Palettes & Paints: A New Line of Luxe Paints from Cassandra Ellis

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We’ve long admired the work of New Zealand–born, London-based designer Cassandra Ellis, whose approach to interiors we find particularly resonant: Rather than create a place that is officially “decorated,” Ellis told us this past fall, a home should be “a long and rambling poem revealing someone’s life.” (Hoping to refine your own decorative senses? Read Expert Advice: Developing Style with Designer Cassandra Ellis for more.) The tools for getting there are where Ellis shines.

Two years back, Ellis launched her Furniture Collection, and today she launches Ellis Paints, a new line of 18 quiet, nature-inspired colors, each meant to work alone or in combination. Ellis spent years mixing colors for her own homes and client projects, and she took what she learned to an expert colorist in London to develop her first official line. The colors, like her interiors, are “quiet, calm, and enveloping—none overwhelming or attention-seeking,” she says. Let’s take a look.

Photography courtesy of Cassandra Ellis.

cassandra ellis paints 1 — Above: Ellis Paints are mixed to order in London and shipped (within the UK and abroad) within three working days.

cassandra ellis paints 2 — Above: The range is “tightly edited,” says Ellis, and organized by depth of hue. A hand-painted Colourcard is £5 ($6.80), later applicable to your first purchase.

cassandra ellis paints cloud white — Above: Cloud White is the grayest of Ellis’s four whites, which she says is “slightly crisper” than the other white offerings.

Ellis Paints are available in four emulsions: flat, acrylic eggshell, oil eggshell, and modern emulsion.

cassandra ellis paints aged black — Above: Aged Black is soft and chalky, reminiscent of “antique silk, ancient doorways, or scorched Japanese Tea Houses.” This shade, like the other three dark Ellis colors, is only available in the modern emulsion.

“Our dark colors have an intensity of pigment that we think is unrivaled,” says Ellis.

cassandra ellis paints sabi grey — Above: Sabi Grey is on the dark end of Ellis’s “medium” hues: She calls it a “deep, soft gray” that nicely absorbs the light.

Full tins of Ellis Paints start at £45 ($62) for one liter of light-colored acrylic eggshell paint. Due to the additional pigment used in darker hues, dark colors start at £52 ($71).