From Habitat magazine - issue 34, editorial
Colour is personal, and that's why it has such a transformative quality.
When my partner Andrew and I painted our lounge Resene Clockwork Orange, the colour was a little controversial. Our bright little room makes us smile and is in tune with the 70s era of our townhouse, but the bold colour raised eyebrows. My mother-in-law worried that the orange wouldn't go with the crimson couch (it totally works in a colour-blocky way), my own mother was concerned about the resale (we're not planning on putting it on the market anytime soon). The beauty of paint is it's incredibly simple to reinvent your home again and again and do what makes you happy at the time. When the lounge also became my home office last year, I did think again about the orange. Should we want to change the room to be less Stanley Kubrick and more Disney princess, I could change the walls to Resene Frozen in a matter of hours. Resene paint's good like that.
This issue is packed with ideas for ways to reinvent your home inside and out to do whatever makes you smile. If, after a crazy year, you need to make your home more calming and soothing, turn to "home comforts". If you're a parent or grandparent with a child that's mad about penguins then go ahead and paint their room like our Antarctica-inspired space on "natural wonders" and if they grow out of penguins – we've got a design for that too. If you're one of the thousands who picked up a new hobby last year, we've thought of ways to help you hobby at home without it taking over your living spaces on "hobby at home" and there's a handy rollaway puzzle table for our jigsaw fans to make on "make your own". I've hidden away my own failed attempts at crochet from last year, I will stick to painting and jigsaws.
Happy reading!
Emma Rawson – editor
Sometimes history has a funny way of repeating itself – but in a good way. Back in 1946, Ted Nightingale couldn't find a suitable paint for his concrete buildings, so he created his own in his garage. 75 years on, Resene has far outgrown that first garage. These days we're often helping artists, makers and creatives starting businesses in their own garages to decorate and enhance their designs with Resene paints and colours, and you'll often see these products featured in this magazine and on the habitat by Resene website. Such is the beauty of paint and colour – there are really no limits to what you can achieve – all you need is a little imagination and vision, and a bit of patience and persistence.
Over the years we've seen many customers who had never picked up a paintbrush become professional painters confidently painting house after house. Then there have been those who have picked up a few testpots to have a play then turned it into a flourishing career in art, and we've seen the joy on so many faces when their homes have been transformed with Resene colour.
They say change is as good as a holiday, but perhaps it can be even better. So many of us put up with rooms, spaces and colours we don't like and promise ourselves we will get around to painting them one day. When we finally do, we're pleasantly surprised how easy it was and how satisfying the new look is. Take the time to look around your place – is there something that you could tackle now that will bring you joy for years to come?
Few of us are lucky enough to be blessed with a perfect home. Ted's taught us that you don't need to achieve everything overnight, sometimes the best thing to do is make a start. Then keep going and keep doing. So, go ahead and crack open that testpot and add that splash of colour.
Happy decorating!
– the Resene team
Two of my favourite colours from the Resene Multi-finish collection
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Printed copies of habitat highlights are available from late March 2024 at Resene ColorShops and resellers, while stocks last. You can view back issues of habitat magazine online.
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