Design & build: Let the painting begin

Herald on Sunday

21 Mar, 2015 09:00 PM4 mins to read

Ben and Kylie ready to bring the bedroom pod to life with colour. Photo / Ben Crawford

The Block NZ 2012 winner Ben Crawford and his fiancé Kylie are building their dream home. Share their proud moments and pitfalls here every week.

I have a love-hate relationship with painting and I reckon it's a sentiment I share with anyone who has painted a house before. On one hand it's extremely satisfying. With a couple of coats of paint you can transform a dull void into a room full of colour, warmth and life. But on the other, the job never seems to end. And if anyone tells you they love cutting in, they're lying.

In true Kiwi DIY spirit, Kylie and I have decided to paint the house ourselves. Crazy? No way. Most of the time I like painting and enjoy the process as much as seeing the reward of a beautiful, finished space at the end. Plus we'll save loads of money, which was the clincher in convincing Kylie to roll up her sleeves and dip a roller into a paint tray for the first time. On the other hand I've painted four houses before.

My skills improved tenfold when I was on The Block NZ, partly because of the intense scrutiny placed on our work, but largely due to the ongoing advice from the ever-helpful team at Dulux. They put us through paint school before the show started, providing us with advice on how to use colour to create different moods and tips for producing the perfect paint finish.

My skills improved throughout the renovation and I became intimately familiar with all Dulux's products, from the wash-and-wear interior paints to fence stains and mould-resistant bathroom paint. I also grew to appreciate the innovation Dulux brings to its products, especially when these advances saved us lots of time, such as the self-priming X10 Weathershield exterior paint, which doesn't need an undercoat.

We've decided to use the Dulux range again because there's nothing better than first-hand knowledge. First step? Colour selection.

Kylie and I needed to choose a base colour that would complement our surroundings. They also needed to be bright enough to ensure each room feels airy since some spaces have limited direct sunlight due to the foliage.

The Dulux Colours of New Zealand collection uses colours inspired by locations from around the country and hits the right patriotic chords for me. We trawled through every white variation in the range, settling on a lovely warm one called Little Manly Half.

With our main colour locked in, we were tempted to paint the entire house in it. Why? Well for one, we want a neutral base to allow our surroundings to be the hero. And second, it would almost single-handedly eradicate the tedious job of cutting in!

But we were worried that an all-white interior might be too stark and not homely enough. So we hopped on to the Dulux website dulux.co.nz and booked an in-home colour consultation ($140 for the first hour and $70 for every hour after that).

Our beautiful palette of Dulux Colours of New Zealand colours compliment our bush setting perfectly - from left to right, Little Manly Half, Sugarloaf Island Half, Ohai Quarter, Pukaki Double. Photo / Ben Crawford

A couple of days later, Fiona Small, one of Dulux's colour consultants, met us at the house to help us with our colour choices. We gave Fiona a tour, explained our desired aesthetic and provided her with samples of our carpet, tiles, hardwood floors and timber cabinets. She came back the following week with some recommendations.

Working with our Little Manly Half base, Fiona suggested some lovely muted tones that create a personality for each space. Down one side of our hallway we're going with a light grey called Ohai Quarter to create warmth and impact. Then behind the beds in our spare bedrooms we're using Sugarloaf Island Half - its subtle greeny-grey hues bringing a tranquil feel to each room. In our entrance foyer, a sense of drama will be created by the smokey-grey tones of Pukaki Double.

Excited with our new colour palette, we headed to our local Dulux store and picked up everything we needed to start painting this weekend.

So as you're reading this over your Sunday brunch, we'll hopefully be a room or two down and be halfway through the giant can of jellybeans we got with our paint.