Lifestyle: Paint choice dilemma for character home

There's an old world welcome from this Palmerston house.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting a lovely home in Palmerston North.

The owner had contacted me to assist her with choosing two colours for the exterior, one being the wall and the other the trim.

This home oozes character - it is apparent as soon as you step on the footpath. It has that old worldy welcoming charm with a sense of "come in and enjoy me", as you walk up the driveway and glimpse the house through the garden.

The garden appears wild and rambling but, on second glance, it is well-designed with a sense of purpose.

Enclosed spaces form garden rooms for sitting and enjoying the peace and quiet or view the house, with paths that lead you on, allowing your mind to wander and wonder what is around the next corner.

The house was built around the 1920s. Clad in stucco, it has a red brick foundation and features with a solid tiled roof in orange and varying tones of grey and green.

Lovely dormer windows on the upper floor allow the occupants a glimpse over the tree tops, but they have complete privacy from the outside world. The house is traditional in its exterior colours and was painted about 15 years ago.

These houses are traditionally dark inside often with natural timbers stripped back, carpets lifted to expose beautiful timbers and smallish style windows that don't allow in a lot of light. But this house has warmth and life - like its owner.

Many of the rooms have been papered in bright colours, warm vibrant yellows and reds for the well lived in rooms, with softer grey greens for the more formal lounge. The colours off set the natural timbers beautifully, not only in the finishing details but also in the furniture. The house is alive with surprises of texture, pattern and colour and so welcoming. I couldn't help thinking when I entered the house that this was the sort of place you would have trouble leaving or that you couldn't wait to get back to after holiday or work.

It is so refreshing to visit a home and I don't just mean just the house, I mean the complete picture, the grounds, the exterior flowing to the interior. It is also refreshing to visit a home that reflects the personality of the people and the house and not the trends of the present day. As it turned out, my client was and still dabbles as an interior designer. She needed to convince her husband that what she wanted to achieve with the outside was going to work.

We chose two colours one very dark grey and a more neutral into the beige toning.

If my client's husband didn't like the dark walls and light trim, then a compromise would have to be made, and the colours would be reversed. Either way both parties ideas would have worked well. Would the house remain completely traditional on the outside or was it going to be more adventurous? I will have to wait and see as I left before the final decision was made. But I will be back to see the end result and I know that whoever has the final choice, the complete picture will be just as enchanting as my first visit.

Terry Lobb is an interior/kitchen designer and personal colour and style consultant who takes a holistic approach to living with colour, texture and style - email: terry@terrylobb.com; website: http://terrylobb.com