Choose a historically accurate palette for your old colonial home, both outside and in.
When decorating the interior of an old colonial home, selecting the right paint colors can make the difference between graceful authenticity and a garish mismatch of styles. Draw inspiration from the original colors of colonial interiors. You may wish to emulate popular styles of the day, with a palette limited to more affordable, neutral tones. Or elicit the look of the finest colonial homes, which used blue, the most expensive pigment, as a display of wealth.
Blues
As blue tinctures were derived from the most exotic pigments, blue paint was used in the most stately homes of the colonial period, and it remains a signature reference point of colonial design. Mount Vernon, George Washington's home, featured robin's egg blue, intense cobalt and a deep Prussian blue in the west parlor. Sherwin-Williams' historical paint series includes a colonial collection strongly based in pinks and blues. It recommends "Needlepoint Navy" as a wall color and "Dutch tile blue" or "Light French grey" as accent colors. For a more rustic colonial home, paint interior doors robin's egg blue and leave walls white, with a few accents of black iron hardware for contrast.
Pinks and Reds
Besides blue, the Sherwin-Williams paint collection identifies pink as the second basis for a colonially inspired palette. Shades include the light "Caen stone," the deeper blush of "Rosedust," and the sunny "Aristocrat Peach." While many contemporary homeowners may hesitate before painting an entire room pink, sticking to accents is a perfectly period-inspired option. Originally, a colonial home may have had only moldings or doors painted, to save on the expense of paint. It remains a historically accurate look, as evidenced in the use of wainscoting to divide walls into upper and lower color fields. Often during colonial times, paint hues would begin very vivid and fade over time. A deep red would be perfectly suitable, and as an inexpensive, earth pigment-based color, it would be particularly historically accurate for a country home. According to Country Living magazine, homeowners of a colonial in South Windsor, Connecticut, used a bold red hue to paint a faux carpet up a staircase, a period technique known as "a poor man's runner."
Neutrals
For most of the last 50 years, homeowners trying to authentically redecorate their Colonial homes would stick to a highly limited palette of neutrals. Interior walls were white, off-white, cream, mustard or, for a kick of color, a muted olive green. Neutrals remain an excellent and historically accurate option for those who like the simple and calming effect of muted shades. If you own furniture painted in a colorful colonial palette, you may wish to use a simple off-white or mustard to tie the room together. White molding create a nicely subtle contrast to off-white, cream or mustard walls, while remaining a blank canvas for colonial-style furnishings.
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