The Shade Collection: how to decorate with different shades of the same colour

Choosing a paint colour is often only the beginning of the decorating journey. Once you’ve found a colour you love, new questions arise. Is it too deep for this room? Could I use a lighter version on the ceiling? How can I carry the same colour through several rooms without making them all feel the same?

The Edward Bulmer Natural Paint Shade Collection offers a simple answer: different strengths of the same paint colour, designed to make tonal decorating easier and create a natural sense of flow throughout your home.

What is the Edward Bulmer Natural Paint Shade Collection?

The Shade Collection features three lighter versions of twenty of our most popular paint colours. Each original colour is available alongside carefully developed 60%, 40% and 20% shades.

Rather than introducing an entirely different colour, these lighter paint shades allow you to explore different strengths of the same hue while retaining its underlying character.

This gives you greater flexibility when decorating. One colour family can be used across walls, ceilings and woodwork, or carried between rooms in different strengths to create a cohesive whole-house colour scheme.

How are lighter paint shades created?

Our lighter shades are not simply the original paint mixed with white.

Adding white to a finished paint colour can alter its character as well as making it paler. Instead, each colour in the Shade Collection has been carefully reformulated with a reduced pigment recipe to create lighter versions that retain a clear relationship with the original.

The result is a family of four related colours: the original full-strength colour and its 60%, 40% and 20% shades.

Aerial Tint, for example, can move from the depth of the original colour through progressively lighter versions, giving you several ways to use the same colour family within an interior.

Why decorate with different shades of the same colour?

Using different shades of one colour is an effective way to create a tonal colour scheme.

Rather than choosing an unrelated paint colour for every room or surface, tonal decorating allows the same underlying colour to appear in different strengths. This creates variation while maintaining a visual relationship between spaces.

You might use the original colour in a sitting room, its 60% shade in an adjoining hallway and a paler 40% or 20% version elsewhere. The rooms still have their own character, but the relationship between the colours helps them feel connected.

This approach can be particularly useful when developing a whole-house colour scheme, where you want individual rooms to respond to their own light and purpose without feeling disconnected from one another.

Using lighter paint shades on ceilings and woodwork

The Shade Collection also provides an alternative to automatically using white on ceilings and woodwork.

A 20% or 40% shade of your wall colour can create a softer transition between walls and ceiling, maintaining the character of the colour while introducing subtle contrast.

Similarly, using a lighter or deeper shade within the same colour family on doors, skirting, architraves or cabinetry allows architectural details to stand out without introducing an unrelated colour.

Alternatively, use the same shade across walls, ceilings and woodwork for a more immersive approach.

Which shade should I choose for my room?

There are no fixed rules. The right shade depends on the room, its natural light and the atmosphere you want to create.

Lighter shades can be particularly useful in hallways, landings and rooms where you want a softer interpretation of a favourite colour. Deeper versions can create greater richness and atmosphere.

Room orientation is important too. A colour will respond differently to the cooler light of a north-facing room than it will to strong southern light, so moving between the original colour and its lighter shades gives you more flexibility while remaining within the same colour family.

This is why we always recommend testing your chosen shades in the room itself before making a final decision.

Can I use different shades of the same colour throughout my home?

Absolutely. In fact, this approach has its roots in historic decorating, where variations in tone and strength were often used to create hierarchy and harmony between different spaces.

Using related shades can help connect adjoining rooms, hallways and landings, particularly where several spaces are visible at once.

You do not need to use every strength of a colour. Two related shades may be enough, or you might use the full family across several rooms and architectural surfaces.

The aim is not to follow a formula, but to create a palette that responds naturally to the architecture and light of your home.

Is the Shade Collection suitable for period and contemporary interiors?

Yes. While tonal decorating has strong historical precedent, the principle works just as naturally in contemporary interiors.

In a period house, related shades can complement original architectural details and create a natural progression between rooms. In a contemporary home, they can help define open-plan areas or introduce subtle differences between walls, ceilings, cabinetry and woodwork without creating visual clutter.

Whether you are restoring a Georgian townhouse, decorating a Victorian terrace or bringing colour into a modern home, the principle remains the same: using related paint shades creates variation without losing harmony.

Explore the Edward Bulmer Natural Paint Shade Collection

The Shade Collection reflects Edward’s approach to decorating with colour: looking at the home as a whole and considering how colour responds to architecture, natural light and the relationship between rooms.

With an original colour alongside its 60%, 40% and 20% shades, you can create tonal combinations across individual rooms or develop a palette that flows throughout your home.

Explore the Shade Collection to discover the colours available and their lighter shades.

Create your own tonal colour scheme

If you’re not sure which colour or shade will work best in your home, our Colour Consultants can help you develop a palette that responds to your architecture, natural light and existing interiors.

We also recommend ordering A5 colour swatches and sample pots to compare your chosen shades at home. Move them around the room and observe them throughout the day to see how each strength responds to changing light before making your final decision.