A Rose By Any Other Name

So I spontaneously decided to spend the next week overhauling my bedroom, which means choosing paint colors.

You would think that this would be the easy part, since I have pretty much everything else I want to put in chosen, and some of it already purchased.

However, I've come an unexpected hurdle in what should be an easy process: the fact that they name paint colors.

You see, I'll find a color which I love called say "Gumball Red", which is an okay name I suppose. But then I'll see another color that's less close to the color I actually want, that is called something like "Hot Chili Pepper". From there my train of thought goes something like the following:

hot chilli pepper --> red hot chilli peppers ---> good music ---> oh my gosh I WANT THIS ONE

The worst part is, I am completely aware of the process, I'm just powerless to stop it. Deep down, I know that this is the reason why a color called "Purpoise" (because dolphins are pretty) beats out "Silver Charm" (meh) for me even though the two are almost identical. And yet, I can't help falling in love with "Purpoise" and "Edgy Red" instead of "Poppy" and "Mountain Fog" even as a part of me knows that if I cut the names off of all my paint chips, I'd probably do a better job of choosing the colors I actually want.

What's more, I'm pretty sure the paint companies know that this works. That would certainly explain why last week's newspaper included an ad from the paint company about a contest to rename a shade of beige known as "Cuddle" to something more man-friendly (the prize was an entertainment center, btw).

It's just weird. I would have thought that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but apparently not...speaking of which, what do you think of "Velvet Rose"? because I bet it would sell...