Porsche x Backdrop Is a (Color) Match Made in Heaven
Backdrop founders Natalie and Caleb Ebel team up with Porsche to celebrate the sports car brand’s colorful legacy.
Partner Story
For Backdrop co-founder Natalie Ebel, being at the helm of a paint brand was never part of the plan. "If you would've told me when I was in school, ‘You are going to own a paint company,’ I'd say ‘no,’" Natalie says nostalgically.
A detour from their corporate jobs led Natalie and Caleb Ebel to indulge their obsession with color—and dream up a better way to paint.
Photo: Dwell Creative Services
Like many great founder stories, Backdrop was born out of necessity. In 2018, Natalie and her husband, Backdrop co-founder Caleb Ebel, were living in an apartment on New York’s Upper West Side while expecting their first child. When the parents-to-be set out to tackle a seemingly simple task—painting their nursery white—the frustration that ensued became their call to action. "There were 300 whites, and it took me longer to paint my nursery white than it did to get a rug from Morocco," recalls Natalie. "This should be a design purchase at the outset, not an afterthought," she and Caleb soon realized.
In the five years since its inception, Backdrop has made a splash with its signature F-style metal cans, fresh branding, on-trend color library, and one-of-a-kind collaborations, like its latest limited-edition Porsche paint palette.
Photo: Dwell Creative Services
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Five years later, Backdrop is teaming up with Porsche to help celebrate the iconic sports car brand’s 75th anniversary—but at the outset, life was anything but a joyride for the budding entrepreneurs. "We started this in the basement," Natalie says of Backdrop’s infancy. "We both quit our jobs, we had a one-year-old, we didn't have an income, we lived with my parents," she recalls. "We were rock bottom."
The limited-edition Porsche x Backdrop collaboration includes four iconic, decade-spanning Porsche hues—Irish Green, Speed Yellow, Ruby Star, and Riviera Blue.
Photo: Dwell Creative Services
From those humble beginnings, Natalie and Caleb took a page out of the Porsche playbook and built a brand and experience around color—focusing squarely on shifting the customer perception of paint from a contractor purchase to a design purchase. First launching with 50 carefully-curated hues, Backdrop’s intentionally pared-back inaugural color set aimed to remove some of the decision paralysis facing most paint customers.
Respecting Porsche's colorful design heritage and longstanding focus on craftsmanship and engineering, Natalie and Caleb jumped at the opportunity to partner with the iconic brand. "Backdrop is a young brand and we have a modern take on a very old category, but being able to partner with such an iconic brand and play a role in the modern expression of that brand heritage got us so excited," says Caleb.
Photo: Dwell Creative Services
Backdrop’s expert curation aims to build trust with customers, giving them permission to take a chance on a more vibrant hue or bold accent, whether Irish Green or Ruby Star.
Photo: Dwell Creative Services
That unwavering belief in the transformative power of color is central to the Backdrop ethos. "Color makes you feel something," says Natalie. Together with their evocative and catchy names (Surf Camp, Disco Nap, and 36 Hours in Marrakesh, to name a few), Backdrop colors are designed to be transportive. "We wanted our colors to be heroic, and the names to be heroic and memorable," says Natalie. "The paint on your wall and the color that you live with is just as important as everything else in your space." For Backdrop, paint is more than the color that you see; it is the feeling that it evokes.
"What's so fun about this color range is it goes from heritage—the first 911, which is Porsche Irish Green—to fast and fun, the Speed Yellow. And it's really symbiotic with our brand, because we have heritage colors like that too, but we also have bright and loud and fun colors," says Backdrop co-founder Natalie Ebel.
Photo: Dwell Creative Services
Compared with other big-ticket design purchases, paint packs a powerful punch at a fraction of the cost—a point Natalie and Caleb honed in on when founding Backdrop. "It is the most affordable and impactful way to transform your home," says Natalie. "That's why we love color and we love paint."
Photo: Dwell Creative Services
Backdrop initially launched with 50 carefully-curated colors—and have now expanded to a full offering of 74. Removable 12x12 sample swatches can be tested and repositioned on different walls in your space before committing to a color.
Photo: Dwell Creative Services
"What made this partnership even more exciting is celebrating 75 years of these iconic colors and bringing them to a form that they haven't existed before," says Natalie of being invited to be a part of Porsche’s milestone. For the first time, you can paint your walls Porsche.
Photo: Dwell Creative Services
The evocative nature of color was a natural through line tying Backdrop to Porsche, who is also celebrating 60 years of the Porsche 911 this year. From the classic Irish Green—a timeless hue synonymous with the brand itself—to the flashy Riviera Blue—a saturated, vibrant blue which packs a heavy dose of 1990s nostalgia, color is a defining part of the Porsche legacy. "Whether it's your home space or an architectural element or a beautiful vehicle, color is the accent that brings it to life," says Caleb.
"With Porsche, color is a reflection of who you are," adds Natalie. "And Backdrop is too."
Each of the four, limited-edition Porsche x Backdrop paints are available in custom-designed, co-branded collectible paint cans. Full gallons are $75.
Shop the colors at backdrophome.com/porsche.
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