From the article: Colors for a Colonial House
Does a Colonial house have to be white? What colors would you pick for this Colonial home?
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Try authentic colonial colors
- One of the most amazing Georgian colonial homes I've visited is Hunter House in Newport, RI. It has a "cafe au lait" exterior with no shutters and a green door. Very modern looking but still authentic. You can also get a book called "Williamsburg Reproductions" (1989, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation) on Amazon.com that shows the colors used for interior and exterior painting of colonial homes. Lots of pictures - and they're anything but white!
- —Bennyhannah
Pick the Colors You Want
- I believe this is a relatively new home? It is quite nice looking with some nice colonial details. I especially like the pedimented front door treatment and the semi circular brick porch. I believe it might better fit the Federal colonial or perhaps Adam colonial style. In any case there is no reason to retain the white color. I am told that white only became available during the latter part of the 19th century when the Victorian style became popular. The older colonial colors often contained an ocher tint. My in-law's 1700s vintage center chimney colonial was a deep yellow with white trim on the windows and black shutters. TOH had a colonial revival house they worked on 6-7 years ago called Kirkside in MA. They did very scientific paint research on that house and came up with the yellow & creamy white; as described; and a dark green (park bench) color for the shutters. Go with what you like however. Good Luck.
- —Guest Don
