Historic Paint Colors Pt. 1

Since so many people find this post when searching for paint colors, I’ve updated it with better images of the Arts & Crafts colors. I can say that 9 years in, we’re still very happy with our choices!

For years, I’ve been carrying around a booklet I found at Sherwin Williams featuring historic Arts and Crafts paint colors. Not sure why–-I always ended up painting my walls a slightly off-white color. (Ralph Lauren’s Stucco was my off-white of choice. It reminded me of the missions in California and I always thought it looked nice with my Amish quilts and my Native American blankets and baskets.)

I’ve always known that Arts and Crafts homes have more color than I was used to but I could never bring myself make such a strong commitment. When it came time to start looking at paint colors for our bungalow, Jonathan was not impressed by my choice of off-white, no matter how tried and tested it was. Since he insisted on color, I countered with my little booklet of paint chips from Sherwin Williams.

This ended up being our go-to reference when choosing colors, especially when we found ourselves in the hardware store overwhelmed by the walls and walls of paint chips. (Benjamin Moore also has a historic color collection but I’m not sure they highlight Arts and Crafts colors the way Sherwin Williams does.) At first they struck me as a little too colorful (did I mention my off-white walls?) but as time went by, I actually began noticing these shades in books and magazines dedicated to bungalow renovations.