A superior exterior in beachy blues

Even if you’re not within cooee of the seaside, you can easily create a beachy vibe at home with sea-inspired colours and some simple accessories.

Dig out the beach towels, sling on some sandals, mix up a large pitcher of chilled iced tea or lemon-infused water – then decide whether it’s a trip to the beach you want or simply to sit on the deck reading a book or relaxing with a friend. It’s summertime.

Even if you’re not within cooee of the seaside, you can easily create a beachy vibe at home with sea-inspired colours and some simple accessories.

Many of our house exteriors are painted in fairly neutral tones – an array of beiges, whites and greys. Which makes them look smart and not be too loud and proud on the streetscape. But you don’t have to stick to entirely neutral tones to be elegant and unoffensive. Resene has a range of beautiful muted blues and greens that look amazing on house exteriors. Just make sure you choose a colour that has quite a bit of grey in it so that it creates a gentle haze of colour rather than an in-your-eye brightness.

With our strong Southern Hemisphere sun, it’s best to steer clear of pure whites as they can be quite blinding to look at. You and your neighbours may end up having to wear sunglasses, even when the sun isn’t shining.

Use the light reflectance value (LRV) that is handily noted on the back of Resene paint chips to guide you. Any colour with an LRV of higher than 85% may be too bright for exterior use unless your house sits in a shady wooded dell.

That same bright sunlight also makes paint colours look much lighter on the exterior of a house than they do inside, so go a couple of strengths darker than you think you need or you’ll be disappointed with the result. There’s pale and interesting, and then there’s pale and not very interesting. If in doubt, get advice from the staff at your local Resene ColorShop.

You’re going to buy a lot of paint for an exterior, so it’s even more important to test your colour choice first. Buy Resene testpots in your favourite colours and paint a large piece of card leaving a white border around the edge. Pin it up on both the shady and the sunny side of the house. Always paint two coats and allow it to fully dry to get a true colour rendition The blue used on the weatherboards of this house is Resene Carefree (what a great name for a summery colour), an opalescent tint of light-hearted watery green. For a more greyed version of this green, check out Resene Pumice or any of the other greens on palette R35 of the Resene Multifinish collection. For a green with a hint of yellow, try Resene Green Mist or Resene Stone Age from palette R32, both are classic colours with a traditional edge which would be perfect for a more ornate villa or bungalow.

If a blue-green is your preference, head to palette R43 for something like Resene Duck Egg Blue.

Once you have your main exterior colour sorted, you can afford to be more playful with the colours you choose for the details. In this exterior, breezy mid blue Resene Calypso is used to brighten the cane chairs and an intense teal, Resene Blue Chill, transforms the table, with a rug in stormy Resene Coast. A peg coatrack painted in Resene Calypso is the perfect place to sling a sandy towel.

Speaking of sand, the wood stain used on this deck is a spot-on representation of the colour of the golden sand found at so many of our beaches – Resene Woodsman Uluru. Using stain on a deck rather than leaving it to weather is a good choice as it protects the timber and gives consistency of colour – unlike the lottery you might face by leaving the decking timbers exposed to the elements.

Project by Megan Harrison Turner. Photography by Bryce Carleton. July 2022