A medium-sized, dry, smoky grey-blue species with a yellow-brown to orange-brown disc that may become entirely orange in age, obscuring the violet tones of young fruitbodies. The paint-like odour is highly characteristic and often decisive in the field.

Cap: 30-70 mm (occasionally to 120 mm); dry, not hygrophanous; obtusely conical to rounded, later convex with an involute margin. Colour mouse‑grey to bluish grey, with a yellow‑brown granulose to squamulose disc that turns orange‑brown, sometimes entirely orange in age. Margin brown‑violaceous to greyish violet, often with thick yellow‑brown fringes and fibrils when young.
Lamellae: Moderately crowded (L = 48–64, l = 2), narrowly emarginate to adnate. Colour saturated violet to greyish blue, edges concolorous.
Stipe: 30-70 x 5-12 mm, cylindrical to clavate (rarely aphlegmacioid with a bulbous base). Colour grey to bluish grey, pallescent; with ochraceous fibrils and tufts; apex violet to grey‑violet, base whitish. Veil ochraceous to brownish yellow, copious. Cortina grey to pale violet.
Context: Grey‑violaceous to pale grey, often marbled blue to violet; young specimens sometimes entirely violet, later pale yellow in the stipe base.
Odour/taste: Odour distinct, paint‑like (house paint / wallpaper paste), sometimes acerbic. Taste faint, somewhat unpleasant.