A spoonful of color... or a bucket works, too

Today is a day to think about paint. Not that the Isthmus House is quite ready for it, but it’s still nice to think about and it’s good to plan ahead (see yesterday’s post about paneled showers for more on planning).

I was home sick today and spent a fair amount of time taking in the wall colors around me. Currently, the Isthmus House has a dark navy color in the downstairs living room, The Roommate’s terra cotta bedroom, a very taupe downstairs kitchen and that’s about it.

The Isthmus House is being restored, which means that historically correct colors circa 1910 are a must. What’s the point in hunting down 100 year old doors or patching in hardwood floors if I’m not going to bother getting the paint right?

There’s a sad misconception in pop culture that colors weren’t prevalent in older homes until the “painted ladies” of the late Victorian era. Only in that last several years have “paint historians” (no, not kidding) looked more at the makeup of old paints to determine what colors used to be instead of the faded, broken down versions that were being referenced in paint chips.

This mini-history lesson brings me to my point. While it may be true that the Victorians didn’t even like pink, they didn’t live with only grey and taupe either. I’m sad that so many paint companies (including Valspar and Benjamin Moore, in my opinion) only have muted, sad colors in their “historical paint” collections as a remaining side-effect of early (1920s Williamsburg, for example) archaeological paint efforts.

So, I’ve decided that I’m going with California Paints. They’ve done the research and have collaborated with Historic New England to come up with Historic Colors of America and 20^th Century Colors of America, a line running from deep reds to bright blues to rich purples and lots of colors in between. Truth be told, I’m probably choosing them in large part because they have the colors I want to paint the Isthmus House too.

Now, who wants to help me pick the colors?! I’m loving the Garden Terrace, Seascape Jade and Concord Bloom line under the Arts and Crafts category of the 20th Century Colors (link above). Looks like the Isthmus House is about to get a little more color in it! Tell me which colors you like best!