Color Me Federal Instead (March 24, 2012)

After joining Historic New England, I’ve learned that my taste in exterior house paint color isn’t colonial enough. It isn’t even Federal enough—or subtle. Of the five North Shore color treatments I waxed on about last month (Color Me Colonial), only two are period-correct, and neither would be suitable for our house.

I chose HNE’s $200 historic homeowners membership, because it includes a color consultation and use of their research library. I was thoroughly impressed when Sally Zimmerman, the Manager of Historic Preservation Services, wrote me Friday morning, only five business days after I joined, with an expert diagnosis on the history of our house and three F&B palettes—each with a spec for the clapboards, the trim, and the shutters and door. She also gave us three options for a monochrome whitewash—clapboards and trim painted the same shade of antique white—another common treatment for a modest, rural house like ours. (For the record: HNE doesn’t endorse brands; they just know we’re working with F&B.)

The precision and speed of HNE’s recommendations amazed me. Nevertheless, all the tricolor options struck me as dreary combinations of gray and beige, sort of like the shades pictured below on this house in Ipswich, which to my eye work much better on a stately structure like this one. But Sally corrected me: “They’re not dreary. Just nuanced—subtle.”

I’ve admired many gray houses, but not when paired with antique whites, which were based on white lead and linseed oil and had a yellowy appearance. Call me gaudy, but I love crisp, bright white trim. Unfortunately, that shade didn’t exist as a paint color until the 1920s, when titanium dioxide came into play as a pigment.

My love of unpainted wood doors is another inappropriate attraction I’ll need to overcome. They didn’t come into widespread use until the 1850s, when the advent of steam-powered machinery made it easier to mill hardwoods, and now we’re one step closer to saying definitively, with backing from HNE, that our house is a c. 1800 Federal-style structure. As such, it would have had a painted front door in the same shade as the shutters, both in full-gloss oil.

Never mind that so many houses with plaques in Ipswich have unpainted doors and bright white trim. What’s to be expected from rabblerousers who inspired the Revolution of 1689—86 years before the shot heard round the world. We are moving to Hamilton, and we will color between the lines and come up with shades we love that have a historic precedent. We may indulge in one modern flourish: a second color for the trim that’s barely distinguishable from the clapboard color, to set the two elements ever so slightly apart while maintaining a monochrome look. If the Lowells or Cabots have something to say about that, send them to Farrow & Ball.