Knowing a Home's Vintage Will Give You an Advantage
Photos: Historic New England ments then available, the composition of the paint and, of course, the tastes and styles of the time. In the early 19th century, for example, the only major pigments stable, cheap and plentiful enough to be used on the outside of a house were all derived from naturally occurring substances such as red iron oxide, lamp black, or colored clays (yellow ochre, raw si- enna, raw umber). Verdigris (green), Prussian blue and other pigments produced by chemical manipulation were more scarce, subject to unstable color shifts, and costlier; thus, they were used less often. Once the first synthetic organic dyes became available after 1856, a broader range of paint pigments became available and the exterior color choices expanded. Formulation and fashion Paint composition has also shaped color choices. Traditional paints were By Sally Zimmerman far simpler than today’s formulations Knowing a home’s vintage will give you an advantage. ow do we choose colors to faithful, old works-on-any-house white and employed only three components: ColorMemayHistoric not be the best bet, either. paint a home’s exterior? a linseed-oil binder, a turpentine vehi- Some people probably grav- Paint color choices should suit the cle, and a pigment (most often white itate to their personal fa- architecture of a home, whether it’s an lead) that provided opacity as well as vorite—currently blue, 18th-century Colonial, 19th-century Vic- color. Colored pigments could be added followed closely by purple, torian, or even a 20th-century modern to further tint this historic “base.“ according to global market- ranch.
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