Name: Butterfield-8 Blue
Possible Match: Let It Rain 639 - Benjamin Moore (other possibilities below)
Id like to introduce yet another feature to Color Therapy: Color Therapy in Film.
A few months ago I wrote a column lamenting the generalized use of indeterminate powder blue, which I called Butterfield-8 Blue. This was a column I wrote in snark, and it raised a few hackles. I decided to revisit both the film and the color to see more specifically what I was remembering and why it caused such a flap.
Lets start with the classic opening scene: Elizabeth Taylor is Gloria, wearing a slip and a mink, padding about her lovers Fifth Avenue apartment after a night of dissolute behavior. The entire apartment is painted light blue, but the color is bigger than I remember it, and not a washed out baby blue but something closer to a classic mid-century turquoise. Still, the color is very cool, and contrasts with the incredible sensuality of Ms. Taylor. When she discovers the envelope full of money and a note that says Is this enough? she revolts, writes no sale on the mirror in lipstick, and runs out the door with a bottle of scotch. My response exactly.
Id like to say already I like the color in this opening scene more than I remember it, though if I were going to use it anywhere, Id like to wink at the way it was used in this film and not take it so seriously or use it so formally. I also thought that this color was used in every scene in the film, but thats not true. Its used as a connecting element throughout, especially in the posh settings of Manhattan nightclubs, and this contrasts the beige paper-bag colors of Eddie Fishers West Village flat, or Glorias apartment she shares with her mother. In that sense, Butterfield-8 blue is classy, stylish, rarified, and for Gloria, ultimately unattainable.
Ive noticed in flipping through the Color Contest entries here in the last few days that several people have submitted pictures using Butterfield-8 Blue, which indicates that the films influences have extraordinary range. Here are a few possible color matches: from Ralph Lauren I like Baltic Green VM118, Faded Seafoam VM125, Empire VM126. In the Benjamin Moore lines Im attracted to Let It Rain 639, Turquoise Mist 695, Seacliff Heights 688, and Covington Blue HC-138. Skoal and good work to whomever named these items. What would you select?
- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter
I once painted a very tiny apartment bedroom this color blue with rustoleum silver trim. I also painted all of my trash picked & thrift store furniture to match. It was such overkill that the color is decidedly out of my system. But I loved that room and it was glorious to live in while it lasted.
butterfield 8 is one of those films i like watching repeatedly because the sets are so great. i was going for a similar color in my living room but i ended up getting more of a slate gray/pale blue color that is much, much cooler.
also, this film is great because liz's death scene is one of the cheesiest car crash moments in cinema history.
A RL Empire color chip is stuck to my bedroom wall with a push-pin, while I try to convince my husband that the labor of smoothing our dimpled walls will be worth it. I have a heavy cherry bed with a huge headboard, and all white sheets. I can't wait to get this on the wall, then use lucite for the rest of the furnishings in the room (like a Ghost chair) - a little warm, a little cool, a little mod, a little glam.
Eric
I'm looking for exactly what you have, a cooler, grayer version of this color for my kitchen cabinets. What brand, color did you use?
I love this color, but I think it's definitely a very feminine shade. There was recently a super-girly office in Domino that was about this shade, and I was quite envious. Love how the color and all the white set off La Liz.
oh,Eric, I thought I was the only one -- that car crash is beyond beyond; especially frame-by-frame. she screamed and flailed her way to an Oscar....
Funny, I just had two bedrooms painted today: one is like the color of the tiles in the bottom right photo, the other is more like the top right photo.
BM Glacier Lake
BM Polar Sky
I'm not super duper crazy about the Polar Sky. I like it just fine, but it's not my fave. But the Glacier Lake? Love it. It's more of a washed-out aqua, a bit grayer.
One word:
Benjamin Moore Antiguan Sky.
It's the perfect robin's egg blue. The paint chip does not serve it justice!!
asli, it's behr pensive sky (710E-2, i believe).
definitely get a sample pot before you go all the way, as the color looks dramatically different depending on the lighting.
Benjamin Moore Paradiso. Painted my bedroom in it. It's a bit less powdery blue with a smidge of green gray tones. Love it.
I've used Fired Earth's Mineral Gray in almost every house/apartment we've ever had. Depending on the light it can be a gray/turquoise, gray/green even a bit gray/lavender. It's much more neutral than the Butterfield 8 blue and probably closer to what you were remembering.
Checking the Fired Earth site, I don't see it listed anymore. AAAAAAAhhhhhhh! Luckily I have swatches and leftovers to match to.
I am totally infatuated with this color. I haven't seen Butterfield-8, but it's now definitely on my list. Cool sets? Elizabeth Taylor in a cheesy car crash scene?... Sign me up!
Anyone else struck by how this color is so similar to "Tiffany & Co." turquoise? Maybe that helps with the glam factor? I painted my living room/dining room in Behr's "Valley Mist" and it is a softer, paler shade of this color, and I adore it.
Oh, Mark, I love the column! Thanks for the forward. Please consider that wonderful, impossible green from Vertigo next! Or, the deadly gray-green from Interiors!!! xo Chris