Colourful statement walls survive ‘approval by committee’ in this Sydney apartment lobby

08 Dec 2020

As the saying goes, having too many cooks in the kitchen can spoil the broth. For designers working in public spaces – or being paid with public funds – ‘approval by committee’ is a challenge many are all too familiar with.

“Lobby refurbishments are typically fraught with conservatism and restrictions to try to win over the majority of owners when it comes to colour,” adds Nadine Donazzan of Sydney-based DNADesign. “Throw into this challenge the sensitivities of a collective Executive Committee’s desire to all agree and you have the joys of strata project management and design!”

However, Nadine recently managed to win over her project stakeholders during a lobby renovation and convinced them to come over to the colourful side. With diversity and an adventurous approach to design and colour selection being two of DNADesign’s key strengths, if anyone was going to accomplish the seemingly impossible, it was going to be Nadine.

This project was a typical residential interior of a lobby built in 2010 with 41 units, or as she describes it, “underwhelming and lacking obvious redeeming features.” The challenge was to transform and reinvigorate the space while project managing and coordinating all the trades – and within the usual budget constraints, of course.

“The existing condition of the lobby area was obviously dated and tired, and all of the surfaces required a major update with tactile and interesting surfaces and coatings to carry it into a new decade. An injection of spice did the trick to create a vibrant and visually positive entry area with some colourful indigenous inspired artwork providing an exciting platform to draw colour inspiration from for some feature walls within the space.”

Given that lobbies are often high traffic areas prone to daily marking and damage, ensuring the final results have the robustness and longevity to be up to the task is always a challenge on these types of projects. “Detailed consideration of the best performing product choice is just as important as colour selection,” says Nadine. “but products chosen from the unique Resene waterborne enamel family provide superior robustness and cleaning properties that are ideal for lift and lobby area board walls and surrounds.”

“Adding some fun intensity in the form of the delicious Resene Gold Dust metallic provided glamour and elegance on a feature wall, which was excellent for capturing directional light and adding a note of shimmering ‘bling’.”

But Nadine also convinced her clients to take the plunge with a second feature wall, this one painted in Resene Coast. For extra visual impact, it was first given a texture treatment using Resene Sandtex Mediterranean effect.

“This product provided a very fine layer of sand like film build particles reminiscent of a fine render coating which we then topcoated with Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen tinted to Resene Coast to allow the texture effect to be easily cleaned, even though its basecoat is dimensional to the touch,” she explains.

“The rich golden metallic tone and deep rich navy combination really pop in the space sitting alongside the clean crispness of Resene Alabaster – an ever popular modern white that complements most colours. The beautiful harmony of the colours and applied painted finishes strategically draw inspiration from the unique brushstrokes of the hand painted artwork and add yet another focal point. It’s transformed this space and brought into the 2020s and beyond.”

design DNADesign

paintDistinction Painting

images Jorge Taconelli

Published: 08 Dec 2020