Lulu and Georgia Solves Its Customers’ Biggest Design Dilemma With Its First Paint Collaboration of ‘Grown-Up’ Pastels
The founders of Lulu and Georgia and Portola Paints unpack the thinking behind the collaboration – and how to ground its pale paint well past spring
Last year, Los Angeles–based home brand Lulu and Georgia reached out to fellow Angeleno Portola Paints with a problem: paint. L&G’s style-savvy clientele knew their sofas from their settees, but paint colors proved to be a persistent pain point.
The resolution was simple: Lulu didn’t make paint. Portola did.
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Described as a ‘washed sage inspired by the misty greens of the Scottish countryside,’ Aberdeen pulls from that in-between palette, where grass meets fog meets stone.
Because while it is spring – ‘tis the season for pastels – both Portola and Lulu and Georgia insist these shades are pretty perennial. ‘Pastels always come back around this time of year, but these feel a little more grown up,’ notes Lulu and Georgia founder Sara Sugarman. ‘We wanted them to feel playful, but not overly sweet, and grounded enough that you could actually live with them year-round. That balance is really at the core of how we think about design at Lulu and Georgia, pieces that feel fresh but still have staying power.’
The colorful shades – Aberdeen, Patisserie (a warm, buttery yellow – Sara’s personal favorite), Costa, and Terra – bring an airy, room-anchoring quality to dining spaces and sitting rooms – the kinds of areas that can handle a little oomph. But, according to Sarah, it's the browns and neutrals that 'really hold everything together.'
Havana (a warm, brown-ish beige with rosy undertones) and Casa Forma (a sunbaked ivory) ‘give the palette some depth and make the softer tones feel more livable,’ she continues. ‘I think of them as the base layer, you build around them. Once that’s in place, you can bring in the pastels in a way that feels easy and not too precious.’
Terra is the most room-anchoring shade in the collection, pairing easily with other earthy hues like cream, natural oak, and whispering greens. Try it in a sun-soaked space to watch it shift – inspired by aged plaster in a Mediterranean courtyard, it moves from dusky pink to warm sienna as the light changes throughout the day.
The brands’ respective focuses – paint and furniture – might not seem to share much in common, apart from, perhaps, a shared proximity to Erewhon, but both Portola and Lulu and Georgia operate from a similar ethos: an interest in at-home storytelling, rooted in creativity, play, and a kind of low-key timelessness.
‘Unlike furniture or fashion, which move through clear seasonal cycles, paint doesn’t typically shift on a quarterly basis,’ says Portola Paints co-founder Jamie Davis. ‘This collection gave us the chance to explore that more seasonal perspective, while still keeping longevity at the core. The colors feel fresh and timely, but they’re designed to live well beyond a single moment.’
So while pastels are often reserved for a few warm-weather months (if not relegated to nurseries), this new lineup feels playful enough to stick around far, far beyond.
Ahead, the only pale paints that matter right now.
If this color trend-averse collection had to be categorized, it would likely land somewhere in whimsy – though, according to Jamie, that might undersell it.
‘It was exciting to find a more playful moment for colors you might not have expected,’ the Portola Paints co-founder says of the sunny, slightly surreal palette. That push toward something a little stranger, a little less expected, is what keeps the room colors from reading too 'spring' or overly sweet, as pastels so often do. ‘Fun in the moment, but still has a timeless quality,’ he adds.
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