Four stones.
Every colour does something to a room. These are ours, and what we think they're up to.
Ember
Deep red with cream veins.
In China red is the colour of front doors, wedding invitations and envelopes of money at New Year. It means luck, and a bit of a party. In a room it does something sneaky: the light looks warmer than it is, so a grey Tuesday in London starts to feel like a long dinner somewhere south. Put it where people gather. It likes an audience.
Choose Ember
Pine
Dark green with pale veins.
Green has stood for growth and long life for about as long as people have been carving stone. It's the calm one. Next to books, a plant that's still alive against the odds, or a desk you're meant to be working at, it quietens a room without making it dull. Good company that doesn't need to talk.
Choose Pine
Plum
White with violet veins.
The plum blossom is the flower that turns up in the middle of a Chinese winter when nothing else can be bothered, which is why it stands for keeping going. Our Plum is white marble with violet running through it, like someone spilt something good and nobody minded. It makes small rooms look bigger and bright rooms look like you meant it. Bedrooms and bathrooms, mostly.
Ink
Black with white veins.
Named after the ink stick and the brush, which have been doing more with black and white for two thousand years than most of us manage with a full paint chart. Ink is sharp, quiet and goes with everything, including the room you haven't finished. It's the safe gift that doesn't look like one.