I recently hosted a wonderful Colour event for Sanderson to celebrate their launch of 50 new mouth-watering paint colours! I’ve always been a massive fan of the Sanderson brand, as a bastion of great British design and manufacturing, with all paints and papers manufactured here in the UK. I’ve also loved using their classic paints and fabrics throughout my interior design career and it’s always made it super easy that the paint, wallpaper and fabric collection are all designed to combine effortlessly. However when I found out they were dedicating a further 50 new colours to join the 104 on their current paint chart I couldn’t wait to find out what was in store.
So the stable of the new range falls into the greens and blues palette, but with eight news greys, a smattering of neutrals and more tellingly some rich reds and ochre’s (which as a colour trend that’s coming next) it’s a well rounded bunch. There is a really sexy hue called Night fishing, which is a deliciously inky dark navy. I’ve used this recently on a DIYSOS project (yet to be aired) and it looked incredible! It has wonderful depth and drama and looks spectacular on all walls and woodwork. But overall I’d say the new colours are very liveable- all on the earthy Autumnal spectrum they will work perfectly in the UK’s northern light and bring warmth to any room, whether you go for the dramatic darks or easy to live with neutrals.
For my part in the launch I hosted a colour workshop for 18 hot-to-trot influencers in the most amazing setting, The Sanderson Hotel in Berner St, London. It was a favourite haunt of mine during my time working on magazines, where I do remember many a late night spent in the fabulous garden bar, supplementing my BBC salary by accepting drinks off flashy rich bakers, before me and my girlfriends hot footed it off into the night. But that’s a whole other blog post. Or maybe not! Needless to say it was the perfect setting to celebrate all things design. The amazing post modernist building was originally the head office for the Sanderson brand, before being reincarnated as a five star hotel in the nineties so it has great resonance for the design heritage of the Sanderson brand.
But the Sanderson event was a much more grown up affair. I treated the guests to a VIP snippet of my Colour Psychology workshops, and using the new paint, paper and fabric collection, inspired the influencers to produce mouth-watering boards that reflected the mood they wanted to create in a room, rather than just focusing on the look. It was an amazing morning of creativity and I just loved to see the wide breadth if colour palettes and designs that were produced, as I pushed a few of the designers to think outside their comfort zone and start designing in a new and more focused way.
The colour workshop with the UK’s top interiors influencers was a huge success. Can you recongnise the faces of some of your favourite instagram accounts?
And it really inspired me too, as the Sanderson paint palette is where I’m completely at home. There are rich and intense brights but they all have lovely chalky warmth to them too. I’ve got my eye on Sea pink next, I think it might just be the right pink (for their are so many wrong ones!) for my living room re design.
Green painted kitchens are set to be the next colour trend. This Devon Greene by Sanderson is the perfect tone for a modern country look.
I love to see tongue and groove panelling used instead of tiles in bathrooms. This Newby Green from sanderson is cosy and cocooning but has a lovely deep warmth to it too.
Pinks and cool lilac’s are set to replace grey as the go to neutral. This oakley Slate by sanderson is the perfect choice because it’s Elegant and understated and works well with other neutral tones.
Blues are set to get brighter and this Menai blue by Sanderson is very livable. It reminds of of the coastal blues that we get here on the south coast and similarly it can be restful and uplifting at the same time.
The complete collection of 104 colours, so beautifully illustrated on these delicate hand thrown clay pots.
Sanderson paint comes in three finishes – Active emulsion for busy family homes with the lowest sheen finish for high performance areas, Water-based eggshell, and Oil based eggshell. You can find out more on the Style Library website here.