Cohousing-L Mailing List: Advice Needed: Repainting the community after 12 years

[Rebecca Reid (rreid]

At Pioneer Valley about 10 years ago we had a good and, I think, successful 
process for repainting all of our houses.  We formed a color committee of 
about 5 people who were passionate about color.  The first thing we did was 
talk to people informally about house colors and get a sense of who cared 
and who didn't, and what they cared about (fitting in with new England 
aesthetic, looking similar enough but also distinctive in some way, having a 
yellow house, etc.).
Then as a committee we got hundreds of color samples from the local paint 
store and created  (3? 5? 7?) possible different kinds of "pallets" --one 
was bright colors, one was New England colors, one was variations on one 
color and its complement and the like--and put them up in the commonhouse 
for comments.  Most people didn't actually choose one of the pallets as ok, 
but they tweeked them and there was a definite leaning toward certain 
colors.  We took these and created another pallet.  Then we posted this and 
asked if there was anyone who couldn't live with it or who still had their 
heart set on a specific color.  There ended up to be a few people who didn't 
see what they wanted--one wanted a dark green but she was the only person 
who did, and I forget the other two. We talked to these people individually 
trying to find a way that they could  be satisfied.  One way that worked was 
to make it so that people could have any color trim they wanted.  One person 
agreed that one of the colors was close enough.  At the end there were 2 or 
3 who weren't happy with it.  We brought the final pallet to General Meeting 
and began by apologizing to those people for not being able to find a 
solution that included them and asking whether we could go forward anyway. 
I think because they felt truly heard and worked with, no one objected.  We 
ended up with some interesting trim colors.
I felt good about the process, and I think people are fairly satisfied with 
the colors, and they certainly aren't beige! They are light yellow, dark 
yellow, barn red, greyish blue, soft green, dark brown and something we are 
calling taupe (dark, greyish, greenish, brownish. . .) Some people used  one 
of these colors for their trim, others chose something completely different. 
People have painted their doors all sorts of interesting colors.
It took a while-several months, because we talked to everyone and kept at 
it. But it was worth it.
Rebecca Reid
Pioneer Valley
Amherst MA