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Early American

Measured dignity

A home of proportion and permanence.

American Colonial (17th-18th century). Simple, functional, handcrafted. Early American heritage with honest materials.

Simpler and more utilitarian than Stately Classic; more historic and less decorative than Craftsman.

Jeid Studio

What sits closest

The styles nearest to yours, measured the same way the quiz measured you. A room of yours that does not quite fit this style often fits one of these.

Old English ManorHeritage & Formal
CraftsmanWarm & Rustic
French CountryCoastal & Sun

How pattern works here

  • Early American rooms are mostly solid color and wood, with pattern held to a few handmade things.
  • The walls carry one muted color on paint or paneling, and the floor is bare wood or one rug.
  • Pattern arrives in textiles: crewel vines on a bed, a watered moreen on a chair, a Turkey carpet, a border of delft tiles at the fire.
  • Scale stays small and the colors come from the same earth and mineral palette: ochre, iron red, copper green, Prussian blue, putty and black.
  • Two patterns in a room is plenty, three is the ceiling, and they should share a color.
  • If a room looks like a showroom, it has too much pattern and too much furniture.

Surface by surface

What this style asks for on each surface, and what pushes it into a different style entirely.

Flooring
  • The style calls for wide plank softwood, and eastern white pine is the period floor.
  • Boards often run 8" and wider, and many floors mix widths.
  • Plank means 3" and up, and wide plank means over 5".
  • Pine is soft, around 380 lbf on the Janka scale, so it dents and wears, and that wear is the look.
  • The default finish is natural, a matte oil or wax.
  • Paint, in a solid color or a checkered pattern, is the period second choice.
  • Heart pine or plain sawn white oak can stand in where a family needs a harder floor.
  • Avoid: narrow strip flooring, glossy polyurethane, gray or whitewashed stains, herringbone, and large format tile in living rooms.
Tile
  • Tile in this style lives at the fireplace, not on the floor.
  • Tin glazed delft tiles, about 5" square, framed 1700s fireplaces in blue or manganese purple on white, with biblical scenes, ships and flowers.
  • Today Clé's maiolica de delft line gives a 4" hand painted terracotta tile rated for walls, backsplashes and fireplace surrounds, not floors.
  • Hearths can be honed slate or plain earthenware tile.
  • Keep the field small: one surround, one backsplash, never a whole room.
  • Avoid: subway tile, large format porcelain, glossy white squares, cement tile, and busy mosaics.
Cabinets
  • Period houses had no fitted kitchens, so cabinets borrow the wall paneling.
  • The style calls for painted frame and panel doors, raised panel in formal rooms and flat panel in pantries and service rooms, with a beaded board back or side where First Period plainness fits.
  • Paint them in the same muted color as the trim, in a satin or soft gloss, since 18th century painters valued a glossy look on wood.
  • A hutch or island in natural cherry reads as furniture, which is the period way to hold dishes.
  • Milled beadboard is a late 1800s product and belongs to Craftsman and Cottage, not here.
  • Avoid: slab doors, high gloss lacquer, stained oak, shaker in gray, glass uppers with mullions, and modern beadboard.
Cabinet hardware
  • Hardware is hand forged iron or simple brass, nothing plated.
  • Surface mounted H and HL hinges and strap hinges in black, with a Suffolk thumb latch where a cabinet door can take one.
  • Brass pulls follow the furniture: Queen Anne and Chippendale bail pulls with a backplate, in unlacquered or antique brass that darkens with use.
  • Small cast brass knobs, around 1 1/4", work on drawers.
  • Mix iron and brass by room, not within one run of cabinets.
  • Avoid: polished chrome, nickel, matte black bar pulls, edge pulls, and anything oversized.
Plumbing fittings
  • Sinks are the one place stone shows in a period kitchen.
  • A deep soapstone sink, oiled dark, or a honed slate sink suits the style, and both makers also cut counters.
  • Soapstone scratches easily and most marks oil or sand out.
  • It often does not need sealing, though finishes vary by quarry.
  • Fittings are unlacquered brass or black iron, with cross or lever handles kept plain.
  • Avoid: polished chrome, farmhouse apron sinks in white fireclay as the default, waterfall spouts, and matte black everywhere.
Lighting
  • Candles set the scale.
  • The style calls for small fixtures: tin or brass candle sconces, pierced or crimped tin, and hanging lanterns in copper, brass or tin with clear glass.
  • Chandeliers are simple, with a few arms and candle sockets and no crystal.
  • Authentic Designs in Vermont and House of Antique Hardware both build these forms by hand, and many can be ordered for candle or wired.
  • Use several dim lights instead of one bright one, and warm bulbs.
  • Avoid: crystal chandeliers, recessed cans as the main light, drum shades, sputnik and industrial cage fixtures, and oversized lanterns.
Fireplaces
  • The fireplace wall is the room.
  • In Georgian houses it is fully paneled: raised panels, fluted pilasters, a mantelpiece and an overmantel, all painted one color.
  • In First Period houses it is beaded pine boards with a large opening and a carved lintel.
  • The opening itself takes a plain surround in honed slate or marble, or a border of delft tiles, and period painters often marbleized slate and wood surrounds.
  • Soapstone works for a stove surround since it holds heat.
  • Avoid: stacked stone, floating mantels, oversized stone hoods, glass tile, and raised hearths.
Windows
  • Windows are wood, double hung and divided into small lights.
  • Georgian sash often carried nine or twelve lights per sash, so nine over six and twelve over twelve are the shapes to ask for, in true or simulated divided lights with narrow muntins.
  • First Period houses had small diamond pane casements, which suit a mudroom or a stair.
  • Paint the sash the trim color or darker than the wall, which is historically accurate.
  • Dress them lightly: a simple panel of crewel or moreen on a rod, or interior shutters.
  • Avoid: picture windows, black steel frames, grids between the glass, wide muntins, and heavy layered drapery.
Stone
  • Stone is quiet and dark or soft and white, never busy.
  • Soapstone reads gray untreated and near black when oiled, scratches easily, and often needs no sealer; many families like the patina.
  • Slate comes in gray, green, purple, black and red, is often dense and acid resistant, and hones to a satin finish.
  • Marble shows at fireplaces, where white Vermont Danby fits and can have a low absorption rate.
  • Marble can still etch and stain, so keep it off the kitchen counter unless the client wants the marks.
  • Edges stay square or eased.
  • Avoid: polished granite, heavily veined quartzite, engineered quartz with sparkle, and ogee edges.
Interior doors
  • Interior doors are painted wood, paneled in Georgian rooms and plank board and batten in First Period or back of house rooms.
  • The front door is paneled, centered, framed by pilasters with a transom of small lights above.
  • Plank doors take a Suffolk or Norfolk thumb latch in black iron instead of a knob; paneled doors take a surface mounted rim lock in brass or iron with a small knob.
  • Paint doors the trim color or a darker shade of it.
  • Avoid: flush doors, barn door hardware, glass French doors as the default, lever handles, and stained fiberglass.
Wallpaper
  • Paper was for the best rooms, and most walls were whitewashed plaster.
  • Where paper goes, the style calls for block printed reproductions of 18th century documents, which Adelphi hand prints, or a scenic or floral English pattern in a parlor or dining room.
  • Stenciling came into rural houses in the early 1800s as a cheap stand in for paper, and a single stenciled border works in a hall.
  • Hang paper above a paneled dado, not floor to ceiling.
  • Avoid: grasscloth, metallic papers, large scale modern florals, murals in every room, and peel and stick.
Paint
  • Color is muted but not weak.
  • The 18th century palette ran to black and white, grays, buffs and tans, ochre yellows, iron oxide reds, copper greens and Prussian blue, and the originals were often more saturated than faded samples suggest.
  • Benjamin Moore's Williamsburg collection was built from those samples, so start there: Harwood Putty CW-5, Wythe Blue CW-590, Carter Red CW-230, Bassett Hall Green CW-480, Mopboard Black CW-680 on baseboards.
  • Farrow and Ball's Lamp Room Gray, Stone Blue and Picture Gallery Red cover the same ground.
  • Woodwork can go darker than the wall, and wood trim takes a soft gloss while plaster stays flat.
  • Avoid: bright white trim everywhere, cool grays, pastels, high gloss walls, and accent walls.
Ceilings
  • Ceilings are plain.
  • First Period rooms show the frame: a chamfered summer beam with lamb's tongue stops and exposed joists, with whitewashed plaster or boards between.
  • Georgian rooms hide the frame under flat plaster and finish the edge with a carved or run cornice.
  • Keep ceilings white or a whisper of the wall color, in a flat finish.
  • Beams, if added, are real timber and sized to the room.
  • Avoid: coffered ceilings, tray ceilings, tongue and groove planks, faux beams in dark stain, and ceiling medallions.
Wall details
  • Wall trim is the style's signature.
  • By the 1760s only the fireplace wall was fully paneled; the other walls carried a paneled dado under a chair rail, plaster above, and a cornice around the top.
  • Raised panel wainscot runs 30" to 40" high, and fluted pilasters flank the chimney breast and carry a simple entablature.
  • All of it is painted one color, often with the baseboard darker.
  • In a First Period room the wall is beaded pine boards instead.
  • Avoid: picture frame molding on drywall, board and batten in gray, shiplap, crown molding alone, and stained trim.
Furniture
  • Furniture is wood you can name.
  • Windsor chairs in maple and pine, often painted, for the kitchen and hall.
  • Queen Anne chairs with vase splats and cabriole legs in walnut or maple, and Chippendale forms with claw and ball feet and pierced splats.
  • Case pieces are high chests, chests on chests and desks in walnut, cherry or mahogany with scroll pediments, plus small tables for tea and cards.
  • Keep pieces few and against the wall, the period way.
  • Avoid: sectionals as the anchor, glass and metal tables, tufted everything, matched sets, and distressed paint finishes.
Textiles
  • Textiles bring the pattern.
  • Crewel embroidery in colored wool on linen for bed hangings, curtains and pillows.
  • Worsted moreen, a watered wool in crimson, garnet or green, for chairs and windows.
  • Wool damask from Norwich with flowers and pomegranates on a formal chair.
  • Printed cotton toile, one color on white, arrived at the end of the period and suits a bedroom, and every cloth stays matte and natural: wool, linen, cotton.
  • Avoid: velvet everywhere, performance polyester, silk as the main cloth, large modern geometrics, and faux fur.
Rugs
  • Floors were mostly bare, so one good rug per room is enough.
  • A Turkey carpet with a red ground is the period prize, and a painted canvas floorcloth in a geometric pattern is the period floor covering for a kitchen or entry.
  • Hooked and braided rugs are later New England folk traditions.
  • They read Early American and suit bedrooms and halls.
  • Sizes stay modest and show the floor around them.
  • Avoid: wall to wall carpet, shag, jute as the default, oversized rugs edge to edge, and distressed or faded prints.

Where to start

Real paint colors and products, so you have something specific to take to a paint counter or a showroom.

Wall paint
Harwood Putty CW-5Benjamin Moore Williamsburg; quiet putty for walls and trim
Wythe Blue CW-590Benjamin Moore Williamsburg; Prussian blue family
Carter Red CW-230Benjamin Moore Williamsburg; iron oxide red, dining room
Bassett Hall Green CW-480Benjamin Moore Williamsburg; copper green on paneling
Mopboard Black CW-680Benjamin Moore Williamsburg; baseboards
Lamp Room Gray No. 88Farrow and Ball; traditional blue gray
Stone BlueFarrow and Ball; named for 18th century indigo
Picture Gallery Red No. 42Farrow and Ball; brown based red
Dutch Tile Blue SW 0031Sherwin-Williams Colonial Revival palette; revival, not period
Flooring
Hull Forest Products Eastern White PineMill direct wide plank, Connecticut; takes stain readily
Heritage Wide Plank Flooring Old Growth Eastern White PineReclaimed, milled from old structures
Carlisle Wide Plank FloorsSixty years of American wide plank; oak and pine
Slab stone
Vermont SoapstonePerkinsville VT since 1856; counters and deep sinks, oiled dark
Sheldon SlateMonson ME and Middle Granville NY; honed satin counters and sinks
Vermont Danby MarbleWhite marble; 0.06% to 0.8% absorption; fireplaces
Tile
Clé 17th Century: Maiolica de Delft, Piccola4" x 4" hand painted terracotta; walls and fireplace surrounds, not floors
Hardware finish
Ball and Ball Hand Forged IronThumb latches, strap and H hinges, rim locks
Suffolk Latch Company Black BeeswaxDeep aged black for interior plank doors
House of Antique Hardware Un-Lacquered BrassDarkens naturally; Colonial period style
Antique Brass finish sample
Antique BrassPre-aged brass where unlacquered is too bright
Lighting
Authentic Designs Williamsburg CollectionVermont; brass, copper, terne; candle or wired
House of Antique Hardware Toll House LanternPennsylvania; copper or brass, 17" x 6"
House of Antique Hardware Crimped Tin Fireplace SconceTin candle sconce, period form

Finish samples are shown on cabinet hardware, so the metal reads true. Finishes without a sample are ones we have not photographed yet.

The architecture underneath

A lot of what makes a room read as this style is in the architecture, before any furniture comes in.

Symmetrical Five Bay FacadeCentered door, balanced windows, ordered proportion
Center Hall PlanStair hall with a parlor on each side
Massive Central or Paired End ChimneysCentral stack early; end chimneys in Georgian houses
Steep Gable, Saltbox or Gambrel RoofWood shingles; catslide to the rear on a saltbox
Clapboard Cladding With Corner BoardsNarrow wood boards in the North, brick in the South
Paneled Entry With Pilasters and TransomDecorative crown, row of lights above the door
Multi Light Double Hung SashNine or twelve lights per sash, small panes
Heavy Timber Frame Shown InsideChamfered summer beam, girts, lamb's tongue stops

What to know about the materials

A few materials this style uses need more care than they look like they will. Worth knowing before you choose them.

MapleIt fights stain. Maple will not take a dark color evenly, so it is at its best left natural. For color, ask for a dye, a gel stain or a sealer coat first.
PineIt blotches. Pine takes stain unevenly, so it is either painted or handled with a gel stain, and you see it on the real board before it is ordered.
MarbleMarble can etch. Lemon, wine and tomato can leave dull marks, and sealing does not stop that. A stone pro can polish the marks out, and a honed finish hides them better. Plenty of people like how it ages. If you would not, we will steer you somewhere else.

If you are working on a house and want to see what this style would look like in it, set up a time with Jeid Studio and we can go through it with your answers in front of us.

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