Barns come in many shapes and sizes, from the classic English A-frame gabled roof to the American double-pitched gambrel roof (shown above). The Shakers built circular structures, and the curved Gothic arch-roofed barn came to America via Europe. When you picture a barn in your mind, chances are it is red. It’s become one of the quintessential icons of American architecture.
There was a time when barns remained unpainted or unstained. Farmers learned that a protective coating could extend the life of a barn by preventing rot and decay. Applying a mixture of linseed oil, milk, lime and turpentine to the unfinished wooden planks helped to preserve their buildings. Along the way, someone found that adding rust (ferrous oxide) halted the growth of mosses and fungi – two organisms that gradually erode wood. It was iron in the rust that gave the mixture its red colour. And the intensity of red depended on the amount of rust added. The materials for this easy-to-create concoction were readily available and inexpensive.
Commercial paints and stains with more sophisticated formulas eventually became available, allowing farmers to paint their barns different colours. Nonetheless, red remained a traditional favourite. In 1922, Sears, Roebuck and Co., knowing it was the colour of choice, offered red barn paint a dollar a gallon cheaper than all the other colours. Nowadays, the landscape feels complete when a green pasture under a blue sky is accented by a red barn.