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Comments (79)

  • Bestyears
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    I have to disagree. I've owned both a skirt and a pair of trousers in this color and loved them. Truly, I question the concept of 'world's ugliest color.' When I was a child, and bemoaning that two pieces of clothing didn't match, my grandmother, who was an art school graduate and amateur artist, led me through a conversation that I still remember today, about the idea of one color 'going with' another. Each time I'd bring up a surefire miss (like red with orange) she brought up an example of exactly where that appeared, usually in nature, in this case in a sunset, and how stunning it could be. She completely turned my thinking around and I realized I could never again accept someone else's assurance that one color didn't 'go with' another. I think similarily about this discussion.


  • nini804
    4 years ago

    I think the whole point of the article was that marketers were tasked with finding the most universally unappealing color to use for cigarette packaging in order to discourage smoking, and this was what “won.” 😂

    And it really doesn’t look “loden” to me...this color has more brown, with just a teeny bit of reddish-ness to mix with the green tones. It just looks vile to me!

    It definitely doesn’t look like your pretty door, Mtn, or your sofa, Sueb, or even that LL Bean jacket.

  • IdaClaire
    4 years ago

    Just back from the nail salon and thought of this thread while sifting through the myriad color choices. In that context, I do find certain colors really gross. Bright yellow, for instance. I think it probably looks best on darker skin tones, but even then I find it odd. The young woman next to me was having her nails done in a lavender that leaned towards blue. Pretty color, but it wasn't a great look with her skin tone. And yeah, I get that nail color is something that people just like to have fun with. But I think some choices are just much prettier than others.

  • Michele
    4 years ago

    I know this isn’t going to go over well....but my least favorite color is grey. Sometimes I can deal with a nice deep charcoal, but otherwise I just like color. I find the grey is drab and zaps all happiness right out of the room. 😐 Sorry

  • Olychick
    4 years ago

    Nini, that is interesting. I think unappetizing is different than ugly as far as colors go. I find this an unappetizing color, although not unlike darkened pesto, after you've added it to hot food. But the color itself isn't ugly to me.

  • carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
    4 years ago

    I certainly wouldn't want it on my walls, but I do like clothing and accessories in that shade, and in a velvet, satin, charmeuse or velveteen, I think it would be downright lovely.

  • daisychain Zn3b
    4 years ago

    Hmmmm. Pretty sure that is our house colour. It’s called Forest Black. I love it but if it was named The Worlds Ugliest Colour, I might have passed.



  • amykath
    4 years ago

    Call me crazy... but I like it.

  • mtnrdredux_gw
    4 years ago

    I think Nini makes a good point. It was actually chosen as the world's "most unappetizing color" and that seems fair.



  • nini804
    4 years ago

    What a pretty house, Daisy!!

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    Just for the record, that color is not the color of mtnrd's front door or daisy chain's house.


  • just_terrilynn
    4 years ago

    It’s the color of WW1 military blankets. My grandma had some and they were scratchy wool in that exact color.

  • daisychain Zn3b
    4 years ago

    Thanks, nini!

    I wonder if it is a hard colour to pick up clearly on computer monitors? On mine it looks very loden-ish but blacker.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    Loden green


    opaque clouché



  • Annie Deighnaugh
    Original Author
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    It's the color of spit from people who chew tobacco....what you'd see in a spittoon.

  • hhireno
    4 years ago

    🤮 fortunately, I’ve never seen a spittoon and I’ve certainly never looked in one.

  • Sueb20
    4 years ago

    Feathers, love that pic. And Daisy, love your house.


    The color in question reminds me of Ben Moore Raccoon Hollow and I guess I like ugly colors because I used it in our last house. (Below is NOT my house.)



  • Ladydi Zone 6A NW BC Canada
    4 years ago

    Silly people, no colour will stop someone who really wants to smoke. Not even those horrible pictures they put on the packaging. That being said, I don't hate the color. Some colors in the right lightening and in the right application can surprise you ... even lavendar 😊.

  • DLM2000-GW
    4 years ago

    There are all kinds of 'disgusting' things in nature that produce interesting colors - think of all the colors of mold from pale apricot to brilliant greens and blues. The visceral response to spittoon contents (whether you've seen one or not) is indeed off-putting but that's not at all what I see looking at that color. Among other things I see swamps, and decaying leaves, alligators which are not things we associate with pretty colors but nonetheless are part of nature. I love the flash of blue I see in the bluebirds that dart around our house but that's not a color I would want in my house or that I would wear. There's a place for every color in nature - whether or not it's one that calls to us in decor or clothing or art is completely personal. Chocolate and vanilla.

  • mtnrdredux_gw
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Ladydi,

    Of course packaging design influences consumption; otherwise there would not be an entire industry devoted to it. Will it deter addicted smokers? Maybe only on the margin. Will it reduce the likelihood that new smokers start? I would think so.

  • Lars
    4 years ago

    If you put that color on shimmering silk fabric, it will look pretty. We had some silk textiles with a color that we named "tobacco", and that was very similar.

    To me, the worst color is mustard yellow, at least on large areas. My mother had a bedroom painted in that color because she got the paint on sale, and I repainted that room in a very low intensity lavender, which was really a gray with lavender undertones. I made a bedspread for that room that was shades of dark green, and they looked nice together.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    I think what I'm reacting to is that very specific shade. There are dark greens and dark browns that are lovely. But, for me anyway, there's something really awful about that specific color. I wouldn't say it's the ugliest, thought it's right up there with pepto-bismal pink and mustard yellow. However, for me, the ugliest comes when you put certain colors together that is really off-putting...the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

  • mtnrdredux_gw
    4 years ago

    I like mustard yellow too! Especially in colonial interiors and juxtaposed with stone. One of my fave cafes has this look. I think I prefer "ugly" colors to "pretty colors" in decor. They make a much better foil for woodtones and any natural surfaces IMHO, and feel more sophisticated to me.




    It's hard to comment on a very specific shade, because of monitors and because in situ the lighting makes all the difference. For example, my front door paint is indeed very close to this color, but how close will be a function of lighting.




  • IdaClaire
    4 years ago

    Context, context, context.







  • OutsidePlaying
    4 years ago

    I don’t dislike it, and think it would be a nice color for outdoors or where you could use a deep color. Funny Sueb should mention Raccoon Hollow. We used Tavern Charcoal a couple years ago on our shutters, which is similar, although has more olive I think. It looked good with our brick. This color chip and the real paint don’t exactly look the same, andin sunlight, it even looks different.




  • DLM2000-GW
    4 years ago

    Exactly Ida. Love all your examples but that hat - oh my!

  • rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
    4 years ago

    Love that color and own quite a few articles of clothing of that shade.

  • just_terrilynn
    4 years ago

    Two different camps here.


    Some see the possibilities.




    And some see this.



  • lakeaffect
    4 years ago


    That’s pretty much the color of our LR walls, but since my goofy “art” covers most of those walls, we don’t see a lot of it. It’s been up 10 years and I’m contemplating a change to a less muddy color, not because I don’t like it, I do, but I am getting the itch to paint it because I like variety and get crushes on colors I want to try. And yes, my mantle is still holidayesque, but it’s full on winter here, and I like the bottle brush trees, especially at night, with the warm white lights on, so it stays up for another month or so.

  • daisychain Zn3b
    4 years ago

    Lakeaffect, your fireplace and ceiling are amazing and the paper lanterns look so happy there among the plants.

    mtn, that colour is so lovely in that room. Two of the bedrooms in our home had the woodwork painted a similar shade and I loathed it. I think because it was very old (original to the 100 year old house) and instead of having the nice contrasting white like in that pic, they had a very busy wallpaper with lots of black in it.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    Ok...we've had people defending the brown/green and mustard yellow...anyone want to step up for pepto bismal pink?

    😉

  • IdaClaire
    4 years ago

    Yes.






  • Olychick
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Um, no. Those all make me feel like I need a dose of pepto bismal.

  • amicus
    4 years ago

    This is more salmon than pink, but either colour would affect me the same way.

    https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/521643569309955590/

  • Sueb20
    4 years ago

    But then tweak both colors a bit...



  • just_terrilynn
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Isn’t it funny how you don’t notice certain colors till they are mentioned on this site?

    Only 2 left on Gilt










  • sheesh
    4 years ago

    I love it!

  • OutsidePlaying
    4 years ago

    Oo-la-la, that dress!

  • Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Justterilyn, yes! I just realized the Eddie Bauer coat I bought last year has a lining in the ugly color!

    It's a pretty heathered goldish on the exterior.

    Here's a random web blog picture, not me.

  • just_terrilynn
    4 years ago

    Sue, I’m sorta liking this color more than ever now.

  • Gooster
    4 years ago

    That dress looks great in that color! It's a tad more olive.


    I had to love the description of the color as "sewage" in the article. To me, it's like a heavy clay soil, which is probably why the mind runs to outdoor settings.


    I do have a lot of colors that are pretty close, including a sofa in a velvet (a bit more olive).


  • Annie Deighnaugh
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    Just to follow up on this thread, my old clogs were getting worn so I started looking on line and came across the old Dansko clogs like I wore in high school. So of course I had to order them.

    You'll never guess what color they are!

    Now they call it mushroom, but it sure is close to the OP! I can't help but think of it every time I put them on now!

  • mtnrdredux_gw
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    and I am thinking of repainting my front door...

    Actually I've been thinking of it for a while because it no longer matches my garage door. It did at first. Whether it is because one is sheltered and one is not or one is one brand, painted on wood and the other is a different brand, mixed to match, and painted on metal (iirc), I'm not sure.

    For a while I;ve been thinking they need to be painted, and now I figure. Heck, maybe a new color?

  • cyn427 NoVaZone7
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Mtn, I adore your door color, but you do whatever! Everything you do turns out marvelously...which makes me rather green/loden/ugly color with envy. ;-)

    ETA: I, on the other hand, have marvelous visions that never quite end up the way I want. Sigh.


  • mtnrdredux_gw
    4 years ago

    LOL and aww. Cyn, you are too nice.

  • just_terrilynn
    4 years ago

    If you start a door color post I know what I would pick. It might scare you though.

  • mtnrdredux_gw
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Well, my house is white. So, not a lot of constraints. Howeverrrrr... it cannot be entirely discordant with my color palate indoors. Which is, of course, white and off white LOL. JK I also have some Revere Pewter, and some blues. I'm thinking maybe FnB Hague Blue. A lot of wide plank hardwood flooring that tbh skews orangish.


    Hague Blue is the third one down in this piece by our very own Rococogirl! MIss her. I also like the second one. But I'd have to go see Robo to pick it up, LOL.

    https://www.atticmag.com/2017/05/front-door-blues/

  • artemis_ma
    4 years ago

    I'd have to see it in person rather than on a computer monitor. Here it just looks like "off black".

    This is the person speaking who ordered some quartz countertop material I almost envisioned for my kitchen. It looked like a nice earthy mix of dark greens and browns. I get the sample:

    It looked like what would happen if someone ate a dish of peas and sweet potato - and promptly threw up.

    So, actually, the color doesn't look that bad on the screen (although it is decidedly too dark for painting walls with) - I'll need to drop into a paint store to see it in all its un-glory!

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    Original Author
    4 years ago

    Full disclosure on those clogs in the "mushroom" otherwise known as the ugliest color...I sent them back. Couldn't take it.

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