Golden Gate

A sunshine-yellow front door welcomes visitors to this chromatically courageous home, winner of our 2019 Resene Colour Home Awards.

- Sally Conor

This summer’s Resene Colour Home Awards have drawn to a close and we have our winners – Alison and Andrew Palairet of Hawke’s Bay. In the process of gradually restoring their beautiful mid-century modern home to its former glory (with a few contemporary updates), this couple made some bold colour choices that could have risked looking garish but instead feel vibrant and age-appropriate for their 1965 house.

The couple are delighted with their win and the prize of $5000 towards their next colourful project. Here we catch up with Alison to find out more about their technicolour home.

When did you move to Hawke’s Bay and why?

We were living in Bayswater on Auckland’s North Shore and moved to Hawke’s Bay in 2015. We were outgrowing our beloved cottage and Andrew was ready for a career move. We considered all sorts of possibilities, from a different house in the same suburb to opportunities in Singapore and the Middle East, but in the end Andrew decided he just wanted the children to have a similar upbringing to the one he’d had.

What did you like about your house when you purchased it?

We are big fans of modernist architecture and fell in love with the 1965 build. The house sits in harmony with its environment and has a subtle asymmetry. It was designed to bring the outdoors in, with its high, open, beamed ceilings and transom windows.