diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt
index 37a70435ed6ff..5d957221fe399 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt
@@ -975,3 +975,4 @@ Bug Fixes
 - Bug in ``pd.melt()`` where passing a tuple value for ``value_vars`` caused a ``TypeError`` (:issue:`15348`)
 - Bug in ``.eval()`` which caused multiline evals to fail with local variables not on the first line (:issue:`15342`)
 - Bug in ``pd.read_msgpack`` which did not allow to load dataframe with an index of type ``CategoricalIndex`` (:issue:`15487`)
+- Bug in ``pd.scatter_matrix()`` could accept either ``color`` or ``c``, but not both (:issue:`14855`)
diff --git a/pandas/tests/plotting/test_misc.py b/pandas/tests/plotting/test_misc.py
index 11f00386ec592..812f039f1a2c7 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/plotting/test_misc.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/plotting/test_misc.py
@@ -76,6 +76,12 @@ def scat(**kwds):
             _check_plot_works(scat, diagonal='hist')
         with tm.assert_produces_warning(UserWarning):
             _check_plot_works(scat, range_padding=.1)
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(UserWarning):
+            _check_plot_works(scat, color='rgb')
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(UserWarning):
+            _check_plot_works(scat, c='rgb')
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(UserWarning):
+            _check_plot_works(scat, facecolor='rgb')
 
         def scat2(x, y, by=None, ax=None, figsize=None):
             return plotting.scatter_plot(df, x, y, by, ax, figsize=None)
diff --git a/pandas/tools/plotting.py b/pandas/tools/plotting.py
index d311b0e6d83eb..f70a2b0b22140 100644
--- a/pandas/tools/plotting.py
+++ b/pandas/tools/plotting.py
@@ -349,7 +349,6 @@ def scatter_matrix(frame, alpha=0.5, figsize=None, ax=None, grid=False,
     >>> df = DataFrame(np.random.randn(1000, 4), columns=['A','B','C','D'])
     >>> scatter_matrix(df, alpha=0.2)
     """
-    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 
     df = frame._get_numeric_data()
     n = df.columns.size
@@ -367,8 +366,8 @@ def scatter_matrix(frame, alpha=0.5, figsize=None, ax=None, grid=False,
     hist_kwds = hist_kwds or {}
     density_kwds = density_kwds or {}
 
-    # workaround because `c='b'` is hardcoded in matplotlibs scatter method
-    kwds.setdefault('c', plt.rcParams['patch.facecolor'])
+    # GH 14855
+    kwds.setdefault('edgecolors', 'none')
 
     boundaries_list = []
     for a in df.columns:
@@ -2864,8 +2863,7 @@ def scatter_plot(data, x, y, by=None, ax=None, figsize=None, grid=False,
     """
     import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 
-    # workaround because `c='b'` is hardcoded in matplotlibs scatter method
-    kwargs.setdefault('c', plt.rcParams['patch.facecolor'])
+    kwargs.setdefault('edgecolors', 'none')
 
     def plot_group(group, ax):
         xvals = group[x].values