Edward Bulmer was honoured to be approached by Winchester College Heritage to create a set of bespoke paint colours for the rooms that Jane Austen lived in for the final months of her life. By carefully scraping back layers of paint, the original Georgian decorating scheme was uncovered and Edward specially mixed new colours to match those original finishes. These colours were used in the rooms Jane Austen and her sister, Cassandra, rented, and they help to invoke how they might have looked during their short time there in 1817. The repainted quarters. Edward tells of his time in College Street. ‘It is rare to feel the presence of a past life in an old house – they have hosted so many after all. I am someone who can anthropomorphise the skill required to fashion a piece of furniture or weave a carpet, I am also someone with a long-held devotion to the works of Jane Austen. Nevertheless, I was unprepared for how viscerally I felt her presence standing in the room in which she spent much of the last two months of her life. It was a genteel but simple room in a Georgian house in College Street, Winchester. Walls had since been changed and a staircase moved, but the character of the building not lost. The door to Jane’s room had a cylindrical brass knob which would have been recently fitted when her feeble hand turned it. Her presence was palpable – the simplicity of the interior was so in tune with what we know of her outlook and circumstances that it somehow deepened the sense of it.’ Jane's White Jane's White On creating the white, Edward says ‘Jane’s White required only a modicum of pigment to render it ‘the neat little drawing-room’ that Jane deemed it in a letter.’ Cassandra's Slate, with scraped back area remaining Cassandra's Slate, looking through to Jane's White ‘Cassandra’s room and the room occasionally used by her brother were given a little more richness by the use of cobalt blue and red and yellow ochre pigments. Not expensive tints, but in reasonable quantities to give warm mid-colours, creating Brownlow North’s Red, Cassandra’s Slate and Mrs David’s Pink. ‘ The colours are named after people alive at the time. Brownlow North was the Bishop of Winchester in 1817 and the diocese owned 8 College Street and Mrs David was the landlady of the property. Brownlow North's Red looking through to Mrs David's Pink in the read bedroom. Edward felt that ‘the fragmentary presence of these colours under subsequent layers, like the scant records of the Austen’s brief tenure, allowed a remarkably telling restoration, bolstered I believe by that strong sense of a remarkable soul that though failed in the end by a weak body, produced work of enduring popularity and prescience.’ 8 College Street is open to the public for a short while to the public in advance of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth on 16th December this year. Unfortunately all tickets have already been snapped up, but this important space remains as a monument to such an important figure in British literary history. All photography credits: Camilla Winter Moore
Edward Bulmer Natural Paint wins ‘The Conscious Award’ at The Country and Townhouse Interiors Awards This July our team were thrilled to pick up ‘The Conscious Award’ from Country and Townhouse, celebrating our brand prioritising sustainable business models, responsibility and staying true to our ethos and brand mission.
Discover the new ‘Forever Favourites Collection’ Create a scheme from one room to your whole house with soft colours that work together effortlessly ensuring tonal flow and harmony. Our 12 best loved shades together in one pack. Discover the power of natural paint today.
Guy Goodfellow: Matching Paint with Fine Fabrics Whilst our paints may provide the canvas, sometimes ‘loud’ and sometimes ‘quiet’, we love to then see a room ‘sing’ adorned in beautiful fabrics with incredible design. We see designers and homeowners alike dressing their rooms with the wonderful timeless fabrics from the Guy Goodfellow Collection
The Power of Natural Pigments: Issue 1 Pigments make the colour; the better the pigment, the better the colour!
How to decorate with the exceptional colour ‘Verdigris’ After headlining on the front cover of the November issue of House & Garden, we thought it about time we put ‘Verdigris’ in the spotlight. Read on to see how to use this colour in your interior design.