Why neutral colours dominate New Zealand home interiors

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In this extract from Rooms Volume Two, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins explains why New Zealanders love neutral colours and makes a case for boldly embracing different hues. Syrie Maugham…

In this extract from Rooms Volume Two, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins explains why New Zealanders love neutral colours and makes a case for boldly embracing different hues.

Syrie Maugham did not have much to say, nor did she leave much theoretical writing. There are not many clever quotes or philosophical bon mots, perhaps because her husband, the novelist and playwright Somerset Maugham (they hated each other), had that market sewn up. One of the few things she is on record as saying was, “If you don’t have £10,000 to spend, I don’t want to waste my time.”

Syrie is easy to dismiss as a society decorator working for wealthy clients. Here, in New Zealand, we have never taken professional interior decorators to heart, let alone lauded a wealthy one. Syrie (“The Princess of Pale”) is famous for one thing – in 1927 she invented the monochrome interior in the form of the All-White room, and that reason alone probably justifies her a place on our banknotes.

In 1927 white was the most fashionable colour in the world because only the very richest people could keep it clean. Maugham’s achievement was not that she took a bucket of Cardrona, Black White or Infinity and drenched the room, but that she took the colour of her day and created a sophisticated symphonic effect. Maugham knew that in minimising colour she also needed to maximise the effects of tone by using multiple whites (as any paint-chart connoisseur knows, these are endless), and to work particularly hard with texture and reflection to compensate for the absence of colour.

The understanding of colour and its widespread use is a sign of cultural confidence. Think India, Mexico or Sweden, where tradition has ensured the continued presence of colour and where passionate vibrant colour is a national characteristic.

As Marc Chagall expressed it, “colour is all. When colour is right, form is right”.

If this is true, then New Zealand is not yet quite right. Here neutrals have settled in as a marker of national character, perhaps…

Many…

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