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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.