Painting Our Farmhouse Porch Ceiling Haint Blue
Hey there!
I’m so excited to talk about painting our farmhouse porch ceiling haint blue! I shared the porch renovation last week and you can see that HERE! But I wanted to break down this project a bit more because I love learning about old traditions and our new blue ceiling is my favorite!!
I had always loved the look of porch ceilings being painted blue, but didn’t know where or why this tradition started. So while I was working on other parts of the porch I decided to dig in and see what I could learn about it. I also wanted to make sure it was appropriate for our region and the time period of the house before I decided for sure whether or not to go blue.
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Haint Blue History
Haint blue is a general term used to describe this sky or greenish blue color used on porch ceilings. I read several different stories and superstitions as to exactly where and why haint blue came about.
Haint blue, pronounced haunt blue, is a tradition that started in the south and branched out from the Georgia coastline and islands. This makes sense since it is typically a very cheerful Caribbean color. Slaves from West Africa were the ones who first painted the hue it on plantation porch ceilings. Haunt is a southern term for ghost and it is said that painting your porch ceiling would protect you from evil haunts or spirits.
From there it spread through the south and beyond not only because of this folklore, but also its beauty and other possible uses. Some believe it’s a natural deterrent for bugs including wasps, and even birds from building nests. I also read some believe it’s good luck.
For all these reasons I was already excited to take part in this rich tradition and thenย I started scraping the loose paint on our porch I noticed that buried under the layers was the original ceiling paint…HAINT BLUE!! I could have cried I was so happy to be bringing this original feature back to the house!
Choosing a Haint Blue
I brought home several sample swatches. Now I always preach to narrow it down to a few and then paint a section and live with it in different lighting for a day or so before selecting the color. Buuut I didn’t do that this time lol! Mostly because I could see that Basin blue was such a close match to what was here originally and I decided to just trust that ๐
Prepping the Porch Ceiling for Paint
To get the ceiling ready to paint I scraped off all the loose chippy paint I could. I mentioned in the porch reveal post HERE that I used a paint scraper that attaches to your shop vac. It worked really well at keeping this job less messy. You can find it below!
Painting the Ceiling
Here’s a little video of me painting the ceiling with the end results below! It was the most fun painting I’ve had in a long time! You can find the light fixture I chose HERE!ย I love the contrast of the black against the blue!
Painting Our Farmhouse Porch Ceiling Haint Blue
The haint blue ceiling MADE this porch! She’s perfectly imperfect and I couldn’t love it more! We aren’t completely done with this porch and will be circling back at a later time to replace some molding pieces and firm up some structural issues. But I swear the house is smiling! It’s the sweetest happiest little side porch ever and if you need us you know where we’ll be ๐
Thank you SO much for your encouragement and support along this fixer upper journey! It means more than I can express!
And as always thanks for stopping by the blog today!

6 Comments
Kori
It looks amazing
Amanda
Thank you!!
Kris
Hi Amanda!! I love your blue porch ceiling! I live in SW Florida, and I did the same thing to our front & back porches and I love it!! Like you said, it just makes me happy to look up & see it! ๐
I’ve heard of another way the “haint” term has been used to describe the color: It ‘haint blue, and it hain’t green!!
Enjoy your beautiful porch on what must be a lovely fall day in IL!๐๐๐ป๐พ๐งก
Carolyn
I love the way your porch is looking especially that beautiful blue paint. All the hard work is shining thru.
Cheryl
Love your every post! It has been so much fun tagging along as you re-enliven your farm and house!
Teresa
Love the porch progress! Really brightened things up & is so welcoming. I live in the south & all my porch ceilings are painted haint blue & we love it. But the biggest thing it does help with wasp & bugs!