Colour Selections

Porter Davis World of Style -half way to heaven

I was so excited about our colour selections appointment on 17 March 2016.

We had been in to see World of Style several times before our appointment. I am definitely an over-thinker and, while I had an overall vision for how I wanted our home to look, I also can be very indecisive (I think it drives my husband crazy). So I wanted to be well-prepared for our selection appointment and pretty much had everything selected before the day!

The Porter Davis World of Style is just a beautiful place to look at. It’s designers should be congratulated for their innovation and styling. Unfortunately, some of the interior design team’s knowledge was a little lacking, which at times made the experience frustrating instead of fun, but all our questions and queries were eventually sorted out in the end. If you’re thinking about building, you should definitely visit the Porter Davis World of Style Showroom in South Melbourne. It truly is inspiring!

I was actually pleasantly surprised that the pricing of most upgrade items in World of Style was reasonable (with some exceptions -such as flooring and tiling). However, it was dissappointing that there was no pricing list provided and that the category of items is not indicated in the showroom, leaving you feeling a little unsure about what you’re actually looking at without actually talking to someone. For example, you stand in front of a board with around 20 different stone benchtops or bricks and there is no way to tell which ones are in categories 1-5 (which could result in additional costs ranging from hundreds to several thousands of dollars for the higher categories). This is definitely one area where Metricon are much more transparent, giving you a price list when you first visit Studio M, and marking the category of all items on display. Knowing the pricing upfront helps you to decide where you are willing to splash out and spend more, and where you are willing to stick with the standard range to save a few pennies. In my opinion, Porter Davis are actually losing the opportunity for people to upgrade, as you tend to err on the side of caution when things are not known.

Overall though we were really pleased with the selections we made and the associated pricing. This not being our first build and hopefully a home where we will spend many, many years, we ended up with quite a few upgrades. We are doing flooring and concrete ourselves after handover though, as we felt the price to pay for the convenience of having Porter Davis complete these for us was just too high compared to what you pay in the “real world”. We are also putting in our own appliances as we’re getting Miele, and while Porter Davis do provide these, they didn’t even have pricing for us by the time we came to sign our contract, so they agreed that we could install these ourselves.

We’re trying to go for a modern-classic theme for our home. The London design reminds me of older homes that have been renovated, with all the bedrooms in the front of the home, then open living at the back. So I think this suits the modern-classic blend that we’re trying to achieve.

Here are some of our selections:

Externals

Colourbond roof, fascia, gutter and front door – Monument
Bricks – Austral Bricks Homestead Tan (cat 3)
Render -Dulux  Rampart
Tiles around garage – Promenade Greige from National Tiles
Windows – Black

External colours – for the Coburn facade. We’re trying to replicate an ex-Porter Davis London 24 display home in Taylors Hill.

Internals:

Kitchen cabinets – Laminex Crystal Gloss in Polar White
Benchtop in kitchen, bathroom and ensuite – Silestone Lagoon (cat 4)
Cabinets in bathroom, ensuite and laundry – Laminex Elegant Oak
Wall tiles in bathroom and ensuite – white 100×400 subway tiles
Feature tiles in bathroom and ensuite – white penny rounds
Kitchen and Laundry splashback tiles – white 100×400 subway tiles with light grey grout
Wet area floor tiles – Promenade Greige from National Tiles
Flooring throughout rest of home – Godfrey Hirst Belle Laminate in Summit Oak Natural
Wall colours throughout – Wattyl Winter Mushroom (a light, warm grey)
Feature walls in rumpus and our son’s bedroom – Wattyl Relaxed Navy (dark blue/grey)
Feature wall in main bedroom – Wattyl Main Beach Blue (light green/blue) above Daddo paneling

Internal colour selections (includes our own flooring sample which we brought into World of Style)

Kitchen handles for bottom cabinets and drawers – hopefully these will add the classic element to the flat profile. Overhead cabinets will not have handles

Internal paint colours – main walls will be Winter Mushroom, feature walls in rumpus and our son’s room will be Relaxed Navy, feature wall in main bedroom (above white daddo panelling) will be Main Beach Blue. Can you tell I’m a blue-loving kinda-gal?