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Our Colours of England and Colour Scales colourcards

Our Colours of England and Colour Scales colourcards

May 14th, 2021

Little Greene

Designed to make choosing colours a pleasure and intuitive for the user, our two colour cards bring together the best of our capsule collections. They showcase 196 Little Greene colours, providing a refined and refreshed ‘Colours of England’ collection alongside an expanded range of graduated shades in the ‘Colour Scales’ offering.

Discover the complete palette and learn how to use our colour cards to choose complementary shades for your upcoming project.

Our ‘Colours of England’ colour card

With confidence in colour central to the Little Greene ethos, this card spans over 300 years of historic interior design and includes many authentic 18th, 19th and 20th century shades. These historic colours are presented alongside a carefully adjusted palette of contemporary shades, embracing modern interior design aesthetics and current decorating trends.

The ‘Colours of England’ card meets the growing desire for classic, timeless colours that are both simple to choose and a joy to live with. The collection includes many significant shades from all over the British Isles that have contributed to the internationally renowned style of ‘English Interior Design’.

Explore the full collection or shop paint sample pots.

Our Creative Director, Ruth, writes: “Amongst our cherished signature colour palette, it is wonderful to be able to include colours that celebrate the desire for warmth and joy – ‘Indian Yellow’ named after the traditional oil pigment used by fine artists, ‘Bassoon’ with its deep-ochre undertone, and ‘Giallo’, an uncompromising, yet very easy-to-use, burst of golden sunshine.

Our palette encompasses beautiful shades such as the gentle powdery pink ‘Masquerade’, rich and charismatic charcoal grey ‘Vulcan’, the inviting mid-strength blue ‘Etruria’ and ‘Silent White’- the answer to the everlasting quest for the perfectly balanced, calming and elegant neutral-warm white.”

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Walls: Silent White – Deep, Panelling: Silent White

Our ‘Colour Scales’ colour card

The extended ‘Colour Scales’ colour card offers a further eight families of diluted iconic Little Greene colours and incorporates the ‘Stone’ and ‘Grey’ capsule collections. This versatile palette is a response to the increasing desire for easy and simple-to-scheme colours that create harmonious and monochromatic backdrops to decoration.

The ‘Colour Scales’ card also includes deeper colours alongside the ever-popular diluted shades, as useful identifiers for the undertone of each colour family.

The card has been designed for ease of use; each colour is one of a graduated family, grouped in columns according to undertone. Shades within the same column can be used together for tonal coordination, or across columns to create a balanced contrast.

Explore the full collection

Upper Wall: Book Room Green, Lower Wall: Sage Green, Right Wall: Green Stone – Pale, Door, Dado & Skirting: Sage Green

Ruth writes: “Neutral paint colours are moving away from cold greys and traditional country creams, towards neutral stone tones, complex greys and nature’s favourite; green. By providing these soft tonal colours in families, we can offer a subtle spectral range that consumers can combine with confidence.

The lightest four shades work beautifully to add discreet depth to a room, softly defining characterful architectural features, or reducing the contrast of walls and ceilings which might be subjected to different light levels. The deeper shades can be used to complete a coordinated, harmonious scheme that, whilst monochromatic in hue, makes a strong statement with an expansive depth of colour.”

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How to use our colour cards

Choosing colour is a process that begins with our colour cards. The painted chips are made using real paint in Absolute Matt Emulsion – our most popular paint finish with a flat 2% sheen. This means you can have complete confidence that the shades you see on the cards are exactly how they would appear on a painted wall, making it easier for you to select paint colours for your project.

Our colour cards are made with unique ‘flying chips’. By folding the card away from the chips, you can compare shades against fabrics, textiles and furnishings, helping you choose paint colours that perfectly coordinate with the other elements in your scheme.

Read our guide to using our colour cards

Order sample pots to confirm your colour choices

Once you have selected your chosen shades, it is important to confirm your choices by ordering sample pots. Our 60ml sample pots are poured by hand using Absolute Matt Emulsion, the ultimate matt, chalky finish for testing paint colours.

Paint your samples out onto A4 pieces of card or lining paper, allowing you to view the colours in different parts of your space during the day and evening, in natural and artificial light. Once you are happy with how the colours appear in your space, you can order paint in your chosen finish and tin size. Visit our product pages for assistance with choosing a finish and to help calculate the paint we estimate you will need for your project.

Read our guide to using sample pots

Featured colours

Garden

This reduced version of George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Hopper™ 297’ brings a fresh ambience of midsummer itself.

When used on woodwork, Garden brings a vibrant pop of colour to enliven any scheme. It combines beautifully with coordinating wallpapers such as Spring Flowers – Garden. Or consider pairing with the slightly paler Pea Green on the ceiling to bring a touch of contrast to a colour-drenched space.

Shop Garden

Vulcan

Sharing its name with the Roman God of Fire, this shade is inherently strong; a deep, charismatic, charcoal grey - with a little warmth retained.

Vulcan is a fabulous shade to partner with our much-loved grey-green, Livid, to create a moody yet restful interior. It works equally well on exterior woodwork, blending into the background or providing a quiet, shaded spot.

Shop Vulcan

Etruria

Historical innovator and renowned potter Josiah Wedgwood named his Staffordshire ceramic factory ‘Etruria’ in 1769. The title was a tribute to his passion for the forms, colours and decoration of ancient Etruscan and Greek pottery, which he expertly recreated and brought to English high society in the late 18th century.

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Obscura

An elegant, gentle blue-grey, this shade sits effortlessly in the tail of the Gauze Colour Scales family. Equally elegant used in solitude as among the lighter Gauze shades, this cool neutral works beautifully with natural floor textures; sisal, coir and jute.

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Silent White

Formulated in the quest for the perfectly balanced, neutral-warm white for a calm interior. Add softly spoken depth to the room by using its lighter and deeper versions on other walls, the ceiling and trim.

Shop Silent White

Masquerade

With its delicate, powder-like hue, Masquerade – alongside the diluted versions of it – offers an alluring, natural undertone that is as ‘at-home’ in the bedroom as in the ballroom.

Shop Masquerade

Indian Yellow

Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the pigment Indian yellow was a much more prolific ingredient in the oil paint of fine artists, than in the decorative paints of the time. Our colour shares all the timeless qualities of its namesake, but thankfully none of its well documented original ingredients or production methodologies.

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Bassoon

With its deep-ochre undertone, Bassoon is an unsung hero of historical decoration. These drab colours were favourites in the functional ‘back of-house’ areas of yesterday’s grand homes due to their ability to disguise dirt, and the subsequent infrequency with which they needed to be repainted.

Shop Bassoon

Giallo

In celebration of the Italian influence on British architecture and interior design over the last 400 years, Giallo is an uncompromising, yet very easy-to-use, burst of golden sunshine. A charming highlight or accent colour, it is most splendid when used in a large expanse.

Shop Giallo

Order sample pots or explore Colour Consultancy for help and assistance with choosing colours.