Mouse's Back, Mizzle, Down Pipe: Farrow & Ball is cashing in on its quirkily-named paints

It's hardly surprising that such shades as Dead Salmon or Mole's Breath are sniggered at

Flying colours: Farrow & Ball’s creative director, Charlotte Cosby

Fifteen years ago, if you'd told your friends you were painting your front room with Cat's Paw, you might have been paid a visit by the RSPCA. Today, using the shade – and all the others quizzically named by the paint company Farrow & Ball – is a full-on status symbol, a byword for middle-class cool.

Now in its 70th year, Dorset based Farrow & Ball has 132 shades on its colour card and 32 stores in the UK, but it's only really in the last decade that its popularity has gone through the roof – as well as our front rooms – and in ever-more shady shades.

The company's creative director, Charlotte Cosby, explains that the trend for all-white, Scandinavian interiors, so popular at the turn of the millennium, has veered towards more stone-coloured neutrals. When it comes to Fifty Shades gags, they've heard them all. But Down Pipe, she says, has been a really big seller. “Also a new shade of ours, Railing – which is almost black – has been really popular.”

The change in our wall colours, says Cosby, is as much an indicator of wellbeing as hemlines: “At the beginning of a recession, when people are depressed, they buy bright colours to try and lift themselves out of it. But then they move on to darker or more neutral colours. In the past 10 years, Elephant's Breath [a bluey grey colour] has pretty much always been in the top best-sellers. I'd love to know how many people have only bought it because of the name.”

It's hardly surprising that such shades as Dead Salmon, Mouse's Back or Mole's Breath are sniggered at, but Cosby insists they're in on the joke: “We get a lot of suggestions via Twitter and we'll be in hysterics in the office.” How about Shy Tory, an idea floated after last year's General Election? “You never know,” she twinkles. However, it's more likely that “people” or “nature” will inspire the creative team. “It's quite a structured process, actually. Some are named after people, so Teresa's Green is named after the former creative director. Savage Ground is after a gentleman who used to work in our wallpaper factory, Dennis Savage. And then a lot are named after nature.” Mizzle, for example, is the Dorset word for mist and drizzle.“

Much to customers' disappointment, Middleton Pink, has nothing to do with the Duchess of Cambridge. Meanwhile, Indie Yellow was named after the “shade of cows' urine after they've been eating mango leaves”. (Nice for the kitchen walls, anyone?). As for the infamous Elephant's Breath: it was a shade created by decorator John Fowler in the 1940s.

When the company was first launched in 1946 by John Farrow and Tom Ball, they made special paints for military, industrial and transport use. In the early 1990s, under new ownership, they moved Farrow & Ball in a more “aspirational” direction, working with the National Trust on historical shades to help refurbish some of their properties. In 1996, their first flagship store opened on the Fulham Road in Chelsea.

While no one can explain just why the company has struck such a chord with a certain caste – particularly when similar shades are found elsewhere – its customers are nothing if not loyal. Cosby says that one customer who died even chose to have her ashes stored in a personalised Farrow & Ball tin, specially made for her by the company. Bet you wouldn't get that from Dulux.