Shades of history

Finalist 4 – Colour Home Awards Competition

An iconic Wellington house shines just as bright, years on.

Shades of history - colourful home interior

Designed by iconic Aotearoa architect Roger Walker, Mary and Michael Donn’s 1977 Wellington home is a burst of sunshine in the often-cloudy city. When it came time to paint the exterior, the couple initially planned a white facade with a contrasting trim. However, Roger strongly advocated for Resene Buttercup, to create a “gorse bush” effect against the dark Wellington hills, with Resene Bunker on the foundations, and Resene Sepia on the weatherboards and window frames. Three pipe windows – “the only frivolous 1970s Walkerism we could afford”, say the couple – were painted in Resene Minsk, Resene Hot Purple and Resene Verdun Green.

“The house has always been the colours it is now, inside and out,” say Mary and Michael. “The colours inside, and the 1980s extension at the back, is all us, reacting to the original exterior colours. The extension exterior is painted in Resene Hot Chile, to differentiate it from the original house.”

Inside, the house is just as joyously colourful. A large majority of the interior – the hallway, main bedroom, living room, kitchen and dining – is decked out in Resene Coral. The doors are all different colours of the rainbow, to make it easier to direct visitors to appropriate rooms, ranging from Resene Bondi Blue to Resene Trinidad and Resene Moon Yellow.

Conventional colour advice, such as painting bedrooms in paler hues to enlarge the sense of space, was shrugged off in favour of creating a “cosy cave feeling”. One room, which gets the full blast of the southerly wind, is painted in Resene Yukon Gold with a Resene Brown Bramble ceiling, to accentuate the sense of a cocoon.

Khandallah home - colourful exterior

The Khandallah home, built in the 1970s to accommodate “a very steep site and a very small budget”, glows in Resene Buttercup.

Last year, Mary and Michael repainted the exterior but stuck to the colours that now seem as big a part of the house as its foundations. The colours, which came with the British Standard colour codes available in 1977, were translated to more recent versions of the standard, but remarkably, the Resene paint names had not changed in nearly 50 years.

The exterior walls and roof were also coated with Resene Clearcoat UVS, a UV inhibitor, to keep the colours vibrant. Having such strong wall colours has made furnishing the house a challenge, but Mary says it also provided a good excuse to re-cover retro lounge furniture in orange.

“Many people are curious about the house, and some love it, as do we. Some are shocked when we say it’s been these colours for nearly 50 years. It would be very hard to leave here and find somewhere that has been so much fun to live in.”

A bright and colourful home exterior

A bright and cheerful yellow bedroom

A bright and cheerful yellow bedroom - 2

In the yellow room a cosy palette doubles down on the cocoon-like feeling.

Mary and Michael

Pipe windows in the bathroom

Mary and Michael (above) were talked out of painting the house white by architect Roger Walker in the 1970s, and haven’t looked back. In the bathroom, a pair of pipe windows – a signature style of the architect – draw in views and light, and are yet another excuse for pops of colour.

A colourful home interior