We love a blue porch ceiling (one thing you very generally see – particularly within the south). The truth is, we’ve painted our porch ceiling a light-weight blue shade in practically all of our houses! The custom of a blue porch ceiling truly has a reputation – “haint blue” – together with a wealthy cultural historical past and a few very sensible reasoning behind it. So let’s dive into the way it began and why so many individuals love a haint blue porch. We’re additionally sharing among the finest haint blue paint colours in case you’re searching for one in your porch.
Along with pictures of our personal houses, this put up additionally options many haint blue porches we noticed on our latest household journey to Charleston, South Carolina. That’s the Airbnb we stayed in proven above.
What Is Haint Blue?
Haint Blue is just not one specific shade. It refers to any gentle blue-green paint used on a porch ceiling, particularly in cities within the southern United States – like Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. It’s an interesting shade selection that additionally has an extended historical past behind it. Some fashionable haint blue paint colours are Palladian Blue and Woodlawn Blue by Benjamin Moore in addition to Atmospheric by Sherwin-Williams.
Why Is It Known as Haint Blue?
The identify “haint” is a variation of the phrase hang-out. It references the spirits or ghosts that the colour was believed to repel. Lore had it that evil spirits would mistake the blue shade for both water (which spirits couldn’t cross) or the sky (which spirits would go proper by). So utilizing blue paint on the surface of your home was considered useful for shielding its occupants from evil.
Today the time period principally refers to blue porch ceilings, however traditionally it’s mentioned that haint blue was additionally used on shutters, doorways, window frames, and different exterior surfaces.
What Are The Origins Of Haint Blue?
The haint blue custom is claimed to have originated inside the Gullah Geechee communities earlier than spreading extra extensively by the South. Though historians notice that the historical past is tough to pin down. The Gullah Geechee are descendants of enslaved Africans dwelling principally within the South Carolina and Georgia low nation. The relative geographic isolation of those communities preserved many facets of their wealthy and distinctive tradition, from language & artwork to meals & music. You may study extra about them by visiting the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Hall. There’s additionally an awesome article by Atlas Obscura in regards to the significance of indigo and the colour blue amongst African cultures, particularly round averting evil spirits.
Do Blue Porch Ceilings Repel Bugs?
Some trendy owners could not concern ghosts, however many nonetheless select haint blue porches to keep off different kinds of pests! It has lengthy been rumored that blue porch ceilings deter bugs and birds from making nests as a result of they confuse it with the sky. Though there’s allegedly not a lot scientific proof for this (some imagine the rumor is a holdover from when blue paints have been made utilizing lye, a substance that does repel bugs) we are going to say anecdotally that our blue porch on the pink home had zero bees & bugs. Nonetheless, some wasps made a nest on the ceiling of our duplex that was two doorways down (which had a white porch ceiling). So in our tiny personal examine… there’s one thing to it!
Why Individuals Love Haint Blue Ceilings
Many individuals, particularly within the South, select a haint blue ceiling to be a part of a longstanding custom courting again to the early 1800s. Others like how the colour mimics a transparent blue sky, virtually as if you’re bringing the sensation of a shiny, sunny summer season day to your coated porch. You may even say it extends the daylight just a bit bit!
Blue paint colours typically are additionally recognized to be fashionable and well-loved as a result of they work with a wide range of design kinds and shade schemes. And since haint blue isn’t one single hue, folks can select a shade that fits their home and desire. We’ve truly used blue ceilings outdoors and inside our home for these causes. We painted BM Galt Blue on the ceiling of our previous lounge (beneath) and BM Spring Mint on the ceilig of our pre-renovation lavatory. It’s a good way so as to add a gentle pop of playfulness overhead, with out making something really feel too darkish or closed in.
So whether or not you’re portray a ceiling blue to keep off spirits, repel bugs, or just add some shade, we expect that contemplating a haint blue ceiling is all the time a good suggestion.
What Are The Greatest Haint Blue Paints?
Though there isn’t a “official” haint blue paint shade, there are some fashionable paint shade names that come up once more & once more. We scoured dozens of lists and tallied essentially the most regularly talked about haint blue paint colours (spreadsheet mode: activated). As you’ll be able to see, they vary from gentle blues to deeper blue-greens. The checklist beneath kicks off with the most well-liked…
You may study extra about these prime haint blue paint colours beneath, in addition to order a detachable pattern sticker to try it out in your porch.
How To Decide The Greatest Haint Blue For Your Home
The favored haint blue paint colours above are an awesome place to begin when deciding on one in your home. Nonetheless there are lots of of excellent choices on the market, so be at liberty to seek out one other that matches you finest. Listed here are ideas to remember:
How a lot gentle does your porch get?
Some porches get far much less gentle than others and darker areas could require lighter paints. Conversely, a shiny porch might have a darker extra saturated blue so the colour doesn’t wash out within the solar. For instance, our north-facing again porch was very darkish because of tree cowl, so we selected a lighter blue for its ceiling (Benjamin Moore In Your Eyes).
It’s smart to check the LRV (Gentle Reflectance Worth) of paint colours you’re contemplating to see how gentle or darkish they’re. Increased numbers = lighter colours. Most haint blue colours have an LRV of round 55-65. In Your Eyes is brighter, with an LRV of 75. The most well-liked paint listed above, BM Palladian Blue, has an LRV of 60.
What different colours do you could have on your home?
Blues are very agreeable colours, so it’s onerous to go incorrect. Nonetheless, you need to take into account the undertones of different colours in your home. Do you could have heat tones which have hints of yellow or crimson? Or cooler tones with grey or inexperienced undertones? Understanding this may help steer you in direction of haint blues with comparable undertones (sure, there are heat blues!). This hotter SW Breaktime was a very good match for our heat pink seaside home.
Additionally, in case you have current blues or greens in your shade scheme, concentrate on how these may skew the notion of your haint blue ceiling. A haint blue tone could seem bluer subsequent to a inexperienced home, or greener subsequent to a blue home.
For our entrance porch above, we selected a greener haint blue (SW Rainwashed) to coordinate with the abundance of greenery that surrounds our home – and our blue-green fence within the background. The fence shade (SW Halycon Inexperienced) is definitely a darker shade on the identical paint swatch, so we have been positive to maintain the colours we selected in “the identical household.”
What shade is your exterior trim?
White trim helps to accent paint colours so that they pop extra and seem extra saturated. This implies houses with white trim might have a much less saturated haint blue paint to forestall your ceiling from trying too daring. Conversely, on areas with darker or non-white trim, chances are you’ll wish to select a extra saturated blue to make sure that the colour pops. We used Behr Tide Swimming pools in our first home’s sunroom because of this.
Even with all of this stuff thought-about, we all the time suggest testing a paint shade or ordering a paint swatch earlier than portray an area. Samplize is a service the place you’ll be able to order detachable pre-painted stickers to check out a shade with out making a multitude. Listed here are the precise paint shade samples for the blue ceiling colours we’ve personally used:
How To Paint Your Porch Ceiling
Portray your porch ceiling haint blue is a simple DIY challenge. For those who’ve painted a wall, you’ll be able to completely do that too! Listed here are some additional provides chances are you’ll wish to have available (along with your regular paintbrush and paint curler):
You should definitely use an exterior grade paint (we like Sherwin-Williams’ Emerald paints) in a semi-gloss sheen. Whereas inside ceilings are sometimes flat or matte, we like to make use of semi-gloss on exterior surfaces as a result of they’re simpler to scrub. Talking of which, take time to take away cobwebs, pollen, or different dust earlier than you paint to make sure good protection. You may additionally wish to use this chance to caulk any gaps or holes on or round your ceiling.
Our porch ceiling proven above is definitely metallic, so we additionally needed to apply a coat of metallic primer first. You’ll doubtless additionally have to prime in case you’re portray over uncooked wooden or an current paint shade that’s considerably darker or lighter than your new haint blue.
We even have this full video tutorial for portray a room – together with a ceiling! – which reveals you the method that you should use in an exterior porch as nicely.
Notice: You can even watch this video on YouTube.
*This put up comprises affiliate hyperlinks, so we could earn a small fee if you make a purchase order by hyperlinks on our web site at no extra price to you.