It is great to see owners actively maintaining and enhancing their properties by repainting. Encintas Ranch and their Architectural Committee are reviewing over 40 applications per year which speaks to the strong desire on the part of homeowners to improve their homes.

The Architectural Committee maintains paint color books that provide photos of every home in the community along with the paint color scheme details. The books can be accessed through Curtis Management or at the local Sherwin Williams store at 208 N. El Camino Real in Encinitas. The paint color books are updated on a regular basis. Older paint color schemes are periodically removed meaning that the home cannot be repainted with the same color scheme. The process to remove other color schemes is ongoing and is being done to stay current with design trends and to help maintain and boost property values.

The Architectural Committee (AC) that currently consists of five volunteer members want to reinforce several key points that continue to come up as they review applications for exterior painting:

• There are no pre-approved paint color schemes or pre-approved colors.
• While a color scheme may have been approved for one particular house that does not mean that an owner does not need to submit an application to repaint with the same colors. The AC will judge each paint application based on how each color and the overall color scheme will look on the owner’s particular house. Not every color scheme is ‘transportable’ to another home.
• The AC will also look at nearby houses when reviewing a paint application to ensure that the proposed color scheme will not conflict with others or be close to duplicating another nearby home’s colors.
• Most homes in Encinitas Ranch are designed with many unique architectural details that are best defined with a pallet of at least three colors. Some professionally designed color schemes can exceed 4 colors and provide a rich custom look. The required number of exterior colors is  3-4. Monochromatic color schemes can also work for certain well-landscaped and accented streetscapes and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• Essentially, an exterior scheme has three major parts: field color, which dominates; accent color(s), which brings doors, shutters and other smaller areas to life; and trim color, used for window and door casings, roof fascia or articulated roof rafter tails, wood support brackets, railings and other trim work.
• The trim color should provide strong contrast with the field and accent colors. If your main hue is
  dark, consider classic white trim or another pale shade. A light field color can look stunning with darker trim. An accent color as distinct from trim color can be bold but should limited. A door painted bright red lends just the right punch. Extending that same shade to the shutters and gables … not so much. Choose a second more subtle accent color for those elements. (Note that there are many shades of white. Choose one that works best with your pallet. Bright white is often too harsh.)
• Please allow adequate time for the Architectural Committee to review your application before committing to a painter. By law the community has 45 days to review architectural applications. 

Please refer to the Exterior Paint Guidelines on our website for additional details.