Color swatches

As I've mentioned, all the exterior woodwork needs to be taken care of before the new roof can go on. What I haven't mentioned (because it was a surprise to me) was that we have to paint the woodwork before installing it, so we don't have to set up scaffolding later. Which means, of course, that we have to pick paint colors.

All of the trim is currently white, but that is definitely not historically appropriate. Colonial Revival, popular in the 1880s as a backlash to the ornate Victorian style, used a lot of white, but true Colonials used bold colors, like bright reds and sunny yellows. So with the assistance of the contractor, Dawn selected a dark (almost black) green for the shutters, a lighter green for the trip, and an off-white for the window sash. She sent me window samples of each, so I spent several hours today mocking up the mansion. I suspect you will have one of three reactions:
1) Wow, that looks great, now completely re-do it using these colors...
2) Wow, I often wondered what the place would look like in a comic book
3) Wow, they let you past the third grade with coloring skills like that?

The contractor also told Dawn that in New England, they usually painted the porch ceiling sky blue. Nobody is sure why, but the contractor really wants to do this. Dawn agreed, noting privately that if she doesn't like it, it won't be hard to paint over.

Click to enlarge