the timber and rot follows.

Slate and tile roofs

Slate and clay tile roofs are long-lived but brittle underfoot. A ladder leaned against them or a careless step can crack a piece, and a cracked slate can leak. Painting dormers, gables and high trim above these roofs needs a plan for access that keeps weight off the roof.

How do you handle decades of old paint?

An older house may carry many layers: oil-based coats from its early decades, often with latex on top from later ones. Built-up paint can blur crisp molding profiles, make windows and doors stick, and crack into a pattern like alligator skin as the old layers age and lose flexibility.

The first question is what’s on there now, because latex over glossy oil-based paint often fails to grip. To check, clean a hidden spot and rub it firmly with a cotton ball dampened with rubbing alcohol. If the paint softens and color comes off, it’s latex; if nothing happens, it’s most likely oil-based. Oil-based trim gets scuff-sanded and a bonding primer made for use over oil before latex goes on.

Where the layers have failed, by alligatoring, peeling down to bare wood or burying the detail, removal may be the honest answer. In a pre-1978 home, that is exactly where lead comes in.

What about lead paint?

Homes built before 1978 may contain lead-based paint, and the original coats on a period home predate that year by decades. The EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule requires certified firms and lead-safe work practices for paid work that disturbs painted surfaces in pre-1978 homes: more than 6 square feet per room inside, or more than 20 square feet outside. The EPA’s RRP program page has the details, and our guide to lead paint in older homes covers where it’s found, how to test and what containment looks like.

How do lake wind and Michigan weather affect the paint?

Grosse Pointe sits along Lake St. Clair, and homes nearest the water take more wind and wind-driven rain. Add humid summers and freeze–thaw winters, and any open joint becomes a path for water into wood, where it can surface later as peeling paint and rot.

That makes the unglamorous steps count: cutting out cracked caulk and resealing trim joints, replacing failed window glazing, priming bare wood promptly, and leaving the bottom edges of lap siding open so moisture can escape. It makes timing matter, too. Michigan’s exterior season runs roughly from late spring to early fall, and older homes often need repair time before painting starts, so exterior painting on a period house is worth planning well ahead.

Which colors suit an older home’s style?

Period homes tend to look most at home in colors that respect their architecture. A few starting points, all from Sherwin-Williams, since that’s the paint we use:

• Colonial Revival and Georgian: crisp trim in Extra White SW 7006 or the softer Pure White SW 7005, with shutters and doors in a true black like Tricorn Black SW 6258 or a traditional dark green like Rookwood Dark Green SW 2816. Our Colonial house color schemes go further.
• Tudor Revival: stucco in a warm, creamy white like Greek Villa SW 7551 or a true cream like Creamy SW 7012, with half-timbering in a warm dark neutral such as Urbane Bronze SW 7048. See our guide to Tudor house colors.
• Craftsman: muted, earthy tones such as Clary Sage SW 6178, Pewter Green SW 6208 or Restrained Gold SW 6129.
• French Eclectic: a warm, creamy off-white like Alabaster SW 7008 on trim, letting the roof and masonry lead.

Screens and paint chips mislead, especially outdoors. Paint real samples on the house itself, on both a sunny and a shaded side, and look at them at different times of day before you decide.

Questions

Painting an older home in the Pointes?Plaster, original trim and old windows need a careful approach. Here’s ours.→