There is comfort in the consistency of cycles and familiarity. In knowing that we willingly choose some parts of life to remain steady. The same brand of tea, the same colour and cut of shirt – and sometimes the same paint colour. I think it is essential that we can rely on some parts of life to be unfailing. Lots of life fails us or we fail it.

Fallen Plum came to life in the first eighteen colours that I made. There is a large scrapbook that contains the genesis of Atelier Ellis. Like all new businesses I spent months thinking of the perfect eighteen colours – the why they should exist as much as the what. 

Fallen Plum is, of course, about the idea of seasonality and the dependability of how a flower becomes a plum, which then becomes your jam. This cycle is one of life’s greatest olfactory pleasures. But it was also intended as a deeply rooted and primaeval colour. It feels ancient, complicated and strongly instinctive. 

My library at home is completely Fallen Plum – walls, ceiling, bookshelves and shutters. I wanted it to be a quiet place and a place where I could think and work. But also a place where I could drink wine with friends. Social joy feeding quiet delight and vice versa. I find it is the room I gravitate to most as it feels most ‘me’. The pleasure of colouring in your own space.

I do love it as a colour, but I also love how it makes me feel. It is a true colour that underpins what my business tries to be –  human. Joyful, kind and, hopefully, always steady.

Cassandra x

Photography by Ellen Christina Hancock