Old House Journal’s compendium of articles about interior paints, color schemes, and period-appropriate stenciling for historic homes.
Stenciled designs and scenic murals were popular from around 1790 to 1850.
Prussian blue gets all the ink, but true Colonial-era colors, although diverse, have an earthy quality.
Ca. 1770 – 1830, colors were brilliant, the patterns eye-popping.
Once the hub of a dairy farm, largely unchanged, simple and traditional, this farmhouse in rural Vermont happily embraces color used without inhibition.
See how colors came together in Sears Harmony homes.
Blue is blue, right? Not so much. Color sense changed by decade.
How many old-house owners have glanced around their rooms and sighed, “If only walls could talk?” What, for example, could they tell us about the richest colors from the earliest days of colonial America, when paint was hand-ground, expensive, and often flaunted as a status symbol by those who could afford the very best?
Blue and white together has been a staple in almost every style of American home décor since George Washington famously painted more than a dozen rooms at Mount Vernon in shades using Prussian blue. Colonial-era coverlets memorably paired white over navy in the “overshot” pattern. And flow blue—the Chinese-inspired dishware with its signature blurred glaze […]
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