The Collection
Twelve colours drawn from the Suffolk landscape
There is a particular quality of light in Suffolk that you don’t find anywhere else in England.
It comes off the water — the estuaries, the reed beds, the wide tidal creeks that wind through the coast. A photographer’s light: flat, honest, full of grey-greens and pale golds. It strips colour back to its essentials.
I grew up with this landscape. I’ve photographed it for years. I once spent a season thatching in Suffolk — working with Norfolk reed on some of the county’s oldest roofs — and came to understand, in a very physical way, how this place colours everything around it. The bleached wheat. The deep mud at low tide. The exact grey-blue of a winter sky over Aldeburgh beach.
When it came to creating an exclusive colour range for House of Shaker furniture, I didn’t look to trend forecasters or international paint archives. I looked out of the window.
The twelve colours in this collection are named for places, birds, materials, and light conditions that are specific to coastal Suffolk. Each one has been formulated exclusively by Mylands of London — the finest independent paint manufacturer in Britain — to House of Shaker’s own specifications.
These colours exist nowhere else. They cannot be bought off a shelf. They are made for our furniture, and when you choose one, it becomes permanently and uniquely yours.
In the weeks before harvest, the wheat fields that run to the cliff edge near Dunwich turn a colour that is almost white — but not quite. There’s warmth buried inside it, a memory of gold. This is that colour. It’s the lightest in the collection, but never cold. Works in any room where you want painted furniture that feels like it has always been there.
Best with: Brass or antique bronze handles. Pale oak or painted floors. North-facing rooms that need warmth.
The flintwork on the churches and farm walls of the Suffolk coast has been weathering for centuries. It settles into a particular grey — not the blue-grey of slate, not the cold grey of concrete, but something warmer, older, with sand mixed into it. Suffolk Stone is the most versatile colour in this collection. It works in almost any space and pairs with almost any tone.
Best with: Chrome or brushed nickel handles. Stone or limestone floors. Light walls in neutral tones.
The avocet is the bird that put Minsmere on the map — Britain’s most elegant wader, with its upcurved bill and striking black-and-white plumage. I’ve photographed them at RSPB Minsmere many times, and it was there that this colour came to me. Look closely at an avocet’s wing in the field and it is never truly white. In certain light it carries the barest ghost of warmth — almost cream, almost grey. Subtle, refined, never clinical.
Best with: Any metal finish. Works as a soft alternative to pure white in contemporary or traditional schemes.
Orford is one of the small gems of the Suffolk coast — a medieval keep, a quayside, a castle caught between the river and the sea. Its stone, in afternoon sun, turns a particular muted gold. Not yellow. Not ochre. Aged and warm, like beeswax. Orford Gold brings this into any room that faces the light.
Best with: Brass and aged brass handles. Warm timber floors. Deep-coloured walls in blue, green, or terracotta.
Aldeburgh’s beach houses are painted in pale, faded tones — the kind of colours that look like they’ve been bleached by decades of North Sea wind. Among them is a particular blush: a dusty, grown-up rose that feels more architectural than pretty. Aldeburgh Blush sits in this tradition — warm enough to feel welcoming, muted enough to feel serious.
Best with: Antique brass or black ironwork handles. Pale linen walls. Bedrooms and dressing rooms especially.
I’ve been visiting RSPB Minsmere for years — as a photographer, it’s one of the finest places in Britain to watch light move across water and reed. Before the reed is harvested, it sits in a great pale canopy — all warm olive, khaki, and sand. It’s a colour that reads green in some lights and brown in others. Minsmere Reed is the one colour I most associate with actual craft: I worked with Suffolk reed as a thatcher’s apprentice, and this is the exact colour of the material in your hands — dried, warm, completely natural.
Best with: Brass or copper handles. Oak or natural stone floors. Any room with a connection to nature, garden, or landscape.
The fens that border Suffolk to the north are ancient, barely-touched land: flat, dark, and enormous. The vegetation there is a deep, saturated green — not a garden green, not a country-house green, but something older and quieter. Fenland is a statement colour. It works in libraries, alcoves, and pantries — anywhere you want depth and presence on a painted piece.
Best with: Aged brass or dark bronze handles. Dark wood floors. Rooms with high ceilings and good natural light.
Standing at the edge of the Orwell or the Deben at low tide, the water is neither green nor blue. It shifts between the two depending on the sky, the mud, the season. It’s the most alive colour in the Suffolk landscape — always moving. Estuary captures this: a true blue-green that changes quality with the light. Our most requested colour.
Best with: Brass or polished nickel handles. Works on island units, alcove pieces, and statement wardrobes.
Suffolk sky is not the sky of anywhere warmer. It’s pale, sometimes almost white, with grey in it — but also blue, clean, open. On a clear winter morning above the marshes it’s one of the most beautiful things there is. A quiet, thoughtful colour. Neither cold nor cool — just clear.
Best with: Chrome or polished nickel handles. White or off-white walls. Bathrooms and utility rooms as well as kitchens.
The salt marshes at high tide, under a grey sky, are almost black. Up close they’re dark green. From a distance they read as something in between — one of those colours that refuses to commit. Marshland sits in this territory. Serious, strong, and surprisingly beautiful in the right space.
Best with: Antique brass or dark steel handles. Works on large kitchen runs and wardrobes where you want presence.
The chalk grassland of the Suffolk Breckland is bleached white in summer — silvery almost, with dried grasses and flints giving it a cool, slightly luminous tone. Chalk Moor is the cooler, paler alternative to Winter Wheat. Where Winter Wheat is warm, Chalk Moor is neutral: a true near-white that works in light-flooded rooms without tipping into cream.
Best with: Chrome, brushed steel, or black hardware. Contemporary and Shaker schemes equally.
Dunwich is the drowned city of the Suffolk coast — a medieval town that fell into the sea over centuries and now exists only as a memory and a handful of ruins on a cliff. At night, the water off Dunwich is absolute: a deep, cold, vast navy that approaches black. Architectural, definitive, and extraordinarily beautiful on fitted furniture. A colour for people who know exactly what they want.
Best with: Brass or antique brass handles — the contrast is striking. Islands, larder units, alcoves, and bookcases. Particularly powerful in rooms with good natural light.
All twelve colours in the House of Shaker Signature Collection are available exclusively on House of Shaker bespoke furniture. Each colour is matched and mixed to our specifications by Mylands of London and is not available through any other retailer or supplier.
To explore these colours in your own space — and see your furniture visualised before you order — use our AI Design Tool. Select any Signature Collection colour, describe your room, and receive a photorealistic render of your furniture in your home before making any commitment.
Design Your Piece →The House of Shaker Signature Collection was created by founder Darren Bray, a Suffolk-based furniture maker, keen photographer, and former thatching apprentice. The twelve colours are named for the coastal landscapes, birds, and natural materials of the Suffolk coast — places and things that have shaped his understanding of colour, light, and craft. Each colour is formulated exclusively by Mylands of London to House of Shaker’s own specifications and cannot be purchased anywhere else.