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Michelle Flynn takes her home to new heights

Michelle Flynn is doing a major renovation on her Mount Maunganui home and has so far ticked off the major job of painting the exterior. Now, she’s tackling the inside, with the help of builder Jack from Harper Homes and sister Coralie, an architect who is behind the design of Michelle’s stunning house remodel.

Five years ago, Michelle bought what she describes as “the worst house on the best street”. She was taken with the charm, sun, warmth and exciting potential of the quaint bach, as well as the incredible location. “My home is a three-minute walk from the beach and only a 10-minute walk from Mount Maunganui. I love to go to the beach and also walk up the mount,” Michelle says. She’s since transformed the one-bedroom cottage into a two-storey, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a garage.

“My sister Coralie designed an amazing two-storey extension with high arched ceilings and this fantastic master bedroom,” Michelle says. “The brief was to make two extra bedrooms so my family can come to stay and to add a garage. Also, a lot more storage!

“I wanted it to be Hamptons-style and to fit in with the character of the original house,” Michelle adds. “Coralie has achieved all of this and also made the new renovation look like it belongs to the old part of the house, which is great.”

Builder Jack agrees. “We’ve been very surprised at what Coralie’s been able to design on the footprint of the section,” he says.

After helping Michelle give her mum's bedroom a wallpaper makeover, Resene Eco.Decorator Steve Flett was happy to offer assistance again.

The height of the wall in the master bedroom proved a slight challenge for Michelle, but she solved it with the help of some trusty scaffolding. This wallpaper is Resene Mata Hari Wallpaper Collection 37901-5.

In keeping with the Hamptons aesthetic, Michelle has painted the interior frames, skirtings and doors in Resene Lustacryl in Resene Quarter Alabaster. The upstairs master retreat has a soaring ceiling and a handcrafted balustrade, and Michelle opted to paint the walls in Resene Zylone Sheen in creamy Resene Triple Rice Cake.

“I’m really pleased with the colour because it’s nice and fresh and it’ll look good with the white trim,” she says.

She’s chosen to complement the Resene paint with a wallpapered feature wall and headed into the Mount Maunganui Resene ColorShop, where Michaela helped her choose Resene Mata Hari Wallpaper Collection 37901-5 with a complementary pattern and colour to the painted walls.

When it came to hanging the wallpaper, Michelle drew on her years of experience – her mum Yvonne ran a wallpaper and decorating business for many years and taught Michelle how to wallpaper when she was pregnant with her first child. She was also assisted on the day by Resene Eco.Decorator Steve Flett, who had previously lent his expertise when Michelle wallpapered Yvonne’s bedroom.

As the wallpaper Michelle chose is a paste-the-wall type, the hanging itself is relatively straightforward, but the challenge in this space was the height of the wall so Michelle needed scaffolding to get the job done. She worked her way across the wall, hanging the paper, smoothing it with a scraper and cutting it to size with a craft knife.

Michelle was visited by her daughter Gemma (former Black Sticks hockey player and wife of Richie McCaw of All Blacks fame) and her baby granddaughter, who admired the feature wall.

“I feel really lucky that I’m from a long line of hard-working women that have a can-do attitude and can do it themselves – that’s what I’ve loved seeing with mum,” says Gemma.

One of the key reasons behind Michelle’s home extension was to create more space for family to stay, including daughter Gemma McCaw. This wallpaper is Resene Mata Hari Wallpaper Collection 37901-5.

Tips for choosing the right Resene white paint for your interior:

There are many different shades of white, and within the Resene range there are more than 100 white paints alone, let alone the ones that are close to white.
White can make a room look lighter and brighter as well as being a neutral backdrop for existing furniture and fittings – plus it never goes out of style.
White paint has varying levels of warm and cool tones, thanks to the yellow, green, brown or grey undertones, which can change the look and feel of the paint once it’s on the walls or ceiling.
Cool whites, such Resene Alabaster and Resene Black White, tend to suit more contemporary interiors with lots of windows, rather than older homes with smaller windows and less-than-perfect walls. In an older, darker house such as a villa, it’s the opposite way around. Warmer whites like Resene Quarter Bianca for the walls and Resene Alabaster for internal doors, architraves and ceilings work better.
A good rule of thumb is that red, orange, yellow and brown-based whites, such as Resene Pearl Lusta, Resene Spanish White and Resene Eighth Biscotti, are good for rooms that need warming up, such as those on the south side of the house. Those with a touch of grey, like Resene Merino and Resene Sea Fog, or those with green or blue undertones, such as Resene Half Thorndon Cream or Resene Rice Cake, are good for taking the visual heat out of north-facing rooms.
Paint a piece of A2 card in your chosen colour using a Resene testpot, leaving an unpainted border around the edge. Use Blu-Tack to hang it on the wall to give you a truer feel for what that white or neutral is going to look like once it’s painted on the wall. Move it around different parts of the room to see how it looks.
To keep your whites and neutrals options simple, use the Resene Whites & Neutrals A4 colour collection – this has all the best whites and neutrals so you can choose colours that you know will still look modern in years to come.
If you need help choosing the right white for your project, ask the colour experts at your Resene ColorShop, ask a Resene Colour Expert free online or book a consultation with a Resene colour expert.
Check out our advice from Resene Colour Expert Brenda Ngatai about choosing the right white paint for your home.