b'romancing feature housethe homeNot much escapes the paint brush in the cottage of this talented homeowner. S omepeopleandtheirhousespossessakindofmagic. Take Kirsty Cashmore. It helps that she lives in the dreamy, romantic, French-settler village of Akaroa, on Banks Peninsula near Christchurch. It also helps that she knows exactly how she loves to live. Its all about slubby colours, textural contrasts, elegant antiquity and authentic materials. In two words her style is rustic grandiosity; an oxymoron perhaps, but true nevertheless.Colour is one of her main backdrop ingredients. Genteel, elegantly antique furnishings with quality faded fabrics are the others.Kirsty protests that she has no researched method of getting the colours perfect for her 1870 cottage. She just gives things a go. If you sit and think about changing something too much, you end up scaring yourself and not doing anything. Just get in there and do it. As business owner of Tully Linens in Akaroa, Kirsty likes to inspire people to boldly follow their stylistic dreams. How often do men ask their wives permission to buy a new fishing rod, or new tyres? So why should people (often women) restrain themselves when it comes to colours, paints, linens or antiques?Kirsty quickly adds that her partner Tom is great like that, not raising objections when she wants to change, paint, or add something to a scheme. Toms happy when I go for it with paint. Im over the look of wood everywhere. Its been done to death in this country, and its often just too dark, especially downstairs. I really love the pale,uplifting effect of whites, warm greys and blues against which you can have accents of favourite shades. In my case theyre often aubergines, raspberry reds and greens. ReseneQuarter Parchment 39'