When it came time to convince my family that I wanted to paint the dining room brown, I decided the word “chocolate” would be my secret weapon. In fact, I had the specifics in mind: I would add that it was the paint equivalent of my favorite Valrhona Guanaja 70 percent, melted with a bit of French butter. Not too dark, not too milky.
What I didn’t tell them was that I’d already found the paint, and that it was arriving via FedEx from Dorset, England, the very next day.