COLOURED HOUSES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21876, 11 August 1934, Page 6 (Supplement)

COLOURED HOUSES

GAY SWISS SHUTTERS Is there any reason why colour should not be used to a greater extent in houses? This is being done in the sense that bricks are now much more carefully coloured and that they are mixed when used, instead of providing the desolate flat surfaces of some of the older houses. Some of the newer houses introduce colour into accessories and, here and there, into the building itself, just as the Elizabethans used to work in patterns of different coloured bricks. Bright colour seems to necessitate n shiny surface to the brick, which is disadvantageous in that it deteriorates with weather and therefore has none of that sense of permanence which is needed in a building. But here and there cream-coloured houses have a touch of brown over their eyebrows perhaps, or a little blue or green may be used. The real trouble is the limits to which colour can be allowed to go. No one wants a house that looks like a pottery factory, or an advertisement for flower-pots, A safer arrangement is to confine the colour to the windows, doors, shutters. The last are being treated here and there as are the Swiss shutters, with gay colourings freely mixed Doors are not necessarily painted flat, but have chevrons or crosses A white house has doors, garage doors and windows in green, red and a deep-toned orange, arranged in stripes These are repeated in the bricks which edge a flight of steps leading to the lawn. Obviously the colouring must tone in with surroundings and therefore must be inherent in the natural material.