Fresh Paint Brings New Life to an Historic Landmark
Boldly colored, durable paint helps transform a historic Poughkeepsie Masonic lodge into a lively music venue.
Sponsored by Benjamin Moore®
Although Tyler Irish of Northridge Painting is a residential painter, when this restoration of a landmark building came his way, he knew he wanted to be a part of it. Follow along as he introduces us to the amazing building (soon to be a used mix space including a live music venue) as Northridge breathes new life and bold color into this creative space using Regal Select.
Here’s the Transcript
We are primarily a residential painting company, but within five minutes of visiting the site, I fell in love with this building, fell in love with the history, the story, the character, and I knew it had to be our project. I’m Tyler Irish, and my company is Northridge Painting.
Today we’re in downtown Poughkeepsie, only about half a mile from the historic Hudson River waterfront, and we are in one of the more historic buildings. This is an old Masonic lodge, probably 150 years old, and we’re in the process of turning it into a record store and live music venue.
The venue is beautiful, a historic theater, and we’re using Symphony Blue by Benjamin Moore®. Symphony Blue—the word symphony is in it, it’s musical—but it’s a deep, rich royal blue. It works well in the space. It really accents a lot of the trim pieces, the detail in this room. It makes it vibey, gives it character, and brings it back to life.
When you enter rooms like this, the biggest challenge is always scale. How can I get this room done in a quality manner but also keep it efficient? So you’re really thinking about the prep work. We’ve taken this drywall, repaired it, and we’re putting on some final coats of joint compound.
There’s a lot of character in the walls. We’re trying to almost match that character, so we’re gonna sand these walls smooth, but we’re not gonna make it a level 5 finish. This space is gonna have a lot of foot traffic, a lot of wear and tear, so we went with Regal Select by Benjamin Moore® because of its scuff resistance and its ease of touch-up. When these walls eventually do get burnished or damaged, the venue owner can touch it up easily.
The other room that really excites me in this building is the Masonic lodge. The old tin ceilings—you don’t see a lot of that. When you look at these turn-of-the-century structures, they’re ornate, they’ve got elaborate trim elements, and we went with some bright, vibrant, bold colors in that room to really make it a statement piece.
The energizing lime color that you see on the walls is Regal Select by Benjamin Moore®. Buildings that have been around this long have old plaster that has been hand-trawled, a lot of texture on the walls, a lot of character, and we went with the matte sheen because it showcases that character without highlighting the imperfections.
When you’re working with a color like that, you need to be cautious because you want it to be meaningful, impactful, and loud, but you want it to have purpose behind it and work with the other colors in the room. We’ve got black and white on the trim, brass on the ceilings—there are a lot of colors—so you want to create harmony in that room. You don’t want to steal the show.
To carry the theme throughout the rest of this building, we’re taking that same green and putting it on the walls all the way down the staircase into the entry foyer so that when people enter this building, they’re wowed with that same aggressive lime green.
Regal Select is easy to apply. It’s got a wide margin for error. It goes on smooth, levels well, the sheen dries nice and uniform, and is durable. Durability is a big thing in a commercial space like this. There’s a lot of foot traffic, a lot of wear and tear, and we want this paint to hold up against that.
Ninety percent of our work is new construction, but it’s always a privilege to work on a space like this. They’re inspiring, they’re beautiful, and there’s a lot of traditional craftsmanship. It’s great to have your hand in that history, a part of that legacy of a building.
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