Way, way, way over the rainbow

Dark Secret
Woodhaven
Riding Hood
Regatta Bay
Hot Pepper
That 70’s Color
Fiesta Orange *


I went back to the Home Depot today (the second time in 2 weeks; that meets my quota for the next decade) to pick up some more supplies for the teen drop-in center remodeling project. Specifically we were shopping for paint for some of our teens to add their artistic touch to the walls. It was quite an educational process.

First off, there are apparently few things in this world more pretentious than the naming of paint colors (the ones named above are just some of the ones we purchased; we also could have gone with Little Linda, Obsidian Glass, Sizzle, Theatre Lights, Quiet Storm, etc). Good luck finding your basic primaries and secondaries. I blame Crayola.

And every brand has their own original and extravagant name for virtually the exact same colors and shades. Each one has displayed its samples strategically and named them poetically to convince you that they alone have somehow unlocked the true secrets and beauty of the color wheel.

But the most educational portion of our shopping experience was watching the paint get mixed. Things have changed a bit since the last time I watched Mr. Rogers buy paint. It is no longer mixed by hand and judged by eye. Now they have a computer where they type in the code for the shade you have chosen, hold your corresponding brand’s can of white paint under a spigot that shoots out a precisely measured blend of coloring, then seal the whole thing up and put it in a special paint can centrifuge. Very cool.

But it got me thinking about what’s going on under that machine counter where the special coloring for five brands of paint is housed. One theory is that there are actually 5 different compartments of red, and five different of blue, and every other color that is exactly the same as the one next to it. Of course another theory is that there is just one large vat of each color to draw from, regardless of brand. And while the base may be qualitatively different, whether you are inspired by Treehouse or Lady Luck, you still just end up with a can of green paint.



*Otherwise known as: black, brown, red, blue, green, yellow, and um, orange.