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.

Dael's Kitchen, Dining, Living | Before & Afters

May 25, 2020

Dael and Lee bought their two-storey home in a great location, close to their girls’ school and with a lovely back aspect out over a tree-filled valley. Dael describes it as a “head” decision, not one made from the heart. She knew the location, size and price point was right for them. The house itself, however, was in need of some work, particularly in changing the layout and flow to make it more functional for their family. The main living area was broken up into the kitchen, a small dining room tucked in between two walls, a large laundry and utility space, and a living room with a separate adjacent sunroom.

You can see how the original kitchen (below) had the breakfast bar facing the living room, but Dael felt like it was encroaching into the living space. She wanted to pivot the kitchen towards the dining area and the outdoors. So the entire kitchen was ripped out and a new galley style kitchen designed.

Dael chose her bench top about a year before when we were visiting the Archant showroom in Auckland. She fell in love with the beautiful porcelain material that looks like stone but has the flexibility to be able to put hot things onto it straight from your oven. She chose a marble look with warm gold veining and created a waterfall end so you can appreciate it’s beauty as you walk into the room, as well as from the living room.

By running the porcelain up the wall behind the cooktop, as well as on the bench top, it creates a clean, seamless look and shows off the beautiful, subtle pattern.

To bring some warmth into the kitchen Dael chose a gorgeous rich wood veneer for the back line up of cupboards. Some people mistakenly assume that wood veneer is an inferior product to solid wood, but we’re here to tell you that’s not the case. It’s environmentally kind - you get 32 veneer surfaces for every solid wood board. The thin (real) wood veneer surface is then glued onto a MDF panel, and because this is a stable substrate it produces a surface that is not prone to warp, split or move. And, the best and most interesting logs are cut into veneers.

The cupboard on the left is a tall pantry, and on the right the fridge is hidden behind another cupboard front for a seamless look, which is great in a small kitchen. Simple brass handles sit flush to the edge of the cupboards to continue the clean lines. A thin LED strip light below the overhead cupboards and under the breakfast bar adds a lovely glow washing down. The front of the breakfast bar is a blackened oak veneer to add a touch of weight to the room.

The new breakfast bar is now positioned in the spot Dael had previously put her dining table (below), taking advantage of the view outside.

The one thing that Dael’s husband, Lee, requested in the new kitchen was a tap that supplied them with hot, cold and boiling filtered water. It’s now something that Dael says she couldn’t do without. It means they don’t need a kettle anymore, and they both love the convenience of having boiling water on tap. But also not having the noise of a kettle in an open plan space has made a really positive difference.

There’s a clear division now between the kitchen and living room, even though it’s all open plan. You can see in the photo below how the barstools were actually on the carpet in the living room.

In the original layout there was a separate sunroom on the front of the living room. It was quite narrow and the family weren’t really using it. So the wall was taken down allowing not only more space, but also a lot more light in the room. The little French doors were kept and repurposed in the new dining room. The old carpet was taken up and the floors between the two living spaces levelled out before new carpet was laid.

Because the window faces the street, Dael installed a double track for her curtains. A semi-sheer curtain is pulled all of the time for privacy, but still lets in light; and in the evening the bottom curtain is pulled for warmth and blockout.

The previous owners had their dining table in the little nook (below) which is opposite the kitchen, and on the other side of the wall, that window led to a laundry and utility space.

Dael and Lee knocked down that wall and relocated the laundry to a large downstairs bathroom. The French doors from the sunroom were put on the old laundry space which is now used as a kitchen overflow cupboard where Dael keeps all her large appliances, platters and vases.

The old dining nook is the perfect spot for the buffet, and we love a good buffet for creating some styling moments!

Leaning art and mirrors rather than hanging them creates a relaxed vibe and allows you to move them around and change your look from time to time. If you’ve watched any of our videos you’ll know that we love trays for grouping and grounding smaller objects.

In this ‘before and after’ you can see the relationship between the different spaces, and how, by knocking out some walls and re-orientating the kitchen, the flow and usability is now so much better.

The final part of the downstairs renovation puzzle for Dael and Lee was the hallway that leads from the front door and bedrooms down to the kitchen, dining, and living rooms. The old carpet was ripped up and the floorboards polished, whilst the wooden steps were carpeted making them so much more quiet. Dael had her builder add battens for a board and batten effect on the walls creating some interest to an otherwise fairly plain space. The large artwork is by our friend and talented photographer Florence Charvin. The custom Armadillo&Co runner from The Ivy House leads you down to the stairway, which is wallpapered in a beautiful Arte paper. The finishing touch is the addition of the stunning lights by David Trubridge.

To summarise, Dael, Lee and their girls are now so much happier with their home. It’s amazing the effect good design and good flow can make on your everyday life!

Bluff Hill Kitchen, Laundry, Dining Nook & Entrance

January 15, 2020

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.