Monday, May 01, 2006

Utah Blue, Brandied Pineapple, and Celery Cluster

What do all of these things have in common?
They’re names of paint samples. Even though my roommates and I are renting the house we’re living in, we had been hoping since September that we would be able to paint the living room. The walls have been patched up a few times and whoever did the repair job, decided not to paint it. There are large white patches all over the walls and scuff marks and holes from someone moving out roughly. At first our landlords were not too keen on us painting it ourselves, but last night they gave us a book of paint samples. After much searching and deliberation, we all agreed on “dried palm;” a nice sort of muted green. The house has hard wood floors and wide wood window frames, so we figured a light warm colour would emphasize the room’s natural beauty. (Oh man, now I sound like those interior decorating TV shows). Anyway, the whole point of this was to highlight the frightening names people have given to paint samples. I mean, where do they get these ideas from?  Just to illustrate my point here is a sample of the names:
Bagel,
Bridal rose,
Muffin mix,
Warm muffin,
Chestnut stallion,
Peach bud,
Apple sauce,
Angel’s breath…
The list could go on forever! There was even one that was related to chicken-I have forgotten the actual name. We figured we could buy a whole bunch of different colours and paint the walls in food colours and have a meal! Either
Way, it was a good laugh.

6 comments:

cristina said...

people certainly do not lack imagination! still with all the names you put up you can attribute colour to: a bagel is more or less beige, i imagine a bridal rose being white, etc... but how can you attribute colour to the breath of an angel?!!!! is the colour of that paint transparent?!!!
happy painting!!!

Just Jess for now said...

Hahahaha!!! My point exactly. Actually, the bridal rose was very pink! We all voted against pink. :)

Unknown said...

You'll have to show us the colour! I guess they could do it so people can relate to knowing what color Bagel looks like or coffee for instance...

But then again, they could say puke yellow or shit brown... Haha. I'm sure we all could still relate...

No no pink... Hope you guys have fun and make sure you tarp down that wood!

:)

cristina said...

expat, you hit gold! those 2 paints would fly off the shelf: puke yellow and shit brown! LOL!

Katherine said...

I've always wanted to be the person that comes up with names of makeup, like OPI's nail polishes. They have such cool names like "I'm not really a waitress Red". I never though paint names could be so entertaining but I enjoyed reading the ones you had. Happy painting.

Just Jess for now said...

Hahaah you guys make me laugh. We definitely painters' taped the wood and it comes down today. We're finished. It's a bit brighter than we thought...but that is ok-it's just vibrant. :)
Expat Traveler: I like those names!
Katherine: I would love to make up names too.
If you guys check out Home Depot's website...or something like that...I am sure you can find the strange paint names. It was kind of fun.