Historic colors pack a modern punch: Part 1

Sometimes the stars..or maybe more correctly the events on my calendar align and afford me an opportunity to be in the right place at the right time.  This was definitely the case last Friday.

I was speaking to Donna Shroeder at the Color Marketing Group conference in Seattle last month and she invited me to attend an event called “Historic colors pack a modern punch” that Pratt & Lambert was holding in Williamsburg and since I had planned on being in the area that day while my son was in Richmond at the state convention I jumped at the chance to attend.

Upon arrival I was greeted with true southern hospitality by Gail Burger and her associates from The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and I knew almost immediately that I was going to be glad I had been invited.

Colorful Gerber daisies, paint cans, brushes and fan guides decorated each table.

Gail Burger opened the program and with more than 25 years experience in the development and management of the Williamsburg lines of home furnishings Gail was a wealth of knowledge on historic color and style.

Next Cheryl Grieggs, Interior Designer responsible for the Colonial Williamsburg Hotel Properties talked to us about the art of creating interiors for five distinctly different guest environments so that each has historical appeal, is resilient enough for the hospitality environment and is aesthetically pleasing.

Cheryl Grieggs during the insider’s tour of the historic properties

Cheryl said that she most often uses the pieces right out of the product line that Gail oversees.  It seems Colonial Williamsburg might have been ahead of their time when it came to using a hotel room to showcase products that guest could purchase for their own homes.

We each received a copy of Williamsburg Decorating with Style and the book included examples of what both Gail and Cheryl had shown us. I have already enjoyed reading parts of this book and if you want your own copy you can find it here.  Go directly to page 28 to find a few color tidbits that might surprise you.

Next up was Peggy Van Allen, Color Marketing and Design Lead for Pratt & Lambert Paint.  Peggy did a nice job of connecting the historic paint colors to today’s home interiors.  Peggy gave us the evolution of these colors at-a-glance….

• 1699-1790 Williamsburg was the political, cultural, and educational center of what was then the largest, most populous, and most influential of the American colonies.
• 1730 Ready made paint becomes available.
• 1928 Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr began a modest project to preserve a few of the more important buildings. Eventually, the work progressed and expanded to include a major portion of the colonial town, encompassing approximately 85 percent of the 18th-century capital’s original area.
• 1934 Colonial Williamsburg establishes their own architecture department.
• 1950-60 First paint analysis made possible by new technology in solvents is undertaken.
• 1965 Martin Senour begins manufacturing Williamsburg paint colors
• 1987 Advances in technology make modern scientific paint analysis possible.
• 2004 Pratt & Lambert adds the Williamsburg colors to their line and expands the color offering to 184 hues.
• Today:  Advance in technology have moved paint analysis to a new level and paint historians continue to discover color information…some of which has changed what we originally thought was true about the colors of the day.

My takeaways from Peggy’s presentation:

1.) The colors in the Pratt & Lambert Williamsburg palette have been formulated based on the technical analysis of actual paint scrapings and historic documentation.

2.) These tried and true colors work beautifully today in any style home from traditional to contemporary.

We were able to look at the colors in the fanguides, which I greatly appreciated since it is so difficult to show color accurately on screen.

During lunch we were treated to a presentation by Krissa Rossbund, Senior Design and Style Editor of Traditional Home magazine.

Krissa Rossbund, Senior Design and Style Editor, Traditional Home magazine

Krissa showed how trend meets tradition and gave us a sneak peak at some of the homes we’ll be seeing in the next few months featured in the magazine.

We then took an “insider’s tour” led by Edward Chappell, Director of Architectural and Archaeological Research.

Ed Chappell shares how new insights into the past have changed what have traditionally been though of as the colors and styles in Williamsburg.

Ed shared so many great details about the process of discovering the history of colors that it will take a couple of blog post to share it all.

Two things however that Ed said that I’m sure you’ll hear me repeating–

1. The phrase “colors with a technical pedigree”

A technical pedigree as Ed described are historic color that have been confirmed through scientific processes using the most advanced technology available to them today.

Advances in technology have made it possible for Ed and others in Williamsburg to discover that some of the buildings colors were different than originally thought.  Some of these have been repainted to reflect what is now know.  Of course making changes, especially to these highly visible and much loved buildings, sometimes rouses public comment (aka hate mail).

2. Praise for schlocky renovation

Schlocky renovation got a thumbs up from Ed.  Not for the Colonial Williamsburg initiated renovation projects mind you but for all of the renovations that were done by a building’s previous owners.  Those of us that demand careful and thorough renovation are the bane of Ed’s profession because we seem to want to remove all the clues that give insight into a building’s past.  In fact he said he is sure that there is a special level in Hell just for those of us that removed every last shred of wallpaper and stripped off all of the old layers of paint.  Oops!

I thought I was doing a good thing but I hear you, Ed and I promise in the future to leave all seventeen layers of paint and wallpaper intact somewhere if only behind the refrigerator or under the molding.

Go to Historic colors pack a modern punch: Part 2

Resources:

Learn more about Colonial Williamsburg

See the Williamsburg paint color palette from Pratt & Lambert

Visit Williamsburg Marketplace online