- September 13, 2026
- Kelly C. Ruffel
The following is a sneak preview adapted from a chapter in an upcoming book on historic paint by preservationist and author Ken Roginski, exploring the history, science, and practical challenges of choosing appropriate colors for historic buildings.
Anyone who has stood before a wall of paint chips searching for the “right” color for a historic house knows how quickly a seemingly simple decision can become complicated. Paint manufacturers offer collections labeled Historic, Heritage, or Colonial, but an important question remains: How historic are historic paint colors?
The answer is more complicated than the label on the paint chip suggests.
The Challenge of Reconstructing Historic Color
Determining exactly how a building appeared decades or centuries ago can be surprisingly difficult. Historic records are incomplete, early paint charts are inconsistent, and relatively few buildings retain untouched examples of their original finishes. Even when original paint survives, paint itself is unstable. Sunlight, weather, aging, dirt, and chemical changes in ingredients can substantially alter its appearance over time.
For significant historic properties, professional paint analysis remains the best method for identifying earlier finishes. Specialists can examine microscopic layers of paint and distinguish between finish coats, primers, dirt, fading, and other changes that might otherwise lead to an inaccurate interpretation.
For the average historic homeowner, however, that level of analysis may not be practical. Careful investigation can still reveal valuable clues about a building’s previous color schemes even if the results should not be mistaken for laboratory-level certainty.
When “Historic” Became a Paint Color
The modern historic paint palette owes much to the work of the late Dr. Roger W. Moss, one of the leading scholars of historic architectural color. Moss studied archival paint brochures, historic color cards, and documentary evidence and authored several influential books on the subject.
In 1981, Moss worked with Sherwin-Williams and color consultant John Crosby Freeman to develop the Heritage Colors 1820–1920 exterior palette. Its forty colors drew upon original material preserved at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia and Sherwin-Williams’ own archival information. Over time, however, colors were discontinued, altered, renumbered, and supplemented with new selections.
This illustrates one of the central problems with today’s commercial historic palettes: some colors may be grounded in documented historic evidence, while others are altered to fit today’s tastes.
Research by Tania Alam for her 2017 Columbia University master’s thesis, The Evolution of American Historic Color Palettes, found that commercial palettes have been developed through a mixture of architectural paint research, historic documentation, and colors selected for their aesthetic and market appeal. For consumers standing in a paint store, it can be nearly impossible to determine which is which.It is also unclear where many colors paint manufacturers list as “historic” come from. While they can come from archived color charts, there are colors that may not have been obtained from a building.
That does not make these palettes useless. In fact, their influence has often been positive. Historic color collections have encouraged property owners to recognize architectural details, think about period-appropriate treatments, and see older buildings as assets worth maintaining. As Roginski notes, even when today’s “historic” palettes cannot claim perfect authenticity, they can still provide reasonable and appropriate choices for historic buildings.
Finding the Right Color
For those seeking greater precision, Roginski’s upcoming book goes beyond commercial paint names and introduces readers to systems used to describe color objectively.
One of the most important is the Munsell Color System, developed by American artist and educator Albert H. Munsell in the early twentieth century. Rather than relying on subjective descriptions such as “dark green” or “light red,” Munsell identifies colors according to hue, value, and chroma.
That distinction is particularly useful in preservation because commercial paint colors come and go. A manufacturer may discontinue a recommended color tomorrow, but an objective color measurement provides a lasting reference that can help identify an appropriate replacement. Roginski’s forthcoming color listings will therefore pair historic colors with Munsell codes and close contemporary paint matches.
Ultimately, choosing paint for a historic building requires recognizing the difference between documented accuracy, informed approximation, and historic inspiration. A commercially available “historic” palette can be an excellent starting point, but the name on the brochure should never be confused with evidence about what was actually on a particular building.
For preservationists and homeowners alike, the goal is not simply to find an attractive old-fashioned color. It is to understand where that color came from and what the evidence can truly tell us. Period colors allow the architecture of a building to tell its story.
This article offers a sneak preview of an upcoming book on historic paint by Ken Roginski. The forthcoming publication will take a deeper look at historic pigments and colors, paint analysis, commercial historic palettes, color-matching systems, and practical methods for selecting appropriate colors for historic buildings.
