Historic Paint Color Snobbery

After posting my 100th post, my friend Tessa encouraged me to post more about my old home. We just LOVE this home (love-hate, actually.) We always say that we have "2 kids and a house" - and we change the house's diapers more. It is sooooo much work, and we go in spurts, but we recently finished A HUGE renovation (while pregnant, with a 2 yr old, and a very, very VERY cranky me).

This post is about our shutter and door colors.

I know that lots of people like lots of different types of colors and decorating. But I just gotta share my historic architectural snobbery (hehe):

{Should you disagree with my humble and fabulous opinion, know two things: 1. You are still my friend, and still very cool, and 2. Wallpaper border is never ok. Under any circumstances.}

Below is a "before" picture, which I love, because of the Christmas decorations, and the snow. However, I have never liked that shutter color.

It is not an historical red.

It is not even a current red.

Actually, it is more of an 80's influenced maroon (think: forest green and maroon craze... which still reigns, unfortunately, in some homes across America). Ugh. The sound of the word maroon causes me to shudder (no pun intended. promise.).

They don't look that horrid in this picture, but, trust me... it is not a nice red! Or a nice maroon, whatever. Can you kinda see the purply-ness of the maroon-ness?? So, I knew it would have to go...

Before:

Here is another "before" picture. We took this one on a drive-by, while we were looking to buy this dream home (think money pit...).

{A cool thing for those who love historic architecture: we have the upper shutters in our barn, and they are all there! We will ... eventually... hang them back up. They are louvered shutters (the kind with slats). In this area of the country, the homes (ours is pre-Civil War era) had solid shutters on the first floor, for safety, and louvered shutters on the second floor for ventilation.}

The red faux-log addition that you could see on the right side of our home has since been demolished. It was poorly constructed, roof was caving in, ceiling tiles would land on our laps if the wind blew too hard, and it had no heating or cooling. Oh, and it was enhanced by lots of dog pee, thanks to the previous owner.

So, are you ready for the reveal?? Our new shutter and door colors, and the removal of the "unfortunate" log addition:

After:

So, how does it look with mums??:

Ahhh. Williamsburg Tavern Grey Green...........Nice.