Well it’s rolled around again, the 2014 Dulux Colour Awards.  An Australasian colour comp that showcases the best of the best in colour design.

There are seventy six finalists this year, selected from 197 enteries from Australia and New Zealand.

All in all there are nine catagories with the Commerical Interior category again being the most represented and with the most finalists, 20.  Single Residential Interior followed closely with 12 and Commercial Exterior with 11 finalists.  There are a total of eight shortlisted projects in both the Commercial Interior Refurbishment and Student categories; five with Single Residential Exterior; and four in the Multi Residential Exterior, Residential Interior Refurbishment and Multi Residential Interior categories.

The good (and very exciting news) is that there are 6 finalists from New Zealand.  Quite an achievement and an even bigger one if a kiwi can take out a win!  Brace for it, but two of those spots are actually two of my very own projects that I have been working on over the past year.

My Astrolabe Wines Office/Winetasting fit out  project is in the heavy populated Commerical Category and I also share with two other NZ designers, Studio Pacfic Architecture (Habour City Centre) and Outline Design (8 Leek St project).  Three out of twenty make for some good odds!

I’m alone with eleven Aussies in the Residential Interiors catagory with my Murphys Road House project.  You may or may not have realised that this is actually my our house.  Probably the trickiest client you have – yourself!  Anyway, my bold colours and classic villa mash-up seems to have hit the right note for the prelim judges.  Yay.

The Multi-residential Exterior category features Stufken + Chambers Architects (Riccarton Road Apartments) and in the  Student Catagory Henry D’Ath (283 Cuba Street) is a finalist.  Exciting plus.

This year I wasn’t sure if I could enter (becasue my colour ambassador role with Dulux) but after checking it turns out I could becasue it’s all judged blind.  I decided to enter two and so when I was notified that both were in the finals it truely was a happy dance moment.  It can be a lonely ol’ world working for yourself and deisgning solo, so this really is buzzy when your industry recognises you.  Hello.

I’ll be taking the chance to attend the finals, pat the Dulux dog and go hang with a bunch of clever Australians.  I might also get in a spot of ‘shopping for the shop’ whilist in Melbourne.  Will show and tell all then…