Party planning

Last year the Downes’ family had a new kitchen installed by their good friend and cabinet maker and hadn’t done much else on the house since.

Then with their 10th wedding anniversary looming they decided to host a party, which led them onto the mission of decorating the dining room and kitchen to wow their guests and make it appear they hadn’t been resting on their laurels for 10 months. Suzanne headed down to Resene Kapiti to search for some green paint and a feature wallpaper. Once there she found the ‘big and bold’ designs and instantly fell in love with the green circles, which she matched up with green Resene Gimblet for the other walls.

Suzanne headed home to finish the prep work, seal the newly plastered wall, paint the ceiling, scotias and door surrounds with varying Resene paints – all white. When she cut in with Resene Gimblet she discovered how green it was. However she ignored the remarks from her children and soldiered on completing the first coat and the whole lot of white painting in one day. Rising early the next day she recoated the white and finished the green with another two coats. The contrast of the bright green to the very white looks sharp and the colour works well with their wooden blinds, which are stained in Resene Dark Oak. The last part of the room was pasting the wall and hanging the wallpaper.

Suzanne also selected a large floral wallpaper out of the Vision Glamour book and painted one wall in a matching brown. She covered three canvases in pieces of patterned paper and hung them on the brown wall as a feature.

And all was finished in time for the big party.