Interior designer Edward Bulmer has collaborated with Chatsworth House's Laura Burlington on a new 24-colour paint range. The collection draws inspiration from the historic estate's rooms and features. It marks the largest expansion to Bulmer's natural paint line in 13 years.
In autumn 2023, Laura Burlington, who manages Chatsworth House with her husband William Cavendish, the Earl of Burlington, emailed Edward Bulmer about creating paint colours inspired by the estate. Bulmer, known for working on Britain's historic country houses, agreed immediately. "I thought about it for a nanosecond before I said yes," he recalls, citing his admiration for Chatsworth and Burlington's curatorial eye, including her 2017 exhibition on fashion at the house.
The couple assumed responsibility for the Peak District property two years ago, focusing on updates like enhancing the farm shop and renovating buildings. Bulmer's breathable paints first caught Burlington's attention during stable renovations and work on The Hall at Bolton Abbey, another Devonshire property. "We'd have to paint the little attic rooms every year because the paint peeled off, but we've never had to repaint since using Edward's paints," she explains.
Bulmer visited Chatsworth with a spectrometer, though Burlington noted there was little existing paint to analyze. Instead, the focus was on capturing the estate's evolving spirit. Inspirations include a passageway's blancmange hue, now 'Passageway Pink'; 300-year-old oak doorways' chestnut tones as 'Enfilade'; rust-hued linen in a sitting room; and steely blue silk in The Scots Bedroom. New shades fill gaps in Bulmer's 102-colour range, such as 'Sekhmet', a black with ochre undertones from a granite statue, and 'Flock', a green from floral wallpaper. 'Everywhere White' suits historic settings from cottages to Chatsworth's Ante Room.
Burlington has tested several: 'Cyanotype', from a 19th-century algae book, brightens a hallway to the Grotto; 'Chatsworth Stone', from local quarry stone, lines a flower room passage. "What's fascinating about Chatsworth is that it's very much a lived-in house that is constantly changing," Bulmer says. The paints aim to be practical and eco-friendly, usable beyond stately homes. "The colours have a certain je ne sais quoi and are so usable wherever you happen to live," Burlington adds.
Priced at £66 for 2.5 litres of emulsion, The Chatsworth Collection launches on March 3 and is available via Chatsworth's Stables shop and edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk.
