Victorian Home Color Trends

Victorian homes have a really neat history you might not know about unless you actually have a Victorian home. They first got popular back in the 1800s in the US, when homes like the Italianate and Second Empire houses started popping up all over the place. The colors were what you would expect; muted with earthy tones and of course since they had different paints then, you also saw natural pigments. For instance if the house had red or brown paint on it, chances are it was made using ferric oxides. Then, in the 1880s things started to change a little bit, not just in terms of styles (The Queen Anna style became

really popular) but also colors.

People could find synthetic tones and pigments such as yellows, purples, blues, even greens. Another popular trend back then were multi-colored homes wherein different parts of the house like the doors, trim and eaves would be painted all different colors. Nowadays, paint has changed once again. Now you have an array of colors available including bright and saturated shades and paints that now won't fade as

quickly as they once did. If you have a Victorian home and you want to stay traditional or want to do something entirely different, consider checking these themes out.

Contrasting Colors

One option is to use a sort of grayish blue as the body of the house, and then white trim, and then you would use red accents that have a sort of brownish hue to them. This is a great theme to incorporate a three color scheme and it’s still traditional enough to be considered Victorian. The colors you could consider for the grayish blue, white and red are; Skipper (body), Divine Pleasure (trim), and Burnished Mahogany (accents) brought to you by Behr.

Four Color Themes - Queen Anne Style

Because of the options in terms of architectural features with a Queen Anne home, you should have no problem incorporating 4 colors into the home. In fact, the four colors are a great way to accentuate and emphasize all those different features. One option to consider is using two different kinds of beige on the siding, then incorporating tan for the shingles, white for the trim and a really pretty terra cotta for the floor of the porch and the accents on the house. Colors to think about for this theme are brought to you by Sherwin Williams and they are Beige (clapboards), Sycamore Tan (shingles), Divine White (trim),

and Rookwood Terra Cotta (porch floor and accents). This is a really complex and intricate theme so you might be better off hiring a house painter in Basking Ridge to do it for you.

Mother Nature

As mentioned above, back in the 1800s and 1880s, a lot of the homes featured greens and mossy browns to help the home mingle with the natural flora and fauna around the home. Well, this idea, in particular, goes well with incorporating the greens and browns around the home (trees, bushes, grass, etc.) to the home. The theme would use something like Blue Green for the clapboards, Heather for the shingles, another type of green for the windows and then another other green for the sashes and porch spindles. You would also want to add in a brown like Plum Dandy for the porch posts. This theme is brought to you by paints from Sherwin Williams and the exact paint names are; Rookwood Blue Green (clapboards), Renwick Heather (shingles), Rookwood Sash Green (window surrounds and fascia’s), Rookwood Shutter Green (window sashes and porch spindles), and Plum Dandy (porch posts).

Folk Victorian

This is definitely one of my favorite styles because it incorporates the traditional look of a Victorian home, without seeming too outdated i.e.; it looks sort of modern, but still you can tell it’s a Victorian home. For this option, you could use a peach paint for the body and then use white or light gray for the trim and red, cranberry or deep red for the front door. This house style, as well as the colors, also looks fantastic if you have a lot of pretty landscaping surrounding the house such as a retaining wall with flora and fauna, a wraparound porch, and a big beautiful tree outside the front of the home to tie everything in. The colors in this example are all from California Paints and the exact colors are; Just Pink Enough (body), Shiny Nickel (trim), and Rose wine (entry door surround)

Hopefully, this has given you a look at a few other options; some very traditional and some not - such as the Folk Victorian above. Essentially, though, you can paint the home any color you want, as long as it includes 2, 3, or 4 color options that all have their own zones.