historic colors

Products of the Week

Architecturally accurate metal roofing and siding; available in a wide range of colors including prints and vintage inspired patinas; LEED certification is available on some products.

Doors & Entryways

Bring beauty and value your home with heirloom-quality REAL wood doors by Vintage Doors. Meticulously handmade by expert craftsmen in your exact size and style—to be loved and respected for generations, just like the olden days. Hand-crafted wood product line includes: screen doors, storm doors, Dutch doors, French doors, louver doors, pantry doors, interior doors, exterior doors, entrance units, three season porch enclosures, pet doors, arch top doors, round top doors, custom doors and more.

Brass, Bronze & Copper Hardware

Classic-style door hardware, engineered for new construction or historic renovation, lacquer-coated, solid brass, patterned after original antique hardware, passage, privacy, mortise lock, or dummy sets and cabinet hardware and accessories.

Interior Paints & Stenciling

Ca. 1770 - 1830, colors were brilliant, the patterns eye-popping.

A pair of cymbidium orchids frames the entry door and the newly rebuilt porch.

Web Exclusives

Our editors highlight new and classic articles on injecting color into your space.

Exterior Painting

Follow these guidelines to create cohesive Victorian color schemes.

Second Empire cottage all-white paint scheme

Exterior Painting

Historical color experts suggest that this late Victorian cottage might be polychromed in period colors.

A richly colored Federal house in Newport, Rhode Island, has a contrasting scheme is in patriotic blue and red.

Exterior Painting

Paint colors of the past suggest combinations for early period and Colonial Revival houses today.

The upper story and pergola of this Foursquare take cues from the mossy green of the variegated brickwork.

Exterior Painting

Digital

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Gold accents in the Empire table are set against a warm, period blue in the dining room at Ames Plantation in Tennessee; trim is classical white. Photo: Robt. Ames Cook

Interiors & Decor

Exterior Paints & Finishes

Looking for a color scheme for your Victorian? We show you how to put one together.

The owners of this 18th-century Georgian home used a medium shade of a deep, pigment-rich color on walls, and a darker shade of the same color on trim, for a historically correct tone-on-tone effect. Photo: Gross & Daley

Interior Paints & Stenciling

Have you ever thought you’d solved a paint scheme dilemma with one of those chips from the paint store that has four or five gradations of the same hue? You put one on the walls, another on the trim, perhaps—daringly—a third for accent. Then, before the paint’s even dry, you find yourself dissatisfied?