Tiny places of joy
There is a cupboard at the top of my home that is the keeper of many things. It is original to the house and is humble in its attic room design, as is the way of Georgian houses. It is one of those places that could go quietly un-noticed.
I also inherited a glazed built-in cupboard in my sitting room. Not original but perfectly lovely in its mid-century way. It was one of those additions we could have ripped out but chose not to, rather keeping as much house history as possible. Both cupboards were quickly washed in white in order to pause, and although completely fine just a little ‘meh’.
It feels a lot easier and oft financially prudent to sweep a whole room with one or two colours, rather than deal with the intricacies of detailed colour planning. Just as shoes/jewellery/hats can often be the hardest thing to ‘complete’ ones look, so is colouring in the kitchen island, the downstairs loo or the ceiling of that ‘weird’ back bedroom.
I am also aware that investing in 2.5L of emulsion when you just want to express a little creative freedom can seem a little decadent, or wasteful - or just too much of a guilty pleasure. But colouring in your house should be pleasurable. It should be fun, and it should be freeing.
To encourage your creativity, we now offer 1L tins in our True Matt Emulsion. Enough for that tiny loo, feature nook, mural, or pantry. What fun! You can create further joy by using the paint on interior cupboard doors or pieces of furniture, then finishing and protecting it with a coat of our beeswax. How 1980’s - in a good way of course. It’s an aesthetic alternative to using our Wood & Metal – but is only suitable for internal doors or furniture.
I painted the inside of our living room cupboard in Mollie – which is a lovely earthy green.
A sweep of colour and it has become our autobiographical Wunderkammer. Family photos and special objects sit with sticks, moss and memory markers of our family life. Everything feels elevated and protected by sitting inside this beautiful shade. I look at it every day and it brings me both joy and peace. All from less than a litre of paint.
Our cupboard at the top of the house sports an Axia cloak. One of my favourite deep shades, it’s neither brown, grey nor purple. It gives this humble door and space more value and hence more joy. It’s also a lovely soft full-stop at the top of the house.
Axia is our colour of the week – a reminder that small doors, rooms, nooks and loo’s are valuable and joyful spaces. Have fun painting.
Cassandra x
Colour of the week
Axia — A capable and valuable damson-hued brown.
This is a beautiful stand out hue. Not purple, nor grey. Perfect for cabinetry or as a dramatic, but warm room. A complex arrangement of nine different pigments ensures that it sits with many of our neutral families.
Axia works beautifully as a map with some or all of these colours: Lunching Ladies, Parviflora, Clarissa, Jam, Sadhika, Milk, Quiet Grey & Tamaki.