No. 11. 



Painting Houses. 



341 



those drawn from nature, and harmonizing 

 best with her, and positive colours being 

 most discordant when introduced into rural 

 scenery. 



In the second place, we would adapt the 

 shade of colour as far as possible, to the ex- 

 pression, style, or character of the house 

 itself Thus, a large mansion may very 

 properly receive a somewhat sober hue, ex- 

 pressive of dignity; while a country house, 

 of moderate size, demands a lighter and 

 more pleasant, but still quiet tone ; and a 

 small cottage should, we think, always have 

 a cheerful and lively tint. Country houses, 

 thickly surrounded by trees, should always 

 be painted of a lighter shade than those 

 standing exposed. And a new house, en- 

 tirely unrelieved by foliage, as it is rendered 

 conspicuous by the very nakedness of its po- 

 sition, should be painted several shades dark- 

 er than the same building if placed in a well 

 wooded site. In proportion as a house is 

 exposed to view, let its hue be dnrher, and 

 where it is much concealed by foliage, a 

 very light shade of colour is to be preferred. 

 Wordsworth remarks, in speaking of 

 houses in the Lake country, that many per- 

 sons who have heard white condemned, have 

 erred by adopting a cold slaty colour. The 

 dullness and dimness of hue in some dark 

 stones, produces an effect quite at variance 

 with the cheerful expression which small 

 houses should wear. "The flaring yellow," 

 he adds, "runs into the opposite extreme, 

 and is still more censurable. Upon the 

 whole, the safest colour, for general use, is 

 something between a cream and a dust co- 

 lour." 



This colour, which Wordsworth recom- 

 mends for general use, is the hue of the 

 English freestone, called Portland stone — a 

 quiet fawn colour, to which we are strongly 

 partial, and which harmonizes perhaps more 

 completely with all situations in the country 

 than any other that can be named. Next to 

 this, we like a warm gray, that is, a drab 

 mixed with a very little red and some yel- 

 low. Browns and dark grays are suitable 

 for barns, stables and outbuildings, which it 

 is desirable to render inconspicuous — but for 

 dwellings, unless very light shades of these 

 latter colours are used, they are apt to give 

 a dull and heavy effect in the country. 



A very slight admixture of a darker colour 

 is sufficient to remove the objections to white 

 paint, by destroying the glare of white, the 

 only colour which reflects all the sun's rays. 

 We would advise the use of soft shades, not 

 much removed from white, for small cottages, 

 which should not be painted of too dark a 

 shade, that would give them an aspect of 

 gloom, in the place of glare. It is the more 



necessary to make this suggestion, since we 

 have lately observed that some persons, new- 

 ly awakened to the bad effect of white, have 

 rushed into the opposite extreme, and colour- 

 ed their country houses of such a sombre 

 hue, that they give a melancholy character 

 to the whole neighbourhood around them. 



A species of monotony is also produced by 

 using the same neutral tint for every part of 

 the exterior of a country house. Now there 

 are features, such as window facings, blinds, 

 cornices, etc., which confer the same kind of 

 expression on a house that the eyes, eye- 

 brows, lips, &c., of a face, do upon the hu- 

 man countenance. To paint the whole house 

 plain drab, gives it very much the same dull 

 and insipid effect that colourless features — 

 white hair, pale eye-brows, lips, &c., «Sz,c., — 

 do the face. A certain sprightliness is there- 

 fore always bestowed on a dwelling in a 

 neutral tint, by painting the bolder project- 

 ing features of a different shade. The sim- 

 plest practical rule that we can suggest for 

 efi^ecting this, in the most satisfactory and 

 agreeable manner, is the following: Choose 

 paint of some neutral tint that is quite sat- 

 isfactory, and let the facings of the windows, 

 cornices, &c., be painted several shades dark- 

 er, of the same colour. The blinds may 

 either be a still darker shade than the fac- 

 ings, or else the darkest green.* This va- 

 riety of shades will give a building a cheer- 

 ful effect, when, if but one of the shades 

 were employed, there would be a dullness 

 and heaviness in the appearance of its exte- 

 rior. Any one who will follow the princi- 

 ples we have suggested cannot, at least, fail 

 to avoid the gross blunders in taste, which 

 most common house painters and their em- 

 ployers have so long been in the habit of 

 committing in the practice of painting coun- 

 try houses. 



Uvedale Price justly remarked, that many 

 people have a sort of callus over their organs 

 of sight, as others over those of hearing; and 

 as the callous hearers feel nothing in music 

 but kettle drums and trombones, so the cal- 

 lous seers can only be moved by strong op- 

 position of black and white, or by fiery reds. 

 There are, we may add, many house paint- 



* Thus, if the colour of the house be that of Port- 

 land stone— a fawn shado — let the window casings, 

 cornices, etc., be painted a light brown, the colour of 

 our common red free-stone— and make the necessary 

 shade by mixing the requisite quantity of brown with 

 the colour used in the body of the house. There is an 

 excellent specimen of this effect in the exterior of the 

 Delaware House, Albany. Very dark green is quite 

 unobjectionable as a colour for the venitian blinds, so 

 much used in our country— as it is quite unobtrusive. 

 Bright green is offensive to the eye, and vulgar and 

 flashy in effect. 



