Velvety Atrium Brick

An adjectival form of velvet, used since the eighteenth century for colors that read as if they had the matte light-absorbing quality of velvet. Implies high saturation combined with a non-glossy surface — the matte richness of a deep wine in a fabric rather than in a glass. Sits in the bold-and-deep corner of the grid alongside plush and lush.

Latin atrium, Roman-house-courtyard. As a color modifier, atrium implies a Roman-and-modern-courtyard-with-skylight quality, the visual register of Roman-Pompeii-and-modern-Mid-Century-Modern-atrium hand-built central-courtyard-with-skylight atrium-and-impluvium-and-courtyard architectural surfaces under Roman-and-Mid-Century-Modern atrium-skylight light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to loggia and quad in usage.

Fired clay, mineral red. The color refers to common building brick — iron-rich earthenware kilned to the specific dusky red-orange of a Victorian terrace, a Roman aqueduct, an adobe wall in New Mexico. Less saturated than ruby, warmer than burgundy, with a chalky cast that reads as architectural rather than decorative.