Vieux Carré Color

Splendid Doorway in the Vieux Carré

Homes and other buildings in the old French Quarter of New Orleans, are a great mix of architectural styles and famously ornate ironwork balconies and galleries. But what really struck me most was the paint colors, particularly on the Creole cottages.  Bright, saturated, pastel, or faded:  they are displayed in fearless and exciting combinations, and when you line them all up they look great together.

This is no accident, as each house in the Vieux Carré must have its paint scheme approved by the Vieux Carré Commission,  a local government body that supervises all renovation and restoration in the area and provides resources and advice to building owners on the best way to preserve  and restore their treasures.  Their site contains an excellent explanation of the popular color schemes of  four distinct periods of building in the Quarter  from 1820-1920 (and many buildings are actually older than that) as well as other regulations and guidelines.  For example:

"  ... False "graining" was often applied to doors, but, in these cases, the wood imitated was usually figured oak, rosewood or maple. The practice of applying a clear finish to bare wood with the expectation that this will adequately imitate "graining" is prohibited. Graining should be done by skilled craftsmen." 
I, and hundreds of faux bois painters,  could not agree more.

Royal St: a bright coral house with "Paris Green" shutters

Bright yellow creole cottage with cornflower blue shutters

The Society of Gilders held its conference here late in October.  We started our week in the c. 1789 building known as Mme John's Legacy;  the street level doors open to the underside of the covered porch;  a note taped to one of them read merely "Gilders Upstairs" and to my great delight, there they were,  as promised. Gilders.  But I digress... 

Mme John's Legacy sporting its original 1789 color scheme

I had a marvelous week roaming around the city,  soaking up inspiration. What a great color collection this would make.  Of course it's been done.... some years ago, Sherwin-Williams made a collection of paint colors called "Vieux Carré Colors: Reflections of the New Orleans Historic French Quarter."   The palette was based on research done by the paint manufacturer along with the Vieux Carre Commission in the late 1960s.  It was re-issued briefly in 2003 but is, alas, no longer available.   However, my Sherwin Williams dealer tells me you may still get these colors made if you know their names, like Toulouse Street Green or Pontalba Rose.
 

Toulouse Street:  yep, that's green

Chartres Street:  I love this sunwashed gold and sea green palette:  
the upper floor of this house is painted a shade lighter, and all of the french doors are faux bois.

A larger collection of these pictures from "New Orleans in Color" I have  posted at Flickr.

all photos in this post by Lynne Rutter, October 2010

Lynne Rutter Studio