Priestley Renovation | Before + Afters

August 22, 2024

One of our favourite things to do is to work with returning clients. It means we’ve already developed a relationship, learnt how they live and what they like, and that a trust has formed between us. We had designed a dining room, living room and sunroom for this family five years ago, so it was wonderful to be called back when they were ready to renovate their kitchen and a small living space off the kitchen.

The clients’ brief included a more functional kitchen space where they could have more than two people in there at a time, and an allocated area with power for their coffee machine. They also said the current desk off the kitchen wasn’t working with the curved top, and the living space was used all the time but they knew it could be better.

The space plan we designed shows the removal of a door into the dining room to allow for an extra large pantry. To the side of this we left an area for the coffee machine, and the existing window was to be replaced with a longer picture window creating a more balanced and aesthetically pleasing look. Although our clients were initially unsure about removing the dining room door, they now fully appreciate having much more storage space, and it’s only an extra few steps to use the neighbouring door.

Our 3D visual made it easy for our clients to imagine their new kitchen

The kitchen before with a smaller window and bench top and exposed rangehood

A progress photo shows the new window installed

The clients liked the colour of their old walls but we decided to use that as inspiration for the lower cabinetry and keep the walls and upper cabinets white for a lighter, more spacious feel. We replaced the exposed rangehood with a powerpack concealed behind a cupboard with additional storage cupboards either side. By painting them white and keeping them handle-less they almost disappear making the newly enlarged view the hero. We worked alongside our joiners, Classic Kitchens, who created and installed the kitchen and living room bookshelf to their usual high standard.

Previously the coffee machine took up precious workspace on the bench

The removal of the dining room door made it possible to fit large pantry storage next to the fridge and still leave a space for the coffee machine. Tucking it around the corner leaves plenty of room on the main bench for food prep and dishes, and it’s a lovely space for our clients to make their coffee while taking in the amazing view outside.

The door to the left was removed leaving the door to the right as the remaining access to the dining room and hallway

We removed the existing flooring of tiles and carpet and ran wood flooring throughout the kitchen and living room. By having the same flooring in both spaces it creates a much better flow and sense of spaciousness.

The existing kitchen had a small desk running between it and the living room, but the curved desktop meant it wasn’t terribly practical. We had the option of using the space for an additional storage cabinet, but the clients decided that they would like to keep it as a desk if it was more usable.

The desk before, and then removed awaiting an upgrade

The living room is a lovely space with an existing deep built-in window seat. Despite having two other living areas, the family spend a lot of time in this room. We knew we could make it more inviting and functional with the right furniture and layout.

The old furniture felt a bit disconnected, we immediately wanted to pull everything closer together

We recovered the window seat in a smart olive green indoor/outdoor fabric, as it gets a lot of sun, and placed a comfy two seater sofa opposite to create a cosy social setting. A custom wool rug was made to fit the space and ground the furniture so it didn’t feel like it was just floating in the room.

We included lots of curves in the furniture to help with the welcoming, cosy feel. The wooden coffee table and side table both have a gorgeous chunkiness to them. Although it might sound counterintuitive, overscale furniture, art or fixtures can actually make a space feel larger rather than smaller, and they evoke an air of warmth and comfort.

In the living room before everything was pushed to the edges of the room leaving a large empty space in the centre.

On the back wall there was a recessed nook which our clients had filled with a freestanding bookshelf. We designed a built-in bookshelf to replace this. Built-in cabinetry will always look more polished and purposeful and will elevate your room. We kept the cabinetry consistent with the adjoining kitchen for a sense of cohesion.

The freestanding bookshelf fit the space quite well but looked a wee bit messy

Having cupboards at the bottom allows practical storage for items our clients don’t necessarily want on display, with the top shelves perfect for displaying some favourite pieces.

The finished result is a space that is highly functional for the family of four (plus the four legged family members). But it’s not all about practicality, you also want your home to look great and be inviting. As we like to say… A well-designed home sets the stage for a life well-lived. It promotes well-being and allows you to relax, recharge, and re-energise.

Starting fresh in 2023

January 17, 2023

We recently appeared in the first issue of Bay Buzz for 2023 which was all about ‘refresh and renew’. It’s packed with great advice from many experts on how to refresh and renew your mind, body, career, business and home, as well as the planet. We highly recommend picking up a copy to read all about it.

The new year is a brilliant time for new beginnings and a new, fresh look for your home. We love transforming our clients’ homes and seeing the positive effect it has on them, their family and their lifestyle. We wanted to share with you some of the tips and advice we gave Bay Buzz (plus a few extra) to make changes in your home that don’t require a big, expensive renovation but can make the world of difference.

LAYOUT & FLOW : :

We always recommend starting your design process with a really good edit. Take everything out of the room except for the large furniture pieces and look at it with fresh eyes. Are you happy with the arrangement, does it have good flow? If not, try moving furniture around. If possible move furniture away from the walls. It always surprises us how many people push all their furniture to the edge of the room and have their coffee table floating in the middle out of reach and disconnected, or the seating is too far apart to function socially. If your room is large enough, try pulling your furniture in to create cosy, social settings. It might take a few moves before you get it right, and this process may also highlight areas that are lacking or need changing. For example, you may need a bigger coffee table, or to add side tables... That’s ok, this is all part of the process to get the best looking and best functioning room for you.

SHOP FROM YOUR HOME : :

Once you’re happy with your furniture layout move onto the decor. Put all of your accessories together in another space, perhaps on the dining table or kitchen bench, and ‘shop’ from your collection. Look at each piece and consider whether you would buy that if you saw it in a shop today. Only put back those pieces you love, and don’t feel you have to put them back in the same place. You may want to move some pieces to another spot or to other rooms in the house. We regularly move pieces around our homes to refresh each space.

Create groupings with your items. We like to put odd numbers of items together - 3, 5, sometimes 7 or 9. But three seems to be the magic number to keep your eye moving for a more interesting visual experience. Another way to create interest is to have a mix of shape, size and texture. Experiment and play around, there is a real skill to styling and you’ll get better the more you do it.

Books are a favourite tool of ours. We use them as plinths to ground and elevate smaller objects. They also add an element of design and reflect your interests. Look for books about things you love, but also keep in mind the colour of the book and the graphic nature of the spine and cover and how that will work in your room. Sometimes the colour of the hardback book beneath the jacket can be quite different giving you two options in the one book.

FILL THE GAPS : :

If there are any gaps after the process of shopping from your home, you now have specific pieces you can look for, so you can shop with purpose. We love that final layer in a home, it’s the one that adds your personality. Keep scale in mind. Large-scale pieces like a large lamp, balanced with a large vase add drama and interest and create a less cluttered look than a lot of tiny pieces would. We try not to have any decor pieces smaller than an orange, which is a good rule to remember. Often larger pieces make a space feel more luxurious and expensive. Give it a try.

PAINT : :

Without a doubt painting your room is the least expensive way to create impact. Look at existing pieces in your room like furniture, art, curtains and flooring and choose a colour that will be harmonious. We’ll often pull the paint colour out from one used in a piece of art or the rug.

We’re not fans of the feature wall, it’s the quickest way to make your room look dated. Instead we encourage you to go for it and paint your entire room. Don’t forget the trims and ceiling, we’ll often paint them a fresh white, but on occasion we’ll paint the trims, and even the ceiling, the same colour as the walls. If done right it looks incredible and is especially effective in media rooms and powder rooms to create a cocooning feel.

ELEVATE YOUR WALLS : :

We love to use wall paneling to elevate a room and add architectural detail in an otherwise plain room. There are lots of different styles to choose from - v-groove, box moulding, board & batten, wainscoting. The style of your home will dictate which style of panelling you choose. If you’re handy with the tools you could apply the panelling yourself, otherwise talk to your local builder or handyman.

We used a chunky box moulding in Dael’s media room (above) in her 1940’s home; and a finer, more subtle panelling for our clients’ character villa (below).

UPDATE YOUR HANDLES : :

It’s amazing what a difference an updated handle can make in your kitchen, wardrobe, dresser etc. Knobs are easy to replace as there is only one hole, but if you have a D handle measure the distance between the two centre holes and look for new handles with the same centre handle distance. This will save you having to fill holes if the new handles are a different size.

Overhead cupboards in the kitchen can sometimes look more contemporary if you take the handles off completely, fill, sand and paint them and add a push-to-open mechanism on the inside.

INVEST IN NEW LIGHTING : :

Replacing old pendants and lamp shades can change the look of a room quite dramatically. If possible add dimmers to your lights so you can create different ambience for different situations. Make sure to hang your pendants at the right height. This will be dependant on factors such as the scale of your light and the height of your ceilings. Kitchen pendants will often be hung 70-80cm above the bench, and over a dining table we’ll start with 75cm higher then your table top. Each space will be slightly different, we use our eye to get it just right, but these are good measurements to start from.

INVEST IN A RUG : :

The right rug can totally transform a room, but the key is to get the right size. Don’t get a tiny rug that your coffee table fits on but nothing else. This is the quickest way to make your room look too small and cheap. The golden rule is that the front feet of all of your chairs and sofas sit on the rug. If all of the legs fit on, even better, this will make your room look really spacious.

Under your dining table the rug needs to be large enough to pull the chairs back without them falling off the rug. Yes the larger the rug, the larger the price tag, but it’s something we would recommend getting right. If a hand knotted wool rug is outside of your budget, start with a large jute rug.

I hope you found some advice that you can apply to your own home. We’d love to hear about it if you did - feel free to DM us on Instagram. And if you’d like our help with your interior design journey, whether that’s a new build, or renovation, or just sourcing new furniture, get in touch anytime.

Durham | Before + Afters

December 6, 2021

Sometimes a client will come to us for a colour consult, which then organically grows into a much bigger project. That’s what happened when we worked on this super cool home by Don Pitt Design. Our clients, Dana and Maia, with their two gorgeous kids (one who arrived mid way through this project), wanted their home to be calm and restorative. It had to be practical for their family that includes two dogs as well as the two kids, welcoming to their friends and whanau who they like to entertain, and a sanctuary to retreat to after a busy day.

Once we had selected paint colours for outside and in, Dana came to us for help choosing rugs and coffee tables for the two living areas. The existing sofa in one living area wasn’t proving very practical either, so we chose a custom sofa that would suit the style of the house and covered it in an amazing fabric with a built-in stain resistant technology. We then added custom made Bibby + Brady cushions.

We love the concrete fire surround and window ledge that Don Pitt designed. It creates a divide between the two living areas, helping to zone them, and the window ledge doubles as a place to perch. The Samsung “The Frame” TV sits nicely to the side of the fireplace, looking like a piece of art when not in use.

The oak dining table and black stained chairs have strong, clean lines with subtle design detail that complement the home

Dana and Maia had chosen the two sofas in the second living room and they still looked great, but the rug was very similar in colour, so we moved that to one of the bedrooms and replaced it with a rug that introduced a subtle pattern and contrast. We added a custom made round ottoman to nestle with the oak coffee table we’d chosen, and made some more custom cushions. We even sourced some pieces that look great but are child-friendly, as the ottoman and coffee table are at the perfect height for toddlers.

The little powder room was designed by Don Pitt, but we sourced some accessories to take it to the next level. The little in-set wooden shelf is the perfect place for a few “pretties”.

The hallway leading to the bedrooms is one of our favourite features in the home. One side of the hall has large floor to ceiling windows to let in light and give it a luxurious, spacial feel. The other side has large floor to ceiling sliding doors to each bedroom that can be left open, or closed for privacy and quiet. The doors are such a beautiful, dramatic feature - open or closed.

We had beautiful linen curtains made for the bedrooms that hung from an almost invisible track in the ceiling. In the primary bedroom they wrapped around one corner for additional texture and softness. We designed each bedroom and wanted the primary bedroom to feel extra special, creating that luxury retreat for the hard-working parents.

Dana had already chosen the duvet cover, but we elevated the room by adding the custom made headboard that we designed, along with a linen quilt, Euro pillows, a Bibby + Brady lumbar cushion, oak bedsides, elegant lamps, the oak bench seat, and a stunning piece of art by Rakai Karaitiana.

The middle bedroom needed to be flexible so that most of the time it was a child’s bedroom, but sometimes the two single beds could be pushed together to make a king bed for guests.

There’s a built-in wardrobe on one side of the room but additional drawers were needed. To keep it clean and cohesive we matched the tallboy to the bedside table, and added height to the table with a bedside lamp in mossy green. The print on the wall is another favourite by Rakai Karaitiana.

The last bedroom needed a solution for when the children were sharing the room, so we added the cutest set of bunk beds leaving room for a large bookshelf and some room to play.

We chose white wooden shutters for the narrow, high window. They look clean and smart, let plenty of light in but can also be closed up tight at bedtime.

Thank you so much Dana and Maia for allowing us to share your amazing home, and for being the coolest clients ever! You were a pleasure to work with, we know you love your home as much as we do, and we hope you have many, many happy days in it.