Arapahoe Ridge Paint Guidelines, Tips and Palettes

Guidelines

1. According to the ARHOA Design Guidelines: "The architectural character of the Arapahoe Ridge project is intended to be reminiscent of the traditional architectural styles found in Colorado communities during the early part of the century. In general, a Victorian style prevailed for residential development and structures were constructed with brick, stone and wood." Please keep this in mind when you are selecting where to place the accent colors on your house.
2. According to the ARHOA Design Guidelines, "garage door colors shall not dramatically contrast with the adjacent wall colors but shall visually blend in with the tones of the building elevation" - in other words, garage doors are to be painted the color of the main house.
3. Paint palette accent colors are just that, accents, and not the main house color.
4. If you or your painter wants to use a different brand paint than specified, the chosen paint will need to be "color matched" to the original paint chips.
5. When selecting a paint scheme, remember your house must be a different paint/color scheme than the adjacent houses. If you choose a scheme other than the one in which your house is currently painted, you must submit a DRC Request Form, and you must include photos of your house, the adjacent houses, and the house across the street.
6. You must adhere to the official Arapahoe Ridge Home Paint Color Palettes.
7. Even if you see a color or color combination in the neighborhood that you like, it may not be approved. Be sure to submit, and receive approval for, your request before painting in order to avoid being forced to repaint if the color is not in the approved paint palette.

Hints and Tips

• To assist in making your color selection, you may check out the official ARHOA DRC Color Palette book. A security deposit in the form of a $150 check payable to "Arapahoe Ridge HOA" is required, and will be returned to the homeowner once they return the book. Homeowners may contact the DRC (drc@arhoa.org) to find out when they can check it out. The book may only be checked out for a period of two days so that all homeowners will have a chance to look at it without an unreasonable wait.
• If you have a digital camera and computer, you might want to take a digital photo of your house showing the neighbors' houses and, using any paint program, color your house to visualize it with its new color scheme. You can also buy inexpensive software, such as Benjamin Moore's Personal Color Viewer that will let you load in photos of your house and "paint" them with their paint palettes.
• Guiry’s Paint in Boulder (Benjamin Moore) has the Arapahoe Ridge paint palette if you'd like to look at it there
• Before painting, the DRC highly recommends that you paint at least a two foot square piece of poster board with the colors you are thinking about using. Place this board on different sides of your house to see if you still like it in each exposure. Tiny color swatches can be deceiving, especially neutrals and yellows.
• Homeowners should keep the Victorian style of painting when painting the trim and accent on their homes. Homeowners may use the accent color along the roof line (as on the Watt/Laing homes) but may not have more than 1 color there. This means there should only be ONE COLOR ALONG THE ROOFLINE; the diamond accents on the roofline may be painted the trim color to show the contrast but you may not breakup up the roofline with both the trim and accent. If you or your painter have any problem understanding this please contact the DRC for an explanation before painting. Homeowners may also follow the original way their home was painted if they like (Continental homes only had 2 colors, body and trim, with possibly an accent color on the doors and shutters). It is the homeowner's responsibility to write on their DRC request form where they will be putting the trim and accent colors. Otherwise, a homeowner could be asked to repaint an area that should not have been painted with a trim or accent color.
• Any homeowner that would like to use different colors or a different use of the colors (e.g. changing the body color for an accent or vice versa) then what is in the AR Paint Palette will need to follow this procedure for a Custom Color:
  1. Homeowner will need to fill out a DRC Request form and submit it to the management company with 15 total Benjamin Moore paint chips of their chosen colors: 5 of the body color, 5 of the trim color and 5 of the accent color.
  2. Homeowner will also need to send in with the request a check made payable to "Arapahoe Ridge HOA" of $50 that will be cashed only if the colors are approved. This amount covers the cost of updating all the AR Paint Palette books.
  3. The DRC will discuss the request at its next meeting, and will offer its recommendation to the HOA board. The HOA board will then review the request with the recommendation in mind and will decide whether to approve or disapprove the request.
  4. If the request is approved by both the DRC and the Board, the check will be deposited by the management company and at the next DRC meeting the chips will be added to all the AR Paint Palette books. The Homeowner will be informed by letter that they may paint their house as requested.
  5. If the request is disapproved by the DRC and the board, then the check is sent back to the homeowner with the notice of the disapproval.

Outside Home Paint Color Palettes

From this section you can look at each of the paint color schemes contained in the palette defined by your Arapahoe Ridge Design Review Committee (DRC) and HOA Board. Only these schemes may be authorized for painting the outside of your home.

1. Use all website colors only as a guide and reference, since your monitor and printer will likely render the colors somewhat differently than the actual paint chip colors. You will need to see your DRC Area Representative to view the actual paint chips.
2. Homeowners may view (but not take with them) the paint palette book at Guirys in Boulder or by contacting their DRC Area Representative.
3. You must submit color chips (even if using approved colors) with your DRC Request Form. You will also need to submit the required photos. Here is the official Paint Palette. And here are the Stains for Fences and Decking
4. For information on where to go to see paint chips and purchase paints, please see the page, Paint Stores for ARHOA Paint Palette Color Schemes.