Barns tend to be red because of the high availability and low cost of red paint. Paint is created by combining a colored pigment, whose hue depends on the mineral that is in it, and a binder such as acrylic or oil to help the color stick. Red paint is made from red ochre, a combination of iron and oxygen. Iron is one of the most plentiful minerals, as the Earth's crust is about 6% iron. Blue and green pigments are mainly made using copper, which is much less plentiful than iron at less than 0.01% of the Earth’s crust, making those paint colors more expensive.
More about barns:
Barns in Europe were traditionally colored with a mixture of linseed oil and either milk or lime.
One theory about the origins of red barns is that farmers would add rust to linseed oil in order to avoid mold.
Whitewash, a combination of lime and chalk, gained popularity for use on barns during the mid-20th century and began to be used as an alternative to red paint because of its cheaper price, non-toxicity and antibacterial properties.
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