Dr. Susan Buck, the paint analyst who did a majority of the paint analysis during the restoration, found that the earliest layer of paint was colored red with a pigment which is counter-intuitively called Spanish Brown. Spanish brown was a very popular and cheap pigment in the 18th-century and was used for interior and exterior paints at many period houses (photo of Peyton Randolph house painted Spanish brown). Interestingly, analysis of other paint samples revealed that Montpelier's exterior windows and doors had also been painted red in ca. 1764.