When it comes to renovating a house, it seems that Daniel and Nicola are not afraid of a challenge. Before the makeover, their home was "a rabbit warren. It had holes in the walls and was pretty unliveable," the couple recall. Spurred on by the house's fantastic views and convinced of its potential, Daniel and Nicola set about renovating every inch of the two-storey building. As if that wasn't enough of a task, they also turned their hand to making over the garage, which they transformed into a separate one-bedroom apartment.

Situated in Turangi, with views of Lake Taupo and the surrounding mountains, the house is used by Daniel and Nicola and their extended family as a holiday home. Although they knew they were not going to use it as their main residence, the couple didn't skimp on the renovation, using 20 different Resene colours for the exterior and interior. Most of these are neutral colours, but some have more of an edge, notably red Resene Xotic, black Resene Nero and rich brown Resene Barista. If you can't see Resene Xotic in these pictures, it's because Daniel and Nicola layered it with brown Resene Domino on the concrete floor, to create a textured surface in which both colours can be seen. It doesn't show very clearly in photos, but in person the effect is intriguing.

Each room of the house is painted a different colour combination (although all of the ceilings are Resene Bubble White), "to create a diverse experience within a harmonious overall colour scheme." Such attention to detail reflects Nicola's occupation as an Architectural Designer. On the outside of the house, she has also used a variety of colours. "We used the Resene colours to emphasise each change in surface, from weatherboard, to Hardie's Titan panels, to cedar," Nicola explains. "We chose colours that reflected the surrounding shades of the Central North Island landscape - Turangi is a beautiful mixture of rivers and forest. Using pale blue Resene Conch against warm brown Resene Half Felix and sandy Resene Gargoyle creates a strong contrast which brings out the tones in each colour. The soffits are painted in Resene Stark White to lift them, and to accent the cedar timber." 

What did you want to achieve with the renovation? A haven to come back to after a long day fishing or skiing.

What was the biggest challenge with creating your home interior? Ensuring the budget stayed tight, but we still achieved the look we were after.

What was the greatest success? The connection of the living space with the decks and views.

Which space in the house do you get your greatest satisfaction from? The kitchen/living room. Each different view is framed by the windows and doors, from the rock garden to the lake and finally the mountains.

What is your favourite thing in the house? The fireplace - it’s rather bigger than we need for the space, but it looks great!

The deck off the main living area has a glass railing along its length, to minimise obstruction of the view. At the far end, vertical cedar beams are one of the house's key architectural features.

Looking down through the cedar beams to the blue Resene Eighth Tuna painted planter boxes below.

A new garden has also improved the appearance of the once-rundown house.

This shot shows some of the variety of the house's exterior colours and surfaces: on the bottom level is concrete (bare) and weatherboard painted with sandy Resene Gargoyle; on the top level is cedar (natural) and weatherboard painted with warm brown Resene Half Felix.

"Using pale blue Resene Conch against warm brown Resene Half Felix and sandy Resene Gargoyle creates a strong contrast which brings out the tones in each colour," explains Nicola of her colour choices for this side of the house.