Red, do you also play aesthetic Scrabble instead of winning-strategy Scrabble? I'm an aesthetic Scrabbler: I want to play beautiful or clever words and use up all my tiles, and I always get creamed by the folks who memorized the two-letter words with q's and x's on a triple-letter score.

I ask because among my friends, I've found that aesthetic Scrabbling accompanies an addiction to pretty paint names. Word obsession, what can I say? It's the poetry of the thing.

You might want to take a look at this video before you choose F&B Pigeon.

:)

Here is a link that might be useful: Farrow and Ball Pigeon

Red-
As long as the color works, it could be called "murkey-turkey" or "pigeon-digeon" and I don't care. I am so tired of searching for the right colors for my house, I could care less what they are named, as long as I am happy when I walk into the room.

Keep in mind, my living/dining room paint is called "hopsack" Huh???
And I painted my living room of my first house "Dill Pickle" and I wasn't even pregnant. My daughters' bedroom color is called "Secret Rendez-vous" --they are 5 and 3 and something about that is quite unsettling, but I loved the color.

With all that said, I am planning on ordering some of that F&B French Gray for my window trim and a piece of furniture, but as I posted on the paint forum, I must be paint dumb, because I can't figure out what finish to order.

Can't wait to see "Pigeon" on your walls.

Oh my gosh, that video was hysterical and the kid was too darned cute!

We just painted our living room Baby Turtle, and I've been musing over the name of it while painting. Who thinks up these names?!?

On the other hand, our master bedroom is SW Evening Shadow and it describes the color very well - in both color and the subdued, relaxing feel.

I've often wondered who on earth names some of these paint colors and what they were on at the time. I'm pretty paint-color challenged so am always thrilled when I get it right. So the name won't matter if I like it on the walls. That said I know I am influenced by the name and likely won't like a color if I dislike the name. Might not even be a totally conscious decision.

My best color is one I mixed myself from leftover and whoops paints. It's a lovely Silvery Sage... or maybe Twilight Memories... or possibly Soft Forest Sky. I know it's a similar color to the backgrounds of two of my original oils from yard sales so someone before me mixed almost the same color altho I'm sure in lesser quantities. I have enough left to paint at least 2 more rooms! :-)

I've always been fascinated by paint names too. In fact one day while I was totally bored at work I came up w/ a whole line of vegetable colors. My favorite was 'A Peas Me'. Get it? I nearly drove DH insane w/ my constant jibber jabber about this wonderful idea.

I think a wonderful grey/ blue would look great in your entry. Maybe even one w/ some brownish tones underneath to really muddy it up. Maybe check out BM Imperial Gray #1571.

Polly - too funny!!!

Oh I forgot to add that literally the day that I finished painting the LR BM Baby Turtle my son came home from preschool w/ his latest project: a construction paper baby turtle. You know I had to hang it in the LR. I laughed every time I looked at it for about a year.

As long as you say "Pigeon" with a snooty British accent, you'll be fine :) (reference the Youtube boy in his room reading the F&B brochure LOL)

What bugs me about BM names (well, beyond that) is that they're so darn misleading as to color! Richmond Gray is not gray at all. Beiges are green, Greens are beige or gray, etc.. and I don't even mean subtle overtones, I mean the first color that comes to your mind when you look at the wall.

I'm so enjoying this post. It's precisely suited for a decorating forum, because so many of us here find it delightful and fun to discuss, and no one's opinions are right or wrong.

I would like to think I'm pure enough not to be swayed by a color's name, but I know I'm not. That's not to say I haven't chosen colors when they're "right" even when I've found the name off-putting or plain wrong in its description. But once I have, I try really hard not to think about the name and I don't offer it up unless someone inquires about it.

On the flip side, I know I've likely chosen one shade over another because of the image the name evokes.

BTW, I am an aesthetic Scrabble person (always losing..) and had never before met another. Feel better about myself now that I can put a name to it - LOL

Ha ha, this thread is too funny. I must say I love living in a Florida home painted in "Shallow Pool"...

Parma and I must have posted @ the same time. Just saw that video. ROFL!!!

Dead salmon anyone???

That youtube video is just hilarious. I think Allision should repaint her island in Elephant's Breath.... so, uummm, appetizing

I admit, before all of you, that I reeeallly want to paint a room Churlish Green. Just because of the name. I don't care what it actually looks like. I want to be able to tell people, when they inquire, that it is Churlish Green. Yesindeedy, it is.

And I want to use the word churlish in Scrabble.

(Now, that's my idea of aesthetic Scrabble.)

I once painted our bedroom Cream Dream...

"I've found that aesthetic Scrabbling accompanies an addiction to pretty paint names."

Guilty on both counts...

Sandra, lol.......................

I've had rooms painted Potato Peel and Crock Full. And yes, just about the same color.

Sandra - I can't pick myself up off of the floor!

great thread! i'm guilty!

Sandra! I LIKE you!!! ;-)

parma that video is a stitch - and SO true.

Red, what can I say - you actually remember me spouting words of wisdom (all right - opinions if you insist) - I'm so flattered! Someone absconded in the night with my old, old, old fandeck that was printed pre names and I'm sick about it I tell you, just SICK!!! Now I actually have to look at paint strips with ~~shudder~~ names on them. So you know what happens when I need a really light warm apricoty cream for my bathroom? I pick Evening White. Coincidence? I think not.

I am embarrassed to admit that Sandra's bedroom color name perplexed me for all of 3 minutes. That is one color that would need a number. And wow........there's actually a name for what I do when I'm playing scrabble? Who knew? And I'm always surprised and annoyed when I lose to some numnut who can barely conjugate a sentence.

I've toyed a bit with Mouse's Back (also F&B) and Drab. First, because those muted uncolors intrigue me, and second, because I just really really want to tell someone that my entry is Mouse's Back. Or Drab. Can you not hear it now?

Friend Karen: "Oh Red, you repainted........again! So what is this color anyway?"

Red: It's Drab.

Friend Karen: "Well, it's not as bright as I like in my home, but I don't think it's really drab!"

Red: No, it really is Drab.

Friend Karen: "Well, if you think it's drab, then, why don't you repaint?"

Red: It's Drab, Karen........it's Drab. And I like it!

Friend Karen: "Why do you like it drab? Actually, now that I know you think it's drab too, I don't mind telling you that I really hate it. It reminds me of dead salmon."

Red: That's crazy, Karen! It's as far from Dead Salmon as it can be. It's really a lot closer to Mouse's Back.

Friend Karen: "You have mice? Yikes! You should get a cat."

Red: Actually, I was thinking of Pigeon....
..............................................

May I just mention here that one of my pet (decorating) peeves is when you go into someone's newly done kitchen/dining room/house and ask what color? And they don't remember?!!!! Or what granite??? And they can't remember!!! What is the POINT of having paint unless you know the freakin' color name???!!!!

LOL. Too funny. I've not delved too deep into picking colors yet. The first two experiences (house exterior and kitchen) were traumatic enough. I have noticed, however, that for some reason I tend to gravitate towards colors with food-related names. Not quite sure what that means.

I painted our office BM Smoldering Red. I loved the color and the name sounds so daring! Also wanted to paint my kitchen red. The smoldering red didn't quite work here, so I sampled a few other reds. The one that worked best was "Deep Rose" ... I hated saying the name of that color ... it sounded like I had painted my kitchen pink!

Do ya'll remember the young girl that started the lipstick and nail polish company that become so successful because of the names? Some of the names were white trash, slut, trailor trash, barbie pink that's the only ones I remember. I know Elizabeth Taylor wore slut and talked about it on a show.

So there is a lot of thought that goes into the names of products from the makers and the consumers.

Red, although you might be younger than I, your philosophical maturity age is probably well beyond your chronologic. I agree with what you have said, but Honey, conjugating sentences? My DIL English professor tells me she might be the only person her age/generation who knows the meaning of the word conjugate when it applies to sentences. Diagram, conjugate? "No'm, we don't know nuthing 'bout that and we ain't want to learn."

Newdawn ~ is it Urban Decay that you're thinking of? As a girlie girl at heart I loved that company just because of the names. My 2 favorite lipsticks off all time are B Cup and Stiletto.

Hit submit--then, re-read. Conjugate Verbs. Diagram Sentences. Forgive me. Inhaling too much Fume de Pigeon.

Red

Hey, wait a minute! My dining room is painted C2 "Stiletto"! Are you telling me that I can get lipstick and nail polish to match???? Count me in!!!

Funny thread!
My teenaged sons wanted "Duct Tape Gray" for their bedroom, but oddly enough, SW didn't have that option. They settled for "Network Gray".
"Corn Chip" also won for the kitchen in our previous house, because Dh and the kids liked that name best of the yellows I narrowed it down to.

Oh, Red! Hilarious! I'd have posted sooner but couldn't see my keyboard for the tears. You've got a gift, girl...I can see you doing a monologue or writing a book. And now I can hardly wait to paint something drab.

I wish names were more descriptive - I bought a whole quart of Filtered Sunlight for my FR/kitchen - when I put a patch on the wall I could see why. In Full Sunlight it looked bright yellow! And White Satin really is blue - why doesn't Ben Moore just call it "Moody Blue" if they want to pay tribute?

Now Horizon I should have realized was a blue-gray (looks good with ds's blue carpet but not my green). My grandpa once had a car we named "Beyond" (it was a blue Horizon). Now I'm dating myself...

Now I really don't know what to do! As many of you know, since I drone on and on........I've been paint testing for two weeks.
Pigeon was too blue on my wall. And Cameron accidently killed the pigeon last night on Terminator, the Sarah Conner Chronicles. So Pigeon, in spite of the You-Tube boy who made me want it more--is out. Brompton Gray was too gray. Carolina Gull was too deep green blue. But when I mixed them together, they seemed right. And they matched the paint card for Cardroom Green by Farrow & Ball. But I promised to paint today and don't have time to order Farrow & Ball. So I went to Lowes before work yesterday. I found another paint card that matched Cardroom Green which matched the combination of Brompton Gray and Carolina Gull. I had a sample mixed in their cute little cans and splotched it on my lunch. (All my work dress clothes have little green/blue paint smears on them this week.) And the color looks pretty good. But I just don't think I can do it. It's 6:37 on a Saturday morning and I need to go buy paint and get busy, but I just don't think I can.

The name is Lincoln Cottage Lattice Green. That's too long, Isn't it???

Red

So, I posted my own results somewhere, but just saw this thread again. Some of you will be disappointed that I didn't find something with a color name as evocative as Murkey Turkey. And even though I really wanted the Pigeon Boy's video to be about my wall, I just could not do the blue feel of Pigeon. Lincoln Cottage Lattice Green WAS too long. The color is nice, but the name is too long. So, on that fateful Saturday, I re-read every thread I had posted on, and googled a bunch of tried & true paint colors. Then, I drove to the Ace store where they were color matching my paint and carried Ben Moore. I had decided to buy a tester jar of Dry Sage. Paticia had suggested it on some other thread and I realized that I didn't have a sample or a chip. Well, when I got there, it dawned on me that I had that Saturday free, my painting stuff was all over the entry, and that store is all the way across town from my house. So, I looked over the chip for Dry Sage, thought briefly about it's chipmate, Gray Mirage, (Because it too, has a nice name!) and went ahead with a whole gallon of paint.
So, my entry is not the fabulously sexy Murkey Turkey, the You-tube-worthy PIGEON or even something blah and hard to remember like Brompton Grey. It's Ben Moore's Dry Sage. It's a mix in color of pigeon, French Grey, and something else that I can't recall. I love it.

Red

That's really interesting that Pidgeon is going blue for you Red, it's going completely greenish in the wallboard sample I put up. Considering it for my dark, windowless, guest bathroom upper walls (tile wainscot). I love what you did above, that is beautiful, and pretty much what Pidgeon is looking like for me, only here it's slightly what? muddier?

Speaking of Drab, we're using it in the downstairs library/movie room. It is GORGEOUS, I'm crazy about it. Just dark enough to make the movie man hubby happy (he wanted black ceilings, uh no), and sophisticated for me. It's beautiful!

Will post pics in about a year and a half, when we're done. siiiigh...

I'm not so interested in the names..or the concern over elite colors..i'm more intersted in how the color itself hits my gut..IF I love it..I use it..if I don't..I don't.

names mean absolutely nothing more than a reference point

What a funny thread. LOL. I love that color, redbazel. It is wonderful that you did the ceiling, too.

Hmmmm someone should name a color after you?

KitchenKelley, it's indeed ironic that one of the paint shades I tried, did, in fact, bear my name! And it was pretty, just not what I wanted.

Pirula, I do want to see your Drab room. I wanted the Drab so much, but DD talked me out of still another dark color. And Pigeon looked fairly green in some lights but mostly blue.
The Dry Sage has a blue feel at night.

Red

Dead Salmon made it into the paint swatch segment of House Beautiful this month.

I have had the experience where a client liked the name of the color so she wanted to use it. However, she didnt like the color itself. But that is how evocative the name can be for some people.

This reminds me of a Halloween special on HGTV a few years ago featuring celebrity houses. One was of Elvira, remember her? I've never gotten the name of her Martha Stewart LR color out of my mind. It's color name...Drab.

oops that was "forgotten" the name...

I am beginning to really like the name Pigeon and I love the name French Grey. But Murkey Turkey? Well, if Murkey Turkey was the perfect color than my walls would be Murkey Turkey.

This is such a funny thread!

I fell in love with a color for my dining room, a red, but not RED, very muted...and I think this is great, it'll probably have an awful name...turns out it was great..Cinnamon Diamonds. I love when people ask the name of the color...my living room, on the other hand is a tannish with a serious green undertone...a color I love, but when people ask the name, Brown Bread, they just scratch their heads, and then walk back into the Cinnamon Diamonds room.

I'm about to paint my bedroom Buttermilk Biscuit...we'll see how that goes....

Redbazel . . . When anyone asks, tell them your foyer paint is named "Redbazel's Private Blend." Sounds rather exclusive, maybe acoholic or coffe-ish, doncha think?

I, too, love the evocative names of paints -- but I can remember words/names better than numbers. Certain names made me take a second look, even a twinge of regret if they were nothing like what I needed. And looking over my final choices, I see that I like all their names. . . Distance, Evening Shadow, Dried Thyme . . . etc.

And, watch that Youtube video again and tell me if I'm wrong: That kid has gotta be Simon Cowan's son.

And I'm glad to have a name for how I play Scrabble . . .

I saw the Dead Salmon in my new House Beautiful this morning. They write lovely, glowing, things about it. But I KNOW I couldn't use it. I would be the butt of dinner party jokes for a year if I had a room in Dead Salmon.

But on another note, I had a quick meeting at my house and one of the 30ish girls who is redoing her her 70's house (purchased 10 years ago by her new husband--a firefighter who only cared about building a shop in the back) came in and loved my entry color! She wanted me to write down the name, but fortunately I had a color strip with Dry Sage as well as Grey Mirage, on it. She says she can't choose color at all. She just gloms on to someone else's room that looks good and steals the paint color. (I've seen her house and it's beautiful--and she has a deep red like in my kitchen in her DR, plus, a sage like my Baby Turtle in her LR, so she might as well use the Dry Sage too!)

Red

Red, I had to read your "conversation" with your friend to my husband, it was so hilarious. You do have a talent with words. You also have a talent for colors. Your entry is sooo beautiful and the color is sophisticated and perfect with the gorgeous piece of furniture. Witty and talented. It ain't fair!

I must admit I'm guilty of bending the truth a bit when people ask me for the color name of my kitchen. It was so very very close to soft pumpkin, that I think it's okay to suggest that's what I used. But alas, that wasn't just right with my lighting so I ended up with 'starfish'. However, the paint chip simply calls it 120(or some such), since its an old BM color that isn't even on the color chip rack anymore.

A few years ago, Martha Stewart introduced a range of new colors with names like Rolling Pin and Wooden Spoon - all imitating the hues of common objects. I don't know how well they sold.

But, hey, one of the colors I'm considering for my living room is (SW) Aloof Grey. I wouldn't dare tell anyone the name.

red, your first post had me ROFL. No wonder Marketing is a college major. This even extends to stain colors. I couldn't decide between "Nutmeg" (DH's choice) and "Medium Brown" (my choice). There was probably never any contest. I let DH think he got his way when the truth is how was I ever going to tell someone my floor is stained "Medium Brown"?? Kinda like the drab conversation...

Along with everyone else I have fallen in love with the color and the name "French Grey".

.....Jane

I'll own it: I'm totally influenced by paint names.
If they were all numbers, I'd really be in a pickle. ;o