At the end of 2019 we finished a renovation project that we had spent a good part of the year working on. Our clients, a young family of seven (dad and the two boys not pictured below), live in a beautiful big historic home on Napier hill. The house had amazing bones and character but was definitely in need of an update. Nicki and Scott hired us initially to design their kitchen, and when we realised there needed to be a lot of structural work we called in our friends at Architecture HDT.

As is common with houses of this era, there were a lot of smaller rooms, and the kitchen was tucked away at the back. With a busy household of five children, Nicki and Scott wanted to take out a wall to create a large open plan space so that there was a connection between the kitchen, dining and living rooms.

The windows above the old kitchen bench were replaced with French doors out to the courtyard and the kitchen was completely removed and a new one was placed perpendicular to the original one.

The floor plan below gives you an idea of the final layout, although it did change slightly. The main difference was the pushing out of the external wall beyond the end of the fridge to make room for a small day pantry. Nicki and Scott’s builder, Brendan Grant of Grant Property & Construction Ltd, worked tirelessly on the renovation throughout the year.

It’s normal for there to be a few tweaks and changes to our initial design, but on the whole the finished kitchen has stayed pretty true to it. We wanted the kitchen to have a classic feel to be in keeping with the traditional home, but with a modern, sleek twist. Navy and white are classic and timeless, and we were so thrilled that Nicki and Scott went with the herringbone floors. A patterned tile in the laundry/butlers pantry helps to zone it as a seperate space whilst still complementing the wooden floor.

So much time and thought went into the layout, storage and practicality of the kitchen. The huge island houses the dishwasher, rubbish bins, plenty of drawers and cupboard space as well as room at one end for barstools. At the other end the bench top waterfalls down creating a beautiful feature from the living and main dining area.

The butlers sink and tap are a nod to the traditional style of the house. We chose a brushed nickel finish for the taps and handles - timeless yet again and so elegant.

The day pantry is one of my favourite features. When closed it’s very discreet and the pocket doors open and slide back into the wall so as not to block the access into the laundry. It’s the perfect space for tea, coffee and breakfast foods.

We kept the top cabinetry handleless for a cleaner, less fussy look. All of the joinery is by Sydaz Joinery.

The wall between the old kitchen and the living room was removed to allow more space, more light and much better flow. Because the ceiling heights were different in these two areas, it was really important to keep the flooring consistent throughout. The old kitchen had cork tiles on the floor and trying to match the existing living room floor boards was near impossible. We are totally in love with the new herringbone flooring that replaced the old floors, so happy days!

Those of you who have followed us for a while will know we are big fans of dining nooks and banquette seating, and this corner next to the new kitchen was crying out for one. It’s used for casual dining, whereas a large formal dining table is being custom made to fit in between the kitchen and living room.

The laundry also has extra storage for kitchen overflow, like larger appliances. It’s essentially in the same position, but that’s the only similarity with the old laundry. The access to it has changed and we completely redesigned the layout and fitted it out with custom joinery, tiled the floor and splash back.

The entrance to this beautiful old house got a makeover too. The concrete shelf (below) was removed and the wall opposite the front door was extended. A gorgeous new window was fitted to let in more natural light and provide a view from the dining nook, and a large custom door replaced the old door.

The new wall is just waiting for a beautiful console and either a mirror or a large piece of art - the perfect welcome into this amazing home.

Your front door and entrance creates the first impression for your guests, so this newly renovated home needed a special entrance. The doorway was enlarged for a new, very smart custom door painted in glossy black. The brushed nickel hardware echoes the hardware in the kitchen and laundry, and new exterior wall lights continue the modern traditional theme. The front door step is a work-in-progress and will be looking fabulous very soon.

Thank you so much Nicki and Scott for allowing us to share your stunning home. We are so happy with the outcome and wish you many happy times in the new space.

This blog post has been a long time in the making and, just a warning, it is quite a long post! The building process took a good five months (including a 3 week break by the builders over Christmas), so I took many, many progress photos. I also took a few videos to document the process, so if you haven’t followed along with us on our Instagram stories, go check them out after you’ve read the blog.

It all began back in June 2017 when I contacted Tracey Thompson-Gray, a senior architect at Architecture HDT. With three teenage daughters we were fast out-growing our modest little three bedroom/one bathroom bungalow. Mark and I had spent months searching for a bigger house, but didn’t find anything that ticked all our boxes. We had been spoilt by our current location, where we had lived for 11 years, with it’s corner site, all day sun, views over the Botanical Gardens and out to sea, and close proximity to work, school, family & friends. We finally decided to stay put and to add a master extension onto our existing home, which meant all three girls would finally have their own bedroom, and Mark and I would have our own bathroom - Hallelujah!

The original floor plan, the blue indicates where the extension would go.

We worked with Tracey and Courtney at Architecture HDT. Our brief was to retain the view out over the Gardens, and I wanted a walk-in wardrobe. We didn’t have a lot of room to play with as the extension took the house right out to our fence and boundary, but the large window and French doors opening onto our deck give the small room a light, airy feeling despite the lack of space. We were very happy with Tracey and Courtney’s plan, which involved stealing a bit of room from our old bedroom for the shower, and losing a small portion of our deck.

A visual by Architecture HDT of how our home would look with the master extension to the left.

Anyone that has built or renovated a home will know how much waiting time is involved before you start actually building. Once the plans were drawn up, submitted to Council, approved, the builder was chosen (after receiving several quotes), it was November 2018 before demo began. The boarded up window (below) was our old bedroom, and the extension would push straight out to the fence in front.

Boys seem to love demolition but it was my least favourite time. Lot of destruction, mess and noise! But it wasn’t long before piles, bearers and floor went down.

The old front door would become the doorway into our new bedroom.

We came home after a weekend in Taupo to find half the house gone!

It starts to get exciting when the framing goes up and you can see rooms start to form.

Our builder, Paul of Bay Carpenters, worked alongside a small team from Davcon, who were brilliant. It was awesome coming home at the end of the day to see what they’d achieved. Once the weatherboards started going on and the doors and windows installed we could see Tracey and Courtney’s drawings coming to life.

After the framing goes up the electrician and plumber get to work. It’s really important to be super organised and have your bathroom fittings and fixtures ahead of time so your plumber knows where everything will go. Also, in our case we were having a hidden toilet cistern, so our builder needed to put the wall studs etc in.

You’ll also need to know what kind of lighting you want and where. We were having wall lights either side of the vanity mirror, so I needed to know the size of my mirror and where my vanity would be so we could get the wiring in the right spot. In the wardrobe I had worked out where I wanted plugs for the iron, hairdryer, electric toothbrush well before the framing went in.

I designed the custom vanity and the walk-in wardrobe and printed out copies for all the tradies.

We made a few small tweaks to the design once it was at the joiners, but this is the basic wardrobe design.

HOT TIP: Let your builder know if you have want any extra dwangs (a horizontal bracing piece used between wall studs or floor joists) put in before the gib goes on. This is so when you’re hanging heavy mirrors or art you know there will be something solid to nail/drill into. We also add dwangs for curtain rod fixings when we want the curtains hung extra high. Take a photo with your measuring tape so you can refer back to it when the walls are up.

We clad the back bedroom wall in HardieGroove™ Lining and wrapped it around to the wardrobe/ensuite entrance. I love the subtle texture it adds and it’s in keeping with other areas of our bungalow home.

Two of my favourite things in the extension can be found in the ensuite. I knew I wanted a built-in shelf in the shower, as opposed to a shower niche. It was only a slight headache for the builder who had to make sure it was strong enough for use without jeopardising the waterproofing and tiles.

The other thing was our decision to install a skylight over the shower. This is a game-changer, as far as I’m concerned, and I will now want to put one in every shower I design. Natural light is an interior designer’s best friend but you don’t necessarily want windows in a shower for obvious privacy reasons.

Another thing we always try to do when designing bathrooms is to position the toilet in a discreet area so it’s not on display as you enter the room. In our ensuite we have a nib wall and the toilet is hidden behind it.

Mark did all the painting himself. My father-n-law, Peter, is a retired painter so Mark has learnt from the best.

Because we were putting carpet in the new bedroom we made the decision to re-carpet the whole house while we were at it with beautiful Cavalier Bremworth wool carpet from Hutchinsons. The old carpet was 10 years old and had lived through our kids’ toddler years - it was time! But, although we knew we wanted to carpet the hall and bedrooms we loved the idea of exposing the beautiful original floorboards in the living areas. It’s the Northern side of the house and the family room has large bi-fold doors meaning it gets a lot of sun and indoor/outdoor foot traffic. The only problem was a square of particle board smack bang in the middle of the two living rooms where an old fireplace had once been.

Luckily for us, Nick from Davcon, is an absolute craftsman! Paul had removed some floorboards from our old bedroom right back at the demo stage in preparation for this. Nick spent two days meticulously laying these boards into that square, staggering them so they merged seamlessly with the existing boards.

Nick did the most amazing job, we can’t see where the square of particle board used to be. Both rooms have large rugs in them so the only exposed part of flooring is where he worked.

I’ll take you through a few ‘before & afters’ now so you can see the finished extension, and give a few ‘shout outs’ to those who helped us.

Bedding is from Foxtrot Home, Citta Design, and French Country. The art is by Andrew O’Brien.

The headboard is from Bibby + Brady; the lights are from Monmouth Glass Studio; I imported the bone inlay furniture several years ago; the seascape painting was found on TradeMe and I re-framed it.

I designed the bookshelf at the entrance of our room and Sydaz joiners made it for me. The handles are from Archant.

The wardrobe was also designed by me and built by Sydaz joinery.

Vanity designed by me, made by Sydaz; handles from Archant; sink and tap ware from The Kitchen Hub; sink originally from Nood Co; Caesarstone bench top; splash back tile from Tile Depot.

The gorgeous navy hex tiles are from Tile Depot, as are the large marble tiles I used on the shower shelf and vanity splash back; antique brass shower fixtures are from The Kitchen Hub; vanity lights from The Clever Design Store.

The Catherine Martin by Mokum wallpaper is from James Dunlop, expertly hung by Claire Condon.

This extension has made a massive difference to our family and how we live. We don’t have a huge house, but now, it’s just right. Everyone has their own space and two bathrooms between the five of us is so much better than one. Thank you so much to everyone who has been a part of this project. Phase two will be the deck outside our bedroom, so watch out for that mini makeover come Summer time.