St. Leo Original Pigments Kyoto

Kyoto

St. Leo Original Pigments · a 7-city series · 100 colours · 4 finishes

Colour, with all its emotional, psychological, cultural, and aesthetic force, sits at the heart of Original Pigments. Developed over two years with the Copenhagen design studio All The Way To Paris, the collection began as hand-painted watercolour and gouache swatches. Its 100 colours are formulated from organic liquid pigments and the highest-grade titanium dioxide, in a water-based, solvent-free formula that pairs excellent coverage with low VOC, a healthier choice for the spaces we live in.

KYOTO

Tradition, seclusion, and consummate craft, Kyoto, its historical memory intact, offers a way of dwelling set apart from the modern city. Walk through the old capital, past the wooden lattice windows of machiya townhouses and stone-paved streets, weaving between more than two thousand temples; Kinkaku-ji burns gold in the sunlight, and the raked gravel of Zen gardens speaks an unspoken aesthetic in silence.

The Kyoto colour series rests on quiet neutrals, tracing the outline of this landscape in a spectrum of green, gold, and red.

14 Colours

Juraku
Like the rare Kyoto clay it's named for, Juraku is a natural, sublime colour that creates a sense of ease. Very light in profile, it lends itself well to minimalist spaces, a soft beige toned away from white, subtle in character and highly versatile.

Roji
A dark, moody grey that gives a room a sense of depth and simplicity. A slight green tint lends Roji its cool temperature, a sophisticated, dynamic grey that adapts with the light, understated yet quietly energetic.

Ihoan
A quiet, neutral shade, imbued with a sense of calm and serenity, taking on the qualities of the Ihoan tea house within Kyoto's Kodai-ji temple. Warm and dusty in profile, this classic tone suits application throughout a whole interior.

Kinkakuji
The gilded profile of Kinkakuji reflects the gold-leaf covering of the Golden Pavilion in northern Kyoto, a medallion shade with warmth at its core. Soft in character, it brings both understated elegance and a bold accent to an interior.

Ginkakuji
Named after Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion temple in Kyoto, and its rock garden. A cool, mid-toned slate grey that shifts with light and shadow, calm but never dull.

Sakura
The delicate blush of Sakura is inspired by the cherry blossoms that line Kyoto's streets each spring. Welcoming and calming, it's soft enough to complement most décor, its lightness opening up a sense of space.

Tetsugaku
A darker shade of Sakura, as if Kyoto's cherry blossoms had fallen into shadow. A faint blue tint gives Tetsugaku added depth and maturity, an intimate, warming colour suited to most interiors.

Machiya
Inspired by the dark timber of traditional Kyoto machiya townhouses, Machiya is a wine-red with deep timber and clay undertones. Its rich body is composed of red and yellow pigments for a warm profile, earthy, woody, and both timeless and bold.

Tofukuji
A bold, rich red. Just as maple trees turn red to mark the change of season, Tofukuji transforms a room with its strong profile, a considered amount of yellow pigment gives it a bright, faintly orange cast.

Atago
A stony grey with subtle hints of blue, like its namesake, Mount Atago in northwest Kyoto. This balanced tone evokes strength and natural beauty, its elegant coolness lending an interior a classic, sophisticated air.

Katsura
A quiet sage green, referencing the shoji screens at Kyoto's Katsura Imperial Villa. A slight grey tint gives Katsura an understated character, while a balanced blend of red, green, and blue pigments creates a soft, natural green.

Arashiyama
A mid-toned green, reminiscent of the bamboo groves of Kyoto's Arashiyama. Its leafy tone forges a strong connection to nature indoors, immersive and deep, calming and restorative in any space.

Uji
Like the matcha and sencha tea district of Uji, Kyoto, this vivid green carries a deeply sensory quality. Its mid-tone comes from strong green and red pigments, tempered with a measure of blue and black, the feeling of being enveloped by calming green foliage.

Kokedera
A very dark green, sharing its colouring with Kyoto's Kokedera moss garden. Strong amounts of black, blue, and green pigment, with a touch of red, create real depth, a sense of being surrounded by nature, while bringing strength and boldness to a room.

Finishes

ST. LEO × ALL THE WAY TO PARIS

To develop the 100 colours of Original Pigments, St. Leo invited the Copenhagen design studio All The Way To Paris to collaborate. Led by Tanja Vibe and Petra Olsson Gendt, the process began with hand-painted watercolour and gouache swatches, intuitive, organic, partly left to chance. Over two years, through close dialogue with the St. Leo team, hundreds of hand-painted samples were gradually narrowed and refined into a single spectrum of 100 colours spanning seven cities.

All The Way To Paris is a Copenhagen-based design studio founded by Tanja Vibe and Petra Olsson Gendt, known across the Nordic design world for its work in branding, print, typography, and spatial design, and for its deep understanding of colour.