To celebrate their 150th anniversary, Sherwin-Williams has created a historical color journey showing paint color trends throughout the decades. The timeline starts in the Victorian era and spans all the way to the 2010s — which they refer to as the ‘greying of America.’ The color history is a great starting point for those who want historically accurate paint colors for their homes and need a frame of reference. Which decade is your favorite? To get swatches of any of these historic colors without having to head down to the paint store, see our story revealing the ‘secret’ for how to get paper samples of any of Sherwin-Williams’ paint color swatches, including one of the most useful palettes we ever found, their Suburban Modern paint colors. Oh and: Happy Birthday, S-W!
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17 comments
Joe Felice says
According to SW, the greiging of America didn’t occur until the 2010’s, but I beg to differ. Here in the Denver area, all the homes built in the ’90s & 00’s were greige, inside and out. Mine was built in 1996, and I have been busy de-greiging it ever since. You should see my anti-greige home now! Hot coral, magenta, turquoise, violet and aqua. I love it.
Reid Sondrup says
Picking the right color paint is enough to drive a person crazy. I wasted $35 on a can of Sherwin-Williams Classic French Gray (SW 0077) which I thought was going to be the perfect color for the mcm re-do of the living room in our 1942 house. Turns out it’s much too dark. I ended up buying a gallon of Requisite Gray (SW 7023), a slightly brown medium gray. It goes perfect with the fabrics in the furniture we’ll be using. Lesson learned: Forget what the designers say and go with what looks good to you.