It’s official. Daylight saving is over and we’ve had a bit of rain this past week - summer is fading with autumn following hard on its heels. As a farewell to the long, hot (and this year, dry for many of us) season, we armed ourselves with lots of lovely Resene paint, asked stylist Claudia Kozub to help out and went along to a photographer’s studio to create a couple of gorgeous summery settings.

Painting just about everything that did and didn’t move, we wanted to brighten your late summer days and inspire you to use unexpected combos and strong shades. We start with our desert-themed look, above, but click through to see a bright Greek island-inspired courtyard look.  

We also took along a video crew to film our desert scene so click here to see this particular setting come alive.

Desert sunset

When we first talked about doing an American desert inspired setting, the obvious colour choices of khaki and sand came to mind. But our stylist came up with a much better and less expected approach – to use the colours of the sunset over an American desert instead. This clever twist gives this setting a fresher softer look by using dusky pinks, deep yellows and pale tangerines. Add a pair of old leather cowboy boots, a sheep’s skull and some cacti, and you have a look that would look amazing in many homes – as part of a vintage interior, perhaps, or at a beach house.

To get the look we painted the wall in Resene Cavern Pink while an old dresser was given new life with coats of Resene Cherokee. Then we’ve used accent colours, including the Native American or Mexican inspired turquoise of Resene Fountain Blue on the coat rack knobs and the chair.

The floor is stained in Resene Walnut from the Resene Colorwood stains range.

Tip: For a bit of instant texture when you’re painting pots, use a colour from the Resene Non-Skid Deck & Path paint range [link] – it’s a non-slip paint with grit added. 

Colourful courtyard

Another look that would transplant so well to our part of the world is one that is reminiscent of a Greek island courtyard where you so often find bright splashes of flowering bougainvillea set against cobalt blue shutters and whitewashed walls. This scheme plays on the strong contrast between the cool pale aqua wall, painted in Resene Onahau, and the various bold bright tones used to paint the chairs, table and shutter – Resene Elvis on the shutters, Resene Optimist on the table and Resene Flashback on the orange chair and Resene Knock Out on the deep pink chair. 

Rather than paint the table and chairs just one colour, try this ‘mismatched’ approach to inject an unexpected element into your courtyard. It works because the colours are all quite saturated, ‘hot’ colours in the same tonal range.

*Tip: Use Resene Lumbersider (low sheen), Resene Lustacryl (semi-gloss) or Resene Enamacryl (gloss) tinted to your chosen colour to paint outdoor furniture. Choose a CoolColour option where available so the furniture doesn’t get as hot. If the furniture is for indoor use, Resene Lustacryl or Resene Enamacryl is best. 

For an upcycled coat rack, take the drawer front off an old chest of drawers, add a couple of knobs – don’t worry if they don’t match – give it a paint and hang it on the wall. For this one, we’ve used Resene Tacao on the drawer front and Resene Fountain Blue on the knobs. Orange and blue are complementary colours so always make for quite a dynamic scheme. 

When you’re placing objects together as a collection, go for theme rather than completely matching. These pots are all painted but are different sizes and shapes. The fact that they’re planted with cacti also brings them together visually. We painted one of them in textured Resene Non-Skid Deck & Path paint tinted to Resene Piha Sand. A jewel-coloured glass tumbler has been added to lighten the collection. 

Other pots are painted in Resene Hullabaloo (turquoise), Resene Petite Orchid (pink) and Resene Cherokee (yellow). 

For this Greek-inspired courtyard setting, rather than paint the table and chairs just one colour, try this ‘mismatched’ approach to inject an unexpected element into your courtyard. It works because the colours are all quite saturated, ‘hot’ colours in the same tonal range - Resene Optimist on the table and Resene Flashback on the orange chair and Resene Knock Out on the deep pink chair. We’ve added a magenta pink pot on the wall, painted in Resene Knock Out. 

Don’t stop at just the paint colour to brighten your courtyard. Choose colourful accessories too, like these coloured glass tumblers, and serve lots of fruit and juice. The table is painted in Resene Optimist. 

These louvre shutters may be normally found on windows or as doors but in this courtyard scene, we’ve used one just for decoration. You could this to hang plants or other items off, maybe using butcher’s hooks. Our shutter is painted Resene Elvis, the chair is Resene Flashback and the pot is Resene Pelorous.