Painted Ladies

Painted ladies is an American vernacular term, used as an endearment, introduced in the 1970?s to describe polychromed Victorian houses in the greater San Francisco area, which are usually painted in a multi-colored pastel scheme.

The term?s popularity spread east in the late 1970s and 1980s, however its use began to decline in the 1990?s and is seldom used in 2000, replaced by more accurate terminology such as polychrome, etc. Those familiar with historic preservation view the term painted ladies as bordering on kitsch.

As a rule, highly decorative homes built during the Queen Anne style era (late 1800s) were painted in multiple colors as to draw attention to the elements of the design. After 1900, Queen Anne style fell from popularity, replaced by the classical revival schools of design; whites and light crème?s dominated these types of wood structures, and so many Victorian homes were subsequently painted all white, or one color, as a means of simplifying painting and modernizing facades by playing down their highly ornamented style details.