Inside Australia and New Zealand’s best homes: Dulux lists its finalists for the 2022 Colour Awards

Dulux has named the top finalists for the 2022 Colour Awards with 28 homes across Australia and New Zealand in the running to take out the top gong including a black home with a zen garden and a sunny yellow kitchen. 

In its 36th year, the esteemed judging panel searched both countries to find the homes with the most innovative use of colour using Dulux shades. 

Dulux Colour and Communications Manager, Andrea Lucenna-Orr, said architects and designers have pushed the boundaries with colour to create inspiring, engaging – and often surprising – spaces.

‘Deeper tones of blue and green were popular amongst residential interiors, showcasing diverse moods in areas and differentiating functional use in a space applied to cabinetry, trims and walls to create a peaceful, relaxing interior setting,’ she said.  

From rich moody hues and neutral earthy tones to bold pops of colour, below FEMAIL lists the top six favourite homes from the 28 finalists. 

AUTUMN HOUSE – CARLTON NORTH, VIC

A quaint home blends together its Victorian roots, eighties renovation and modern make-over by Melbourne design firm Studio Bright.

Bright pastel pinks, greens and blues bring life into this amazing property that has two show-stopping blue bathrooms that ooze quirky sophistication. 

One bathroom has an mint vanity, blue-grouted white subway tiles, and a mosaic blue bathtub all finished off with luxe gold tapware. 

The other bathroom is fully adorned with a deep ocean blue from the floor, walls, joinery, shower screen and ceiling. 

A pink terrazzo stone island bench makes a statement in the kitchen while calming greens cover the bedrooms and a brick fireplace was given a hint of blue.

THE PAD –  SOUTH PERTH, WA

A stunning house in South Perth features moody, dark palette throughout, a Japanese-inspired design and indoor-outdoor zen gardens. 

Architect Suzanne Hunt made sure to focus on ways to let natural light in as a contrast to the moody interior with deep textures of steel, dark-stained oak and concrete. 

One of the ways sunlight creeps in is through the series of tranquil zen gardens with palm leaves, fern trees and steeping stones that is seamlessly integrated with the chic kitchen, living and dining area and main bedroom through glass sliding doors. 

NIDO HOUSE – CARLTON NORTH, VIC

Another house to blend the indoors with the outdoors is the stunning Nido House in Melbourne that proves good things come in small packages. 

At just 4.9metres wide and 22 metres long the compact family home has a small but spectacular courtyard that opens into the living room through green glass bi-folding doors. 

The internal courtyard has a wall of exposed brick and another of green fish-scale tiles as well as a breakfast bar to the kitchen. 

Inside, there are sky high ceilings with towering curved wooden doors, green Japanese finger tiles feature in the luxurious narrow shower in the bathroom and grey hues compliment the natural timber paneled walls. 

According to Angelucci Architects, colour was used to make the small home to a family of six feels larger with: ‘green hues extending nature into the home, blues accentuating the sky visible from the lofty ceilings and whites neutralising the backdrop of the house to calm its occupants.’

HERON HOUSE – SANDINGHAM, NZ

Sun yellow is the statement in this small Kiwi holiday home’s kitchen which is further accentuated by the surrounding double-height wood ceiling and surfaces of a deep blue-green. 

The bold hue ‘provides a vibrant centre point to the design’ according to the designer and the dark teal along with the plywood ‘create a space that is capable of being both voluminous and warm and intimate’. 

A ladder leads to a mezzanine hang-out above the kitchen and natural light streams in the dining and office space where herringbone wood flooring and the intense aqua continues. 

Designers at Pac Studio said the interior of the bach, which is the name for a New Zealand holiday home or beach house, is ‘all about colour, texture and fun’.

NELSON ROAD HOUSE – SOUTH MELBOURNE, VIC 

With shades of pastel pink, deep ink blue-green and light baby blue, it’s not hard to see why this South Melbourne pad has been listed as one of this year’s most stylishly colourful houses in Australia. 

While the open-plan living space keeps it simple with white walls and ceilings there are pastel pops of blue in the kitchen and the bedroom is decked out in a muted baby pink. 

A formal living room with a ornate fireplace takes a different turn with a floor-to-ceiling ‘night-sky’ calming dark bluish-green. 

Designers from Bloom Interior Design in Melbourne said they ‘treated each room as its own space’ which allowed them to ‘play with a range of different colours giving each space its own persona’. 

BONDI TERRACE – BONDI, NSW 

This stunning terraced house in the famous Sydney suburb of Bondi, is an elegant example of how neutral palettes can still pack a punch. 

The understated hues of white and beige are occasionally contrasted throughout the home like with the orange curtains, dark-wood custom-made furnishings, forest green cabinets and quirky botanical wall paper. 

It also allows the original period details of the heritage home to sing including the crown mouldings and marble fireplace. 

Designers at Studio Quarters said the ‘overall calmness that permeates the whole house’ was achieved with the use of full, half and quarter strengths of the same colour applied to make the ‘transition between spaces as smooth as possible’.

‘The result is an interior that seamlessly weaves the old and the new, respecting the history of the house whilst modernising it to suit contemporary life,’ they said.