Photography by: Emily Chalk
It’s a dream to build your own home. Wade Southgate and his partner Stefanie Brett got to experience that to the full extent when building their central Auckland home, doing everything from the painting to the plastering, tiling and cabinet-making themselves.
“The house itself is a relatively simple form, essentially a black box exterior, so we wanted the interior to be the antithesis – bright, warm and colourful,” says Wade, a Licensed Design LBP. It starts from the front entrance, with the porch and soffit painted in Resene Lumbersider Low Sheen in Resene New York Pink and the stairs in Resene Red Oxide.
These colours flow perfectly into the interior palette: some of the floorboards are painted in the mid-soft red of Resene Walk-On in Resene Apple Blossom, the study was painted in Resene SpaceCote Flat in Resene Red Oxide and the laundry was painted in Resene SpaceCote Flat in Resene Sakura. Throughout the general living areas and one of the bedrooms, there is the delicate beige meets pink of Resene SpaceCote Flat in Resene Despacito.
“The psychology of colour is very compelling – the brighter colours we’ve chosen are, for us, associated with joy and playfulness and those are wonderful sentiments to come home to every day,” says Wade.
In a stark contrast to the soft pinks and reds, the kitchen island is painted in Resene SpaceCote Flat Kitchen & Bathroom in Resene Tom Thumb, a smoky grey-green. This isn’t the only room where green gets to shine – one bathroom is painted in the olive green of Resene SpaceCote Flat Kitchen & Bathroom in Resene Contour.
“The project was a wonderful opportunity to experiment, particularly with our minimal budget and I learnt an awful lot during the process,” says Wade. “It has given me confidence to champion colour further in my professional work.”
How to enter
Click through here to find out how you can enter the 2026 Resene Colour Home Awards.
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