COLOUR DRENCHING

Are you ready to say goodbye to crisp white cornices and skirtings?

Light Rice Half by Dulux is painted on the walls, beams and ceilings, wrapping the room with an aura of comfort without being overwhelming

The Dulux colour forecast for 2024 includes many rooms treated to ‘colour drenching’ - where the walls, ceilings, skirtings cornices and door trims are all painted one colour and the floor is made to tone in. While this technique is not new, it is being seen increasingly in the tastemaker magazines of Vogue Living, Belle and Architectural Digest among others. Why are Designers using it?

a heritage detailed bedroom given a contemporary colour washed treatment in sage green with an abstract pale pink artwork and mauve and crystal glass vintage chandelier

This bedroom in a Heritage listed home in Sydney has the same colour applied to the walls and skirtings, giving a more intense and saturated look. Design by Hugh Jones Mackintosh. Photo Prue Ruscoe.

Patrick O’Donnell, from Farrow and Ball, says one of the biggest benefits is to make a room look bigger, calmer and tidier. Intricate cornices, high skirtings and bulky radiators can all be painted in the same colour to create a seamless look, or for a dual tone effect, the finishes can be changed, for example, a flat finish on the walls and high gloss on trims.

Hauvette and Madani paint an intricately detailed niche bookcase in the same colour as the walls , making the grand room more cosy. Photo Francois Coquerel

A wonderfully cocooning bedroom by Cristina Celestino uses wallpaper, carpet and paint in the same shade. Photo by Pasquale Maffini

Colour drenching can be applied across different materials in the room, adding drama as the hue is varied across the different surfaces. Think stone fireplaces and kitchen islands that tone with the walls and floors, curtains, wallpaper and window trims that while the same colour, vary interestingly in tone.

The bathrooms by Studio Doherty, completed in 2022, may just have been the start of the Colour Drenching trend in Australia. Photo by Anson Smart

What are the best rooms for colour washing? In smaller rooms such as power rooms and bedrooms, this painting technique can give a ‘jewel box affect’ while pass through spaces such as entries and home offices can acquire a ‘sense of arrival’. The public areas of the home are more busy and choosing one colour to use is more difficult. I suggest here choosing a half strength of the colour you love. If you are brave enough, colour washing your living spaces is a wonderful way to make your neutral furniture ‘pop’.

Tan Wagon by Dulux on the walls and ceiling of this living room, making the white sofa and nuetral decor POP.

5 Ways to cosy up for Winter

5 Ways to Cosy up your Home for Winter

a road running to a snow capped mountain in the distance, with scrubby hills running alongside. The photo has chalky pastel tones

Wow, it’s been cold here in Perth. 2.5 degrees at 7 am this morning, to be precise. Let’s stop pretending we live in endless Summer - here’s 5 ways we can cosy up our homes.

WOOL BLANKETS

Natural wool blankets are back, but not the scratchy old fashioned kind. Light and colourful, the new wool blankets are throws for our couches and armchairs as well as an extra layer on top of our doonas at night. Made of alpaca or sheep’s wool, they are warm but breathable so they allow airflow while also trapping heat.

an outdoor woodburning fireplace with a cosy chair and checked rug, velvet cushion and tea cups ready on the coffee table. A hedge surrounds the garden, providing a shelter from the wind

FLUFFY DOONAS

How long is it since you had a new doona? I like a polyester quilt, as it’s not too heavy but I buy one size up to fully fill out the doona cover and make it nice and puffy. Fold your doona over when making the bed, to allow your sheet colour to show through and make room for double stacked pillows.

Kingsize bed with light blue and tan coloured bedding and a fluffy alpaca tug in cream, tan and light blue with tassels

BLOCK OUT CURTAINS

The single most effective way to keep your home warm is to hang block out curtains. Keep them neutral and hang them high. Not only will curtains trap in the warmth from the day, their textured folds add softness to your room and muffle the sound of whistling wind and lashing rain.

light grey sofa cream and grey diamond pattern rug pale grey @ wave curtains with pops of colour in a pink vase and tan coloured cushions

RECHARGEABLE LAMPS

The pools of light from table lamps add so much atmosphere but a power point is not always convenient nearby to use.

The new generation of lamps are rechargeable and can be carried around like gorgeous large (but much safer) candles to light a way through a darkened bedroom or create an inviting spot to sit.

HOUSEPLANTS

When there’s not much happening in the garden outside, houseplants give an inviting link to nature in the Winter months. Take your plants to a sunny spot during the day and water only minimally - gently prod the soil to test for dryness before adding water. Larger leaves will love a wipe with a damp cloth periodically, air conditioning and closed windows mean dust accumulates on their surface.

houseplants for winter need to be next to a sunny window

Is Your New Home in Your Backyard?

Do you love where you live but not what you live in, anymore?

Maybe you have thought about developing your backyard to finance a renovation to your home. With the funds available, your home can be beautifully redesigned to be even better than when you had ‘more space’

Or what about selling your home and moving INTO your backyard! This is becoming popular as government policies encourage urban infill as a way to stop our cities encroaching on ever more precious green space.

Brodecky House by Atlas Architects is a new house built in the backyard of the owner’s original home which she was able to sell instead of demolishing. The new house has an emphasis on accessible design, considering for the future.

Architect Michelle Blakeley cautions against trying to fit ‘as much house on the block’ as possible when subdividing. Michelle reminds us of the sleepouts encased in louvres and the eat-in kitchens of post war built houses and advocates for more compact homes that will still provide quality, comfort and joyful living, with a more sustainable impact.

Jimmy’s House, by MJA Studio is in urban infill development that makes use of the neighboring park, internal courtyards and a rooftop terrace for outdoor spaces to relax in. As a result, the ‘house behind a house’ has more garden spaces than the original footprint.

Kane Hutchinson from Result Developments helps people considering developing their house sites. As a building broker with extensive experience, he recommends a quick phone call to his company to check the position of your local council on your block’s suitability. He advises that there can be differences in zoning even between opposite sides of the same street. If suitable, Kane can organise all the documentation needed to put your project right through to council approval.

To accomodate visitors outside your home, you may consider building a self contained apartment, such as Studio Drifter in Byron Bay. May councils now have special approval processes for buildings such as these. They have become popular for adult children and relatives outside the immediate family. Paying guests are an option if allowed in your area and an increasingly design savvy clientele will appreciate the thought that goes into a beautiful but compact dwelling.