Historic Paint Color Replicas
Past heads of state are often viewed in black and white, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t live colorfully. Far from it: In George Washington’s heyday, public rooms in the homes of the elite were often lined in Crayola brights. The eye-popping paint pigments were expensive and required painstaking labor to mix and apply—a perfect way to flaunt your wealth.
These days you don’t have to live in a house with a historic pedigree—or have a major stash of cash—to find inspiration in our forebears’ decorative choices. Strong interior colors continue to make a statement, and paint companies are replicating even the most brilliant shades to an exact match.
Read on for some of our favorite history-making hues.
Thomas Jefferson: Monticello
Rumor has it America’s third president loved both a good dinner party and the latest fashions, so he had his dining room painted this brilliant yellow in 1815, when it was trending—and extravagant: Each pound of chrome pigment cost $5, more than 33 times the cost of white-lead paint. The walls—repainted using hand-ground pigments matched to the original shade—may look extra-radiant now but were a godsend in the era of candlelight after dusk.
Paint: Monticello Yellow; Ralph Lauren Paint (Discontinued as of press time; bring your copy of This Old House to your local paint store to find a close match.)
Pro Tip: To uncover original paint layers at historic presidential homes, specialists use a technique similar to what architectural paint analyst Judy described on This Old House: cutting a small hole through all the layers of paint down to the wood with a scalpel or X-Acto knife, then sanding the edges with fine sandpaper to reveal a bullseye of every paint layer that’s been applied over the centuries. Examined under a microscope, each layer tells the story of the home’s color history.
James Madison: Montpelier
Uncovering the home’s original character has been painstaking detective work. As This Old House Magazine reported, archaeologists at Montpelier—which Marion duPont Scott willed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1983—have dug into walls to reveal patches of original brickwork and excavated nearby ground to unearth remains of the house of Madison’s grandfather. Piecing together the estate’s true colors has relied on Dolley’s record of household goods, the recollections of visitors, and craftsmen’s accounts.
Here’s what Dolley Madison ordered in 1820 for the Virginia couple’s bedchamber, long known as the Honeymoon Suite: “Lively colours with fringe to suit.” The walls of this bedroom in their Georgian-style mansion were recently restored with an 18th-century recipe for “distemper,” a paint made from hand-ground pigments and hide glue. Conservators chose the shades below as the next-best thing.
Paint: Acorn Yellow (walls) and Market Square Shell (trim); Benjamin Moore
Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln Home
Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln lived in this Greek Revival home, in Springfield, Illinois, from 1844 until 1861, when they moved to the White House. In 1860 a newspaper described the facade as “a pale chocolate color,” and it’s just as delicious today. Preservationists used custom Sherwin-Williams formulas to paint the house in 2009, for Lincoln’s 200th birthday.
Similar to shown: Tatami Tan (siding), Antiquarian Brown (trim), and Shamrock (shutters); Sherwin-Williams
Inside the home, the restoration is equally meticulous. The interior has been restored to what it would have looked like in 1860, when the modern innovation of the railroad allowed goods to be shipped in from all over the world—including carpet from New York, furniture from North Carolina, and even wallpaper from France.
George Washington: Mount Vernon
Like many of their late-18th-century counterparts, the Washingtons had a fondness for bold colors at home, as anyone who has visited their Virginia estate—with its kelly-green dining room and Prussian-blue parlor—can attest. Our favorite? What they called the New Room, a blue-green grand salon added to the Georgian-style house in 1787 and used to greet—and impress—guests. Paint conservators used hand-ground pigments to reproduce the original finish. Lucky for us, Fine Paints of Europe has formulated precise matches.
Paint: Porcelain Edge (walls), New Room White (trim and wainscot), and Large Dining Room Green (frieze); Fine Paints of Europe
In George Washington’s heyday, public rooms in the homes of the elite were often lined in Crayola brights. The eye-popping paint pigments were expensive and required painstaking labor to mix and apply—a perfect way to flaunt your wealth.
John F. Kennedy: JFK National Historic Site
“Jack” was born in the second-floor master bedroom of this Colonial Revival, in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1917; he lived there for the first three years of his life. After his death, Rose Kennedy repurchased the house, restored it, and donated it to the National Park Service, having it painted in the colors she remembered from the year of JFK’s birth. The rich gray siding, ivory trim, and dark-green shutters were in vogue at the time—and look equally handsome today. Benjamin Moore matched the historical hues for the house’s recent spruce-up.
Paint: Essex Green (shutters); Benjamin Moore
Similar to shown: Storm (siding) and Navajo White (trim); Benjamin Moore
