Imagine for a minute that you have remodeled an amazing historical house. Before you bought it, it was a dump, an eyesore and a safety hazard. But now, it’s beautiful, technically advanced but true to its roots. In fact, you took great pains to replicate its original glory.
Then a small group of neighbors walks over and says, “We don’t like the color.”
“But it’s the exact color as when it was first built,” you say, exasperated.
“We still don’t like it,” your neighbors say.
The house is Hotel Laguna. The neighbors are the Planning Commission and a cadre of armchair historians.
This all started in December of 2021 during a commission meeting that lasted until midnight. (It should be noted that artist and Planning Commissioner Jorg Dubin recused himself from the discussion because of a minor conflict of interest. Unfortunately, his expertise may have prevented this train wreck.)
So a representative for Hotel Laguna gave an informational presentation about the latest plans for the hotel.
Almost as an aside, the rep said they would be painting the outside of the hotel to match the original paint – an innocuous shade of white.
The rep flashed a paint swatch. Sure enough, it looked almost exactly like the paint shown in a circa 1930s postcard.
Hold on, the color police said at that point. Is this historical? Does it match the original building? How do we know? Has there been a forensic analysis?
Marc Wiener, the city’s Community Development Director, sheepishly said, “We don’t typically do a historic review of paint colors.”
That didn’t stop the color police.
After more than an hour, which included public input on color approaches, the consensus was that there would be a detailed analysis required on the paint. In other words, find the exact color from 100 years ago, ignoring the fact that it was probably lead-based paint and impossible to find or verify.
Nonetheless, the owners of Hotel Laguna went to work. They paid a historical consultant thousands of dollars, revisited old photos, and assembled new paint chips.
A year later … the paint analysis was complete.
The preferred, historically accurate, politically correct paint color is the EXACT COLOR originally proposed: Sherwin-Williams “Classic Light Buff.”
“It’s been a long road, but we’re very pleased to have identified the precise color of Hotel Laguna’s exterior when it first opened to the public in 1930,” said Hasty Honarkar, Vice President of the Laguna Beach Company. “Repainting the hotel to its original shade is one of many steps we’re taking to revitalize this Laguna treasure. It took a while to get here, but we know the details matter. We can’t wait to share some of the other improvements we’re making to re-energize this classic icon for a new generation.”
Of course Honarkar was being polite. What she probably wanted to say was something filled with special characters.
Because in Laguna Beach you can never underestimate two things: history and paint colors.
Combine them at your peril.
