Farrow & Ball

I took my *new* Farrow & Ball colour card to bed with me last night to guarantee instant sleep, which it did. It presents as a maddeningly exquisite aesthetically led company which somehow stumbled into effective marketing and trails its own logic like an affectation.

Exhibit One: the colours are grouped on the card (and easily found on the website), but the numbered descriptions of those colours on the back of the card follow a different system, so No.1, Lime White (which I used throughout Heatherwood in Midhurst) is on fold two of the colour card, and is followed by No,2, Hound Lemon, which can be found on fold six, just below Pale Hound which is No, 71.

Exhibit Two: Numbers are consecutive until No. 96, Radicchio, then leap to No. 201, Shaded White. At No. 238, Monkey Puzzle (A typical 19th century estate colour which has, like so many successful colours, endured down the generations. Good with both brick and stone and indeed furniture.) the number leap again to No. 2001, Strong White. Does this reflect marketing pushes?

The names are idiosyncratic and often evocative. So I enjoy the descriptions.

The colours are matchless.