Where Color Meets Character
There is a difference between something that looks old and something that has history. Lee Stanton has built a career understanding that distinction.
For decades, Lee has been an important presence in the Los Angeles design community, known for his exceptional eye for 17th- to 19th-century British and European antiques. These are pieces chosen not simply for decoration, but for provenance, craftsmanship, patina, and permanence. They have survived generations because they were beautifully conceived and properly made.
That philosophy has always made Lee’s relationship with Sydney Harbour Paint Company feel particularly natural.
Sydney Harbour’s heritage finishes have their own history. Developed in Australia beginning in the 1980s, they grew out of an appreciation for traditional European painting and finishing techniques—lime washes, mineral surfaces, and richly textured plasters made to bring depth and character back to architecture.
In that sense, there is a real kinship between Lee’s antiques and Sydney Harbour finishes. Both are rooted in the authentic rather than the imitation.
[IMAGE: Lee Stanton antiques against Sydney Harbour finishes]
Today, lime wash, plaster, and other aged-looking surfaces are everywhere. But much like an antique reproduction can resemble an original without possessing its pedigree, not every finish that creates an Old World appearance is made in the traditional way.
That distinction matters to us.
Sydney Harbour has been working with these materials since long before lime wash and textured plaster became design trends. Our finishes are about the qualities that made these surfaces desirable in the first place: mineral character, subtle variation, depth, movement, and the way a room develops atmosphere through light.
Lee’s antiques ask for exactly that kind of setting.
[IMAGE: Homes featuring Sydney Harbour finishes and Lee Stanton antiques]
Working with Lee over the years, from Montecito to La Jolla and everywhere in between, has often been an exercise in restraint. When you are placing an important English cabinet, an aged European table, or an object carrying centuries of patina into a room, the walls cannot feel artificial or overly finished.
[IMAGE: Homes featuring Sydney Harbour finishes and Lee Stanton antiques]
The color has to support the piece. The texture has to belong.
Sydney Harbour Lime Wash brings softness and natural variation to a wall, while Fresco Plaster creates greater depth and architectural presence. Rather than competing with an antique, these finishes give it an environment that feels equally considered.
[IMAGES: Additional interiors featuring Lee’s collection and Sydney Harbour finishes]
That may be the strongest connection between Lee Stanton and Sydney Harbour Paint Company. We both have an appreciation for things with pedigree—for materials and objects whose character comes from how they are made, not simply from how they look.
Lee deals in the genuine article: antiques with history, provenance, craftsmanship, and age. Sydney Harbour approaches its heritage finishes with much the same respect for authenticity.
Trends come and go. Lime wash may be fashionable today, just as certain periods of furniture move in and out of favor. But genuinely good materials and beautifully made objects have a way of transcending fashion.
[IMAGE: Homes featuring Sydney Harbour finishes and Lee Stanton antiques]
The real thing tends to stand the test of time.
And when Lee Stanton’s antiques meet Sydney Harbour’s color and texture, that shared sense of authenticity gives a room something difficult to manufacture: character.
