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An autumn day is a lesson in light: from the pink-grey of the mist to the deep brown of night, it passes through seven shades - every one lower, more golden and more enveloping than summer's. We found them again in our colour card - so that autumn stays in the house once the leaves have fallen.
Follow the day's lightStart here
What we call « autumn colours » is not a family of shades - it is an angle of light. From September the sun drops: it comes in lower through the windows, crosses rooms instead of hanging over them, and gilds everything it touches. Leaves do not merely change colour - they change because the light passes through them. The colours we love in October are colours that know how to receive a raking light: they warm in it without darkening.
That is exactly what to ask of them once they are home. A successful autumn shade is warm without being heavy, deep without being dark, and above all richly pigmented: it is the umber, the ochre and the burnt sienna that give a beige its flesh and a red its ember. Our colours are composed in London with generously weighed pigments - which is why they hold October's low light without turning dull, and why they keep their warmth when the light goes altogether.
Your turn
Slide the hour: the mist lifts beyond the French window, the sun stays low, the leaves fall, and the wall takes the shade of the hour. Seven moments, seven shades - this is the page's palette.
The hour 1 pm · Noon
An evocation, not a screen-accurate rendering: the true colour is judged from a sample pot, on your wall, at the hour you live in the room. The seven shades are detailed just below.
The palette
Every hour of an autumn day has its colour, and every colour its favourite room. Here are the seven, in the sun's order - each with two companions drawn from the Mylands pairings. The chips link to the colour pages.
The pink-grey of the mist
Autumn rises late, and it rises in mist: the garden is erased, colours do not exist yet, all that remains is a mild grey tinged with pink. Pediment carries that moment - « a warm neutral blush, a subtle pink tone hinting at grey », just a little deeper than Marble Arch. On bedroom walls it makes waking a cotton-wool thing, and it keeps that first-morning softness all day.
The honey of low light
When the mist tears, the autumn sun already arrives sideways: it comes deep into rooms and fills them with a honey light. Walbrook is its exact translation - a « rich cream inspired by the reflective stone walls of St Stephen Walbrook », whose « yellow and orange undertones provide a sweet glow, with a resonating sunny feeling ». It is the shade that makes a kitchen happy on an October morning and, by noon, settles into cream.
The white of warm stone
At noon, autumn is not white: it is stone. The sun is no longer high enough to dazzle, and the truest white is that of warmed limestone - Cadogan Stone, « a stone colour, subtle and elegant, warm yet crisp », rediscovered in a house on Cadogan Square. « Neither too warm nor too cold », it is the white of every piece of woodwork in this palette, and of ceilings that must stay luminous as the days shorten.
The green gold of the plane trees
By mid-afternoon the sun is already low and shining through the leaves: London's plane trees - like those along the boulevards - take on that green gold, matt and a little faded, which is the very colour of October. London Plane, « inspired by the leaf of the London Plane tree », has exactly « that natural olive tone with a fresh, slightly muted look », green with a deep-yellow undertone. In a sitting room or a study it makes the afternoon longer than it is.
The rust of the falling sun
The autumn sun sets early, and it sets red: rooftops, copper beeches, the last leaves take on the colour of rust. Indian Lake - « the original name for an early colour produced in London during the 18th century » - is that natural, earthy red, « with fewer dark tones than Huguenot », which brings « a classic feel to a space ». The shade of a dining room where one dines early, the lamp already lit.
The ember by the fire
Night fell long ago, and autumn takes refuge indoors: this is the hour of the fire, or the lamp, and of a red seen only by its reflections. Rothschild Street - « a contemporary colour named after the home of Mylands » - is that deep red « created by mixing warm oranges and yellows with magentas and black », which tightens beautifully under warm light. The shade of a winter sitting room that begins in October.
The warm brown of autumn nights
An autumn night is not blue like a summer night: it is brown, muffled, and smells of earth and wood. London Brown - « one of our archive colours, a warm dark brown with raw umber and burnt sienna » - is that brown, with « a rich warmth from its deep red undertones », dark yet « a friendly, comforting shade ». It is the shade of the bedroom one sleeps well in, of the dining room of November dinners.
Ready to paint
One hour does not make a room: it takes a white that breathes, a tonal companion that binds, an accent that wakes. Here are three complete palettes - a morning, an afternoon, an evening - to order as samples or save to your favourites.
01 · Morning
A misty pink-grey, a marble white, a heather taupe, and the hint of blue of a sky clearing.
The palette of a bedroom that likes slow wakings. Pediment dresses the walls; Marble Arch, « as pretty in colour as the material of the archway it is named after », takes the woodwork and the ceiling - a related white, barely pink, not raw white, which is the whole difference. Grouse, « a light, dusty brown » from the same family, deepens an alcove or the inside of a cupboard. And Notting Hill, Pediment's official accent, a « friendly light blue » softened with umber, wakes it all on a door or a bench: the mist tearing.
02 · Afternoon
The green gold of the leaves, a frieze white, a Flanders grey, and a Thames-blue door.
The palette of a sitting room that looks onto an avenue of trees - or wishes it did. London Plane covers the walls; Frieze, the shade's official related white, takes the woodwork. On the ceiling, Flanders Grey, its paler tonal companion, « a warm grey with yellow and green undertones »: the room gains height and the green seems to climb to the branches. Boathouse, the blue of the Thames boathouses and London Plane's official accent, dresses the door - the fresh note that stops the green gold from dozing off.
03 · Evening
An ember red, a grey-stone white, a peat brown, and a flash of pale blue like a flame turning blue.
The palette of evenings that linger by the fire. Rothschild Street wraps the sitting room and does, by firelight, what the sunset does to façades. The Boltons - the shade's official related white, a soft, faintly pink grey-white - takes woodwork and ceiling. Millbank, « rich and earthy, a beautiful brown with subtle hints of magenta », dresses the next room or a dado: the same warmth, an octave lower. And Bridge Blue, Rothschild Street's official accent, claims an armchair or the inside of a niche.
The method
An autumn shade should be as beautiful on a June morning as on an October evening. Four rules decorators follow to keep it that way.
01
Factory white, bluish and optical, clashes with an autumn shade and makes it look dull by contrast. Give it a related stone white - Cadogan Stone, Marble Arch, The Boltons - and it will keep its warmth right through to the long days.
02
Autumn light is beautiful because it rakes. A matt emulsion receives it without throwing it back and lets deep shades breathe; an eggshell on the woodwork lets it slide just enough. Gloss, on the other hand, makes hard reflections under the lamps - keep it for a door.
03
A deep, warm shade - Rothschild Street, London Brown - can feel heavy in a south-facing room under a July sun. Choose the palette's light hours there instead: Walbrook, Cadogan Stone, London Plane. The earth they contain keeps autumn without the weight.
04
Wool, corduroy, worn leather, dark wood, copper, a wicker basket: these are the materials that make autumn believable when the garden greens again. An autumn shade on bare walls is a promise; with the right materials, it is a season.
The deepest ones will, if left alone and unlit: an ember red in a north-facing room, without a lamp, becomes a brown. Three answers: choose the palette's light hours (Walbrook, Cadogan Stone, London Plane) for rooms with little sun, keep the dark hours (Rothschild Street, London Brown) for evening rooms where the lighting is under control, and always pair the shade with a related stone white rather than a raw white - it is the contrast with cold white that reads as dark.
The two ends of the day: dawn and night. Pediment for those who like to wake in a soft, misty light; London Brown for a den of a bedroom that keeps its muffled warmth at night and makes for wonderful sleep. In both cases, the ceiling in the shade's related white - and, if the bedroom is small, Pediment rather than London Brown, or London Brown on a single wall behind the bedhead.
Through restraint and through company. Our autumn shades are earthy, never orange: London Plane is a green before it is a gold, Indian Lake an earth red before it is a rust, Walbrook a cream before it is a yellow. And always give them a fresh note: a Boathouse door, a Bridge Blue armchair, a Notting Hill bench. A brown alone is a brown; a brown with a blue is a palette.
That is where they are most surprising. An autumn shade on clean walls, a pale floor and simple furniture becomes graphic rather than rustic: Indian Lake « paired with a white can become modern and graphic », London Brown on a clean-lined kitchen is thoroughly up to date in its elegance. The rule: few shades, broad surfaces, and a stone white - Cadogan Stone - to hold it all together.
Yes - earth reds and browns are among the most classic exterior colours there are. Simply choose a finish made for outdoors (see our exterior selection) and expect the colour to look lighter outside than in the pot: daylight always lightens. For a front door, Rothschild Street or London Brown belong all year round; Indian Lake makes a garden door people remember.
The other seasons
Every season has its light, and every light its seven shades. The three other days in the series - same method, same simulator, same ready-to-paint palettes.
Winter
From silver frost to the crimson evening: seven shades for a scarce light and the lamps.
Discover the paletteSpring
From the lavender dawn to the green night of the garden: seven shades for a light that changes.
Discover the paletteSummer
From the milky blue of dawn to the ink blue of night: seven shades for the long days.
Discover the paletteAutumn does not fit in one colour: it fits in a light that descends. Choose your hour.
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