I’ve often talked about the value of mixing classic and contemporary styles inside of a Georgian home to give it a really unique feel. In this blog post, I’m going to be talking about the authentic paint colours and schemes that were used in the era to help compliment your home in its true original style.
The Georgian period was a long one, so the paint colours changed a lot eventually, becoming increasingly more and more fancy and decorative as they moved more into the regency time period opulence and excess.Georgian decorating is fairly easy to compliment a modern home, because the colours were often elegant and simple, clean and not too strong.The colors of the Georgian period are mainly quite ‘toned-down’ or ‘muted’ colors, early period colour schemes included sage green, blue-grey and burgundy, usually in a sheened finish. When the style evolved, it became lighter and lighter in regards to colours and decoration, with dusky pinks, soft greys, pea-green, sky or Wedgwood blue, beiges and stone shades in matte finishes.Georgians often mixed gilding or marble effect paintwork into their interiors, especially over the regency period, so don’t be scared to add some touches of gold gilding or gold framed pictures to really add the authentic feel. Gold metallic paint can be picked up fairly easily nowadays, and is a great deal cheaper than real gold leaf gilding!
Many paint companies do what they call historic or ‘heritage’ ranges which have authentic and traditional colours of their time periods. Here are a few colours I’ve selected which are particularly Georgian;
Sky Blue by Little Greene, Pea Green by Heritage Paints and Dead Salmon by Farrow & Ball.
You can also consider looking at a bright yellow present in the Sir John Soane Museum South Drawing Room along with a vibrant Pompeiian Red located at Sir Walpoles Strawberry Hill in several places.
When you are in store, speak to the paint specialist as they will normally have advice as to what colours and textures were particularly used for any period of time. Some paint stores even go as far as to blend a colour to match a sample you have found, so do not be afraid to take in any magazine clippings or paint scratchings.
Do remember that paint colours may vary from computer screen to real life, so make sure you order a sample pot to try on a small section of the wall before purchasing all of your paint.
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