The color blue IS a revival of its "art colony" traditions...
Whitewash was put on the street fronts of commercial properties. Sometimes a homeowner might whitewash his house ~ sometimes not.
For the most part, in the old days, most people in Brown County (of which Nashville is the county seat) lived in log cabins. This county continues to have numerous log cabins still in use as homes.
Folks identified with the art colony tradition came there for the ambience and the forests. My own people had lived there for a very long time ~ in fact, they owned Weed Patch Hill and most of Hardin Ridge.
They were engaged in manufacturing craft goods highly prized by tourists. The art colony folks fit right into the scene ~ In 1939 the big "cash cow", the exported artistic baskets, were no longer saleable since the Germans had brought Europe to war and were engaged in killing all the storekeepers and gypsies who sold those baskets for them. The art colony fell on equally hard times ~ for the same reason. Baskets aren't coming back, but the pictures are.