Myself and my team are a fairly young crew of Gold Coast House Painters. At this point in time, we’re only a small crew but every one of us is in our mid 20s so whenever we cross paths with seasoned painters, we listen out and soak up their wisdom, but mainly we just laugh along at the typical tradie stories they’ve accumulated over the years.
Anyway, recently we got chatting to an older painter who had been in the game longer than I’d even been alive. The casual banter drifted into what paint supplier he uses, some, like myself swear Dulux, some by X some by Y. That drifted into how 95% of our work is done in white. I never really thought about that, when I began painting that was the norm, but then I thought back to my childhood and even then I remember houses being a little more colourful. Not eccentric, but a little more coloured. Whether you love it or hate it, where did this trend begin? Nobody can say for certain and no doubt there are 100+ reasons why trends begin. But I got researching and I want to share a little information with you on at least 1 reason why this might be.
In the past, colours were a wealthy thing
Did you know coloured paints and colours in general were not always available to the common person. It was only around the mid-late 1800’s in which coloured household paints became available as synthetic dyes were manufactured. Colours all throughout history were a symbol of status and wealth. Often inaccessible and hard to obtain. Think about it, colours are everywhere in nature, but extracting that colour and making it usable in a large scale way is another thing. For example:
- In ancient Rome, purple dye was farmed from the mucus produced by predatory sea snails found in the Mediterranean Sea, requiring thousands to make just an ounce of dye, in an era where everything required man power this was a super expensive and smelly process. 1lb of purple dye would cost the equivalent of a diamond ring in today’s money. In addition to its cost, it was artificially made exclusive, being reserved only for emperors.
- In early Europe, a plant called Woad was harvested to collect a light shade of blue. Nothing like the vibrant blues available today. The process was incredibly labour intensive making it a luxury for people who could afford it. Nothing like the price and exclusivity of purple in Rome.
- Moving into European Middle ages, the blue from woad was not to the taste of rich people anymore. Instead, the most expensive and prestigious blue pigment in medieval Europe became ultramarine, derived from lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone imported primarily from Afghanistan. This blue was more vibrant and deeper, significantly more costly than woad.
- In Ancient Egypt prized green pigments, notably malachite, a vibrant green mineral ground into a fine powder. Due to its rarity and complexity to produce, malachite green was reserved primarily for royalty and significant religious artifacts, symbolizing rebirth, fertility, and status.
History is full of trends
So perhaps, and again there are a million reasons why trends change. But perhaps one reason is the development of modern synthetic pigments meant colours stopped being exclusive. Today, colour has become more of a preference over a signal. Throughout history, trends (but not always) have been shaped by those with excess and then followed by the people seeking to emulate. With plentiful and relatively cheap paint across the globe, has colour lost some prestige? Ironically, today the wealthy trend is minimalism dominated by white. Maybe white walls, love them or hate them, are just a repeat of history.