My Favorites: Day 17

My Favorite Color

Wow, basic.  The thing about something like colors is that as normal as the question "what's your favorite color" is, you are just weird if you have a true favorite.  Or maybe I'm just weird for not having a favorite.

What I mean is, for instance, I really like the color green, but is it my favorite color apple? No, red is.  So is red my favorite color for a pen? No, black is.  So is black my favorite color for a shirt? No, it's probably blue.  So is probably blue my favorite color for an M&M?  No, it's probably yellow.  So is yellow my favorite color on a traffic light?  Of course not, it's green.

Yeah, I went with traffic light... I'm not sure why.  There is, however, a reason I used M&M's as an example.  A few years ago, I was asked this very question and I bravely and without humor tried to identify the color of the discontinued tan color M&M:

How to describe the light brown ones in there?

Trying to be more descriptive than light brown or tan I said that my favorite color was "warm brown," which can easily be a rather unappetizing color without using much imagination.  I've run with it ever since, leaving out the description of what I mean by that.

At the time, I think that color was an honest answer - that warm brown was my favorite color, but now, I think if I were to choose a color that I just really like I would choose a dirty yellow color.  I'm not sure any explanation is necessary.

Oh wait... were you thinking I meant... ?  Maybe earthy or soft would be a better explanation. 

I had this color in mind when I went to paint my basement.  My wife chose all the colors in the house except the basement.  She had colors selected before we moved in and the end result is wonderful.  Our bedroom is now aqua smoke, our living room is plantation moss, our kitchen and dining room are now a color called pins and needles after neither of us liked a color called cowboy hat, and one of our other rooms is cosmic ray.  I love the names of colors.

In an effort to keep the dark basement bright, I wanted to go with a dirty yellow color.  Unfortunately, all the yellow colors have girly names.  At the paint store, I looked at paint card after paint card with names like marigold blossoms and sunshine buttercream.  In my head, this dirty, earthy, hippie-soft yellow is more manly than any of these names suggest.  Finally I found a name that I would be proud to have on my walls, even if it is a little brighter than I had hoped, as seen below: 

That color's name: sawdust.  Oh yeah.