From Day 1, Steven has always seen the new garage bay exterior painted red, like a barn. This sets is apart from the rest of the house, establishes it as new construction, keys off the red that we are painting the front door per instructions from Jacquela, keys off the red glass tile that will soon be installed as the cooktop backsplash, and punches the exterior of the house to an entirely different magnitude, declaring Emerald Hill as modern.

This garage will not be constrained, conventional, quiet.

Today we began experimenting with the color red. There are thousands of variations. There are hundreds of different ways to mix color to achieve what we picture in our mind’s eye as “barn red.”

Above, and below, five candidates. From top, Behr “Barn Red”; second row — Sherwin Williams “Home GDNs Barn Red from a formula that Steven found on the web, at left, and RoyCroft Copper at right; front row — Sherwin Williams “Red Brick,” left, and Cape Cod, right.

This is one coat of paint on bare Hardieboard — no primer — inside, under fluorescent light. We need a second coat of paint and sunlight to filter the choices. And we need to see the candidates against the gray we painted the house.