ART & SOUL
Colour is storytelling for paint atelier Cassandra Ellis and the results can be seen in her converted barn
Idon’t think of paint or colour choices as interior design. I think of them as storytelling: conduits to emotions about how you want to live and how spaces make you feel,’ says Cassandra Ellis, tastemaker and founder of handmade paint and furniture company, Atelier Ellis.
Step over the threshold of the 17th-century barn Cassandra shares with Ed Prichard, a brand strategist, in West Dean, East Sussex, and your senses are piqued with the juxtaposition of everyday life. A serene, whitewashed dining hall greets you, dogs bark excitedly while Max Richter plays melodiously in the background. Yet amid the buzz of phones and emails (it’s a busy time in the world of Atelier Ellis), there’s a calm and composed welcome from the paint lady who is always busy percolating new ideas. This is not just an aesthetically pleasing home, it is a space that feels real, enjoyed and alive.
The barn, purchased 12 months ago, is a lesson in using only what is ‘simple, useful and beautiful’, a motto Cassandra lives by. With a home-cum-studio in Battersea, the couple earmarked this neck of the woods 12 years ago as somewhere with weekend potential. ‘Places rarely come up for sale, so we jumped at the chance. Set within a woodland plot in the South Downs National Park, the original working barn was part of the farm built on the site of King Alfred the Great’s palace. ‘It’s quiet here. I have space to think, away from the creative stimulation of London; and the garden and coast provide the freedom for us and the dogs, Mr Darcey and Otis, to just be.’
When the couple moved in nothing structural was needed, but shinier, more modern layers were stripped back and replaced with a softer, timeless aesthetic: reclaimed Victorian floorboards were laid; bathrooms updated with roll-top baths and walk-in showers; the kitchen and utility room doctored using existing cupboards – working on Cassandra’s philosophy of not wasting anything that still works. Layouts were rethought and two of the six bedrooms transformed: one into a library (Cassandra loves books) and another into an attic studio.
Art, another of Cassandra’s passions, is thoughtfully curated, along with locally foraged branches and beach ephemera. ‘I have a hectic mind and don’t like lots of things. I’m not a minimalist, but collections are contained as I believe in an artful tension of positive and negative space.’ Cassandra’s completely sustainable furniture designs feature throughout. Made by English furniture makers, they perfectly complement the calm atmosphere. The game changer, though, was Cassandra’s transformative use of colour. Her Warm White provides an ethereally calm backdrop, while in the sitting room, Smoked Green-blue – ‘a shade reminiscent of Tuscan frescoes that has been in my head since I was a child’ – takes centre stage. Cotta, Clay Slip and Bird’s Nest – other favourites – add depth and evoke the innate sense of nature that Cassandra’s authentic and soulful paint collection has become synonymous with.
Brought up in New Zealand, Cassandra followed various creative career paths, in events, set design for TV and interior magazine publishing. After meeting Ed 14 years ago, she moved to London and published four interior books before launching Atelier Ellis two years ago, the culmination of hard graft and a passion for colour and textiles. ‘I mood-board thoughts and hand-mix colours, just as a perfumer would create a scent,’ says Cassandra. ‘I want to encourage people to colour their own life, not just follow trends. A chair is a chair, but a tin of paint is a pot of possibility.’
Cassandra will launch a new set of paint colours during London Craft Week in May. Discover more about Atelier Ellis at atelierellis.co.uk; instagram @atelier.ellis
SITTING ROOM
A desk is framed by a striking painting by Howard Hodgkin.
Table, chair (left), deconstructed chair
(above) and wooden bowl,
all sourced from Ardingly Antiques Fair. Pouffe,
sourced on holiday in Morocco, similar from
Graham and Green.
Lamp, original
1950s Anglepoise. Similar woodburner, Chesneys. Ceramics (on mantelpiece) by Akiko Hirai. Metal side table, Fontaine.
Footstool, Atelier Ellis
DINING HALL An exquisitely carved marriage chest illustrates Cassandra’s love for one-off statement finds, juxtaposed here with contemporary lighting. Marriage chest, Jolly Folke Furniture. Light, a Verner Panton original
LIBRARY
This upstairs space is home to Cassandra’s precious books. ‘I always hanker after more knowledge,’ she says. Walls in Clay Slip,
Atelier Ellis. Light by Isamu Noguchi
BATHROOM
The roll-top bath is sited to offer a picturesque view out to the garden and forest beyond. Roll-top bath, Jig Baths; painted in Boro by Atelier Ellis. Urn, similar from Anton & K
BEDROOM
A brass bed adds warmth to the light-filled guest space. It is dressed in a mix of hand-dyed antique linen sheets and bespoke cushions.
Bed, ebay. Throw,
Ardingly Antiques Fair
INSIDER INSIGHT
Cassandra Ellis shares her style vision
SECRET ADDRESS John Sandoe – a bookshop in Chelsea.
WHERE DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION The V&A in London and Neues in Berlin –
David Chipperfield is a genius.
YOUR STYLE IN THREE WORDS Quiet, emotive, handmade.
INDULGENCE YOU CAN’T FORGO Books – and dogs.
GO-TO BRANDS Perfumer H, David Mellor, Joseph.
LAST PIECE OF ART BOUGHT A beautiful painting by Rosemarie Auberson.
DESIGN HEROES Alice Walker, Axel Vervoordt, Ilse Crawford, Agnes Martin and Dries Van Noten.