In harmony

From the Resene colour inspiration – latest looks gallery

There are few things more popular or better at uniting human beings than music.

It’s something that everyone enjoys, but it’s also something that’s particularly symbolic of our formative years. The point when our children – usually during their tweens or teens – begin to stop listen to ‘kiddie’ music or stop singing along to mum and dad’s favourite road trip tracks is a signal that they’re beginning to crave a sense independence. If they’ve been sharing their bedroom space with another sibling until now, it’s likely a sign that they’re now in need of a space of their very own.

A poster from one of your kid’s favourite bands could be the ideal inspiration for an interior scheme for your tween or teen’s new ‘grown up’ bedroom or hangout space. In this cool room, both the colours and triangular shapes have been taken from the concert poster to define the walls. Starting with a backdrop in two basecoats of Resene Rakaia on the back wall, we used masking tape to create the large triangle, which continues on to the side wall, in Resene Space Cadet. Be sure to use high quality painter’s tape, which is available at your local Resene ColorShop, in order to get the cleanest line. Once the large triangle was dry to the touch, we removed the tape and remasked over the same angle on the other side of the line and continued it farther up the wall before painting it in Resene Time Out. Once this triangle was dry to the touch, we repeated the process again – removing the old masking, applying the new masking along the other side of the same angles – and then used a level to ensure the masking we applied along the top edge would be nice and straight before painting the small triangle in Resene Spring Fever.

‘Paint it black’ has long been a request of teens for their rooms. Rather than go for a flat black on the floor, which can be difficult to keep clean, this floor has been stained in Resene Colorwood Woody Bay. It lets the natural wood grain show through, which can help mask the appearance of dust and footprints. And, while it’s a dark hue, it’s not as overpowering as pure black. Plus, its subtle blue tint ties perfectly into the rest of the colour scheme.

Resene Ebony Clay was used for the shelf, pendant lamp and skirting board. It’s a softer grey–black that, like the floor, doesn’t completely take over the way that a true black could. The side table, water bottle and small crate (on the shelf) in Resene Spring Fever brings the same funky colour from the wall into the room. Being a strong colour and the hue of the highest contrast to the blues, greys and blacks used throughout the rest of the space, it pulls the eye to it while the sofa, which is of a similar shade to the floor and rug – though it is the element of the largest scale in the space – recedes from vision.

The rest of the colours from the wall mural and concert poster have been brought in through smaller elements, including the crate and speaker covers in Resene Space Cadet, the record box on castors in Resene Time Out, the other crate in Resene Shakespeare and the plant pot, which was first painted in two basecoats of Resene Space Cadet before being splattered with Resene Time Out and Resene Shakespeare. It’s a fun effect, not just in the energy that it adds to the room, but how much your kids will enjoy the permission to make a bit of a mess while painting it!

Styling by Kate Alexander. Photography by Bryce Carleton. 2020