School break

Being a Primary School teacher, the recent school holidays gave Helen the opportunity to decorate her lounge, which desperately needed warming up. The rug and lounge suite colour proved to be the colour inspiration needed.

However, the biggest challenge was to first mosaic around the fireplace. There was a nasty crack in the wallpaper behind the fireplace and the wall itself was prone to getting quite hot when the fire was roaring. So up went a sheet of fire-resistant paperfaced plasterboard, followed by a mosaiced finish.

The feature wall was painted in Resene Zylone Sheen tinted to Resene Crab Apple to set off the mosaic and Helen's paintings. This also tied nicely into one of the colours in the rug. The remaining walls were painted in Resene Zylone Sheen tinted to Resene Cape Honey to build on the desirable warm atmosphere.

The long and narrow lounge was amplified by the dining room into which it flowed. To break this up, Helen painted the surround between the two rooms Resene Crab Apple. She was extremely lucky in finding curtain fabric - Maurice Cain Essentials Design 'Roberto' - to match the paint and give the room a richness. The selection was helped by Helen taking test sheets with her to ensure the fabric was a good match. And just to finish things off, replacement light fittings and a new coffee table were installed.

Well practised in colour selection, Helen's tip for choosing colours is to paint the testpots onto large sheets of paper, which can then be placed around the room to see how the light affects them and next to furniture/materials to see if they match. These cards can then be used for other rooms at a later date. Helen has managed to build up quite a collection of painted cards as she has worked her way through the house, even taking the samples with her when selecting curtain fabric.

Lounge	Lounge feature wall
Resene Cape Honey	Resene Crab Apple

Decorating inspiration gallery
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