I wrote a post earlier today about treating wood used to build vegetable garden planters, and in my post I had mentioned beeswax and milk paint. Milk Paint has been around for centuries, it was even found in Tutankhamen's tomb when it was opening in 1924. This post will reveal what farmers did way back in the day when building their Barns and why, they seem to traditionally are red.
Way back then, farmers where very frugal people, and learned to be creative with all that they had at their disposal. Farmers were looking for ways to protect the wood that their barns were built of. So in experimenting they discovered a method that seems to have worked. What was the one thing that farmers had around the farm that was in excess supply, Milk. So the farmers started experimenting with a milk mixture.
A recipe including skimmed milk, lime and a red iron oxide was tested. This cheap to make mixture was proven to last a long time on the farmers barns. Farmers found easily iron oxide in the soil. The natural reddish color of the clay based soil was used.Farmers also grew Flax plants which they obtained the Linseed oil. This combination created a dark coral hue stain. The Farmers found that with the darker walls it created a warmer environment inside the barns as the wood absorbed the sun light, which was great for the colder winter months.
Some say that Farmers used Rust in the milk, lime, Linseed mix which gave that reddish color. They felt that rust was found all around the homestead and was used because it killed fungi and many of the mosses that might grew on barns.
Today Paint has come a long way in its compound and mixture, however the tradition of using the color red on barns and farms is still used in honor of the tradition.
Just a post with a tid bit of history.
Image Source:
http://fival.info/red-barn-pictures/
https://www.trendir.com/red-exterior-homes/