This picture denotes our current knee-deep-in-paint-samples status around here. We're picking colors for our new-to-us, soon-to-be-moved-into house and it looks like Benjamin Moore threw up in our dining room. Picking colors for one or two rooms is frustrating and stressful, but in a fun way. Picking colors for a whole entire house, inside and out, is pure idiocy.
The funnest part has been reading through all the paint names. I admit, I gravitate toward (and yes, sometimes choose) paint colors based on their charming/witty/snarky names, like rectory red, wasabi and enlighten mint. Sadly though, our chosen trim color will be the inaptly named 'mayonnaise.' Just, ick!
I'm lucky enough to have one small room dedicated to crafting and thought this would be the easiest to choose a color for, but its not. I've flipped and flopped between most of the brazenly bold colors that scream to me from the palette sheet: "pick ME! I'm original and unique and so unlike cream and sage and sky blue! I promise not to repulse or annoy you or decrease your resale value," but I don't believe them one bit.
My husband keeps having to remind me that we're choosing room colors, not quilt colors. But wouldn't life be so much more interesting if we painted our homes like we design our quilts? I wonder if Ben Moore would be interested in a "Craftgirl Crazy" line?
OK, enough about paint. But before I return to the insanity of picking a porch ceiling color, let me leave you with a list of my favorite paint color names so far (and be sure to let me know if you have any good ones I've missed!)
Arsenic
Sweet marzipan
Heirloom quilt
Approaching dusk
Dried chervil
Blackened (which is a very light gray)
Elephant's breath
Dead salmon (I kid you not)
Ointment pink
Pale hound
Gervase yellow
Sulfur
Antique glassware...
...and my all time favorite...
Smoking pants (ok, I'm kidding. my husband made this one up!)
14 comments:
elephants breath? i cant even begin to imagine what color that is. light grey?
i love picking paint colors. my only problem is i tend to gravitate to the pricier Ralph Lauren paint and my husband has to keep dragging me back to Behr land. we have a big room that needs to be painted and he has already told me that Ralph probably isn't in the budget.
(oh, and keep all those brightly colored paint swatches. they're fun for the kiddies to cut up and use in collages.)
I love dead salmon, what color is that? We are currently painting the basement, but I have no sense of color. I like Cavalry, but Ryan thinks it is too dark for a basement (midnight blue is what it really is). Any ideas? Or do you just want to come over and look at my samples and decide for me? I'll have lunch ready:)
So enjoying your blog!!! Love your inspirational pictures..
Oh, all this color fun! I had a great time visiting that photo palette site, and now paint color names! Words and colors together--that's my kind of thing.
I'd be suckered into using a color called "Approaching Dusk". And "Antique Glassware" sounds lovely. But "Mayonnaise"? Are they trying to keep you from using it? I hope you won't look at your trim and think of icky sandwiches...
Although I cant remember what the name of the paint we used is now...Im totally into the names of things as well. Smoking pants huh?? Thats kinda hot, I would totally but that paint!
i am so with you on paint names. love them. i want that job actually
In my next life I'd love to be a paint-namer...they must have so much fun at their job!
I find these names just fabulous! I'd blend Marzipan with Arsenic for a special treat...
Mel, Tom read your post and immediately started to reminisce about painting our house on Lincoln St. We did the entire inside first and then the outside shortly thereafter. We really became old hands by the end, but good grief, it is daunting isn't it! Daunting and fun. Are you doing any crazy colors? We were pretty happy with how they turned out, except the blue in our living room, which was a little too "blue screen," but we were proud that we went for it!
I want that pale aqua on my walls! have fun deciding - well I hope it's still fun at least :)
Oh, for the days when paint colours actually told you what colour paint you were getting! Go the pale blue.
Dead Salmon?
Okay, I read your list of paint color names, and toward the bottom, I saw my latest remodeling color bane: antique glassware. A pretty misty grey aqua with a tad of baby blue showing through, and with a name like that, how could I go wrong? I went wrong. As I read recently on another blog that mentioned this color, it's hardly muted and "tranquil" as the brochure would have you think; it's more of an in-your-face BLUE once you're finished with applying not one, not two, but three (yes, it took that much to cover) coats, but my fears set in after one. Oh well ... and here I am now, online again, searching for other colors that will hopefully coordinate and pull attention away. I admit, though, I still like (okay love) the name!
Roger that. The weird thing is that you think you will forget the name, especially if it's not a great name, but I NEVER DO. Conversely, I picked Montana Morning pretty much entirely for the name. . . . I never really liked the color, but just kept insisting to myself, "No, you LIKE it -- it's a Montana morning! It's a Montana morning!" ;-)
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