balance in Berry

This particular set of shops is located in the middle of town, and on a block that sits at the back of the town centre carpark. The exteriors were in need of a makeover but getting the go ahead from the New Zealand based owners, plus agreement between four long term tenants had meant change was a long time coming.

Finally with the go ahead to paint, and some very standard neutral colours selected, Asha Ardill was contacted for an opinion on how much they could really achieve – just with paint and colour.

Asha immediately saw the potential to contemporise the exteriors, cheering them up and making their presence felt from across the carpark. They needed contrast to their surroundings in order to stand out. All the businesses had their own established identities, each with very different tastes and merchandise.

The mission was to select an exterior scheme to cover all these requirements in one address all while ensuring the buildings would feel fresh and renewed and at home in a heritage vibe town.

Berry has a fairly conservative aesthetic due to its tourist drawcard as an ‘historic town’. There are a lot of safe country colours, but as these were commercial buildings, there was room to be playful and stand out from the surrounding sea of tasteful greys.

Berry is the ‘Town of Trees’. The colour scheme plays off the pink and white gardenia trees in bloom at the time, keeping in mind colours of the past and federation era pinks.

As well as the mix of tenants, owners and an aesthetically-conservative town there were some major colour issues to deal with. Hands down the biggest challenge was keeping the maroon of the powder coated frames, followed by the black battened mesh screens of one side of one of the buildings, and the tired green of the faded roof. All of these things were staying which made the project literally a problem-solving exercise where correct colour choice was the only available answer.

Resene Boutique was specified as the key colour to draw the eye out and away from the dark red frames. The remaining colours were chosen to balance the shapes of the facades, and separate and highlight each business. The hues flow from one to the next with Resene Peppermint, Resene Ashanti and Resene Bokara Grey connected through Resene Bianca which meanders across all the eaves.

Resene colours made it possible to hark back to federation colours (pale pink and green) while updating the look as the paler hues were still so full bodied and complex.

A range of products were used to paint the variety of surfaces from Resene Lumbersider low sheen waterborne paint for the exterior walls, Resene Summit Roof paint for the guttering, Resene Sonyx 101 semi-gloss for detailing and Resene Lustacryl semi-gloss waterborne enamel for trim.

The whole project was about balance – in every sense of the word.

Client: Berry Quilt & Co
Colour selection: Asha Ardill
Painting contractor: Gary Vian Painters
Photographer: Asha Ardill
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2019