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.

Heipipi | Before + Afters

August 25, 2021

It was towards the end of 2019 when our clients first contacted us. They were adding a wing on to their beautiful home in the Esk Hills and wanted help with furniture, rugs and curtains, as well as design advice on tiles, lighting and more.

The location with its views was spectacular! The new addition would make our clients’ home a fabulous place to share with their children and grandchildren when they came to visit.

The new addition echoed the existing part of the house, and the living room, with its high, vaulted ceilings and large windows and doors, is an amazing space to be in.

Most of the furniture pieces we chose for this room were custom-made so our clients used some of their old pieces in the meantime. We initially designed a built-in unit for the TV nook, but our clients fell in love with the large rustic dresser which (crazily) fit with millimetres to spare. It ended up being instrumental in the look and design of the room, which had to be cosy and comfortable as well as practical for small children and one very big, adorable dog!

These occasional chairs are favourites of ours. They’re exceptionally comfortable and work just as well in a modern home as they do in a more traditional setting. We chose to cover them in a smart, dark green houndstooth fabric. The colours link to those found outside as well as the nearby kitchenette where we installed dark green tiles. The hand knotted wool rug is large enough to anchor all of the furniture and complements the polished concrete floor beautifully.

We teamed the chairs with a large corner sofa. Because we have these custom-made here in New Zealand we can choose not only the fabric, but the cushion inners as well. We’ll often use big, soft cushions that you just sink into, but for this room we decided to use a wrapped foam seat cushion. This gives more of a sleek profile, and the cushions don’t need fluffing up quite the same, which will be practical for this family. The fabric has a built-in stain resistant technology, perfect when you have kids and animals around, and the dark blue colour will help disguise the black dog hair in between vacuums.

The layout with the corner sofa and chairs works well for both TV watching and social situations, and you also get a great view of outside from the sofa.

The cushions are a combination of custom-made by us and ready-made from one of our wholesale suppliers.

Another custom-made piece, the ottoman can be used to put your feet up on, or as another seat, but primarily will be used as a coffee table. You can replace one or both of the books with a large tray if you want to put drinks down.

In the dining room, where our clients had been using their outdoor furniture, we chose a large oak dining table stained black and grounded it on a large Heirloom wool rug in a gorgeous deep teal colour.

A new light anchors the table from above, and the hero of the room is a stunning sideboard perfect for storing serving platters, glassware, drinks and more.

Thank you to our fabulous clients for working with us and allowing us to share these photos with you all.

Te Awanga Home Design

November 8, 2018

October was an exciting month for us with the home of one of our long-time clients being photographed for the latest NZ House & Garden magazine. We worked with these clients over a three year period. The first year was dedicated to Chambourcin Cottage, and the next two we slowly moved through their main home, room by room creating a cohesive look. The cottage and the main house are only metres apart.

Both houses were architecturally designed by Steve McGavock, who was the protégé of renowned architect, John Scott. It’s a really special property with a lot of the trademark features found in a John Scott home - high vaulted ceilings, large pivot doors with rimu knob handles, rimu architraves and trims. Set on its own vineyard, the main house is designed so that all of the bedrooms, the living and dining rooms overlook it. There are two wings with the master bedroom, ensuite and ‘snug’ at one end; the office, guest bedroom and bathroom at the other; and the kitchen, laundry, living and dining in the middle.

We used Resene Merino on the exterior of the home to tie in with the cottage opposite. Merino is a light and versatile off-white, and we wanted a freshness without it being too glary. We looked at several different colours for the front door. It was initially painted hot pink, but after much deliberation it was re-painted a golden mustard. We had the outdoor rug custom made to fit the front porch.

All of the windows had the original rimu curtain tracks and we wanted to keep these beautiful details. But we did replace the curtains throughout with beautiful soft linen from James Dunlop. The inside entrance rug was also custom made to fit the space. Every room has it’s own rug, all Armadillo&Co from our friends at The Ivy House.

It really was a blank canvas for us when we first began this project. We had already explored a lot of the design choices for the base of the house when we designed the cottage. The main living area walls were painted Resene Half Merino, and the dark brown beams painted a sharp black. All the carpet was ripped up and the concrete floors beneath polished.

We commissioned local artist, Billie Culy, to create the stunning artwork in the living room. Billie worked closely with us and our client, Kim, using a colour palette we supplied her with to fit perfectly into the space. We had chosen a Billie Culy piece for the cottage, so it was nice to have that connection between the two houses. The large orange and white rug was also custom made by The Ivy House, and its job was to zone the living area and anchor the furniture.

We custom made the window seat squabs and all of the cushions. Every furniture piece was carefully chosen to suit the style of the home, including the vintage Ole Wanscher rocking chair from Mr Bigglesworthy, which we recovered in a mustard wool.

A ladder against the back living room wall leads you up to a cute little loft area which looks down over the living and dining rooms and out to the vineyard. We chose a smart navy blue for the cupboard door and Bruce, our client, painted this along with all of the walls and beams.

We had a sofa custom made in soft grey linen to fit the space, and added some simple furniture pieces to turn the loft into a place to escape with a good book or a glass of wine (although not too many, as you have to navigate the ladder on the way down).

The loft overlooks the dining room. The linen curtains we had made are so gorgeous. We kept them really simple to work with the clean lines of the architecture, and so as not to distract from the views. The vaulted ceilings meant they had to be a super long drop and they hang off the original rimu tracks.

The dining room also has spectacular views over the vineyards and out to the hills beyond.

Because the living and dining rooms are open plan we helped to zone the dining area with a stunning big David Trubridge light above, and a luxurious hand woven midnight blue rug anchors the table. When using a rug under a dining table you need to make sure it’s large enough to pull the chairs out whilst still remaining on the rug.

After much deliberation our clients opted to keep the kitchen as it is - the rimu cabinetry is synonymous with the John Scott style. We added some lighter chairs around the breakfast bar. The artwork (below) opposite the dining table is part of a triptych that we had commissioned by textile artist, Jane Denton. We chose a Jane Denton piece for the clients’ cottage, and Kim loved it so much we knew we wanted to incorporate her work into the main house too.

The fireplace in the living room was removed quite early on and made the flow through to the end of the house so much better.

A beautiful large pivot door separates the living room from the ‘snug’ and master bedroom. The deep teal we chose for the walls of the snug allows the door to stand out, and looks amazing behind the painting we bought from Amber Armitage.

With a lot of different textures combined in the fireplace, we decided to simplify it by plastering over the red bricks at the base and painting them black so the fire disappeared into it. We then added a feature tile on the hearth and framed it with rimu.

The ‘snug’ is the room that gets the least amount of natural light, and our clients use it to read or watch TV in the evenings. Rather than trying to lighten the room, which can often look a bit flat, we opted to paint the walls a rich, dark teal. A large, plush mustard rug compliments the blue walls and adds cosiness.

We added new linen curtains, a pair of super comfy and stylish armchairs from Hutchinsons, and an antique brass coffee table from Soren Liv. The side table was custom made by WRW & Co. along with a small TV unit (not pictured).

On the adjacent wall we placed a beautiful brass bar cart under our clients print to help ground it.

Tucked behind the ‘snug’ and to the side of the living room is the master bedroom, which has ‘his and her’ wardrobes behind the bed. We put a green and white wallpaper on the back wall to reflect the views outside the windows, and brought some warmth in with amber bedside pendants and cinnamon coloured linen from Thread Design. The bedspread is from Seneca, and the custom made cushion pulls all the colours together.

The other wing of the house consists of this small bedroom (below) which we turned into an office, as well as a guest room and guest bathroom. We re-carpeted both of the bedrooms and the office, but still added rugs to each for extra luxury.

We painted the walls in the office and guest bedroom a soft and peaceful duck egg blue. We love it here teamed with one of our favourite pink sofas, custom made cushions, and a map of Maine (where Kim is originally from). The touch of black in the lamp and side tables adds a bit of weight and links to the black beams.

The guest bedroom has new linen curtains like the rest of the house, new bedside tables, a rug, and beautiful new bedding. Other touches are the pottery wall light and pendant we designed, and bench seat (not pictured).

It’s been quite the adventure, and a real pleasure working with Kim and Bruce on their amazing home and their cottage. She really is a very special property and we will miss her! Make sure you check out our blog post about the journey we took with Chambourcin Cottage.

All photos (other than ‘before’ photos) taken by Florence Charvin for the November 2018 issue of NZ House & Garden. With thanks x