Lido Aquatic Centre Makeover

The brief was a loose aquatic theme and Mel was given free reign over most of the design elements. The design of the first wall set the stage with characters which eventually flowed on to subsequent walls.

Following on from the first wall was the spa pool area – additional aquatic themed characters were created, this time in a beach setting and a new colour scheme to tie in with the existing interior of the building.

The toddler pool was the next area- already painted in a dark blue with a large orange overhead duct – a continuation of oranges and blues seemed the obvious choice.

The final wall was a challenge with the surface being in stucco and various other obstacles such as plants, windows, vents, wind and rain. While painting the stucco with a brush and roller proved to be quite a challenge, the joy of doing blends with Resene Lumbersider on a rough surface quickly made up for the damaged paintbrushes.

The temptation in an aquatic facility was to go overboard with blues, but there were various other elements to consider such as existing exposed timber beams, overhead ducts painted orange and yellow, and an existing penguin theme running throughout the building. The final palette used a wide range of Resene colours in Resene Lumbersider waterborne low sheen, including Resene Spray, Resene Freelance, Resene Kitsch, Resene Sea Green, Resene Pelorous, Resene Pompadour, Resene Sassy, Resene Irresistible, Resene Hopbush, Resene Outrageous, Resene All Black, Resene Vitality, Resene Ruby Tuesday, Resene Turbo, Resene Daredevil, Resene Perfume, Resene Studio, Resene Whizz Bang and Resene Citrus.

The mural slightly overlapped an existing window around 1 metre off the ground. Resene Uracryl was used on top of the Resene Lumbersider in this window area to ensure it would be scratchproof.

The interior walls around the spa and toddler pool were painted with Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen. It was Mel’s first time working with Resene SpaceCote and she found it blended as easily as Resene Lumbersider, and was not affected by the humidity in the spa area.

From one wall, this project encompassed many more and grew in size by over 300%. All up over 200 square metres were colourfully painted.

Architectural specifier: PNCC City Enterprises
Client: Palmerston North City Council, Lido Aquatic Centre
Mural artist: Melanie Christmas
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2018