In most of Ponte Vedra Beach, choosing your exterior color is not entirely your call. Communities including Sawgrass, Marsh Landing, and The Plantation maintain an Architectural Review Board — an ARB — and in these neighborhoods the board typically needs to approve your exterior color before a brush touches the house. Homeowners who don't know this find out the expensive way.

Why the ARB Exists

Architectural review is how these communities keep a consistent visual character, and it's a large part of why property values in them have held up the way they have. Boards generally maintain an approved palette, or a set of palettes tied to your home's architectural style, and review submittals against it. It can feel like red tape when you have fallen in love with a color. It's also the reason your neighbor can't paint their house lime green.

How the Process Usually Works

The specifics vary by community, but the sequence is fairly consistent:

  1. Request the current guidelines and submittal form from your HOA's management company or ARB. Do this first — the palette may have changed since the last time your house was painted.
  2. Choose colors within the approved palette for body, trim, and accents. Many boards want all three specified, plus doors and shutters.
  3. Submit the application with color samples. Boards commonly ask for manufacturer names and codes, physical chips or drawdowns, and sometimes photos of the house. Some request a painted sample area on the home itself.
  4. Wait for written approval. Review can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month or more depending on how often the board meets. Build this into your schedule.
  5. Paint within the approved palette exactly as submitted. If you change your mind about a trim color mid-project, that generally needs to go back to the board.

What Skipping It Can Cost

Painting without approval, or outside the approved colors, can put you in violation of your covenants. Depending on the community, that can mean fines, escalating daily penalties, a demand letter requiring you to repaint at your own expense, or a lien in the more serious cases. A repaint you have to do twice is a bad outcome no matter how good the first color looked.

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Start the paperwork early

Approval timelines are the most common reason a Ponte Vedra repaint slips. If you want the house painted before the fall entertaining season or ahead of a listing, submit to the ARB well before you want the crew on site. Approval first, then schedule.

How We Fit Into It

We're not your ARB and we can't approve anything, but we've been through this in Ponte Vedra communities many times. We can pull drawdowns and physical samples in the colors you're considering, apply a sample area on the house if your board wants to see it in place, document the products and codes your submittal needs, and hold your spot on the schedule while the board reviews. Details on how we work in the area are on our Ponte Vedra Beach house painting page.

Please note: This article is general information about how architectural review commonly works in Ponte Vedra Beach communities. It is not legal advice, and it is not a statement of any specific community's rules. Requirements, approved palettes, forms, fees, and timelines differ between communities and change over time. Always confirm the current requirements directly with your own HOA or Architectural Review Board — or its management company — before submitting or scheduling any exterior painting work.

We've Been Through This Process Many Times

We paint throughout Ponte Vedra Beach and are glad to help you prepare color samples for your ARB submittal. Call or text for a free estimate.

Call or Text (904) 619-6687