Fine Paints of Europe recently announced its new historic color palette packaged as “George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate of Colours.” My eyes popped as I flipped through first pictures, and I suspect this could quickly become a go-to source of daring colors for smart people with traditional homes.
The Fine Paints of Europe palette itself in part was derived by examining actual paint samples and other artifacts at Mount Vernon estate, and apparently President Washington had much to say about the design and décor of the sprawling compound he built for himself out of a simple farmhouse.
The main building contains elements of both Georgian and Federal architectural styles — and that’s King George, not our George. When I think of Georgian color I think of cautious and conventional colors plus portrait gallery red. Federal style goes further and celebrates post-revolutionary pride and identity, and adds brighter reds and blues.
According to Steve Mallory, head of restoration at Mount Vernon, the colors used in early America were not necessarily as timid as we might think. Verdigris and Prussian Blue were valued by the upper classes for the statement they made, and this is where Fine Paints of Europe enters the picture con brio.
This historic palette fully embraces rich color and hits many of my favorite buttons: underwater blues, green greys, off-black, useful putty colors, the always impossible-to-get-right pinks and purples, plus one or two surprises in the saffron/coral department. Furthermore, there are a couple of the most assertive Verdigris greens this side of Madame de Pompadour, which, as my friend Benjamin would say, “For the kind of people that like that kind of thing, that’s the kind of thing they like.”
I’m already carrying Mount Vernon around with me everywhere I go and suspect it will be a useful antidote to the Champagne beiges and buckskins of other historical collections. Give it a whirl, and keep us posted.
- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter
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I remember as a little boy going to Mount Vernon and standing in amazement within the brilliantly colored rooms...
...how off-white rooms with thin oak trim, twee stencils and ducks in bonnets came to be considered "Colonial" in later years is beyond me.
Beautiful! That green room is amazing.
I could look at these colors all day.
the first picture of the dining room is so cool. The other green one is just terrible in color and execution. It's like they just threw up the color on it.
That is a gorgeous color in the fist room, must be beautiful to see in person.
It is a great place to visit if you have the chance I would recommend it. Touring around the rest of the property is worthwhile as well. Look forward to checking out the colors from Fine Paints of Europe.
Another reasoning for choosing the dark colors that they did was dirt, it was easier to keep hidden with dark walls.
"Another reasoning for choosing the dark colors that they did was dirt, it was easier to keep hidden with dark walls."
How incorrect you are...
As far as cleanliness - wealthy families such as the Washingtons had numerous house servants to handle those issues. Spaces that were expected to recieve more wear and tear such as the hall, staricases as well as most interior doors were left unpainted wood.
Deep rich color on your walls was a status symbol. The pigments and minerals necessary to achieve these colors were extremely expensive and had to be imported from Europe and Asia - and the most expensive colors/pigments were Prussian Blue and Verdigris whereas black and white were locally available and therefore the least expensive colors. Only the rooms where you admitted guests whom you wished to impress had richly colored walls - and those spaces were limited in number...
Notice how the more private rooms had paler colors and some private bedrooms had white walls? No need to spend so much money/use as much pigment in those rooms as only close friends would be coming into the private rooms (no need to impress them) and within the bedrooms, the use of tinted paints was limited to the mouldings and trim instead of the large walls. Rugs, blankets and fabrics for curtains and bedhangings would be used for color in the private bedrooms instead.
I'm sure woodwork fetishists would consider this absolutely sacreligious, but I find it stunning! Thank you. I can't imagine someone who considers themselves a fan of "Colonial" style going for it though (e.g. my mother). Regardless, I would love to see how all that looks paired with super modern Bauhaus-y furnishings because in my head it's fabulous.
Love the color in the first image!
The dark green in the second photograph contains a sheen to it that was intended to reflect the candlelight. It's quite amazing in person. Thank you so much for covering Mount Vernon's new colors!
Emily Dibella
VP of Marketing
George Washington's Mount Vernon estate & Gardens
Didn't that green originally have arsenic in it? Napoleon on Elba? Love the colors.
"numerous household servants" - now there's a euphemism!
The room with the arched window looks phony; it has the odor of "restoration".
The green color isn't the problem.
The way the molding hits the arch is just wrong. There should be a molding where the wall meets the ceiling. Plus, the attempt to introduce Adamesque painted ornament is very clumsy.
Ornament is wonderful when it's done right; but nowadays that never happens.
ebanfield --
You do realize that General Washington didn't have a Professional Architect or a General Contractor at his disposal - and that the Mansion at Mount Vernon was originally much smaller and added on to by General Washington over the years using materials that were predominantly produced on-site by workmen utilizing the resources of the estate?
He took his building ideas out of pattern-books that were commonly in use by Colonial Gentlemen at the time and fit them to his needs. He had his craftsmen and slaves (Yes, many household servants were slaves too as well as indentured servants and free-men) execute the building per his drawings & orders (and sometimes not to his orders) over a period of 40 years.
http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/pres_arch/index.cfm/pid/703/
http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/pres_arch/index.cfm/pid/705/
there is a Federal style home preserved/restored in Jamaic, Queens too (King Manor i think). The rooms were repainted to match their original colors- I, also, was surprised by how colorful and happy everything was.
bepsf: I wish that an expert on Mt. Vernon would tell us to what extent the present building is real. Certainly not all of it.
In any event, the molding that crashes into the arched window is not right, even if it is authentic.
"I wish that an expert on Mt. Vernon would tell us to what extent the present building is real. Certainly not all of it."
Oh it's entirely real, if not 100% original...
...but then again, no 200 year old home could p- particularly one that was created from a much smaller house and added onto in various stages over a span of decades.
Bear in mind that the plantation passed through the hands of several relatives as a family home before it was purchased by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union in 1858 who have restored and maintained the property ever since.
I'm sure the Association has done everything they've been capable of to ensure the house is as close as possible to it's condition when General Washington passed away - including removing several post-Washington additions to the house such as a rooftop ballustrade and altering the interior colors from what they once believed was period-appropriate pastels to what was later revealed to be correct and more intense colors. However, many of the furnishings and other details are not original pieces, but educated guesses as to what probably existed.
As far as the Dining Room and it's mouldings - nobody ever claimed it to be a textbook-perfect specimen of architecture and detail...
bepsf: I wish that the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association would tell us if that molding is from the time of Washington.
I'd bet $50 that it's a fake.
Will you take the bet?
Im' so glad you posted this! I have always loved the fashionable colors that Washington himself had actually insisted on using in his home. He was so GQ. haha