A Guide to Color, Styles & Architectural Periods

This guide provides general descriptions of the architectural styles of homes and buildings found across America. There are overlapping brackets of time and many interior and exterior colors, used, interchangeably, were popular in more than one era.

These descriptions and color lists serve as a springboard to what is possible when painting a building’s exterior, trim, interior walls and floors as well as details like accents, decorative stenciling and overlays.

Using this guide and the Historic Colors of America, homeowners and professionals can create the effect of a given historic period while applying variations to suit personal tastes.

Colonial (Mid 1600’s - 1780)

The early colonists arriving in the New World from Europe brought with them the prevailing architectural styles and building practices of their native countries. Most colonial dwellings built during the 1600’s might be classified as folk houses if they did not so strongly reflect the distinctive traditions of their countries of origin. Old World practices persisted in Colonial empires well beyond the end of European rule.

Original Colonial styles were built primarily along the east coast, gulf coast and portions of the southwest. They were built before the era of industrialization, and unaltered examples have a characteristic ‘handmade’ quality in such details as doors, windows, brickwork or siding. The most characteristic Colonial house is usually a one or two-story box, two rooms deep with symmetrical windows. Many examples of Colonial houses survive today and are among the most popular styles of American building.

Colonial Colors

Shaker Red English Bartlett Bold Bolection Parsnip Ginger Root Rawhide
Cogswell Cedar Tailor’s Buff Newport Indigo Langdon Dove Portobello Chocolate
Pumpkin Blonde Lace Wainscot Green Pettingill Sage Tankard Gray Quincy Granite
Knightley Straw Meetinghouse Blue Blue Winted Teal Burnished Pewter Otis Madeira Vinal Haven
Asian Jute Lexington Blue Philips Green Milkweed Liberty Polished Pewter
Georgian Yellow Standish Blue Warren Tavern Pitch Pine Burnt Umber Redrock Canyon
Farmhouse Ochre Tory Blue Sayward Pine Nankeen Wooden Nutmeg Wooly Thyme

 

Federal (Mid 1780 - 1830)

The federal style was the dominant style of the new Republic. During this period the populsation tripled in size and expanded to the west and south. The style was most concentrated in prosperous port cities of the eastern seaboard in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York, South Carolina and Georgia. Diversity of spatial planning found in interiors of the period reflected the style of Robert Adam, the gifted English architect who also popularized design elements such as swags, garlands and urns.

The Federal or Adam style is characterized by symmetry, lightness and delicacy. One of the earliest examples of this style was the ceiling in the Mount Vernon dining room, executed for George Washington in 1775. In general, Federal houses may be rectilinear and boxlike, with perhaps an elliptical fanlight over the front door and sidelights flanking the door. Door trim may include thin columns or pilasters and curved or octagonal projections may reveal the shape of interior rooms. Also characteristic are curving steps and windows recessed within arches. The roof is often concealed behind a balustrade.

Federal Colors

Stagecoach Barrett Quince Lucinda Bristol Green Wild Oats Pettingill Sage
India Trade York Bisque Bulfinch Blue Longfellow Parsnip Burnt Umber
Pumpkin Lyman Camellia Citadel Blue Viscaya Langdon Dove Wooden Nutmeg
Knightley Straw Woodstock Rose Meetinghouse Blue Green Bonnet Jackson Antique Quincy Granite
Asian Jute Mountain Laurel Tory Blue Wainscot Green Phelps Putty Vinal Haven
Georgian Yellow Rundlet Peach Amelia Grasshopper Bayberry Wax Curry
Farmhouse Ochre Tudor Ice Morning Dew Boardman Sandy Bluff Rain Barrel
English Bartlett Appleton Coral Springs Jewett White Flaxen Field  

 

Greek Revival (1825 - 1855)

The Greek Revival period began and ended in this country with public buildings built in Philadelphia. One of the most familiar icons of American architecture is the full-colonnaded Greek Revival mansion of the southern states with its large veranda or living porch. The front-gabled house was popularized in the early nineteenth century and became the predominant form of urban houses in the northeast and Midwest well into the twentieth century.

The classical temple form with a portico across the entire front and the roof ridge running from front to back, is employed for buildings of all kinds and size including cottages. Dormers are rare and roofs are generally gabled or of low pitch. The front door is typically surrounded by narrow sidelights with a row of transome lights above. The most common types of ornament are the anthemion and the Greek fret, wide pilasters and deep, heavy cornices. Wooden buildings were invariably painted white.

Greek Revival Colors

Danish Pine Canyon Gold Amish Green Jewett White

 

Victorian (1840 - 1900)

The styles that were popular during the long reign of Britain’s Queen Victoria are generally referred to as ‘Victorian’. Growth of railroads and industrialization led to changes in mass production and shipping of house components, while the development of mechanized saws and lathes let to a profusion of wooden ornament. The extravagant use of complex shapes and elaborate detailing are clearly reflected in these landmark houses.

Late Victorian styles of this period, also known as ‘Stick’ and ‘Queen Anne’, became intertwined and tend to overlap each other. Characteristics such as multicolored walls, asymmetrical facades, and steeply pitched roofs are common features. Dwellings were built with every conceivable type of trim including wooden lacework, patterned shingles, porches and towers with conical roofs. Roofs are often complex with cross gables, conical turrets, dormers and decorative brackets beneath eaves. Finials and crestings were frequently used to decorate the roof’s ridges.

Victorian Colors

Beetroot Knightley Straw Biloxi Blue Newbury Moss Winter Meadow Bargeboard Brown
Madder Asian Jute Bowen Blue Picholine Coastal Sand Fieldstone
Covered Bridge Georgian Yellow Muted Mulberry Amish Green Britches Vermont Slate
Alden Till Goldenrod Concord Grape Baize Toffee Curry
Flowering Chestnut Farmhouse Ochre Plum Island Gedney Green Giner Root Redrock Canyon
Roseland English Bartlett Cottage Green Pointed Fir Maple Cummings Oak
Codman Claret Gable Green Marrett Apple Brattle Spruce Bean Pot Wooly Thyme
Stagecoach Tailor’s Buff Whispering Willow Winter Balsam Palomino Sturgis Gray
Richardson Brick Blonde Lace Brookside Moss Glen Brownstone Hazelwood
Portsmouth Spice Robin’s Egg Veranda Blue Sayward Pine Burnt Umber China Aster
Clementine Glacier Bay Warren Tavern Pettingill Sage Hickory Nut Pumpkin

 

Colonial Revival (1900 - 1940)

This was the dominant style for domestic building throughout the country during the first half of this century. Early examples of Colonial Revival buildings were rarely historically correct copies, but rather free interpretations inspired by colonial precendents. Pure copies of colonial houses are far less common than are eclectric mistures.

Features commonly identified with Colonial Revival houses include a balanced facade, front doorways with sidelights, fanlights, crown moldings and prediments. They are typically accentuated with pilasters, porticos or columns to emphasize the front entrance. Windows are normally symmetrically balanced with double hung sashes and multiple panes in one or both sashes. Roofs may be hipped, side-gabled, center-gabled or gambrel style.

Colonial Revival Colors:

Codman Claret Lucinda Seal Blue Melville Yarmouth Oyster Vinal Haven
Andover Cream Bulfinch Blue Volute Venetian Glass Parsnip Monument Gray
Pale Organza Emily Asher Benjamin Newbury Moss Langdon Dove Fieldstone
Emma Portsmouth Blue Beauport Aubergine Gedney Green Portobello Gropius Gray
Lady Banksia Rocky Hill Hawthorne Pointed Fir Hitching Post  
Jonquil Winter Harbor Elise Jewett White Tyson Taupe  
Appleton Saxton Blue Cottage Green Plymouth Beige Quincy Granite  

 

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Sources

Whiffen, Marcus
American Architecture Since 1780, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The M.I.T. Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1976

Foley, Mary Mix
The American House, New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1980

McAlester, Virginia and Lee
A Field Guide to American Homes, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984

Phillips, Steven J.
Old-House Dictionary, Lakewood, CO: American Source books, 1989

Old House Journal, A magazine containing articles on restoring and maintaining old houses; product Advertising. Two Main Street Gloucester, MA 01930. Subscriptions: (800) 234-3797, Back Issues: (508) 281-8803

Traditional Building Magazine, “The Professional’s Source for Historical Products” 69A Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217, Phone (718) 636-0788, online @ www.traditinal-building.com