Blue Porch Ceilings on Key West May Ward-Off Spirits and Bugs

 

Blue painted porch ceilings are a common and aesthetically beautiful site to see in Key West.  If you’ve visited the island before you’ve no doubt seen the historic color of blue shown on this porch at the Heavenly Hideout at Rainbow’s End, which is called ‘Jack Frost Blue.”  Architectural historians seem to agree that this tradition dates back to African descendants from the West Indies who believed that spirits or ghosts (called “haints”) couldn’t cross water and that by painting their porches some shade of water-color blue, they would confuse the haints and keep them from entering their homes.

As time went by another legend came to be as home owners continued to paint their Key West ceilings blue. The idea was (and for some still is) that blue porch ceilings act as a natural bug repellent because the porch looks like the sky and fools the bugs who obviously wonÂ’t build their nests in the sky. Look up in the left hand corner of the photo above, you'll see how the color of the sky is a pretty good match for the porch ceiling.

Regardless of what one believes about bugs or ghosts, the blue painted porch is beautiful and by now has become both a prominent and traditional feature for many Key West Victorian houses.  Next time you’re on the island be sure to look up at the porch ceilings as you walk around. Regardless of the color of the house, a blue porch ceiling always seems to be the icing on the cake.