Queen Anne exterior color scheme.

Every year, Pantone picks the color of the year, and this year it is two colors, Rose Quartz and Serenity. You can be sure that it is just a matter of time before you see these colors on bath towels, appliances and restaurant interiors. Taste in color is truly ephemeral, and what Pantone does is a kind of handicapping, predicting the taste of the masses before they know what they like. When selecting colors for a late Victorian house, however, surely we can be guided by the template of history, and be spared the guessing? Various national paint companies have “Victorian” paint palettes that are more or less historical. The problem is that history has moved on, and so must our paint schemes. Color is a way of mediating between the past and present, that is, inhabiting the present, while acknowledging the past. The Color People of Denver, Colorado are expert at balancing these and other values. For this exuberant Queen Anne, they determined to assert its historic architectural features while fitting into the neighborhood and expressing the tastes of the owners. Just like the rest of us, this Queen Anne residence is of the past, but in the present, and the color scheme expresses that well.