The ceiling of the front porch is going to be painted a soft blue-green (Benjamin Moore’s Smoke 2122-40). When I was a child family vacations were spent on a barrier island off the Coast of South Carolina. It is most likely some deep-seated memory of total bliss - lying in a Pawleys’ Island hammock rocking, while staring up at the ceiling - that made me want to use this treatment on our porch in Victoria. Thought to be America’s first beach resort, during the colonial period indigo and rice plantation owners “repaired” to Pawleys Island to escape mosquitoes bearing malaria and yellow fever. When blue paints were first used they were usually milk paints, with indigo and lye mixed into the composition. Lye is a known insect repellent, which would explain why insects would avoid nesting on a painted porch ceiling or ledge. Blue connotes sky.
The term for this soft blue in the Low Country of South Carolina is “Haint Blue”. The term Haint comes from Gullah (a dialect incorporating words from many African languages & English) used by enslaved West Africans from the Windward Coast - meaning haunt. The Haints are restless spirits who have not moved on beyond their physical worlds. Haint blue paint is meant to protect a house from evil.
The light blue hue gives the illusion of making the the daylight last longer. That will be nice come late October.
See more on Haint Blue and Gullah traditions. This entry is being posted on my mom’s birthday - were she still with us she would be 94 today. She and my dad went on their honeymoon to Pawleys. It is one of our most favorite places on earth. May her spirit be at peace. Just this week, Don found a story from Atlas Obscura about the complicated history of indigo that is well worth a read.
Dad Pawleys Honeymoon 1950
Mom at Pawleys on honeymoon