Victorian architecture was common at the beginning of the 20th century.
If you own a home built in the early 20th century, you own a piece of history. Over the years, many of these homes have been painted a number of colors, but the true beauty of your home will shine when it is painted the authentic, historical color it was originally meant to be. Several architectural styles of homes were built in the early 20th century, and each has its own historical color palette.
Victorian
The influence of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, where the exhibition buildings were painted pristine white, saw many Victorian style homes at the beginning of the 20th century painted white with white, brown, black or green trim. Victorian house colors of the late 19th century had been rich and dark, but as the new century arrived, these colors began to become much brighter and paler. Cream, yellow, gray and blue paint hues were used. Trims and accents began to include multiple colors, as many as five or more, in deeper, rich, and vivid complementary colors to the main house color.
Arts & Crafts
In the early teens of the 20th century through the 1930s, the Arts and Crafts movement appeared as an architectural style. Nature was a primary influence to anything Arts and Crafts, including home colors. Many houses built in this style had wood shingle siding that was oil stained in subtle shades of green, rust, brown and yellow. These same muted, earthy colors in greens, blues, yellows, browns, and reds were used on Arts and Crafts homes that did not have shingle siding but had more traditional wood or stucco exterior walls.
Bungalow
The bungalow architectural style of homes became common in the 1920s and 1930s. Not only are Craftsman and Arts and Crafts styled homes often considered bungalows, but Cape Cod, Georgian, Dutch Colonial and Williamsburg style homes as well. Bungalow homes are usually painted less ornate than Victorian, with a light colored body and dark, contrasting trim of two or three colors. Grays, greens, blues or combinations are predominate for historically correct bungalow homes. Often the front door is painted an entirely different color than anything else on the house, such as rich shades of red or blue.
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