Kitchen Design : American Colonial Style

This palette from Sally Zimmerman, manager of historic preservation services for Historic New England and author of Painting Historic Exteriors, evokes the simple colors of the earth. “The reds during the Colonial period are rust-based,” explains Zimmerman. Iron oxide imbued reddish tones into paint. This red graces the island and hutch, as it might have during the Colonial period. “It was not uncommon for painted furniture to imitate more colorful or more expensive woods than the actual wood used to construct the piece,” says Zimmerman. Painted furniture, both then and now, adds color and style to the kitchen.


Sally Zimmerman
Historic New England
Boston, Massachusetts