Historic Colors for Southern Porches

Blue

• During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the use of blue as a southern porch color, especially on the porch ceiling, became very popular. Southerners -- especially in the Carolinas -- had security, more than style, in mind. Many southern homeowners painted the ceilings of their porches blue to protect them from "hants" -- angry spirits who had not yet moved on to the next world after leaving this one. It was said that a hant would not cross over a porch with a blue ceiling due to its fear of water. Today, many paint manufacturers offer a "hant blue" or similarly named color.

White

• When paint was scarce or too expensive, southern homeowners often used a whitewash mixture to paint their homes, porches and fences. Whitewash was a mixture of water, lime, salt and sometimes other ingredients mixed together to form a milky-white tinted dye. Whitewash was not only an inexpensive paint, but also a way to preserve the porch's wood. Whitewash is used in modern times as a coating for tree trunks, because it is believed to discourage certain diseases.

Gray

• Gray is another color historically used to paint southern porches. Shades of gray offered a clean, comforting look and were easily cleaned. Gray hues were sometimes used on the entire porch, especially to set the porch off from the rest of the home, and sometimes only on porch floorboards.

Considerations

• Often, the only parts of a southern porch that were painted were the ceilings and columns. Porch floors frequently remained unpainted due to the need for repainting after the paint or whitewash wore off from foot traffic. Columns, when painted alone, were frequently white to accentuate the tall, picturesque pillars.