Do You Know Why Bermuda Has Colored Houses?

The Story of Bermuda's Pastel Houses

Pink, yellow, blue, peach and green—Bermuda's colourful houses are as much a part of the island's identity as its white roofs and turquoise waters. But how did Bermuda develop this distinctive architectural style?

From Cedar to Stone
When Bermuda was permanently settled in the early seventeenth century, the first settlers built with the materials readily available around them. Bermuda cedar provided timber for houses, while palmetto leaves were commonly used for thatched roofs. Wooden houses, however, had an obvious disadvantage on an island regularly exposed to hurricanes. Bermuda cedar was also increasingly in demand for the island's growing shipbuilding industry. By the late seventeenth century, Bermudians were increasingly turning to locally quarried limestone. After 1693, new land grants in St. George's required stone buildings to be constructed on them, and the devastating hurricanes of 1712 and 1715 further demonstrated the advantages of building in stone.

Painting Bermuda
While we now tend to associate brilliant white roofs with colourful walls, Bermuda's love affair with colour is much older than many people might imagine. Research by the Bermuda National Trust, working with conservation specialists, has examined microscopic layers of paint from some of the island's oldest surviving buildings. The findings indicate that coloured finishes were already being used on Bermuda buildings during the eighteenth century. Early pigments and lime-based washes produced earthy shades such as ochres, reds, yellows and muted blues. As imported pigments and commercially produced paints became more readily available, Bermuda's architectural palette gradually expanded.

The Soldiers and the Paint Ships
One theory suggests that Bermuda's increasingly varied palette received an unexpected boost during the Victorian era. British soldiers stationed on the island are said to have used whatever colours of paint happened to arrive aboard military supply ships to brighten the cottages in which they lived. The availability of blues, greens, yellows and other shades may have encouraged a more adventurous approach to exterior colour. Whether the soldiers really were responsible for popularizing Bermuda's increasingly colourful houses is difficult to prove, but the story has become part of the island's architectural folklore.

An Unmistakably Bermudian Tradition
Today, Bermuda's pastel houses are one of the island's most recognizable features, but behind their cheerful colours lies a story shaped by necessity, ingenuity and changing tastes. What began with locally available cedar and palmetto evolved into a distinctive limestone architecture designed to withstand Bermuda's climate. Over the generations, colour added another layer of character. The result is more than a building style. It is a living piece of Bermuda's history, painted across the island one house at a time.