Choosing a new dress

To show off the detail of their 1910 bay villa, their choice of colours 20 years ago resembled one of those beautiful painted ladies of San Francisco, but their home was now in need of TLC. The house next door was being painted Resene Lemon Grass and the painter suggested that they should get theirs done too. He loaned them a swatch of neutral colours.

Ferne has a philosophy that if your house went to a ‘party’ in the street with all the other houses, what ‘dress’ would it wear? Twenty years ago, there were  several colourful houses but now they are shades of neutral and highlighted with another neutral – so they felt the house needed to be a neutral as well and also complement the neighbouring homes.

Resene Canterbury Clay stood out as a neutral with attitude but their home still needed the details highlighted to add zing. They decided on a blue/green door using Resene Blue Lagoon, so it was a question of getting another colour to add sparkle.

They had a photo of the house taken while the front fence was being replaced. They printed off the photo in black and white and got a number of Resene testpots and painted them over the top in different combinations to get the winning look. Along with the Resene Canterbury Clay and Resene Blue Lagoon they also chose Resene Undercurrent on the roof, Resene Belladonna on window frames, Resene Bismark on the porch and front step and Resene Alabaster on surrounds.

Exterior walls	Front door	Roof
Resene Canterbury Clay	Resene Blue Lagoon	Resene Undercurrent
Surrounds	Window frames	Porch and front step
Resene Alabaster	Resene Belladonna	Resene Bismark

Decorating inspiration gallery
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