Layers of loveliness

This bedroom works so beautifully, with each layer of interest opening like flower petals.

There’s something magical about walking into a room and being taken on a journey of discovery. You enter the door and your eye takes in the most obvious parts of the room – the overall colour effect, larger pieces of furniture and architectural features like windows and the views (if any) beyond.

You also appreciate the ambiance or vibe of the room – does it feel calming and quiet, or exciting and energising, sophisticated or casually rustic?

As you go further, the feel of the room envelopes you and you begin to notice other details, like an intriguing cabinet tucked into a corner with a collection of beautiful objects in top, or the way furnishings like rugs and cushions are arranged.

A room should unfold before you and not be all upfront and obvious. The subtle mysteries are important, adding depth and complexity to any interior scheme.

And it’s why this bedroom works so beautifully, with each layer of interest opening like flower petals. At first glance it appears quite simple with its scheme of soft, faded and restful Resene colours but there’s so much more going on.

The bed may be the obvious hero of the room, as with any bedroom, and it’s dressed in a range of washed linen bedding items along with textural throws and cushions.

But the real magic is behind it, with a headboard and bedhead wall. The headboard is a simple yet texturally interesting feature that’s a simple DIY project. It can be made of battens individually attached to the wall or formed using a readymade slatted trellis and finished in a Resene Colorwood timber stain and/or in Resene Aquaclear urethane – this one is in Resene Colorwood Bask wood stain, a hue reminiscent of wet golden sand. That stain colour is also used on the stool and sideboard.

Then behind that, the headboard wall is lined in plywood and stained in Resene Colorwood Becalm.

The Resene Colorwood stains collection comes in a range of colours from deep, naturals, brights or subtle washes and allow the beauty of the grain and texture of wooden surfaces to bring visual texture to any room. These floorboards are finished in Resene Colorwood Breathe Easy as is the large vase on the sideboard. This colour gives a subtle blonded effect but if you wanted a slightly denser whitened look, popular Resene Colorwood Whitewash would also look perfect in a scheme such as this.

Both Resene Colorwood Breathe Easy and Resene Colorwood Bask are from the Resene We Speak Beach collection, which features six relaxing coastal hues borrowed from the beach. The range will take you from sea to shore with colours including soft blue Resene Rising Tide and sandy colours Resene Colorwood Breathe Easy and Resene Colorwood Becalm, and the blackened seaweed tone Resene Colorwood Shade. Explore the range and other wood stains at www.resene.com/colorwood.

The room offers further intrigue with a bedhead wall that sits further forward, and a raffia-fronted sideboard used to store bedlinen, books, clothes and which is topped with ornaments and vases. Virtually everything in the room is textured to some degree, which gives more visual layering – timber grain, the raffia, the rug, the weathered effect of the vases, and the (purposefully) rumpled bedlinen.

These dreamy sand-tone inspired wood stain shades are complemented by the main walls painted in Resene Half Biscotti, a silky soft beige with underlying warmth. It’s tempting to add other sand, clay and ochre tones – you could try Resene Desert Sand, Resene Half Canterbury Clay, Resene Athena or Resene See The Light.

Or to add to the pale pink touches in the room, use accents of seashell pinks in Resene Contented or Resene Inspire.

Project by Vanessa Nouwens. Photography by Bryce Carleton. May 2022