Red and yellow, an imitation of brick and sandstone.
The traditional houses in old Sweden were often not painted at all. The facades of timber houses could vary slightly in color, ranging from grayish brown to beautifully silver-colored, that is, the natural shades of wood.
Paint was expensive. Only the wealthy had the means to paint their houses from the beginning. Furthermore, the selection of colors was limited because only natural mineral pigments were used.
It wasn't until the 18th century that red houses became common, but only in the cities. It started as a way to imitate the red brick, which at the time was an exclusive material reserved for palaces, churches, and castles. The red color, therefore, symbolized the status of the house owner. In the latter half of the 18th century, chemists at Falun Mine discovered how to produce red paint industrially by using red pigment from the mine, iron vitriol, linseed oil, wheat flour, soap, and water. The production of Falu Red Paint has been ongoing for 250 years and is still in operation. Eventually, even the farmers began painting their houses red. Today it is farms in the countryside that come to mind when talking about Falu Red Paint.
When the red color became too common to convey status, wealthier urban dwellers chose to clad their houses with wooden panels and paint them yellow with oil-based paint. Yellow also started as an imitation of other materials. Swedish architects were inspired by the yellowish French sandstone used in Italian and French brick palaces. During the 18th century, yellow became the color of many new manor houses.