Typical Greek building aesthetics are often white and blue. This is what you normally will see when traveling throughout Greece, especially the islands.
It makes sense since their flag is blue and white and the country has a strong sense of patriotism, but I’m sure there are other reasons as to why this color scheme is traditionally associated with the Greek islands.
In a more practical sense, Greece isn’t home to large amounts of wood due to their climate. Many of the older homes were build from volcanic stone, which is usually a dark blackish color. Volcanic stone is a great insulator, most certainly, but the dark color would absorb much of the sun’s heat.
To compensate, houses were painted white to reflect the intense sun rays. This makes all the sense in the world. In order to stay cool, houses were painted white. So what about the blue ?
Blue was simply the easiest alternative in the books. It was also the most readily available when homes were first being build on the islands.
A blue-tinted cleaning agent known as ‘loulaki’ was often used by locals to wash clothing. Loulaki reacted with limestone plaster to create a blue dye solution.
Since the solution was readily available, and extremely cheap, people turned to using the dye as a means of painting homes.
Ever since, blue and white has been the trademark color combination associated with Greece. Now, whenever you see photos or simply think of Greece, I’m sure one of the first things that comes to mind is the picturesque view like my photo above from Serifos, Cyclades, Greece 🇬🇷
