Celebrating 25 Years with Est Living

Around the World in 25 Years: Bauwerk celebrates its anniversary with Est Living Magazine

Inspiring kitchens, powder rooms and bedrooms from Texas, Portugal, London, Sydney and Toronto, all featuring Bauwerk Colour limewash, curated by Est Living.

Some featured + inspired colours

Shop all colours

This year marks 25 years of Bauwerk ….a journey that began with a simple idea: to make paint that felt more natural, more beautiful, and better for the buildings we live and breathe in. We wanted to bring out limewash’s natural beauty and to show how, with the right ingredients and process, limewash could become more than a wall finish. It’s a living surface that moves, breathes, and changes with the light.

Twenty-five years later, we’re still humbled every time we see our paint transform a space. It’s the best part of what we do. From world-renowned architectural projects to small independent shops, to the person spending their weekend transforming a single room–the results never cease to inspire. It’s a cliché to say there are still pinch-me moments, but it’s true. Despite our growth over the years, and the fact that we’re now featured in homes and magazines across six continents (sorry, Antarctica), it just never gets old. Sofa styles come and go, the colour palettes evolve, photography trends shift, and yet we’re still here– quietly part of the spaces that stand the test of time. Here’s to it never getting old.

When we started, finding inspiration for interiors was a whole different landscape. The internet was more email than browsing, Pinterest and Instagram didn’t exist and magazines from other countries were rare treasures found in specialist bookstores (with a heavy import price).  Now, we’re surrounded by global inspiration every day. We can see how the soft light of Northern Europe plays with neutrals to create a sense of calm, how an Australian poolside framed by eucalyptus trees brings out a chalky shade of white, or how a modern New York apartment gains warmth and texture from limewash walls.

So, it felt especially fitting that Est Living Magazine (one of our longtime favourites) marked our milestone by curating a beautiful roundup of projects from around the world, all featuring Bauwerk limewash. Some are old friends, like the minimalist 10AM Lofts in Athens and the richly layered work of Banda in London, while others like Ember Studio in New York and De Rosee Sa in Portugal are new treats we’re delighted to see join the Bauwerk story.

London UK

Every project Banda touches feels timeless. They elevate natural materials like marble, wood, sisal, and clay into museum-worthy features. We love how their signature look adapts with nuance across projects around the world.

Founder of Ember Studio

“We applied Bauwerk’s limewash paint on all the walls and ceilings throughout Crosby Street, which gave the space a holistic, immersive quality. It softened the architectural lines and created a quiet drama.”

Homeowner + Photographer of Plateau Project

“At nighttime and when the light is soft or if it’s overcast, you get really beautiful soft subtle tonal variations. So the light plays a massive role in the success of the house, and of course, as a photographer that means a lot to me.”

More in The Alchemist

A curated selection of homes from around the world featuring our limewash paint

The Hoxton Neighbourhood Collection

Vibrant cities and the colours they evoke provide inspiration for the The Hoxton x Bauwerk Neighbourhood Collection.

A look at the inspiration behind the 'Neighbourhood Collection' from Bauwerk Colour x The Hoxton, featuring nine all-natural limewash paint colours. The Hoxton is known for its localised approach to interior design–picking up aesthetic cues from each hotel's neighbourhood. This now extends to their own inspired paint colour palette in collaboration with Bauwerk influenced by Berlin, Edinburgh, Amsterdam...

Bauwerk Colour x The Hoxton Collaboration Limewash Paint Collection

Colours in Collection

What colour springs to mind when you think of your favourite city? Is it a shade that reminds you of the weather, the buildings, or maybe the signature clothing worn?  It's this desire to distil the atmosphere of a neighbourhood in a few colours that is at the heart of our recent colour collaboration. We teamed up with The Hoxton, the international series of hotels with a reputation for celebrating the individuality of each of its locations through interior design. Working with the hotel’s in-house design team, AIME Studios, we’ve created The Hoxton x Bauwerk Neighbourhood Collection, an exclusive line of nine all-natural limewash paints. The collection captures the look and feel of four iconic Hoxton destinations: Berlin, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Barcelona with palettes inspired by the streets and people around each neighbourhood. From the peachy warmth of Barcelona’s seaside streets in Poblenou to the Twenties decadence of Berlin’s Charlottenburg district and more, each shade has been carefully curated in a nod to the character behind some of Europe’s best-loved city areas. 

Creating collaborative colour collections is an interesting twist on the typical creative process for Bauwerk’s Co-Founder Bronwyn Riedel. All of the colours in the Bauwerk palette are created by Bronwyn, typically in a solitary process. Much like how an artist paints, Bronwyn gets inspired by colours - she sees them, feels them, and creates them. But when it comes to these special collections, it's a collaborative affair. Someone else brings the vision, and Bronwyn turns their ideas into a palette of colours, often through many iterations. It's all about finding that sweet spot between what they are looking for, what will resonate with customers and what is worthwhile bringing to market. “That’s what is important for me in a colour collaboration–that I make the colours for you, and that I also try to tap into what you feel about the colours we’re creating,” Bronwyn reflected. “ The best colours are nuanced, and it's the nuance that makes it perfect. For instance, a pink can be anything, but I always try to underpin with umber or something a little bit moody. I trained as a painter, so I come with an artist’s eye to colour. I’m not a technician that comes up with a colour in a laboratory. I come up with a feeling for the colour. I use my instincts a lot in everything I do.”

The Hoxton x Bauwerk Neighbourhood Collection

Colour Collaboration

Vibrant cities and the colours they evoke provide inspiration for The Hoxton x Bauwerk Neighbourhood Collection.

Ateliers of Europe Book

Ateliers of Europe: A visual love letter documenting the few remaining traditional decorative arts workshops, including Bauwerk’s very own German castle headquarters.

Interior designer John Whelan and photographer Oskar Proctor travelled across Europe, capturing the few remaining traditional decorative arts workshops in their unaltered states, including Bauwerk's German castle headquarters. This visual anthology is a tribute to the workplaces, the artisans, and their enduring generational techniques, preserving them for posterity in the beautiful coffee table book "Ateliers of Europe: An Atlas of Decorative Arts Workshops".

Ateliers of Europe: A beautiful book documenting traditional workshops, including Bauwerk Colour.

Colour Inspiration

For centuries across Europe, Ateliers served as spaces where artists could practice their crafts and pass on their skills. Sadly, this tradition has waned in modern times, leaving only a handful of these establishments. However, the surviving ateliers, whether historic or contemporary, are responsible for producing some of the world's most renowned objects across a wide range of crafts such as bookbinding, mosaics, ceramics, fabrics, and more. During the restoration and redesign of several historic French brasseries, interior designer John Whelan discovered the quiet world of ateliers and was captivated with each visit. "What struck me was how accidentally beautiful these spaces were," Whelan reflected. "Nearly every atelier I visited had exceptional natural light, but most importantly, there was an authenticity to the spaces that appeared to be the result of prioritizing function over style". These encounters inspired Whelan to compile a visual anthology, a tribute to these workplaces, the artisans, and their enduring generational techniques. Collaborating with photographer Oskar Proctor, they travelled across Europe, capturing these workshops in their unaltered states, preserving them for posterity in the beautiful coffee table book "Ateliers of Europe: An Atlas of Decorative Arts Workshops."

Although Bauwerk Colour may not possess the historical weight of a 15th-century atelier, we do produce paints with a legacy spanning centuries. Our limewash paints were initially crafted to serve restoration projects, which is apt now that our headquarters and home is an 18th-century schloss (German castle) under perpetual restoration. All that being true, it's still humbling to be featured in this book alongside such skilled artisans. The book is undeniably captivating, from its subjects to the atmospheric imagery, as well as Whelan's passionate documentation and writing. 

We couldn't help but ask John Whelan to share a little more about his experience researching and developing this project...

Author of 'Ateliers of Europe'

"There is humility in the face of work, that seems to contrast with the hubris of the technological age in which we live."

Ateliers of Europe: An Atlas of Decorative Arts Workshops

Book

Book Author

A visual love letter documenting the few remaining traditional decorative arts workshops, including Bauwerk’s very own German castle headquarters.

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