I bored the arse off my hosts at a dinner this weekend talking about names for paint colours, and how powerful they can be when done right. Then this morning I was introduced to a company who have come up with paint names that seem specifically designed to touch my sentimental heart in a very personal way.

Cream of Cornwall is a new company selling homewares from the county of my birth. A great idea, and a lovely site, as the motifs of mackerel, clippers, rope and prawn draw on a history of Cornwall without resorting to the tweeness that many other Cornish design businesses seem netted in.

The paint range, inspired by the distinctive colours of West Cornwall, looks great. But it’s the names, of course, that get you dreaming. Atlantic Breeze and Sea Thrift are hardly original, but the ones named after local beaches are powerfully evocative.

When any Cornish people get together you can usually start a very long conversation about your favourite obscure beaches. And so the rich teal of Bedruthen does evoke the turbulent seas in an area notorious for sweeping swimmers away. Sennen Blue is deep, vivid and full of light, like the waters just round from Land’s End (picture above). And Prussia Cove is a stony, mysterious indigo that counjours perfectly the slightly mournful feel of this secret smuggler’s haunt.

There are also paints named for local artists – Hepworth is a bright, light grey – and local ingredients like saffron. All are, as we say, ‘andsome.