His board was shocked when told it wasn’t painted white. Stuart Bolger, who guided the creation of Genesee Country Village & Museum, directed the restoration of Stone-Tolan early in his career. Monroe County’s oldest surviving architecture, it was built in 1792 as a tavern exploiting traffic from the bread basket of Early America to Rochester’s flour mills at Falls of the Genesee. Consider the Stone-Tolan House on the frontier of Western New York. Tempted? Be advised it’s very difficult to remove sanded paint.Įxterior paint colors imitating traditional building materials were not limited to wealthy sophisticates near the Early American centers of power. Although adding sandto paint will diminish its spread rate by 25% or more, the hardnessof silica adds superior durability. What appear to be Monticello’s monolithic portico columns are stacks of less expensive stone drums coated with a sanded stone color. The outer walls of Mount Vernon are rectangles of wood boards, bevel-edged and coated with sanded white paint to imitate blocks of marble. Washington and Jefferson knew what architectural paint colors could do to mask compromises imposed by economic necessity. Paint without color is only a protective coating signifying nothing. The grand tradition of America’s classic architectural paint colors is imitating traditional building materials ofstone, brick, tile, stucco, and metals. Both were inexpensive, locally made, and not taxed. There’s an old adage about the status of paint that survives in The South-“Too poor to paint too proud to whitewash.” Minor buildings located off the main drag of Colonial Williamsburg got a first coat of an iron oxide color, about which more in a moment, followed by whitewash, a chalk white in a weak glue binder that required frequent recoating. Obvious luxuries, but essential to the upward mobility of Early American home improvements that distinguished a hovel from a home. Everyone knows the Revenue Act of 1767, better known as the Townshend Act, taxed tea but it also imposed duties on paper, glass, lead, and paint. Taxing paint was one of the sparks that ignited the Revolution.

He makes do with radical politics he learned from his Scots tutor, comes up trumps, and pours his limited income into his forward-thinking Monticello mansion on a mountain. Jefferson, an outsider lad from the Piedmont attending William & Mary, makes a run at marrying up into the top echelon of the planter class and is refused. He stretches his disposable income buying improvements “in the latest fashion.” House-proud ambitions for his Mount Vernon mansion on the Potomac keep him going.

Washington, born into a lower echelon of Virginia’s planter class, is encamped at Valley Forge, his troops freezing and starving while the enemy is down the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia enjoying wine, women, and song of the British Empire’s second largest city. Mom taught us not to judge books by their covers but that’s how most Americans judge buildings, isn’t it?Ĭonsider two of the most famous house-proud builders of Early American homes, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson-true Americans, men on the make. The biggest bargain in home improvement then and still is exterior paint and its colors, visual affects that can accomplish more for less than any other upgrade. Like us today, many risked personal fortunes moving up to a bigger new house or making do with additions and decorations to an old one. Visit our shop FrenchGardenHouse.Ever since Europeans first planted homes on the eastern seaboard of the northern hemisphere, Americans have struggled to make them safe, snug, warm, and beautiful. Treasures that make your home fresh, beautiful, inspirational and above all uniquely yours. Shop for the best in French Antiques, furniture with the patina of age, vintage accessories to delight you and your family & friends, and French Country utilitarian pieces.

Be sure to visit my dear friends Mary and Pam, by clicking on their links below. THANK YOU so much for your visit to our back garden! I hope that you have enjoyed this little floral treat on a Monday. Whether you use flowers, plants, real or faux, it’s a beautiful way to greet sunny summer days with pure joy! Are you looking for an idea to dress up your front door for a gate or door this summer?

Patina green house with orange door