There has been a major paint job going on at the Bali house. It wasn’t a sudden rush of blood to the head, nor a moment of madness after too much Bintang that sent us off to Ace Hardware a couple of weeks ago to purchase a few gallons of bright paints.
Irishman and I have been hatching this plan for new exterior colours for some months now and we have spent hours talking about which colours to use based on observing how the sun moves around the garden, reflects onto the plants and walls and where the shadows fall during daylight hours. Our inspiration has come from Bali, living in a tropical climate, and all the wonderful plants and flowers. My trip to the Majorelle Gardens http://alinadesign.com/marrakech.html in Marrakesh a few years ago and our joint love of David Hockney http://studionevin.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/hockney-style-gold-lame-and-fags/and Frieda Kahlo http://www.migulski.com/galleries/mexico/Frida-Kahlos-House-1.html have also been a factor. Last but not least, Luis Barragan http://www.flickriver.com/groups/barragan/pool/interesting/, the Mexican architect whose bold and exciting use of colour in space is a perfect example of how transformative large areas of bright colour can be.
We have still to find the exact yellow which is to be used for the upper storey above the kitchen, but apart from that and painting some large bright coloured terracotta pots which will be dotted around the garden, we have now almost finished our first phase.
I took all of these photos at lunchtime when the sun was at it’s brightest. What I love about using the orange, blue and pink paint is that it’s really brought out the vibrancy of the plants and accentuated their colours. The house and garden has now become a sort of living palette and as the shadows play on the walls the shades and hues change accordingly.
Lottie Nevin - The Red House Diaries 
Sensational! Absolutely love the choice of colours.
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Thank you! I’m glad you like the colours. I’m pretty excited about the finished article as you can probably tell 🙂
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Woderful, It looks fantastic. Cx
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Petal, I’m glad you approve. It does look stunning. The only trouble is that I’m not getting anything done because I’m in a sort of trance, bewitched by all the colours and now itching to get stuck into painting the interior walls. Hop on a plane and come and stay 🙂
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Absolutely gorgeous! Can we see some distance photos to get the overall effect? x
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Pam, your wish is my command! I’ll put some up when we’ve finished the job and then you can see it in all it’s glorious technicolour x
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And I thought I was bold! Your colors rock!
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🙂 Living so close I hope you’ll be able to come and see it soon!
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WOW!!! So bright and vivid.
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I’m happy you like it!
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Stunningly, achingly beautiful.
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What a colourful comment 🙂
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and thanks Martha x
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FREAKING AWESOME!!! Love, love, love, Sis!! Your garden is now like some wonderful, amazing, and vibrant fantasy world (which is of course, right up my alley!). I wonder if it would it be possible to set up a video camera to capture the light in your garden from sunrise to sunset and then do a time-lapse thingie? Is that the plan? That would be fanfreakingtastical.
I can see the influence of all the artists you mention (and thanks for the cool links). I’m a huge fan of Frieda Kahlo.
Your photos rock (as always) and I especially love the last one. The yellow and green of the plant against the purple wall gets me in the mood for Mardi Gras. Soooooooooo when’s the party, Lottie?? xoxo
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I had a bit of a sneaky feeling that you might be excited by this!!! Very happy that it has my sisters approval and I LOVE your idea for a time-lapse thingy video – what a cool idea. I shall put it to my technical assistant and see what we can come up with. There are still some walls to paint, and we need to find the right yellow. Yellow is a bitch of a colour to get right as you know. I’m after some large terracotta pots which I’m going to paint, but there is a particular shape that I’m after so I’m on a mission today, yellow paint and right shaped pots…..
Party starts the minute you get of that plane and come and stay xoxo
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Agreed, yellow can be a pain, I know you’ll find the exact right shade, Sis and the pots, as well. Can’t wait to see it! Would love it if you could do the time lapse thingy. Cool with a capital “C”! xoxo
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Hi there lovely Lottie, the gut shifting effect of these amazing beautiful interactions has moved me to finally stop lurking. Orange shadow – just wonderful!!! xxx @@@ ### %%% *** xxx
Susan (ology!!! at long last)
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Holy Smoke!! you got an ‘ology! fantastic news Susan and congratulations. I can’t wait to see that shiny brass plaque outside your door when I’m next in London and I am so pleased for you. The Good Lord moves in mysterious ways but I really think he got it right when he decided my path was not one of being a psychotherapist even though I was gutted at the time as you know. So VERY proud of you my friend 🙂 Very happy you like the colours, yup, that orange shadow is extraordinary, I love it too xxx
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GORGEOUS! Wow…this is indeed a happy place, I would imagine. So glad to see more of your photos and read your reflections, Lottie. Love the garden!
xoxoxo
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Oh Steph, your comment made me VERY happy, thank you 🙂
Yes, I took a month long sebatical from my blog but I’m back on form now and will be posting again soon xoxo
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Great colours. Good photos. Nice read.
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Thanks Richard – We are very pleased with the result and Ace Hardware are rubbing their hands with glee at the amount of money we have spent on paint over the past fortnight!! It’s definitely been worth it though and if I say it so myself, it does look pretty fantastic! If you are ever up in this neck of the woods come and see us, it would be great to meet you.
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All very amazing !
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Beautiful digital photos! Thanks for sharing. http://www.segmation.wordpress.com
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Thank you! I’m glad you liked them 🙂
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