If you live in or have visited the deep South, you may have noticed a popular color on historic houses called Haint Blue.
You’ll will find these blue and green tints on windowsills, mullions, shutters, doors, and/or porch ceilings of many historic homes.
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Haint Blue was first used on the simple shacks of African slaves (Gullah) to ward off evil spirits. More of that history can be found on a blogsite called Curious Expeditions.
Superstitious or not (I am NOT), Haint Blue is a gorgeous accent to any exterior and can even keep birds and insects from nesting in the eaves of your porch. It is believed that they confuse it with the sky, so they seldom attempt to nest there.
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As you are seeing, Haint Blue isn’t one specific color. It’s definitely a blue-green or a green-blue, but can be light or dark.
These blues look great with a gray roof. You might want to try some options from Benjamin Moore, including Wythe Blue HC-143, Kensington Green 710, Calypso Blue 727, or Varsity Blues 756.
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Haint it lovely?
I have been wanting to paint the ceiling of my screened in porch a green/blue for sometime now. I will have to go to Benjamin Moore now and look at these colors! Thank You…XoXo
Live in a 100+ year old Victorian that is painted two shades of grey. Was going to look for a turquoise to use as an accent color TODAY! Thanks for this post! Total perfection!!!
Very lovely! My husband and I visited the South and saw this trend — always wondered where it came from! Thanks for sharing!
I love the more vibrant Haint blues. It reminds me a bit of being in Scandinavia.
Great insight. I love the colour(s) – it feels so cheerful and quaint to me…
One of my favorite exterior colors, although in the North East not a lot of homeowners use this beautiful color.
Very Pretty! Thanks for sharing about the history. 🙂
so much honey oak trim in my town. it was good to see some of these clean colors can work with stained trim. I prefer a white trim but you can’t always get people to go that far with their painting. Any suggestions for what colors or undertones work best with stained trim, especially honey oak??
Yes I do, Ann! Greens and blues look best as a backdrop for honey-stained wood. Yellows, oranges, and reds will compete with the undertones of the wood.
oops last comment I was referring to the “are you living in color post”
Oh, Kristie — Haint blue is lovely to look at and fun to say — and this post certainly fuels my almost unhealthy obsession with blue porch ceilings!
🙂
C
Hi Kristie,
I start working on new blog so I didn’t have the time to visit. I see that The Decorologist is still amazing. 🙂
As for this post, I like this blue. It combines perfectly with every color and style, why I really like it.
Have a nice week.
Beautiful post. Fantastic pictures and great color references as always. Left me hungry for more of Kristie’s concise, ever-so-lovely posts.
Painting my porch ceilings BM Iced Green 673. It is a greyed blue-green, one shade lighter than Heavenly Blue. It is rather light, but will be under a very large porch and I didn’t want it to fight with the field color.
Mary,
I recently did a living room in Iced Green – it is very icy blue, it doesn’t read grayed AT ALL. The room where I spec’d it is all white and has a coastal/beachy vibe, so it worked great. Good luck with your porch 🙂
I wonder if there is a French or Spanish influence as well. These colors are very traditional for stone and natural stucco buildings all over Europe. They are so versatile and look terrific on a variety of structures.