Paint color inspiration | How About Orange

April 24, 2008

Paint color inspiration

Domino Magazine has a gallery of 50 lovely rooms with paint colors listed for your reference. Take a look if you're thinking of redecorating.

As we all know, paint colors can have rather unusual names. (Wouldn't it be fun to name paint as part of your job? Does anybody who reads this blog do that? Do share!) If you think you're good at guessing a color based on a name, try this quiz. It's hard. Good luck.

(Image from dominomag.com)

31 comments:

Grandma G said...

That room looks so peaceful.

I took the quiz 3 times... got 6 of 10; 7 of 10; and 7 of 10. 'Course it helped that even though the quizzes were all different, there were some repeats. :-)

Mum/"paint color god"

Jessica Jones said...

Wow, I got like 3. You're good. A god, apparently. :)

Anonymous said...

Definitely a time-wasters, but oh so much fun. It took me 4 tries to get a perfect score. Reminds me of the memory match game I used to play as a kid.

greetingarts said...

Oooh, I was a paint color god with 7 out of 10, too! So... where can I get a job putting these talents to work for me?!

Amy said...

7 of 10 for me...not bad. That was fun thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Me 4 = total dunce!

Anonymous said...

that would be such a fun job to name the paint colors! LOL i wonder if it pays any good? :p

You scored 3 out of 10. Pretty average. LOL

J said...

I got 7 out of 10 on the first try! That was fun, thanks for sharing.

trisha said...

while at home depot this weekend i was just thinking "i wonder who's job it is to name paint"! the martha stewart line does a pretty good job. i'm such a nerd, i have a hard time buying a color if the name doesn't sound appealing.

Anonymous said...

These were tough to call. I got 5 out of 10.

Thanks by the way for yesterday's geo greeting. I used it to email happy anniversary to my husband at work. He thought it was cool (and he doesn't say that about that many things) :)

Bee said...

Wow this is hard but you are right it would be a fun job. I got only 2:)

June said...

Well, I don't name paints, but where I work we have naming parties for all the fabrics. For instance, we have a new pictorial that has ladybugs on it which was named Bug Tussle. All of the fabrics (or at least 98%) are named after cities or countries. Some of the funniest are the fabrics which are neat repeats - patterns that repeat themselves. They've been named Tuki Tuki, Walla Walla, well you get the picture!

Anonymous said...

I have to say I had such a 'duh' moment tonight. I've been reading your blog for about as long as I have been looking for a solution to my 'kitchen issues'. I have pea/apple green cabinets... I like the color but they are paired with jaundice yellow walls (confession: we bought the house a year ago). And suddenly, I saw your fabric (again) and said that's it. Turquoise and green. I will order some yards tomorrow for chair cushions and valances.

Oh, when the obvious smacks you upside the head..

Thanks Jessica

This is a fabulous site...I'm not creative but I love what you post

Anonymous said...

OMG I got 8 !!

But color is part of my job. It was fun, reminded me the weird ninetieth century color names like "crapaud mort d'amour " ( toad dead of an impossible love) or "ventre de puce en fievre de lait" (flee belly in a milk fever) respectively a yellow dark green and a light taupe. Thanks for the fun!

Breanna Davenport said...

That was a hard quiz! I only got 50%.

Jessica Jones said...

del4yo, are you serious??? Those names are unbelievable! I'm going to have to use the deceased toad as inspiration for the name of my next fabric set, I think. Hilarious. Very dramatic.

June, I always wondered how fabrics got their names. Those are brilliant. I bet those naming parties are a lot of fun.

And leendaluu, I hope this fabric works for you! It sounds like it wants to be in your kitchen for sure.

Anonymous said...

That paint quiz is great.
I wonder how regional the names are though. There are probably colours and names that relate to local environments that people far away have no chance of associating. I am writing this in Melbourne, Australia, and the colours of our landscapes are very different to the colours in Europe or the USA.

Rachel said...

My bedroom is that color including the ceiling. I love it, very calming.

Anonymous said...

OH WOW! I found my new calling! I got a 10 out of 10. And with a perfect score I don't know if I dare do it again :-) Would you???? (Hee! Hee!)

Jessica Jones said...

No way, man. Quit while you're ahead.

erika said...
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erika said...

I didn't even take the quiz. I'm amazed by the wall color, its beautiful.

Alfred T. Mahan said...

The 19th Century names beat anything modern companies come up with, hands down (but you knew I'd say that, right?).

I blew it, but then, given that I like colors like "Navy Blue" and "Cream" and "Battleship Gray", well, I wasn't too hopeful.

Jessica Jones said...

Ah, you're so predictable. :)

Stephanie said...

Thanks for the link. You saved me a lot of time cruising through the dominomag site. Love Domino! Reading that magazine gives me courage to add color in unique ways. I need to do it more....I'll keep subscribing!

tula said...

i've been struggling with the color for my walls and you've saved me! thanks for the domino guide! xoxo

Anonymous said...

I worked as a designer at a paint company for 5 years and they had a bazillion paint lines and colors. The first time naming a pallete was fun, but after that it was very tedious. You couldn't use the same name twice because it would conflict with the formulas in the computer system.

The Food Girls said...

Ooh, I got 4 out of 10. Not so great.
Oh well...

Unknown said...

I like to name my glaze colors. I should set up a quiz :)
What do you think these look like:
dirt, trout, semolina, larch, woods, cedar, beeswax, rapids, glacier, man, currant?

Jessica Jones said...

Ooo, good names. Earthy colors? Browns, golds, blues, something red-purplish?

Olivia said...

got 1!!