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Colonial House Colors

A multitude of colors were regularly used when painting a colonial home’s interiors and exteriors. Different paint hues were selected, which tended to imitate the status and wealth of the colonial household.

The Interior

Earth-toned colors for modest Colonial homes were most often chosen. Colors, such as, white, creamy yellow, almonds, ochre's, reddish and chocolate browns, beiges, taupe, and muted greens were frequently used and were more common. Original colors and pigments for paint came from dyes extracted from native plants, soils, and minerals.

In more expensive colonial homes, the color selections were broader. Since blue pigment was rare and therefore pricey, it was a color many aspired to. Blue became one of the signature colors of wealth during the colonial era.

Other common colors were different shades of green, in a range of cool pastels, sea and grass tones, to deep soft olives. Pinks too were popular—more so in bedrooms, dining rooms and parlors. Red was frequently used as an accent color, notably inside cabinets, drawers and crystal hutches.

Hues of gray, black and dark brown were used for wood trim and baseboards, and were universal to nearly all homes.

The Exterior -
White was probably the most frequent color used. For affluent households, shades of blues were the fashionable choice for home exteriors.

Beiges, grays, yellow oranges and creams were also used. Dark chocolate brown, reddish brown, and deep green were frequently used as exterior accents for doors, trim and shutters.

Color Detective Work

If you are renovating a historic Colonial home, you may find information about the original paint colors or wallpaper inside, on the building itself!

You should be able to cut through the various layers and get some samples out of wall or window corners, miters edges and underneath moldings, especially on north facing home elevations and other shaded (i.e. non-sunny) locations around the home. Keep an eye out for thick paint drips and runs in hard-to-reach areas, also look over areas covered up during later additions or remodels.

Paints and wallpapers, which were first used, could be hidden under several different layers of more recent decoration.

If it is feasible, take out replaceable finished trim elements—portions of cornices or crown moldings, door hardware, shutter louvers, a clapboard, stairway trim, even go as far as removing some plaster from a wall or ceiling. Original paint colors may be under many layers of paint, or in some cases even on the backs of other paint.

You may be surprised of the color your house actually was and with some looking you may find out the real colors your home was painted in the Colonial era.