After being inspired by Ingrid Sunberg’s ‘The Colour Thesaurus‘, I decided to put my day job to good use and share some of the wonderful colour names I come across as a showroom assistant at a kitchen cabinet company.

Every year, new colours of laminate, natural/composite stones, acrylics, timbers, metals, paints come in, and some of them have some extremely creative and inspiring names which I’ve shared below with the hope of inspiring others in their narrative descriptions.

Enjoy!

Clear/white

Diamond, salt, icicle, polar, crystal, snowdrift, alpine, quartz, fleece, foam, silica, talc, dove, sorbet, mist, swan, alpine, avalanche, Everest, birch, calacatta

 Cream

Pearl, champagne, parchment, cappucchino, latte, porcelain, pannacotta, linen, antique, chalk, eggshell, putty, limed, nougat, pannacotta, frappe, crème brulee, carrina marble, ivory, clamshell, atlantic, alabaster, alpaca, twine, moleskin

Grey/silver

Smoke, palladium, iridium, ash, iron, gunmetal, nickel, oyster, carbon, armour, concrete, sarsen, pewter, platinum, seal, pumice, fossil, basalt, slate, soapstone

Yellow

Malt, buttermilk, ginseng, sand, chamois, honeycomb

Brown

Quarry, caraway, leather, char, cinder, truffle, wenge, hazel, cocoa, walnut, biscuit, taupe, cinnamon, kashmir/cashmere, mocha, feldspar, husk, macadamia, sable, bronze, teak, balsa, bamboo, maple, oak, mahogany, reed, straw, macchiato, shitake, clay, jute, peat, caper, espresso, moose, heartwood, russet, tawny

Black

Graphite, peppercorn, flint, ashphalt, aniseed, galileo, swan, raven, battalion, ebony, eclipse, midnight, licorice, volcano, domino

Red

Cabernet, tulip, redgum, alder, cherry, raspberry

Orange

Tangello, caviar, persimmon, mandarin, Olympic orange

Blue

Lagoon, peacock, teal, china, ocean, bay

Green

Snowgum, zinc, sorrel, jalapeno, olive, lichen, grass, spring, pesto, Amazon

Pink

Blush, posie, coral

Purple

Eggplant, plum