I’ve admired natural paint company Atelier Ellis ever since it started life back in 2018. Not only are its emulsions handmade and virtually VOC-free, they’re also beautifully evocative with poetic names that speak of founder Cassandra Ellis’ unique approach to colour. Her aim of helping people to ‘create the perfect backdrop for the way they wish to live’ has always resonated with me, so I was very excited to hear that she had moved to my neighbouring city of Bath and opened the brand’s first-ever physical store. A shop, showroom and gallery all rolled into one, it sits in a four-storey Georgian townhouse on Walcot Street in the so-called ‘artisan quarter’ and is intended to be a calm, contemplative space where customers can linger and explore what colour means to them.
I headed to the new store for a look around, taking the opportunity to chat with Cassandra about Atelier Ellis’ beginnings, the links between colour and mood, where she finds inspiration and more…
Hi Cassandra! Please can you start by telling us a bit about yourself?
“I grew up in Papakura in south Auckland and studied economics before moving into the worlds of set and event design in New Zealand. I also pursued my love affair with textiles through various commissions, natural dyeing and writing a number of books. I moved to England – for the second time – in 2008. It was right at the beginning of the recession and though I had worked in magazines and art direction for a long time, that wasn’t an option any more. I decided to apply the skills I’d acquired to property and began buying and selling in London and Sussex, which eventually allowed me to set up Atelier Ellis.”
How did Atelier Ellis come to be?
“I had always made my own colours and decided in 2018 to create a paint range. It has always felt instinctive to me. When I did it, a friend reminded me that I had been talking about it since we were in our early 20s, so it must have been something that was always going to happen. However it wasn’t for the faint-hearted, and even though I absolutely love and believe in what I do, I probably chose one of the hardest industries to enter into.”
What makes your paint different?
“For starters, we actually make our own paint. That may be a strange thing to point out, but many small brands don’t. This means we formulate our own products and decide exactly what goes into them and what doesn’t. My need to make a ‘best practice’ paint is well known. There’s no point in making something now unless it’s exceptional quality. The world doesn’t need more ‘just ok’ stuff.
“From a product standpoint, we prioritise a natural base, with a tiny bit of excellent science to ensure a fantastic finish. Our wall emulsions are virtually VOC-free, as are our pigments, and exceptionally breathable. These are active choices we make. I also develop all of our colours, so they’re completely unique and beautifully nuanced.”
Above: The shop’s ground floor showcases Atelier Ellis’ full range, with oak bars displaying hand-painted colour cards and swatches. There’s also a bespoke window bench made from oak floorboards left by the previous tenants, where customers can sit as they play around with different palettes.
What drew you to Bath?
“It’s a beautiful place to begin with. We wanted to simplify our lives and I wanted to live in a walkable city. For me, there isn’t anything better than being able to have a coffee, pick up a book, lie in the grass and visit a friend’s house, all within 15 minutes of home. Living here means we can also grow our business in a quietly beautiful way.”
And did the move prompt you to create Atelier Ellis’ first physical space?
“Yes. I hadn’t originally planned to open a store so quickly… but then we came to Bath and I could see it would be a great place – and time – to do it. And like life, the right spot opened up. I love this store – mostly because it feels domestic, but also because it just has a little magic about it. It doesn’t feel or look how you’d expect a paint shop to. Colours morph and change from place to place, home to home, so a paint store can only be a place of exploration. What better, then, than a store that’s really a house and vice versa?”
Above: The townhouse’s upper floors will be redecorated every few months to provide inspiration (the walls shown here are painted in ‘Under Wood’ and the woodwork in ‘Aged Black’). They also act as an exhibition space, with works by New Zealand-born photographer Jessica MacCormick and Sheffield-based Pottery West currently on display.
As a synaesthete who experiences words and letters as colours, I’m intrigued to hear about your relationship with colour. Have you always had a strong affinity with it, and does it have an emotional link for you?
“Yes, always. I can’t separate colour from mood or people or place. As individuals we’re instinctively drawn to our own palette. I think this comes from personal associations and memories that trigger positive (or negative) reactions. If you turn away from trends, I think people are often surprised that there’s a colour story that already exists inside them. We just have to help them find it.”
What inspires you?
“Books, words, paintings, flowers, people, politics… Almost anything that’s at the root of being alive. Nothing is off limits as inspiration, although I don’t really look at interiors and I definitely don’t look at trends.”
Above: The rear gallery is currently decorated in ‘Tamaki’, a milky blue-grey from the new ‘Beginnings’ collection, with woodwork in ‘Hummingbird’ and the cupboard interior in ‘Block Print Yellow’. As in the rest of the store, Cassandra has deliberately left some areas imperfect to highlight the building’s history and layers of patina.
I love reading the stories behind your paint hues – it sounds like many of them have deeply personal meanings. How do you go about developing new colours and collections?
“I read a great deal and write a lot of thoughts down. I piece together images, scraps of articles, postcards from exhibitions. It’s a strange kind of whirling exploration which ends up as a sentence or two. The colours – or the roots of the idea for the colours – are captured in this sentence and then everything comes from this. It’s a process I find deeply pleasurable. I always learn a lot about the world and I find it moves us forward as a business.”
Speaking of new collections, your latest one is the aptly named ‘Beginnings’. Can you tell us about it?
“Naturally, I felt inspired to create a new palette to celebrate the store opening and our collective move to Bath – a tribute to the surrounding city and to creative freedom. It’s also a reflection on the rhythmic migration of birds that marks the changing of the seasons. Lying in the grass watching them soar, swoop and play in the air, hearing them, seeing them and feeling them – they mark time and nature at her most refined. Every year they begin again – laying the foundation for a new family, a new season and a hopeful nest. And they offer colours that are beautifully honed, ethereal and stirring in their combinations.”
Above: Throughout the building, Cassandra has combined antique furniture with artisan pieces and fresh flowers grown in her allotment, lending a timeless domestic air to the space.
This may be an impossible question, but do you have a personal favourite from the colours you’ve developed to date?
“‘Smoked Green Blue’ is my ‘personal’ colour. It’s one of the first colours I made – and it represents my childhood, I guess. One of my very first memories is looking down at a pale blue dress that my mother had made me. I remember it gave me such profound pleasure – this dress, in this colour, made for me.”
Finally, what’s next for Atelier Ellis? Any more exciting developments on the horizon?
“For now, it’s all about making everything we do better, so that we can look after our customers to the best of our ability. Always improving and always looking for better, more human ways of building a business.”
Thanks Cassandra!
Find Atelier Ellis at 98 Walcot Street, Bath, BA1 5BG, or browse online.
Image two by Ellen Christina Hancock; all other photography by Abi Dare
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