What is haint blue paint?

Haint blue is a collection of pale shades of blue-green that are traditionally used to paint porch ceilings in the southern United States.

What is the meaning of haint blue paint?

The shade and the term “haint blue” have become mythic and ubiquitous. The Gullah Geechee legend says that evil spirits do not like water and painting spaces to look like water will keep them away. The color is said to have been originally based on the indigo grown in the region in the eighteenth century.

What shade of blue is haint blue?

There is actually a name for this light aqua-blue color used on the ceilings- referred to as “haint” blue. This tradition of light blue porch ceilings has been around for centuries.

Why do Southerners paint their porches blue?

Gullah folklore explains that ghosts, also referred to as “haints,” were not able to cross water. In order to repel evil spirits from plantations, porch ceilings were painted a soft blue. The color was meant to mimic water in an effort to keep any haints or spirits at bay.

Why do people in the south paint their ceiling blue?

Across the South, the tradition of painting ceilings blue is passed down from generation to generation. There are many stories and legends as to why, and it's not just about keeping bugs at bay. In the Deep South, a darker blue sometimes called “haint blue” is believed by some to keep away evil spirits.

The Story of Haint Blue | What About This?

What color keeps evil spirits away?

Since the ancient times, red color is believed to be a lucky color to ward off evil spirits.

Do blue ceilings keep bugs away?

It was used as an insect repellent.

The theory was that insects would mistake the blue ceiling for the sky and set up housekeeping elsewhere. The blue paint actually did thwart insects, but not by outsmarting them.

What color is haint blue in Sherwin Williams?

Sherwin-Williams Waterscape (SW 6470) is a dynamic, perfectly soft-but-bright blue infused with hints of green. Haint blue in general can be tricky because it will depend on several factors, like the natural light on your porch, the other colors present, and the amount of greenery surrounding your house.

Does blue paint deter spiders?

The color that spiders tend to hate is light blue. People don't just paint their porches light blue for the aesthetic. Painting your porch ceiling in this shade is a pretty effective way of keeping spiders away. The color is also known to repel wasps.

What color keeps birds away?

Blue ceilings are also said to deter birds from nesting there and insects from buzzing around.

What does the word haint mean?

1. a type of ghost or evil spirit from the Carolina coast. According to Appalachian historian Dave Tabler, the word haint can refer to an angry dead spirit, but also to “an undefinable something that scares the bejeevers out of you.”

What is the horrible history of haint blue?

This “haint blue,” first derived from the dye produced on Lowcountry indigo plantations, was originally used by enslaved Africans, and later by the Gullah Geechee, to combat “haints” and “boo hags”—evil spirits who escaped their human forms at night to paralyze, injure, ride (the way a person might ride a horse), or ...

What color blue is on Charleston porches?

The shade of blue used on many southern ceilings is often called “haint blue”. This light blue-green color is especially popular in southern coastal cities like Charleston, SC or Savannah, GA because of the historically haunted nature of these cities.

Why do black people paint their houses blue?

The Gullah people (also known as the Geechee or Gullah Geechee) in Georgia, a subsection of enslaved people who lived on island and costal plantations, were the first to use this color blue as a protection against evil spirits, calling it “haint blue”.

Why were porch ceilings painted blue during slavery?

Originally, haint blue was thought by the Gullah to ward haints, or ghosts, away from the home. The tactic was intended either to mimic the appearance of the sky, tricking the ghost into passing through, or to mimic the appearance of water, which ghosts traditionally could not cross.

What do haints do?

Origination of haint beliefs

In South Carolina, haints are malicious ghosts, often seeking to steal or harm naughty children (maybe used as a story to make unruly children behave?). One online dictionary defines the word "haint" simply as a ghost. The tradition is more complex than that.

What color do bugs hate the most?

Blue might be the most widely insect-repelling color there is. As with green, blue is harder for insects to detect.

Do dryer sheets repel spiders?

PESTS. Readers have confirmed that dryer sheets will repel both spiders and flies. Keep a few extra sheets in clothes hampers and around the laundry area, and you can kiss all those spiders goodbye.

Should porch ceilings be painted blue?

According to the Gullah/Geechee, a blue porch ceiling brought good luck to the home and helped to ward away evil spirits as these lost souls are unable to cross water. A haint blue porch ceiling resembles water and prevents haints from harming the people in the house.

What color are porch ceilings in the South?

Porch ceilings in the American South (and parts of the Northeast) are almost always painted blue — whether the rest of the home's exterior is white, yellow, pink or any other color of the rainbow.

What color is sea salt Sherwin Williams?

Sea Salt is one of Sherwin Williams most popular paint colors, a delicate green gray blue color that is a chameleon paint color that changes dramatically in different lighting conditions.

What is Charleston green?

Historians and paint analysts have found that what we know today as “Charleston Green” was originally a bright, glossy green used on trim and shutters. The paint was colored with unstable copper acetate verdigris pigment, which over time would degrade to a dark almost-black, forming what we now call Charleston Green.

Do wasps avoid blue ceilings?

Unfortunately, there is no scientific evidence that blue ceilings do in fact keep bugs away. However, there are some personal testimonies that state they saw fewer spiders and wasps after painting their porch ceiling blue.

What color should your porch ceiling be?

Historically, light blue is the go-to porch ceiling color—and for good reason. It mimics the natural sky and makes a covered porch feel open and inviting.

Does blue paint keep wasp away?

Lore claims the insects and birds see the blue as the sky and don't come beneath it. According to a history of blue paint on Sherwin-Williams.com, today's blue paint is probably not a true deterrent for insects and birds but it once was – back when blue paint was made with lye.