The Italian Collection by Kate Watson-Smyth for Graphenstone and Maitland & Poate
Do you know what I love even more than a new paint and tile collection? When a great friend releases a paint AND tile collection. ON THE SAME DAY.
And it’s not just any paint and tile collection either. Inspired by her incredible Italian villa, Kate has collaborated with Graphenstone Paints, and Maitland & Poate, on the most BEAUTIFUL collections, that were quite literally, made for each other…
Sorry about all the shouting, but this is VERY exciting indeed, and has been in the works for quite some time as you can imagine, so it’s just lovely to see it finally hit the market.
Walls: Bianca Italia / Window Trim and Doors: Barolo / Floor: Lucrezia Chocolate
Graphenstone Paint, if you don’t already know, have amazing eco-credentials with only naturally occuring trace VOC’s in their mineral and lime based paints. Kate’s colourful collection of twelve shades, which funnily enough adorn the walls of her villa in Italy, were inspired by colours found in the house and its idyllic scenic surrounds.
Walls: Gelato, Trim: Sole, Tiles: Gloria Teja
For tiles, she’s collaborated with Maitland & Poate, who I’ve worked with before, and who you’re probably already familiar with. Famed for sourcing stunning antique and reclaimed tiles as well as thier encaustic tiles, Kate’s tile collection, also inspired by and adorning her Italian villa fits right in with their existing collections.
Lucrezia Chocolate
Not only is this a very exciting double-whammy collaboration, but it’s a very clever one too. The tiles and paints are colour matched, so if you fall in love with a tile, you don’t need to buy a load of different testers to find the right paint colour to work with it, and vice versa. So that hard work is already done. I told you they were made for each other.
Top row: Sole, Crema, Bianca Italia / Second row: Gelato, Ortensia, Barolo / Third row: Giardino, Oliva, Verde Torinese / Bottom row: Iris, Cielo, Lavanda
It’s hard not to fall in love with everything from both collections, and there’s something so edible about it all too. I guess it’s those beautiful ice-cream shades, or maybe just the fact I’m quite hungry.
Now, if I was forced to choose my top three paint colours, they’d be Bianca Italia (OBVS), a wonderfully delicate palest pink, Cielo, a soft blue that I’m a tad obsessed with, and Gelato, the prettiest plaster pink you ever did see. Oh god, nope, I can’t do three, I will have to add Sole, Barolo, Crema and Lavanda to that list, which means seven out of twelve are my favourites, and it’s not that I don’t also love the other five, because I do!
So yes, as you can see, it might be quite problematic nailing down your favourites, but trust me, they’re all such lovely colours that you just can’t go wrong, and they work so beautifully together too.
Top row left to right: Gloria in Morino, Teja, Lavanda / Second row left to right: Daisy in Morino, Teja, Lavanda / Third row left to right: Claudia in Morino, Teja, Lavanda / Fourth row left to right: Celestina in Morino, Teja, Lavanda / Bottom row left to right: Lucrezia in Morino, Teja, Lavanda.
The facade of Kate’s beautiful villa in Piemonte just outisde of Turin, Italy.
The tiles and paints are available now at Matiland & Poate and Graphenstone respectively, and keep an eye out soon for more images of Kate’s Italian dream. In fact, if you want to see it in the flesh, she’s running design retreats later this year that include intimate tours and time at the house, so you can soak up all this inspiration with your actual own eyes, and you can read more about that, and sign up here.