While some categorize me as an A-type personality with an analytic-bent toward box-checking, I’m actually a creative. There are colors I see here in the Seattle and Puget Sound area each year. After thousands of client interactions I’ve learned how helpful it is to use understandable language. So with that in mind I want to offer local paint companies my color names and hope they might incorporate them into their next batch of color palettes!

Northwest Gray – Most wood fences and decks in the Northwest are made of cedar. It is an amazing wood whose natural oils stand well against the wet weather. Few of us have the patience and energy to stain these regularly to keep their vibrant youthful color. So as they are left untreated the boards oxidize in age and transform a distinctive color we see every day here in the Northwest and struggle to name. I propose the name of “Northwest Gray.”

August Gold – Our nine months of near non-stop rain have earned our state and biggest city the moniker of the Evergreen State and Emerald City. But the three “rain-less” months bring us a heavenly reminder of why we continue to live in this region.

The summer suns bring a crunchy, wilted look to our lawns that reveal a distinct brownish, gold-ish, dead-ish color that I call “August Gold.”

1952 Atomic Blue – I walked into a Mercer Island house and there was a kitchenette that had been installed in a mother-in-law apartment but never used. The house was built in the 1950s and this oven was brand new and the color took me back to the stories of my parents youth. I remember watching re-runs of Leave It To Beaver in black and white. I remember my grandparents baking in their kitchen of this era. I remember hearing about Ovaltine for the first time. This bygone era lives on in this color that I call “1952 Atomic Blue.”