Not like Grandma's house: Homeowner uses far-flung designer to transform her home with colour

When Invercargill grandmother Robyn Jones wanted to bring more colour into her home, she realised she was a little nervous about it.

A fan of bright, joyful pops of colour, she'd used white as a backdrop to her lively objects and pieces of furniture, turning the home she bought with her husband Ross in 2017 into a comfy gallery for her vibrant personal style.

But she wanted to go bigger and brighter when it came to sprucing up three spaces: Her personal retreat, the bedroom her grandchildren stayed in, and the powder room.

So after spotting a feature on Stuff about interior designer and founder of Colour Bolt, Carley Lloyd, and her battle against beige, Jones contacted her to help.

"She knew we were on the same page,” says Lloyd. "She said she'd seen lots of other designers, but she saw the main picture of the lounge [at my place] and that was the point for her, that's what she was looking for, someone bold enough to put some stuff in like that."

Although Jones was in Invercargill and Lloyd is based in Māpua, near Nelson, the pair started working on the three rooms via Instagram direct messages at first, as well as Zoom chats and sending images back and forth. Jones sent Lloyd video-walkthroughs of the home, so she could get a sense of how all the rooms connected and worked together.

"She pointed out the features that she didn't like, and what she was hoping she would get out of them, and who the rooms were for.

"We didn't do anything until we were really happy with all elements. Once we'd chosen the wallpaper we went back and forth on the lighting and the sofa - making those decisions early on all aspects of the design before putting wallpaper was important.”

Built in 2007, the home had only had one previous owner. It had a lot of solid features already, like the polished concrete floors, and floor to ceiling windows. Lloyd’s design would capitalise on what was already there.

The informal lounge would become Jones’s retreat: “purely a no kid-zone, that gets really nice afternoon sun”.

The only brief was that the large Virut Panchabuse painting had to go on the wall in the informal living room. Taking her palette from two sofas in the main living room area upholstered in bold Designers Guild fabrics in hot pink and petrol teal, Lloyd decided to flip the “white with bold pops of colour” theme in the rest of the house on its head.

"She's got a bold style," says Lloyd, "but Robyn was a little nervous about putting colour on the walls.

“Those Designer Guild sofas are a really bold statement against white walls, so I thought why not flip it the other way, and we'll put white furniture and lighting into that room and colour on the walls instead."

The effect not only created a bold space to retreat to, but connected the room to the other parts of the house through colour.

The wallpaper is Flavor Paper for Arte International in Brasilia 3856, a bold geometric pattern with a 60s feel to it. The colour on the fireplace wall is Resene She’ll Be Right. The same colour is picked up again in a high gloss, on the console, which was custom-made by Kiwi makers Woodwrights, echoing the sofa in the main room.

The white sofa was also custom-made, by Maker & Son in the UK. The pendant light is a Bubble by Mr Ralph.

The powder room was almost a no-holds-barred space, with the only brief being the use of an orange All Saints mirror by Kartell.

Lloyd brought in a matching wallpaper by UK maximalists House of Hackney, called Pampas, in tangerine and azalea. To complement the mirror, they added a Kartell Shelfish shelf in the same tangerine orange.

"Sometimes it's good to contrast colours when you've got a piece like the orange mirror, so it stands out,” says Lloyd. “But we fell in love with the orange and pink. It's full on. It's on all four walls, but the orange mirror just looks really gorgeous on it because it's the same orange in the wallpaper, so it all ties together."

In the Jones’ grandchildren’s room, Lloyd used a more demure Sandberg Wallpaper in a blue Raphael pattern. Bedlinen by Society of Wanderers and cushions from Bolt of Cloth in Christchurch, Society of Wanderers, and Small Acorns in Wellington completed the cosy set up. Lighting for the room comes from a kitset Coral pendant by David Trubridge.

The most expensive item in the design was the Maker & Son sofa, which was $11,400. In total, excluding the tradies’ work, the design came to about $25,000.

The effect is a harmonious, vibrant home, that’s lively and inviting, and above all playful.

“Robyn has said they really enjoy walking into the rooms,” says Lloyd. “Knowing they have added their touch to these rooms with colour, makes them really happy. It’s not like ‘grandma’s house’, eh?”