Original colors on wood-sided Craftsman homes emphasized colors seen in nature more than anything else.
Historic American Craftsman homes are found in many parts of the country and especially in California. Craftsman homes are a product of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, which began in the 1890s and lasted until the 1930s. Craftsman-style homes featured an array of locally built materials and interior and exterior colors. Craftsman homes emphasized exterior colors that were originally meant to harmonize with their surroundings. Original exterior colors of wood-sided or clapboard Craftsman homes were mostly composed of natural earthy tones. Does this Spark an idea?
Siding Colors
American Craftsman home exteriors were made of brick or wood. Typically, wooden exteriors on Craftsman homes featured different types of wood siding. Wood-sided Craftsman homes were painted in a palette of natural-toned colors that included reddish browns, browns, greens and soft blues and grays. One emphasis of painting a wood-sided Craftsman home should be to select colors that enable it to match up well with the surrounding scenery.
Color Matching
Craftsman homes near trees, rolling green grass and other natural woodland scenery are typically painted in shades of brown or green. Matching a classic Craftsman home color to its scenery is always an effective color matching tactic. For example, Craftsman homes located in open, airy spaces or near the sea match well when they're painted in soft blues or soft grays, which, for Craftsman homes includes shades of slate or limestone and even light blues.
Complementary Colors
Craftsman home exterior colors feature contrasting colors on windows and corners.
Many wood-sided Craftsman bungalow homes feature horizontal siding and vertical-sided corners along with wooden exterior windows, which should be painted in colors that complement the siding. Often, white or a lighter or darker shade of the color covering a Craftsman home's siding makes for a good complementary color. The Arts & Crafts Society website uses a 1916 catalog to show that Craftsman homes used a palette of complementary shades of colors for exteriors.
Color Strategies
Any color scheme on a wood-sided Craftsman home will work as long as it fits in with the landscape or neighboring houses. If you have a neighborhood Craftsman home, matching up with colors of other homes on the block is also a good color selection strategy. If you're performing a historic restoration of a Craftsman-era home, stick with traditional color palettes. If you're not painting your Craftsman home in original color palettes, though, feel free to paint it in any desired color.
Tags: Craftsman homes, Craftsman home, colors that, exterior colors, wood-sided Craftsman, American Craftsman