Haint Blue

My objective this summer was to give our front porch some charm, we have a circa 1997 built vinyl clad home. Boring. Our front porch has a concrete slab. Again, boring. My wish list includes installing a brick veneer floor, but Lowes discontinued theirs and our budget won't allow for the real thing. Time to faux! Stencil that is. I digress, this post isn't about the porch floor but the porch ceiling, and before I go and create a fabulous faux brick floor I need to paint the ceiling a nice country blue first so as to keep that faux brick pristine.

In searching for just the right color of blue I discovered the specific name for porch ceiling blue is Haint blue--but the color itself is not so specific as the blues vary from light blues, to aquas, to teals.

What's behind the name Haint? Haint is a huant, and the practice of painting the porch ceiling blue came from the African-American slaves, they not only painted the porch ceiling haint blue, but the perimeter of their homes, window trims, doors and door trims to prevent evil spirits--not the friendly Casper kind, but the bone-chilling scary harmful kind--from entering their homes. The blue represented water and "haints" or "haunts" could not pass through the water. Others say the blues resembled the sky and the "haints' or "haunts" would fly away. Throughout the South, the remnants of slave quarters and old abandoned homes wear the original faded blues of this folk tradition.

The paint they used was milk paint--a mix of buttermilk, lime and blue dye (from the indigo plant)--mixed in pits on site. Since the mix would vary by site, the blue color would also vary. This original recipe for paint repelled insects, the lime kept them at bay. I'm thinking this needs to be marketed. Don't you?

Here is the color information for the shutters and the door.

Lowe's 753 Custom Colors...

Valspar

American Tradition: Base 4

Blanched Thyme Exterior Semigloss

101-1Y4  107-2Y16  103-20  113-7Y40

I love it! And our home has a secure feeling all of a sudden, maybe there is something about this bit of folk lore.... What do you think?

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