Let there be light

From the Resene decorating blog

Choose your joinery colour wisely and you can enjoy it, and the flexibility it gives you, for years to come.

Windows – lots of them and the bigger the better – is what it is all about in regards to our homes. New build houses and many renovated older houses favour powder coated metal windows. They are low maintenance, colour fast and available as traditional, classic and contemporary styles. Often the windows will match the roof colour – but not always.

The standard range of powder coat colours is limited in options. Several manufacturers provide a greater selection of colours. Marvellous – or is it? The main problem – as I see it – is that some of the colours are very distinctive. This is all well and good when every other colour on the exterior of the house totally co-ordinates and you never plan to change any of them or sell the house to someone whose taste may not be the same as yours.

But what if the colour of the windows is chosen without due thought as to whether it works with the main house colour? What if the colour creates a discord with the interior colours, drapes or blinds you want to use? Or perhaps you have just purchased a house (fabulous house, wonderful neighbourhood, great value etc) and want to make changes to make it uniquely yours or to modernise it and the window colour stops you. Yes this does happen.

Definite and distinctive coloured joinery limits what colour changes we can make. The next time you consider purchasing bright red, yellow ochre, bottle green, jade green, terracotta, light or bright blue powder coated joinery – or a house that already has this coloured joinery – I suggest you stop, pause to think and ask this question 'Will this colour work really well with any house colour?' If the answer is 'No' then it may pay to think out your plans a bit further.

But neutral colours are ok, aren't they? All neutrals are 'colours' so once again it pays to check them out by seeing larger metal samples rather than relying on the somewhat misleading (and small) samples as seen in brochures or on a computer screen. Compare them with each other to truly judge what they look like. Try the sample of powder coat colour with 10 randomly chosen paint colours and ask of yourself 'Does it co-ordinate well with at least 6 of them?' because the joinery has to be really flexible and obliging. We are creatures of change. We like to add, embellish, alter and add different moods and colours to our homes. If something stops us from achieving what we want we get upset.

Even if it is a white you are thinking of having – and there are often three or more 'whites' – compare them with each other on a sheet of white printer paper so that you can see the cooler blue toned whites, the warmer fleecy whites, the off whites that are really quite creamy or peachy and the other ones that may be grey/green or silvery. The 'right white' must be able to work with at least 6-10 randomly chosen colours. If it doesn't allow you to make colour changes to the house without upsetting the whole palette of colours then it isn't the colour for you, is it?

Choose your joinery colour wisely and you can enjoy it, and the flexibility it gives you, for years to come.

Article thanks to Carolyn Atkinson, Resene Colour Expert

April 17, 2014

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