Our two feature houses, in pages "the lovely bones" and "romancing the home", are wonderlands of rich detailing, quirky touches, pre-loved treasures… and delicious paint colours. They have been created by people who are absolutely passionate about what they do, about their surroundings, and it shows.

It’s a style that’s so in sympathy with paint in all its forms, from translucent washes to thick coats of creamy white.

One of the houses uses a vibrant green, Resene Camarone. I love it, but then I’ve always used green in my own interiors. My living rooms have been various shades of green over the years. It hasn’t exactly been very fashionable, to paint all of your living room walls in a stronger colour in recent years. White has been the look of the moment, perhaps with a kitchen splashback or fabrics in pop-out colour. I’ve been more off-trend than on-trend so I was happy to hear that clean-looking green, and more of it, is on the return and that two of this year’s winners in the Total Resene Colour Awards used green – see "winning with colour".

Whatever colour pushes your buttons, you’ll find something in Resene’s recently launched fashion range of paint colours. Many of them appear in this issue of habitat, especially in our Testpots feature in "three's company".

Sharon Newey editor