Period Paint Schemes & Color Selection - Landmark ...

Period Paint Schemes & Color Selection

Composition and Purpose
• It’s important to have a basic understanding of the composition
  and purpose of paints.
• All building materials inevitably deteriorate when exposed to the
  elements.
• Paint was originally intended to provide a protective coating or a
  sacrificial surface from the direct attack of the elements.

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Pigments
• Pigments are the basis of all paints.
• Pigments have been used for thousands of
  years.
   o   Evidence suggests that the Greeks painted
       their temples, including the Parthenon, in a
       variety of colors.
• Ground or powdered colored materials both
  organic and inorganic obtained from nature
  such as:
   o   Ochres, siennas, umbers made from iron-oxide
       containing clay, copper carbonates, vegetable
       such as berries or roots, or minerals like lapis
       lazuli, and a few synthesized colorants such as
       Prussian blue, or mercuric sulfide

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Pigments
• Make the paint opaque, thus protecting the
  substrate from deterioration caused by
  ultraviolet light.
• Add color and body to the paint, thus
  making the paint attractive.
• It’s rare that a single pigment is used.
   o   Instead, a mixture of pigments is combined
       to produce the desired color, body, and
       covering power.
• For more than 200 years, white lead, a whitish corrosion product of lead, was used
  to provide opacity and durability.
• The white pigment in a colored paint is often called the “hiding” pigment.
• Originally, the biggest objection to white lead in paint was that it chalked or
  powdered off the surface after a few years, although this could be avoided by
  adding colored pigments and a small percentage of zinc oxide.
• Since the late 1970s, white lead has been omitted from paint mixtures because of
  the health hazards related to airborne lead dust.

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Pigments
• Not until early in the 20th century was a successful substitute, titanium
  dioxide (TiO2), patented, and even then, it did not come into prevalent use
  by itself until the mid-20th century.
• Zinc oxide was used briefly as a hiding pigment after 1850 and more so in
  making enamels because it added hardness in the paint film.
• From the early 1800s on, more synthetic pigments were developed and
  used to offer a wider and brighter variety of hues such as chrome yellow,
  chrome green, and shades of red.

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Binders
• Binders are material that hold the powdered
  pigments in suspension in paint film so they may be
  applied evenly to a surface.
• Binders are typically composed of a combination of
  oils and resins.
   o   Quality and conditioning of these oils and resins greatly
       affects film adhesion and determines the protective
       quality and durability of the coating.
   o   Fine, long oil binders are critical for ease of brushing,
       flexibility, and smoothness of finish.
   o   Durability and color retention are also greatly enhanced
       when premium binders are employed.
   o   Chalk was sometimes added to water-based paints to
       help bind the pigment particles together.
   o   Other common binders included hide glue and gelatin.
   o   The most common oil used historically was linseed oil.

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Vehicles or Thinners
• Solvents are the volatile evaporating liquids
  that typically serve as vehicles.
• Solvents are employed to dissolve or break
  down the binder and reduce its viscosity so that
  the paint may be applied in a thin, even coat.
• The integrity of the paint film, as well as the
  appearance, application, and leveling, are
  significantly affected by the nature of the
  solvents used.
• Historically, vehicles included turpentine in oil
  paints and water in water-based paints.
   o   The desirable properties of turpentine would
       caused the paint to thin, flow evenly, and dry with
       a little gloss.
   o   It added brushing quality and also aided drying.

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Historic Paint Mixtures
• Historic paints mixtures were often made with what was available,
  rather than adhering to strict formulas (lime washes, milk paints, etc.).
• Recipes for successful formulas can be found in historic documents,
  such as newspapers or building guides, illustrating the combinations
  of ingredients that could be used to produce an effective paint.

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Historic Paint Mixtures
• According to books published in the early 1800s on house and
  ship painting, an early process for creating paint was:
  o   First the painter would clarify his linseed oil by boiling it in a brass or
      copper pot with red lead.
  o   Then in a medium-sized kettle, he would put 4 to 6 pounds of dry
      medium (presumably white lead) and with an iron ball would grind it
      until thoroughly pulverized.
  o   After sufficient quantity of paint medium is ground dry, oil would be
      added to the kettle until the grinding ball would stir or move easily.
  o   The dry pigments had to be ground in oil to form a paste and the
      paste had to be successively thinned with more oil and turpentine
      before the paint was ready for application.
  o   Before the industrial era, using a stone slab, a muller, and a trough,
      the painter would grind white lead or any desired color pigments into
      the oil binder.

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Historic Paint Mixtures
• By late 19th century, the painter could buy
  fully prepared and tinted oil paints or
  partially prepared paint called white lead
  paste.
• White lead paste consisted of a thorough
  dispersion of white lead in a minimal
  amount of linseed oil.
• It was available from house paint suppliers
  until the 1970s.
• With the lead paste, a painter would add
  his own color pigments, extra oil,
  turpentine, and driers to formulate and tint
  paints for every conceivable appliance—
  interior, exterior, matte, or glossy.

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Historic Paint Mixtures
• The typical paint colors produced with this
  hand-mixing process were white, off-white or
  cream, straw (pale yellow), orange, pea,
  parrot, grass greens, red, slate blue, and black
  (essentially a choice of maybe 30 colors).
• Given what we know about the labor-intensive
  early paint-mixing techniques, it’s not hard to
  understand why Americans in the years before
  the Civil War preferred white for their
  residential and public buildings.
• White was by far the easiest color for the
  painter to mix and to avoid variations between
  batches.

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Ready-mixed Paints
• Up until the Civil War, producing commercial quantities of paint was
  labor intensive and cost prohibitive, not to mention bulky to store and
  ship.
• Particular problems involved bulkiness of the containers, shelf life,
  and inconsistencies within inventories.
• By the 1870s, machinery was developed for grinding pigments in
  white lead and oil.
• Putting the paint in containers to allow the safe shipping of
  ready-mixed products began.
• A growing transportation network made the nation more accessible
  after the Civil War.

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Ready-mixed Paints
• Paint manufacturers created new markets by printing and distributing
  colorful advertising brochures and architectural pattern books—they
  reached thousands of building owners.
• The first successful ready-mixed oil paint in America was green,
  which was marketed for window shutters.
   o   Green offered the most promise to a manufacturer that wanted to test the
       market due to its universal application.
• F.W. Devoe, whose paint chart is shown on the next page, was the
  first manufacturer to offer ready-mixed green oil paint. They later
  expanded the line with a variety of earth and stone colors.
• In addition to the industrial advances, the Post-Civil War period saw
  the American population increase ten-fold.
• The result was a huge growth in residential and commercial
  construction.

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Ready-mixed Paints

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Ready-mixed Paints
• With the introduction of ready-mixed paints and
  increased written publications, came much criticism
  for previous and continued use of the color white.
• Andrew Jackson Downing, a prolific writer on
  architecture and dubbed the Apostle of Taste for
  shaping 19th century middle-class taste, wrote the
  following:
   o   “There is one color frequently employed by house
       painters which we feel bound to protest against as
       entirely unsuitable and in bad taste. This is WHITE,
       which is so universally applied to our wooden houses
       of every size and description.” The glaring nature of
       this color when seen in contrast with the soft green
       foliage renders it extremely unpleasant to an eye
       attuned to harmony of coloring. Nothing but its very
       great prevalence in the United States could render
       even men of some taste so heedless of its bad effect.”

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Ready-mixed Paints
• Downing continued to say “the exterior colors
  of a house is of more importance than is
  usually supposed, since next to the form
  itself, the color is the first impression which
  the eye receives in approaching it.”
• He suggested houses be painted colors
  found in nature to harmonize with their
  surrounds.
• He favored colors that replicated stone, a
  fawn color, and warm grays.
   o   These colors were easily achieved with the
       earlier paint mixed techniques.
• The colors to the right are from Downing’s
  hand-colored 1842 publication “Cottage
  Residence”—one of the first books in
  America that included actual colors.

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Color Theory
• As use and variety of color became more complex, architects/paint
  manufacturers began to specify rules based on the growing body of
  “color theory.”
• These theories followed the work of David Ramsay Hay of
  Edinburgh, Scotland, the author of “The Laws of Harmonious
  Coloring,” which was published in 1828.
• Two major approaches to color harmony:
  o   Harmony by analogy (using colors next
      to each other on the color wheel)
  o   Harmony by contrast (using colors
      opposite one another on the color wheel
      or complementary colors)

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Color Theory
• One theorist went so far as to state that:
   o   “It is an error to suppose that the art of
       arranging color so as to produce the best
       effects in painting is entirely dependent
       on the taste of the operator; for harmony
       of coloring is determined by fixed natural
       laws.”
• He meant that even if one thinks a
  combination of colors looks good
  together, it may not be so, depending on
  whether this combo met the laws of
  nature!
• He was making a case for compatibility
  of colors, instead of random selection.

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Color Cards
• Not surprisingly, the use of richer and more variety of colors was
  promoted by the manufacturers that were producing them.
• A proliferation of paint companies popped up in the United states
  after the civil war such as Lucas, Devoe, Pioneer Paints, Seeley
  Brothers, and Sherwin-Williams.
• The extensive distribution of their color cards and lithographs of
  buildings in full color were used to create a new market for their
  ready-mixed paints.

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Color Cards

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Color Cards
• The goal of these color cards and lithographs was to illustrate and
  aid the suitable selection of proper colors to replace the simple white
  house with green shutters with one that exhibited the many pleasing
  shades of color that had become readily available.
• The American public embraced this
  new technology.
• Shades and tints of color could be
  prepared and used in a variety of
  applications where before they were
  beyond the painter’s ability.
• The publication of sample cards also
  allowed these new tints and shades
  to be seen prior to the application on
  a building.

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Shift in Colors
• The of architecture grew as America moved away from the Gothic,
  Italianate, and Greek Revival periods and styles towards Queen
  Anne, and Stick and Shingle styles buildings.

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Shift in Colors
• Two particular events encouraged the switch to the rich colors of the
  Post-Civil War years:
   o   There was a shift encouraged by the Arts and Crafts movement towards an
       emphasis on materials, texture, and exposed structure, which required richer
       colors.
   o   Paint manufacturers such as F.W. Devoe embraced the Queen Anne styles
       because they provided an opportunity for the greatest display of taste in coloring
       and exterior decoration.
• The many surfaces, material textures, and visible framing and features such
  as porches and bracketry allowed for all means of multi-colored effects that
  the old box-patterned house with its plain flat front did not afford.
• The old ideas of paint colors were out of place where new lines and surfaces
  were now present.

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House Styles
• With some history on the evolutions of paint colors, now is an appropriate time to cover various
  periods and house styles.
• Keep in mind what was happening in terms of paint manufacture.
• Paint color can be seen as a simple, direct expression of the time, and of taste, values, and mood
  of society.

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Colonial Style – Mid 1600s to 1780
• The early colonists brought with them the prevailing
  architectural styles and building practices of their
  native countries.
• Most colonial dwellings built during the 1600s were
  built before the era of industrialization, and those
  examples that remain intact have a characteristic
  “handmade” quality in such details as doors, windows,
  brickwork, or siding.
• The most characteristic Colonial house is usually a
  one- or two-story box, two rooms deep with
  symmetrical windows.
• While the earliest rural house remained unpainted, the
  later Colonial color schemes tended to consist of rich
  earth tones and were typically one color.
• Paint evidence on the earliest 18th century New
  England houses revealed that paint was confined to
  the trim only; the clapboards were probably oiled or
  stained.

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Colonial Style – Mid 1600s to 1780
• If the whole house was painted, typically the trim and windows were
  the same color as the body of the house, and usually only the front
  door was called out in different color.

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Georgian and Federal – 1730 to 1830s
• Georgian ideals came to New England via pattern books, and became a
  favorite of well-to-do colonists who wanted their homes to convey a sense of
  dignity and prestige.
• The Federal style with its
  subtle differences was the
  dominant style of the new
  Republic.
• Both styles were square and
  symmetrical in shape.

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Georgian and Federal – 1730 to 1830s
• Door trim may include thin
  columns or pilasters.
• There are typically five windows
  across the front.
• The roof is often concealed
  behind a balustrade.
• It’s typical to see yellows, blues,
  and gray with trim, and windows
  painted white or cream.
• The only accented features
  would be front doors or shutters.
  Dark green or black was a
  common color for these features.

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Greek Revival – 1825 to 1855
• Greek Revival homes reflect a
  fascination with Greek and Roman
  antiquity.
• Exteriors of these temple forms were
  clapboard with bold, simple lines.
• The front door is typically surrounded
  by narrow sidelights with a row of
  transom lights above.
• The most common types of ornament
  are wide pilasters and deep, heavy
  cornices.
• Wooden buildings were invariably
  painted white, or light grey or cream
  in an attempt to mimic the stone of
  the Ancient Greek structures.

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Greek Revival – 1825 to 1855
• Greek Revival is the one style where white is appropriate and encouraged because it
  conveyed monumentality (but think about the paint industry at this time—painters
  were still laboriously hand mixing pigments into white lead).

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Italianate – 1860 to 1880
• The Italianate style developed in England out of the picturesque movement of the
  1840s.
• It was a rebellion against the simplistic yet formal classical styles that had dominated
  art and architecture for the previous 200 years.
• It was a reinterpretation of Italian Renaissance
  country villas and it coincided with the
  industrial revolution and the beginnings of
  mass production of building materials.
• This was also the time period when the
  writings of Architect Andrew Jackson Downing,
  despite his untimely death, played a significant
  role in not only the shift towards the Romantic
  styles of the Gothic Revival and Italianate but
  also towards the use of elegant and
  sophisticated colors schemes that were found
  in nature.

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Italianate – 1860 to 1880
• With a variety of building materials, textures, and surfaces, there grew new
  opportunities for color placement and variation.
• Color schemes typically included no less than two different colors and often up to four
  colors.
• Typically, the body of the house was light with
  trim paint a darker but similar shade.
• Windows and doors were painted a dark color
  to help them recede into shadow and to draw
  attention away from the muntins, suggesting
  larger expanses of glass, another sign of wealth.

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Queen Anne/Victorian – 1880 to 1900
• Beginning in the late 1870s, the popularity of Italianate style fell in favor of late
  Victorian styles like Queen Anne.
• The Victorian era dated from 1880 through the 1890s, while the Industrial Revolution
  was really building up steam.
• America was caught up in the excitement of new
  technologies such as mechanized saws and lathes,
  which led to a profusion of wooden ornamentation.
• Factory-made, pre-cut architectural parts were
  transported all across the country on a rapidly
  expanding train network.
• Exuberant builders combined these pieces to create
  innovative, and sometimes excessively detailed, homes.
• Characteristics such as multicolored walls,
  asymmetrical facades, and steeply pitched roofs
  were common features.

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Queen Anne/Victorian – 1880 to 1900
• Dwellings were built with every conceivable type of trim
  including wooden latticework, patterned shingles, porches,
  and towers with conical roofs.
• Roofs were often complex with cross gables, conical turrets,
  dormers, and decorative brackets beneath eaves.
• The use of multiple colors coincided with the fact that a large
  variety of colored paints were available.
• This was a period where the complexity of your house
  indicated your financial status (the more colors the higher
  your status).
• Paint schemes included upwards of four colors, in rich dark
  shades.
• Windows were painted dark colors (e.g., deep red, chocolate
  brown, dark green, olive, or even black) with the intention of
  causing them to recede.
• Trim details and textures called out with a variety of colors.

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Colonial Revival – 1900 to 1940
• By the turn of the century, Queen Anne style had fallen out of favor as being
  excessive, cluttered, or tacky.
• In the early 1900s, architects returned to the simplicity of classical
  architectural styles, which were smaller and more austere.
• Reflecting American patriotism
  and a desire for order, the
  Colonial Revival house style
  remained popular until
  the mid-1950s.
• Features commonly identified
  with Colonial Revival houses
  include a balanced façade, front
  doorways with sidelights, fanlights,
  crown moldings, and pediments.

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Colonial Revival – 1900 to 1940
• The use of colors reverted back to a minimal number—a body color and a
  trim color.
• Occasionally, details like shutters or front doors were called out in a third
  color.
• Body colors moved towards
  pastels replacing the bold dark
  colors of the Victorian era (body
  colors tend to be whites, yellows,
  grays, and blues).
• White once again became the
  most popular trim color, even
  used on a sash.

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Arts and Crafts – 1905 to 1930
• During the first quarter of the 20th century, we also had the Arts and Crafts movement
  with the bungalow style.
• The Craftsman bungalow is an all American housing style and represents structural
  simplicity, efficient use of space, and understated style.
• The use of colors continued the interest in calling out various textures and trim that
  was popular with the Queen Anne style.

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Arts and Crafts – 1905 to 1930
• Colors used with the arts and crafts style reflected rich earth tones, like
  moss green, woody browns, golds, and the color of terra cotta.
• Structural details like exposed framing (such as ground boards for
  stucco), rafter tails, and porch piers trusses were called out in different
  colors.

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Suburban Ranch – 1940 to Present
• One-story, Ranch-style homes are so
  simple, some critics say they have no style.
• The style is also dismissed because it has
  become so common.
• “Ranches” are found in the suburbs
  throughout North America, making the
  style synonymous with the concept of tract
  housing: fast-built, cookie-cutter homes.
• They were the first building type to
  predominantly use artificial siding
  materials, such as aluminum, asbestos,
  simulated stone, vinyl, etc.
• As a result, their color schemes are
  relatively simple—generally one or two
  colors (often pastel or light colors).
• Often trim was not a different color than
  the body.

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Color Selection
• Choosing colors can be very subjective.
• Today, almost every paint manufacturer from Benjamin Moore to Valspar to California Paints to
  Behr all have a line that they claim are historic colors.
    o   It is unlikely these commercial paints are made
        with the same pigments that true historic paints were.
    o   Paints today have a very different composition due
        to federal environmental laws, chemical
        advancements, and consumer expectations.

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Color Selection
• If you own a house built more than 100 (or even 75) years ago, we encourage you to
  select colors that are historically appropriate for the age of the structure, and to place
  the colors in a way that correctly emphasizes the character and design intended by the
  original architect and/or builder.

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Pre-1860 Color Palette
• The previous slides and discussion were meant to help you identify
  where your house might fall in the history of paint color development.
   o   For example, if it was built in the 1820s, you can be certain that your color
       scheme will not involve four or more colors, and will most likely will involve
       lighter colors that were easier to mix by hand during that period.
• Buildings constructed prior to the Civil War and the wide distribution
  of ready-mixed paints would general follow the colors suggested by
  Downing and his contemporaries. They would be a variation on the
  following colors:
   o   Fawn     o   Gray stone       o   Buff
   o   Drab     o   Slate            o   Bronze Green
   o   Straw    o   Brownstone       o   Shutter Green

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Post-1870 Color Palette
• Buildings erected after 1870 would have been painted any of the previous colors, in
  addition to rich tertiary colors such as:
   o   Old Gold
   o   Olive
   o   Olive yellow
   o   Amber
   o   Terra cotta

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Colonial Revival Color Palette
• Lastly, for a late 19th century building in the Colonial Revival style, the paint colors
  would be one of the lighter colors that became popular again such as:
    o   Blue
    o   Gray
    o   Ivory
    o   Yellow

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Hints for Selecting Colors
• Start with the main body color. If your house is detailed like a Queen Anne or
  Arts and Crafts bungalow, perhaps pick two analogous colors to start with.
   o   Always look at color swatches in natural daylight.
   o   Keep in mind that what you see in the store under fluorescent lights will look very
       different on the side of your house in natural light.
   o   You will even see a difference
       depending on the angle you hold
       the swatch.
• With your house body color
  chosen, and the general number
  of colors understood depending
  on the house style and period,
  you can chose a trim color that
  complements the body color.

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Hints for Selecting Colors
• If you have an early 20th century Colonial Revival and you chose Colonial gray for your body color,
  you might pick ivory for a trim color.
• If you have an 1870s Italianate house, you might pick a buff/light gold color for the body and
  choose a stone color for the trim, and dark brownstone for the sash and details. You may also
  possibly have black or bronze green for shutters.
• Keep in mind that there are certain colors that were universally used for specific features; for
  example, bronze green was always used for stripes on roofs and ironwork, and on occasion for
  shutters.
• Shutter or chrome green
  was always used on
  shutters in the 19th century.
• Indian Red was commonly
  used to call out detailing.
• A general rule is that
  buildings of modest
  detailing look best with
  simple paint schemes
  with few colors and not
  too much trim detail.

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Hints for Selecting Colors
• There are some details that can cause confusion
  or debate when trying to decide what colors to
  paint where.
   o   If you have wood shingles only in the gable ends
       on your house, then they should be painted a
       different but complementary color from the rest
       of the body.
       •   This is meant to draw attention to the fact that there is
           a different material and texture.
   o   Generally, the rule of thumb is lighter colors are used
       for higher locations and darker colors at the bottom to be consistent with the illusion that dark
       colors are heavy and grounding and lighter colors have less weight.
   o   The gable end shingles should be painted a lighter shade so as not to make the house or roof
       seem top heavy.
   o   Bargeboards, or as most people refer to Gingerbread, are yet another surface that may be
       painted differently.
       •   If they are simple then they should be painted the color of the main trim color to match the cornice, corner
           boards, and window surrounds.
       •   If decorated with panels or other moldings you might want to reintroduce the principal body color for those
           details against the trim color.

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Preparation
• A new paint job can significantly increase your property’s
  value in addition to increasing your pride of place.
• Embarking on an exterior painting project can be a
  daunting task, but painting is the most profitable
  improvement you can make to your home if done
  correctly.
• Generally, material costs are substantially less than
  $1,000 with a gallon of paint costing anywhere from $20
  to $120 per gallon, depending on the name brand, color,
  and warranty.
• Like any home improvement project, a good paint job
  requires:
   o   The right knowledge
   o   Skilled labor with the appropriate tools
   o   Proper preparation to achieve a lasting product

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Preparation
• Whether you “do it yourself” or hire a qualified painting
  contractor, these are a few things to take into consideration
  when taking on a exterior painting project:
   o   A multi-colored scheme that calls out the details and trim from
       the body of the building is more historically correct and will be
       more aesthetically successful and thus is worth the
       cost of buying the extra paint.
   o   Surface preparation, such as sufficient paint removal,
       sanding and priming is the most important step and
       should encompass 75% of the project time. If it doesn’t,
       you can expect to need to paint again in a few years.
   o   Lastly, you get what you pay for in terms of your painting
       products from scrapers, to brushes, to paint, and of course
       contractors.
       •   A little extra money spent now on the materials will save you a lot down
           the road with the durability of your paint job.
       •   If you are hiring a painting contractor, ask them about their products
           and materials, or—better yet—specify that they use the materials you
           would if you were doing the project yourself in order to ensure the
           quality and durability of the paint job.

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Preparation
• With the right painting contractor and materials the return will be very rewarding—both
  aesthetically and financially. Your home will look great, your curb appeal and value of
  your property will be increased, and more importantly, you will be confident that your
  paint job will last for many years.

                        Before                           After

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Exterior Painting

 Before     After            Before           After

                    Before            After

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Thank you!
Contact Landmark Consulting for a paint color consultation.