Exterior Paint colour -

[Bayliss]

Plan to paint the exterior walls of our suffolk thatched cottage. When we first moved in it was a terrible 'blamonge pink' straight from a kiddies Birthday pudding plate. Now I know Pink is traditional in Suffolk but I am interested in using a far less 'harsh' colour. I understand that early colour was used by mixing oxblood with lime, not intending to do that! but some suggestions of old earth type colours welcomed.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Have a look at the Rose of Jericho paint charts - there are some lovely earth shades. They do the paint in a variety of exterior finishes. Womersleys same.

I think strong pink only really works if it's limewash, and it goes mottled and faded and speckledy, especially in rain.

 

[Bayliss]

Thank you

 

[robgil]

Suffolk pink is not traditional at all. No body mixed blood into lime wash. Imagine the flies as it dried out?
Personally I would have thought whatever colour the clay around your cottage is would be the ideal traditional choice, or just plain white. The clay around my cottage is mustard yellow so I think white would be best. It is currently painted a rediculous pink bubblegum colour.

 

[Bayliss]

They used to mix the mud/dung/straw with ox blood, not lime as I mentioned.

 

[Keith Bowman]

I was told they used elderberries to get the pink colour. Quite possibly yet another myth. More likely than blood though.

 

[worms]

No body mixed blood into lime wash. Imagine the flies as it dried out?

More likely than blood though.

There must be some fact out there to give a definitive answer on this? I wouldn't see blood as being unlikely - haemaglobin is a very good dye and when you kill a pig or a cow, you get huge quantities of it - more than you are likely to be able to use up on a year's supply of black puddings! Small amounts of fresh blood mixed into limewash probably wouldn't be that attractive to flies, but perhaps it was clotted and dried?

It would be easy to experiment with a small pack of garden centre dried blood mixed into a batch of limewash - I have an out of sight back wall to my garage that might be a suitable test area...

 

[Keith Bowman]

No body mixed blood into lime wash. Imagine the flies as it dried out?

More likely than blood though.

There must be some fact out there to give a definitive answer on this? I wouldn't see blood as being unlikely - haemaglobin is a very good dye and when you kill a pig or a cow, you get huge quantities of it - more than you are likely to be able to use up on a year's supply of black puddings! Small amounts of fresh blood mixed into limewash probably wouldn't be that attractive to flies, but perhaps it was clotted and dried?

It would be easy to experiment with a small pack of garden centre dried blood mixed into a batch of limewash - I have an out of sight back wall to my garage that might be a suitable test area...

Yes, and on second thoughts blood would be available at most seasons but elderberries would only be around for a few weeks each year. But either pre-supposees that pink was actually used historically.

 

[robgil]

Its a bit like the myth of adding dung to daub as a binder, they didnt do that either.

 

[worms]

Its a bit like the myth of adding dung to daub as a binder, they didnt do that either.

I've read plenty of old recipes for limewash and none of them mention adding any blood but do mention adding coloured earths as pigments. What surprises me is the apparent lack of published research on this.

 

[Bayliss]

Well its certainly brought out some interesting posts, the methodology of colour pigments is one worth pursuing.