Haint Blue

When we bought our Alabama house Dean and I both agreed that one of the first projects would be to paint the shutters and door.  It was ok the way it was, white house, green shutters.  Very Anne of Green Gables, but we both agreed it was a little tired.  This project was at the top of our list and I even bought Dean a paint sprayer for his birthday last year.  With his next birthday just a week away and some special visitors coming in a few weeks, I knew I could delay no further.  It was time to paint.

Originally we had agreed to all black.  Black shutters and door.  Then I asked if we could try a grey door instead.  A few weeks ago I visited a friends home.  Her door was a lovely blue, somewhere between aqua and robin egg.  She told me it was "haint blue" and said that it was a bit traditional in the South and supposed to bring luck and ward off bad juju.  I came home and looked it up and sure enough it is totally a thing.

It originated in the Carolinas and throughout the South it is very common to see haint blue doors,   veranda ceilings, and porch floors.  I think the "haint" part started out as "haunt" because they believed the color would ward off evil spirits and bring luck.  Anyway, last week I grabbed some sample colors and taped them on the door to see which one we liked.  Haint blue hues range from pale powder blue to intense aqua green.   I chose Glidden's Deepest Aqua because it had a little more grey and a little less green than the others.

I already sent out the survey on Facebook about whether I should paint the sidelights or not.  I got mixed opinions.  In the end my laziness won out and I left the sidelights white, but I'm still missing the opinions of a few people that matter most to me and they just so happen to read this blog. (Jewels, I got your vote) the rest of you know who you are... ahem, mom, you too.

Isn't it great though?!  I painted the hardware too.  I had some leftover oiled bronze spray paint that really made the old brass hardware look good.  I'm not a very superstitious person, but I loved the idea of something as simple as a color protecting you.  I like that it's Southern in it's origin and I like the way it brightens up our space.

I took all the shutters off the house and cleaned and painted them.  (I feel the need to record for my posterity that the drill was broken and wouldn't work in reverse so all the shutters were removed by me and my trusty screwdriver.) There were SO many wasp nests behind them.  

Here is a before.  You can't really tell what color the shutters are and that man eating sego palm was still covering up half the porch. but like I said earlier, it looked a little tired.

The after...I know the bushes need trimming, but I also think it looks a lot happier.  I really want to add black window boxes to the dormers (but what to plant that wouldn't need constant watering?) and some snazzy pillows to the chairs in a lovely shade of haint blue, of course.

What's your favorite front door color?