This Is the Only Ceiling Color You'll See on Lowcountry Porches

When choosing the ceiling color for the screened porch of our 2018 Idea House, designer Jenny Keenan stuck to tradition: piazza blue.

She wanted the cottage to include a mix of classic and modern details, and no element is more time-honored than the blue porch ceiling. "We pretty much use it in all of our projects in the Lowcountry," she says.

South Carolinians often paint their porch ceilings piazza blue—an umbrella term referring to soft shades of the color—because of an old wives' tale: spiders and other unsavory insects will mistake the ceiling for the sky, meaning they won't build webs or nests there. The hue is also said to bring good luck, extend daylight, and scare away evil spirits or "haints," hence the shade's alternate nickname: "haint blue."

Whether you want to keep creepy colors at bay, add a subtle pop of color, or just like tradition, this is the best shade of blue for your porch ceiling:

Benjamin Moore's Ewing Blue is a muted shade of powder blue with just the slight tint of green that makes piazza blue so unmistakable.

Need more inspiration? We also love these shades of piazza blue: Palladian Blue (Benjamin Moore), Waterscape (Sherwin-Williams), and Calm Waters (Dunn-Edwards).