Soot
Reads as black from a distance and shows its true colour up close. The natural home for Soot is single feature walls behind joinery — and increasingly hotel lobby walls and lift cores. Pairs with marble, antique brass and richly grained timbers. In the Natural Limewash range, Soot reads as ash-soft near-black wash, built on a quiet, even-handed undertone and smoke-black pigment. Owes a small debt to smokehouse rustic, but doesn't ask the rest of the room to follow.
Best used in feature wall, hospitality
Ash-soft near-black wash reads its best where the light is soft and consistent. Below are the rooms we've installed this shade in most often.
- fireplace walls and bed-headboard recesses
- hotel lobby walls and lift cores
Shades that sit beside Soot
Picked by family, warmth and tonal proximity within the same range.
How Soot is applied
Soot uses the standard Natural Limewash build. The technical specification is the same across colour — only the pigment changes.
Questions clients ask about this shade
Won't Soot make the room feel smaller?+
Deep shades like Soot actually blur a room's edges, making walls feel further away rather than closer. The trick is to wrap the colour onto skirting and trim so there are no high-contrast lines to remind the eye where the room ends.
How does Soot age over time?+
Soot develops a softer, slightly more powdery character as the limewash cures over the first 2–4 weeks. After that it stays stable but takes on the patina of handling and light.
What does Soot pair with from your range?+
We most often pair Soot with the three closest shades in its family — see the pairings panel below. Beyond that, it frames pale stone, brass, marble and warm-white plasterwork dramatically.
A real-finish sample so you're not judging a colour from a screen.