Those of you who’ve been paying attention will know that we’ve covered a whole range of topics in our ‘One Question Wednesday’ surveys. From favourite cooktops to recommended rangehoods, from dishwashers to kitchen sinks, baths to tiles and a whole lot more, we’re loving finding out the preferences and peeves of Australia’s finest designers. To date, the results have only been released to those who play the game. But in this feature, we’re sharing the outcome of a recent survey about your favourite fandecks.

Here’s the question we put to our Members:

The pressure is on to make colour selections, and you’re meeting your ultra-indecisive clients in fifteen minutes. Which fandeck will you take into this consultation?

And the results were as follows:

Not surprisingly, the Dulux World of Colour fandeck took the biggest chunk of the pie, winning 45% of votes. It’s always-reliable cousin – the Dulux Whites & Neutrals fandeck – took second place with 25% of votes. And the Resene Whites & Neutrals fandeck came in at third with 14% of votes.

Now, in a ‘real-life’ selection, a designer would likely take in more than one fandeck, but we didn’t let our survey respondents have that option (mean, I know – but we wanted their FAVOURITE!). We did, however, give Members a hint that their simulated client was ‘ultra indecisive’, and a few members made some interesting points about this:

• Some Members indicated that by the time they’re at the colour selection stage, they know their client well enough to narrow the options down significantly, and will often take A4 drawdowns or brush outs instead.

Presenting your clients with a larger sample of their selected colour is always a good idea. Colours tend to ‘lighten up’ when presented in bigger formats, and it may be worthwhile to demonstrate this. Show your client how a colour looks in a fandeck swatch compared with an A4 sample. Then ask them to consider how a larger span of cabinetry or wall may appear.

• A few Members said they liked the range of colour strength (from full strength to 1/7th) in a Haymes fandeck, meaning the client can focus on the tint as much as the hue.

Playing with tints can add a whole new dimension to interiors and joinery (and is a trend we need to look out for as we learned in our recent Dulux Colour Forecast videoconference). A single colour can naturally take on a range of ‘depths’ depending on its exposure to light. Intentionally adjusting the tint between adjoining or perpendicular surfaces can add even more drama.

• The concise colour descriptions on the back of Resene colour swatches are helpful to some, and keep the (sometimes colourblind clients) in check.

Describing colours can get both designers and clients off track. When you have a good understanding of the undertones or bases of colours, life gets a little easier. The Resene fandeck is a useful tool in this instance, with descriptions like ‘Resene Triple Sea Fog is a versatile white with a hint of grey, best used with muted rather than bright colours’. And if you’re keen to learn which way a white is leaning (whether it’s warm, cool or neutral), don’t be afraid to ask your painter or paint store what tints they’re adding to the base. They’ll tell you if it’s a black, blue or brown/umber tint, for example, and your ‘undertone’ will be revealed. (Learn more about whites in this feature.)

If you’re a KBDi Member and you’d like to get information like this in your inbox every week, make sure you look out for our ‘One Question Wednesday’ emails.

If you’re not a KBDi Member but you’re keen to learn more, complete the form below and we’ll be in touch.

A message from our Diamond Sponsor, Laminex

In a new kitchen design for Laminex, interior designer and trend forecaster Bree Leech showcases the potential of designing with blocks of colour.

As we’ve noted here before, rich colour is making a welcome return to Australian interior design. “Designers are being adventurous and bold,” says designer and trends forecaster Bree Leech, “and that’s filtering through to our clients, who are also becoming increasingly colour confident.” One way this is manifesting is in the use of block colour, particularly in kitchens and bathrooms. Where we might previously have seen varied materials palettes of stone, timber veneers, laminates and other textures, designers are choosing to use one colour across multiple surfaces, making that colour a feature and creating a strong sense of cohesion.

Wall panel in Laminex Possum, light fitting in Laminex Brushed Brass, cabinetry and surface in Laminex Green Slate.

Drawing influence from the 1980s

The eighties revival appears to be one factor influencing the renewed interest in colour, and Leech points to the work of 1980s design movement Memphis, founded by Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass, as a key reference. The exuberant pieces produced during that time, with their bright blocks of colour, playful patterns and eccentric forms, marked a radical departure from the dominant styles of the seventies. And now a similar approach is being translated into contemporary interior design, albeit with a little more nuance.

Leech approaches colour blocking in a range of ways, sometimes choosing one colour and using it for everything, other times working to create graphic impact with contrasting colours in geometric shapes. Her new kitchen design for Laminex, featured here, follows a third strategy, with two complementary decors combined in an elegant tonal scheme.

Wall panel in Laminex Possum, light fitting in Laminex Brushed Brass, cabinetry and surface in Laminex Green Slate.

Making colour the hero

“We wanted to keep the form quite simple to emphasise the graphic lines, so the details are subtle,” she says. There’s a rectilinear bank of cabinetry, with doors in Reverse Bevelled profile for a handless design, curved wall panelling and curved open shelving. And colour is definitely the hero. By selecting Laminex Green Slate – “such a great, greyed-off green” – for the cabinetry, benchtops and shelving, and Possum for the wall panelling, Leech has distilled her colour palette down to two shades of green, accented only by a wall light cleverly crafted with Laminex Brushed Brass. It’s a celebration of the two organic green decors, and it makes an emphatic design statement that shows how powerful block colour can be.

It also shows how easy it is to match colours across different Laminex products, with high-pressure laminate and decorated board specified for different elements in the kitchen. For Leech, who is used to designing with a diverse mix of materials, working exclusively with laminates was a refreshing, and valuable, challenge. “This is the first time I’ve worked with laminate for all the material in a kitchen, and I learnt things I hadn’t thought of before,” she says. “Laminex is perfect for colour blocking because there’s such a great colour range.”

Explore the Laminex Colour Collection and download the brochure, which contains all the decors you need to create beautiful block-colour spaces.  

Photographer: Derek Swalwell