This is the third beach house we've featured recently - perhaps the warmer weather has us feeling optimistic about the approach of summer! Julie's contemporary home, built practically on the water's edge at Langs Beach, has enviable views of blue water and white sand - and an interior colour scheme inspired by it. Several blue Resene Bermuda Grey walls punctuate a space that is predominantly white Resene Alabaster, resulting in a fresh and relaxed, but also sophisticated, interior.

Designed by Aaron Sills and Jill Shepherd, the three-bedroom house (with a separate one-bedroom guesthouse) has a deceptively simple style, opening on all sides for maximum indoor-outdoor flow. The cedar exterior has naturally faded over time and now has a weathered appearance that seems right at home by the sea, alongside pancake rocks and gnarled pohutukawa trees.

"What attracted me to the house in the first place was the way the architecture interacted with the land and water immediately below," agrees Julie. "The house is undoubtedly an architectural statement, but it is built very sympathetically into the hillside. The architects and landscape designers did a magnificent job (in my opinion!) with massive plantings of natives working in with the incumbent mature pohutakawa."

How would you describe your interior design style? Simple and low key. This house didn’t need a lot of obvious styling because the views and exterior architecture tell such a big part of the story, and the colours and fixtures are somewhat muted (greyed cedar, white stone tiles with some rich golden wood hues in the floor), so we thought that less was more.

Where did your inspiration come from? The architecture, rocks, landscape and ever-present sea.

What was the biggest challenge with creating your home interior look? Finding a dining room table that worked!

What was the greatest success? Using a colourful, strong John Papas artwork on the kitchen/dining room wall.

Which space in the house do you get your greatest satisfaction from? The living room. It is a multi-functional space that is the hub of the house. The windows are so dominant that the arrangement of the room needed to be well thought-through. We created two distinct areas – one less formal than the other – using large but low coffee tables to define the spaces. A dark grey sofa set joins the two, along with an assortment of classic metal, canvas, cane and bean-bag chairs. It works whether the kids are playing, we’re having coffee, or sitting around the (real) fireplace.

What is your advice for someone trying to achieve a similar look with their home interior? Look around you. There’s something to play with.

Get the look:
If you're lucky enough to have a home near the sea, it's likely that it will come into extra wear and tear, with salt-laden air, sand being tracked inside and often lots of extra guests visiting, so it's important to choose a durable washable paint like Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen. If you're painting outside, make sure you wash down surfaces well and follow the advice of Resene ColorShop staff, as salt can play havoc with new paintwork.

The kitchen is entirely Resene Alabaster white and stainless steel.

"The windows are so dominant that the arrangement of the room needed to be well thought-through," says Julie of the living room. This end of the room, nearest the windows, is painted in Resene Alabaster.

Painted Resene Bermuda Grey, the living room is Julie's favourite space in the house: "It works whether the kids are playing, we’re having coffee, or sitting around the (real) fireplace."

"The biggest challenge was finding a dining room table that worked!" says Julie. The walls in the kitchen/dining area are Resene Alabaster and Resene Bermuda Grey.

The modern beach house sits only a stretch of grass away from the ocean.