On this week's House Rules reveal we saw Martinique and Andre's character 1940s cottage transformed with pops of natural colour throughout and a dreamy green children's bedroom.
The teams worked hard to create gorgeous spaces in their respective house zones, based on five rules left by the homeowners. This week the brief was to revitalise their 1940s cottage with timber accents and pops of natural colour, give the boys a nature themed bedroom with rich green tones, include clever and generous storage everywhere, give them a totally WOW splash-proof bathroom, and finally, to keep it cool, classic, and calm - but not basic.
Newshub spoke to the experts at Resene and Carpet Court to help you bring this week's style trends into your home.
Natural, earthy colours bring warmth and nature into your home
Earthy looks have become desirable in recent years, partly as a result of the pandemic. Many homeowners who had previously chosen to decorate with stark minimalist schemes found these spaces difficult and cold to live in once forced to spend extended periods of time stuck inside.
"Now decorators are turning to down-to-earth looks focused on Resene hues pulled from their natural surroundings," says Karen Warman, Resene Marketing Manager. "Use your view outside as inspiration to bring some stronger colours inside. If your home is tucked with bushy woodlands, look to colours like Resene Welcome, Resene Saratoga or Resene Forest Green. If your space sits amongst the mountains, consider mossy greens or stone greys like Resene Bitter and Resene Cement. And if you look upon tussock-covered hills, try Resene Tussock, Resene Apache and Resene Hot Toddy."
In the kitchen this week we saw a pop of natural caramel colour next to light timber cabinets and a marble countertop. Judge Michael Murray said, "the handle-less and push to open cabinetry keeps everything really calm and clean and minimal," while Judge Katrina Hobbs recommended a slightly darker colour for the feature wall to help it stand out next to the timber. "When in doubt, go darker, go deeper, because otherwise it just washes away a little bit," she said.
Use colour and patterns to bring children's rooms to life
In Martinique and Andre's home, one of their rules was to give their young boys a nature-themed bedroom with rich green tones. This was achieved with a stunning mural, rich green walls, jungle themed linen, and a cosy reading nook with leafy Resene wallpaper. Murray said "it's fun, and a really good colour choice," while Hobbs said the wallpaper is "divine".
This is right on trend, according to Warman. "Nature murals are growing in popularity with many parents trying their hand at hand-painting everything from mountain scenes to forests on their children's walls. For those a little nervous to get started, mountains are a very forgiving place to start. Choose related colours that are darker and lighter. Sketch some rough mountain shapes on your wall and then paint a progression of mountains in your hues. The various tones will help add a sense of shadows and depth. Heading more into the greener tones, painted vines trailing up the walls or native tree inspired silhouettes are also popular."
Warman recommends adding fun floral motifs and perennially popular butterflies if you'd like to add a bit more colour. Space and sea themes remain popular too, "though these both usually use a wider range of hues to get the look just right," she says.
If you prefer to stick to a palette of natural tones, you can bring in added interest with your accessorising. Look to add texture with the bed linen, a rug, artwork, and lighting, such as the circular wall lights seen in Martinique and Andre's children's room. Take your child foraging and bring in your favourite natural treasures.
Hard flooring looks good and is easy to maintain
The floors throughout Martinique and Andre's home were transformed with a consistent natural timber look flooring. This is ideal for households with young children, as it is hard wearing and easier to manage everyday spills on than carpet. They're also easier to maintain, needing only a quick dry mopping a couple of times a week.
"Kiwis love neutral-coloured floors which means we can put a colour throughout the home without the fear of something not matching," says Gav Danks, National Product Manager, Carpet Court. "Colour pops and trends can come through added soft furnishings and décor which allows people to change-up their look without the hefty cost of changing their floors. The latest colour trends in carpeting reveal these neutrals shifting warmer into biscuity tones and even into mossy greens, both adding a natural feel to the environment without being too overbearing.
"Hard flooring styles and colours continue along the Scandinavian oak looks, but warmer "walnutty" tones are emerging and grounding big living spaces with their chocolaty goodness. Buyer beware though as darker tones in areas that see a lot of sun, can get unbearably hot underfoot – so are not for everybody."
Use clever and generous storage
For most of us, having plenty of storage is a necessity in our home, and we want to incorporate it with the rest of the space. In Martinique and Andre's primary bedroom, the custom built timber shelves and bedside tables are perfectly balanced with the bed, and the striped lighting from the overhead light adds the final touch. The judges and homeowners alike were both impressed with the built-in storage, with Hobbs adding that, "the wall colour is so pretty and soft."
"Timber is an excellent way to bring natural earthy colours indoors," Warman says. "If you don't have timber furniture already, consider bringing timber furniture into your home and finishing it in Resene Colorwood stain colours to match your room. You can choose anything from a whitewashed look with Resene Colorwood Whitewash, ideal for a home with lighter hues, through to more traditional wood colours."
Bonus tips from our experts
Warman recommends creating two Pinterest boards when you're looking for ideas for your room. "One of the ideas you love, and one of the ideas you don't love," she says. "Keep collecting ideas into both folders. When it comes time to start making decorating choices, you'll be able to see consistent trends in what you love and what you don't love. This will help you to bring in more of what you love."
When it comes to colours, Warman says, "you can easily create a soothing space with stonewashed greys and subtle greens with a palette of Resene Rice Cake, Resene Eagle, Resene Aspiring and Resene Flax. Or try Resene Quarter Linen, Resene Triple Masala, Resene Colorwood Breathe Easy, Resene Off The Grid and Resene Quarter Arrowtown.
"Add the depth of the forest with Resene Forest Green, then lighter up the room with different strengths of Resene Fossil and add Resene Spanish Green to complement."
In terms of flooring, it's important to consider how much traffic an area will get, and the feeling you want to create in each room. "Hard flooring like vinyl, LVT, rigid or real wood will always be more suited to high traffic areas," Danks says. "In this latest trend we have seen hard flooring start to take more share over areas usually associated with softer flooring (halls and bedrooms). But hard flooring will always present a harder feel underfoot, and as a result, is also a lot noisier throughout the home. Enter rigid style flooring like COREtec with its cork backing and honeycomb core absorbing a lot more sound than standard hard floors, this is a great option, particularly in large modern open plan layouts, where lots of hard surfaces mean you sometimes can't hear yourself think in busy households.
"If soft flooring like carpet is still your preference then tightly constructed carpets like Rhino's Performance Collection perform better in high-traffic areas. This range has been designed with families in mind, where high durability is needed but in the softer areas of the home.
"Carpeting will never be as durable as hard flooring, so balancing durability while defining the softer areas of the home is an area our team can help out with, diving into a customer's needs, finding out what they truly need from their flooring – not just colour and style – which is extremely important when choosing a product that you will need to live on in the next 7 to 10 years on average."
Article created in partnership with Resene and Carpet Court.
