# Barn color... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454 "2005-11-23T19:12:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![taketa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/45deac/32.png) [@taketa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taketa)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/1 "2005-11-23T19:12:44Z")
There are the classic barn colors…red and white…and I just want to know why? I mean, my family had a barn, it was white and had a red tin roof to match the house, but the classic version of barn is red with a white trim… why not blue? or grey(given that polebarns kinda are grey often)…? Am I missing out on the secret order of the farmers, or what? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/2 "2005-11-23T19:16:50Z")
I think the short answer is 1) tradition and 2) that red paint was cheap in the day. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/3 "2005-11-23T19:21:14Z")
I think this tradition got started when a lot of paints were homemade and the red (or reddish) paint was the result of available earth pigments. I believe white was made from lime in some fashion, but the details are hazy. In my area, many ancient barns are unpainted. Really, this is a WAG, though. ---
**Author:** ![Crab\_Rangoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Crab\_Rangoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crab_Rangoon)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/4 "2005-11-23T19:24:57Z")
Because it is not a proper farm if the barn is not red with white trim. We just finfished getting ours painted red with white trim - to match our white house with a red front door. It’s the way og intended for us to live. and if you use different colors - I may send my golem after you. ---
**Author:** ![Foaming\_Cleanser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Foaming\_Cleanser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foaming_Cleanser)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/5 "2005-11-23T19:25:13Z")
[Cecil’s reply.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_382.html) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/6 "2005-11-23T19:45:05Z")
Just wanted to agree with Cecil’s reply, which I read ages ago. Long before I did, I’d heard the recipe for Red Paint at one of the historical sites in Salem, Mass. Only they didn’t say “skim milk” – i think they said soured milk. After you painted the house or barn, it smelled pretty awful for a while. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/7 "2005-11-23T20:13:20Z")
[Link](http://people.howstuffworks.com/question635.htm) > [@](#): > > Farmers added ferrous oxide, otherwise known as rust, to the oil mixture. Rust was plentiful on farms and is a poison to many fungi, including mold and moss, which were known to grown on barns. These fungi would trap moisture in the wood, increasing decay. ---
**Author:** ![VegaBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ee7513/32.png) [@VegaBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VegaBean)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/8 "2005-11-23T21:07:44Z")
There are three primary natural coumpounds of lead, red, white and black. So these were the cheapest and easiest lead-based paints to make with consistant colors. That’s why early cars were black. The rust idea is silly. rust is not barn red, I think we’ll all agree. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/9 "2005-11-23T21:25:29Z")
> [@](#): > > The rust idea is silly. rust is not barn red, I think we’ll all agree. Not silly – talk to historians, or look it up. And rust was in more plentiful supply than lead. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/10 "2005-11-23T21:32:57Z")
> [@VegaBean](#): > > The rust idea is silly. rust is not barn red, I think we’ll all agree. Perhaps not, but neither were barns. I’ve seen real rust-paint up close and it is indeed a dark red or maroon color. Bright red barns are a result of bright red paint becoming available in the 20th century, and farmers realizing that they didn’t _have_ to use the ugliest possible red, as long as it was red. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/11 "2005-11-23T21:47:45Z")
I’ve been checking the internet recipes. They either don’t tell you the colorant, or else say “earth colors”. One site suggests using crumbled brick. Another seems to suggest using blood from slaughtered animals (_that’s_ a different way of getting iron oxide). But i know the guide I talked to years ago insisted on rust being the source of the pigment. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/12 "2005-11-23T22:26:36Z")
[Chicago Public Library](http://www.chipublib.org/008subject/005genref/faqbarns.html) [Indiana University](http://amos.indiana.edu/library/scripts/redbarns.html) [Archives of the Shiawasee County Historical Society](http://www.englishcottagegardens.com/redbarns.html) [American Barns and Covered Bridges by Eric Sloan](http://www.apl.org/quick/files/search.asp?searchFields=Subject&txtSearchString=barns) [Barns by Charles Klamkin](http://www.mpl.org/file/readyref_b.htm) [BioShield Paint](http://www.bioshieldpaint.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=353) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/13 "2005-11-23T22:39:24Z")
The tour at [Old Sturbridge Village](http://www.osv.org/), MA states that the white was both the cheapest and most expensive color and that red was the most enduring cheap paint. The absolute cheapest was simple whitewash, but it had to be redone frequently having little staying power. The cheapest _paint_ that endured was red–which explains not only painting very large structures, such as barns, red, but also the prevalence of red school houses. Good quality white was the most expensive. I did not find the exact text of the guide’s spiel at the OSV website, but I did find a page that discussed some aspects of paints through the early 19th century. A few selected quotes: > [@](#): > > “…the dwelling houses were mostly in a dilapidated condition, weather-worn and mostly unpainted; such as were painted were a dingy red. I can recall to mind but two in the town at that time that were painted white.” > [@](#): > > The horizontal wooden sheathing of kitchen walls and the built-in cupboards were painted with an oil-based, red oxide-pigmented paint. The discovery of red pigment on the ceiling lath in the kitchen and sitting room, and blue pigment on the wall and ceiling lath in the best room, indicated that the painting of the walls, chimney breasts, and wainscotting was done prior to the plastering of the ceilings and walls. Painted at the base of the walls in the kitchen and carried across the cupboard base and bottom of the doors was a brown band simulating a baseboard; the same brown was painted on the kitchen chimney breast panels. Microscopic examination and infrared spectroscopy of paint samples from the chimney breast panels revealed that the red-brown iron oxide pigments were carried not by an oil-based binder, but in a resin or varnish, possibly a copal resin. The floors of the kitchen were painted with the same red-oxide paint as the walls. > [@](#): > > By the early nineteenth century, the use of red and brown iron oxide-pigmented paints in the houses of rural New England had been common for almost a century, and the use of blue-pigmented paints for almost half a century. In nearly all of the houses surveyed in the Four Corners neighborhood, red, brown and blue were found to be the original colors, with red in the kitchens and secondary rooms and blue in the best rooms. What was surprising in the Bixby house was the extent of the painting and the use of resin as a binder for the pigments on some of the architectural elements. Given the difficulty of preparing the resin and mixing in the pigments, the owners went to considerable trouble to acheive the desired effects. The depth and translucent quality of the resin-based brown paint must have created quite a contrast against the duller red and blue of the walls and floors. ---
**Author:** ![Foaming\_Cleanser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Foaming\_Cleanser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foaming_Cleanser)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/14 "2005-11-24T01:35:11Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Long before I did, I’d heard the recipe for Red Paint at one of the historical sites in Salem, Mass. Only they didn’t say “skim milk” – i think they said soured milk. After you painted the house or barn, it smelled pretty awful for a while. Likely [casein paint](http://naturalbuildingproductscouk.ntitemp.com/data_casein.htm) that [various web sites](http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=lang_en&safe=off&as_qdr=all&q=+%22casein+paint%22+egypt&btnG=Search&lr=lang_en) say goes back to the time of the ancient Egytptians. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/15 "2005-11-24T02:30:39Z")
> [@Crab Rangoon](#): > > It’s the way og intended for us to live. I’m losing my faith in [Og](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=346237). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barn-color/332454/16 "2005-11-24T14:03:57Z")
> [@VegaBean](#): > > There are three primary natural coumpounds of lead, red, white and black. So these were the cheapest and easiest lead-based paints to make with consistant colors. That’s why early cars were black. The rust idea is silly. rust is not barn red, I think we’ll all agree. Pay close attention: Rust is _one_ ingredient in the mix. Mixes of substances usually have a different color than one of it’s components. So it is extremely far from silly and leave the “we” out of it.