I have a few barns here where I live and the main one this year needs to be painted -bad.   Currently all my outbuildings – except for the new guinea hen coop are dark brown just like my house and my husband and I think it would be nice to lighten things up a bit. So we will be painting the barn a color called Folk Art by Benjamin Moore with Chantilly Lace Colored trim. We tried it out on the coop and like it alot. I want all the buildings (1 house, 1 big barn, 1 garden shed, 1 guinea coop, 1 3-stall horse barn, 1 lean-to barn and one treehouse) to hang together but not be all matchy -matchy.   So I think the big barn will take on the new colors and the house will stay the same but instead of black trim, some of it will be changed to Chantilly lace (white). I have yet to decide what to do with the rest of the buildings.

I have however decided to spice things up with some hex symbols. My husband has a small one (about a ft in diameter) that came from a visit to Amish communities in PA. That one is going to go on the new coop. (I will share a picture as soon as I can find the thing in the attic) but I want to paint one on the street side of the big barn.

This is my favorite of all those I have found online. I love the colors and the birds but given that I don’t have an ounce of Irish heritage, I want to create something that has something more significance to me, my home and my family. So I am playing with the symbolism and the colors because in hex signs, everything holds meaning.
I think the best for us would be some sort of cross between the birds and the oak leaf design – converted to a maple leaf maybe? (I do live in New England after all).

My heritage is almost completely German so I am feeling like this might be a nice and fun way to make our barn stand out (the barn is the only building you can see from the road). I like the idea of people getting to know my home from the unique and hopefully stylish and attractive symbol.

I love the colors of this one, but have decided no words for my symbol. Over at The Artistic Garden (a great site) I found this list of the symbolism of colors.
* Black: Protection, also used to blend or bind elements together
* Blue: Protection, peace, calmness and spirituality
* Brown: Mother earth, also can mean friendship and strength
* Green: Growth, fertility, success in things and ideas that grow
* Orange: Abundance in career, projects and matters needing an added push
* Red: Emotions, passion, charisma, lust and also creativity
* Violet: Things that are sacred
* White: Purity, power of the moon, allows energy to flow freely
* Yellow: Health in body and mind, love of man and the sun, connection to the God

I am planning to keep my symbol in the Black, Blue, Red, Green, Brown and Orange color way.

There is also this very interesting description of the symbols.
Eagle: strength, courage, clarity of vision

Heart: friendship, camaraderie, peace, purity and happiness

Oak Leaf: long life, strength and endurance

Pineapple: welcome and hospitality

Rosettes: (thought to be the oldest symbol) good luck

Scallops: ocean waves, smooth sailing in life

Stars: protection against fires, good fortune, hope, love, fertility, energy and harmony

Sun Wheel: warmth and fertility

Tulips: faith, hope, charity and trust in mankind

Wheat: abundance and goodwill

I bolded my favorites.  If you are interested, there is some good information about hex symbols at the Amish News.
If you know anything about hex symbols….let me know, I am planning mine now.