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W H AT A FEELI N G

Spaces that take their sweet time

AUG/SEP 2021 NZ/AUS $11.50 INC GST

9 421022 130048

Linking and living with the landscape

Women whose work reflects their strength

Stuff for self-care and caring for your stuff

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CONTENTS

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90

Contents

August/September

HOMES

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Where fantails flit Nature takes a front seat at this clifftop property, which elegantly embraces the elements.

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There’s a softness A once city-dwelling family finds a more gentle, rural rhythm amid the rolling hills.

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Love like ours Built for and by family on an heirloom plot, this home is a heartfelt continuation of history.

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Listen to your heart The owners of this emotion-driven apartment believe care and attention changes everything.

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FURNITURE & HOMEWARES | INTERIOR DESIGN WWW.COCOREPUBLIC.CO.NZ

CONTENTS

STYLE 20

Scout Covetable stuff and things.

24

Bookmark Another favourite read.

26

Colour palette Low-key theming — it’s a vibe.

28

Product profile A sweet suite to make your own.

31

Space to inspire New bookstore alert.

34

Two ways with… … nature’s best colours.

38

Led by design Your future kitchen.

42

Paint trends Have a look at this nook.

People 46

Artist profile

58

Ayesha Green.

52

Designer profile Bec Snelling.

58

Designer profile

138

LIVING

Sammy-Rose Scapens.

134

Well & good Little luxuries.

DESIGN

136

Do yourself a solid.

138 116

Self-care

Product profile

Intentional interiors Textile TLC.

Rug up sans synthetics.

118

Outside in Curves ahead.

126

ETC

Product profile High-end handles.

128

Woman in architecture Lisa Day.

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Editor’s note

146

Subscribe

CUSHIONS, THROWS & FLOOR RUGS www.weavehome.co.nz | @weavehomenz

“Think about curating your spaces based on how you want them to make you feel.”

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I regularly have conversations with people about their interiors, and you wouldn’t believe how often I hear the words “but the house isn’t finished”. My usual response is that the only time a house is ‘finished’ is when you’ve sold it. In all other instances, there really is no finish line.

The sense of urgency to get things ‘done’ is a bit of a modern affliction that sometimes sees us acquiring stuff for the sake of filling gaps, rather than making well-considered purchases. My advice is to slow down and take your time seeking out things you truly love, letting your interior evolve to reflect who you are and the way you actually like to live. Think about curating your spaces based not only on how they look but also how you want them to make you feel — and don’t try to live up to someone else’s supposed standard.

I know every page you’ll turn from here on in will reveal another coiffured couch and perfectly ordered pantry (not to mention favourite moments like mine, four of which are pictured left), but let me remind you that we’re delivering the highlights reel. Even the tidiest, most put-together homes benefit from a little preening ahead of a photoshoot. In presenting them not as they are every day but in their very best light, we’re aiming to share with you the aspirational architecture, materials and design details that could inspire your next project. Anyway, the character of a home crafted by the people who live in it always shows through, and that’s just the way we like it; you can rest assured there’s probably an overflowing toy cupboard and junk drawer just out of sight!

Maybe your home isn’t ‘finished’, but who cares — whose is? Wherever you’re at, we hope this issue of homestyle provides ideas, escapism and an opportunity to dream.

Alice Lines, @alice.lines

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Portrait: Simon Wilson. Alice wears: Ron blouse and Calla culottes, juliettehogan.com

EDITOR’S NOTE

Bring your space to life

FRSTJAUG21

Matt Black powdercoat to complement the cedar cladding

See more from this home

firstwindows.co.nz/circling-back

Over-the-wall sliding doors open the home right up

Flush sill for carefree indoor/outdoor flow

CREDITS

EDITOR Alice Lines DEPUTY EDITOR Philippa Prentice ART DIRECTOR Adrienne Pitts CONTRIBUTORS Holly Sarah Burgess Rosie Dawson-Hewes Sarah Ell Wendy Fenwick Grace Gemuhluoglu Jessica Chloe Gernat Andrea Hammond Annique Hessen Duncan Innes Emma Kanuik Melanie Jenkins Jackie Meiring Marie Monrad Graunbøl Claire Mossong Larnie Nicolson One to One Hundred Abi Phillips David Straight Mikkel Tjellesen Sam van Kan Juliette Wanty Michelle Weir Simon Wilson ADVERTISING & COMMERCIAL PARTNERSHIPS Nicholas Burrowes General Manager nick@homestyle.co.nz +64 21 505 992 SUBSCRIPTIONS Online homestyle.co.nz Email subs@homestyle.co.nz Phone 0800 246 637 International phone +64 9 360 5700

PUBLISHER The Pluto Group Ltd Physical 326 New North Road, Kingsland, Auckland 1021 Postal PO Box 911577, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142 Phone +64 9 300 7544 Email info@homestyle.co.nz PRINTER Image Print DISTRIBUTOR Ovato SSN 1177-0015

homestyle is a member of the MPA, and circulation is independently audited under the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Contact us for our latest circulation and readership information. homestyle is subject to copyright in its entirety.

The contents may not be reproduced in any form, either whole or in part, without written permission from the Publisher. All rights reserved in material accepted for publication, unless initially specified otherwise. All letters and other material forwarded to the magazine will be assumed intended for publication unless clearly labelled ‘not for publication’.

No responsibility is accepted for unsolicited material. Paint colours may alter in the printing process.

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Jackie Meiring

Subscribe to homestyle and save on page 146.

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Beauty is in the details, find them here luxaflex.co.nz

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Arco Dining Table & Chairs

Design Your World

Style 20

Scout

24

Bookmark

26

Colour palette

28

Product profile

31

Space to inspire

34

Two ways with

38

Led by design

42

Paint trends

On page 34, Dulux ambassadors show how to use natural hues to create colour schemes that stack up. Have a squiz and see what you think of their lovely living spaces.

homest yle 19

STYLE —— Shop

Scout

We’ve been shopping for your home.

LIVE LARGE Go for broke in a single masterstroke with the latest magnificent mural-style wallpapers from local super-talent Emma Hayes. This sublime design is Daybreak, which sees swirls of paint dance across the wall, inspired by atmospheric events like dawn and the polar lights. It’s crafted by heritage manufacturers from paper sourced from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified forests and ink made from organic pigments.

Words: Philippa Prentice

emmahayes.co.nz

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QUIET STRENGTH Packing quite the visual punch with its impeccably refined combination of lines and curves enclosing expertly balanced negative space, Powersurge’s Fall coffee table has exploded into our hearts.

Elegantly juxtaposing the lightness of the composition with the weight of the solid brass, it’s a minimalist dream offered in three finishes: Light Antique (pictured), Dark Antique and Blackened. powersurge.co.nz

Reboot Black

Studio Velvet Ruby

MIX MASTERS Personalisation being the people’s choice these days, Freedom’s moving its homeware in a fresh direction that includes items devised to let you create a visual flow from room to room that’s cohesive but not too matchymatchy. This tasty little scene includes some of the new tableware, hallmarks of which are its earthy shades and organic forms that make it easier than ever to team like with kinda like. freedomfurniture.co.nz

Hawthorn Stone

Design your style with our unique range of textiles and our custom making services.

Available nationwide.

Free samples via our website.

www.marthas.co.nz

STYLE —— Shop

THROW-HOW One of homestyle’s most oft-received questions is “How do you throw a throw?” and we’re never not glad you asked. The answer is: fold it in half to make a triangle, grab a corner then, well, throw. Not only do such pieces look great arranged on chairs, sofas and beds, they’re also ultra-practical when it’s chilly — and Aucklandbased brand Weave does them particularly well, purveying a considered selection of wool, cotton, heritage-style and block-hued options. This is the 100% wool Catlins throw, which comes in three colour combos. weavehome.co.nz

SERVES YOU RIGHT Wish your home was more ‘you’ and relaxing, filled with natural, sustainable materials and finds that celebrate the handmade? Christchurch’s Larissa Hamilton felt the same, so she created Corcovado to deliver the goods. Six years on, one of the highlights of its broad offering is the furniture Larissa designs and has made in Aotearoa, including this awfully chic Oak dining table that’d be lovely to dish up at. corcovado.co.nz

VANITY PROJECT Let this graceful Wellness stoneware

by Robert Gordon be the catalyst for clearing your bathroom countertop of unseemly plastic packaging. Make a mindful moment of the tumbler, soap dispenser, trinket box and tray, which you can regularly restyle with foraged foliage tucked in alongside your toothbrush. paperplanestore.com

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Proven Mitsubishi plug-in electric vehicle technology seamlessly brings electric and petrol power together. Plug in at home for a fuel-free commute, then head out to the country with the powerful 2.4L MIVEC petrol engine. Smartphone connectivity and a luxurious leather interior (VRX only), crossed with advanced safety features and Super All Wheel Control, keep you comfortable and safe wherever you’re going.

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To find your perfect cross, and your Clean Car Discount of $5,750 call 0800 54 53 52 or visit mmnz.co.nz. *Price listed is for an XLS. VRX model pictured and available for $57,990 plus on road costs. Price excludes on road costs of up to $500 which includes WoF, Registration and MIT1404 a full tank of fuel. Red and White Diamond colours are available for an additional $500. Visit www.mmnz.co.nz for full Diamond Advantage Warranty conditions.

On the shelf

Words: Philippa Prentice. Photography: Kat Parker

Change the way you see your world.

24 homest yle

Bookmark —— STYLE

ABOVE Containing wholesome ingredients such as oats, cinnamon, apricots and almonds, Snack Attack is great to fire up early in the day, so it’s ready in time for morning tea. If she’s not cooking it outside, Sarah likes to bake it at home in the oven to take on excursions readymade. LEFT Kids love the novelty of eating without a plate. Snag in a Bag sees sausages simply but tastily steamed in paper with sweet potato, zucchini, garlic, oil and salt. TOP LEFT As well as a recipe for Choconut, a chocolate pudding with a tropical twist made in an actual coconut, this book includes a dish named Cooked in Coco — rice, meat and spices prepared in the same way.

Wild Child: Adventure Cooking with Kids by Sarah Glover (Prestel, $60) Yeah, inside is cool, but have you tried going outside for a proper adventure lately? Not a planned-to-the-nth-degree trip, but the kind you’d go on as a kid, when you’d just set off and see where the wind took you?

Growing up in ’80s Australia, Sarah Glover didn’t spend her time in front of a screen — exploring with her siblings and friends and experimenting in the kitchen was her idea of fun. It allowed her to learn and create, and became her guide to adult life, in which she strives to retain that same spirit of possibility, discovery and daring. With this cookbook, she wants to spark your kids’ imagination while reigniting yours.

In true ’80s style, the adventures Sarah endorses here are of the choose-yourown variety. She suggests asking your crew what kind of a culinary exploit it’s going to be — breakfast toasties in the backyard or salty smashed spuds on the beach? — then getting everyone in on the planning, shopping and cooking over the campfire (or barbecue, or hotplate) she teaches you to build. Every recipe here is healthy, but there are indulgences too — after all, what’s a free-range meal without pudding cooked in a coconut?

In the chapter ‘Play-House’, Sarah reasons that Peter Pan didn’t grow up and part of us needn’t either. So go on, rally your inner child and head out for a delicious time. It might get a little messy, but that’s one of the best things about it. homest yle 25

STYLE —— Colour palette

Give us a hint For more of a vibe than an ultra-themed look, blend colour and accessories to subtly convey an aesthetic.

Surf culture and art deco wouldn’t seem to have much in common, yet at Sydney’s Harbord Hotel, they’ve been brought together in an expertly eclectic interior.

Refurbished by Alexander & Co in a palette of nostalgic hues enhanced by tons of texture, the bar, restaurant and event spaces of this century-old beachside pub feature a synergistic mix of décor details that combine to create above all a lived-in feel. Consider using paint, wallpaper or fabric to emulate this cool cut-out collage wall treatment, or style up your spaces with pieces like these:

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Photography: Anson Smart

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6 Resene Pendragon

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Resene Green Spring

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11 10

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h it

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OPPOSITE, FROM LEFT 1. Tillary table lamp, $495, cocorepublic.co.nz. 2. Golden Manuka tiles, $499/m2, middleearthtiles.com. 3. Serena serving bowl, $100, cittadesign.com. 4. Sphere vase by 101 Copenhagen, $80, frobisher.co.nz. 5. Santai chair, $499, freedomfurniture.co.nz. ABOVE, FROM LEFT 6. Cord cushions, $79 each, boconcept.co.nz. 7. Grace pouffe by Warm Nordic, $1795, goodform.co.nz. 8. Grace plinth, $2889, thecanecollective.co. 9. Moon table lamp, $340, cittadesign.com. 10. Piccadilly carafe, $70, cittadesign.com. 11. Ball candle, $20, ikoiko.co.nz. 12. Mug by Renée Boyd, $38, paperplanestore.com.

13. District fabric by Kelly Wearstler, POA, warwick.co.nz. 14. Miami bar cabinet, $3295, cocorepublic.co.nz.

15. Aspen Channel sofa, $5995, cocorepublic.co.nz.

Colours from Resene’s MultiFinish range, available at Resene ColorShops and selected resellers.

resene.co.nz/colorshops 0800 RESENE (737 363)

KING —— Product profile

Adjust your set This contemporary take on the lounge suite lets you make your comfort zone your own.

SCULPTURAL COMFORT Through its name that’s French for ‘flower’, Fleur’s distinctive head and armrests allude to unfurling petals. Meanwhile, the collection’s soft lines are a hint of the comfort to come, thanks to the pairing of a posturalsupport system with four layers of foam cushioning that give you that soothing sinking-in feeling.

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In our humble opinion, customisation is always right, so we love to see décor that does the groundwork for you, then lets you take charge. Like the visual cohesion of a lounge suite but not the sense of similarity? How’s this for a modern alternative?

King’s Fleur collection recognises that one size, shape and colour often doesn’t fit all. Instead, its mix-andmatch items include sofas in three sizes that offer multiple seating positions through their adjustable back and armrests, a chair with a swivel base for 180-degree movement, and three different ottomans. A range of fabrics for the removable covers completes the building blocks of your ideal set-up.

When their backrests are folded in to echo the rounded corners of the seats that curve down to meet lithe bronze legs, these designs look for all the world like chic low-profile pieces.

But adjust the movable parts and you’ve got added comfort and unique style.

Movie night for two or entertaining the crew? With this collection, you can let your hair down your way while your lounge looks pulled together. kingliving.co.nz

RESILIENT. DURABLE. TIMELESS.

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Set your heart on a SILGRANIT sink at blanco.co.nz.

Monaco Corporation Ltd. is proud to be the official partner of BLANCO sinks and taps in the New Zealand market. @BlancoNewZealand @blanco_newzealand

Auckland • Hamilton • Wellington • Christchurch cittadesign.com • @citta

Space to inspire —— STYLE

Well read New must-visit Lamplight Books is a veritable pageturner that really knows its tomes. Wonder Group creative director Buster Caldwell filled us in on the fit-out.

Hey Buster, what and where is Lamplight? It’s an independent bookstore in the award-winning Geyser Building in Auckland’s Parnell. The masterminds behind it are Melanie O’Loughlin and Courtney Smith, formerly of Unity Books.

What was your design intention for the store? Books are visually noisy, so we wanted to create those lovely little moments of respite you want from a book-browsing experience — an inward cosiness that shields you from bustling Parnell Rise outside and allows the books to sing. Blocky, utilitarian forms hold the books, but are broken down into smaller >

COME ON IN Lamplight was born between lockdowns, when friends and ex-workmates Melanie and Courtney met for a drink to lament their best-laid, now-derailed life plans and concluded: why not open a store? Everyone’s welcome at their neighbourhood shop filled with a diverse but well-curated range of classic to contemporary reads — you can even bring along your dog.

homest yle 31

STYLE —— Space to inspire

THIS PAGE Work by local artisans fills the store. Neil Welsford-Ackroyd of Metalwerks crafted the steel displays that line the walls; shopfitters Gartshore were behind the counter, tables and plinths; landscape designer Winston Dewhirst created concrete planters for the space; Blomfield Signs did the signage install; and the graphics and branding are by Ophelia King. The fit-out also features Mori pendant lights by RBW, sourced from Koda in Australia.

What was your thinking behind the colours? Melanie and Courtney are enthusiastic about colour, which gave us the freedom to apply a progressive approach, using it to demarcate the various zones of the store and position it as a new flavour within a traditionally stuffy category. Drawing from Bauhaus and Mondrian artworks, primary colours are set against one another to deliver a punchy result that complements, rather than clashes with, the books. To tie it all together, an inky hue wraps the 32 homest yle

walls, establishing an environment that feels genderless and premium, but doesn’t take itself too seriously.

What else did you want the store to communicate? It’s a brave move to open a bookstore in this day and age, so we thought, ‘If you’re taking that risk and doing it, let’s have some fun and give people a reason to visit beyond the books themselves’. Essentially, we wanted customers to understand that this place is very special. The books are special, the people are delightful and the interior needed to reflect that.

I like to think it gives you the feeling you’re about to discover something just for you that you might not find anywhere else. lamplightbooks.co.nz

Photography: Abi Phillips

parts to lighten the visual weight through the use of simple, square tiles of varying sizes. Just like the book selection, the design qualities of this store are considered, confident and there to be quietly noticed.

AUCKLAND | WELLINGTON | CHRISTCHURCH

Humans’ nature Two stylists interpret the outside world for interiors, using Dulux Colours of New Zealand.

PH OTO G R APHY Wendy Fenwick

BACKDROP Left wall in Dulux Hoon Hay; middle wall in Dulux Kauri Cliffs; right wall in Dulux Haast Half; floor in Dulux Tarras, dulux.co.nz.

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Two ways with —— DULUX

Dulux Hoon Hay

OPPOSITE, FROM LEFT Amsterdam sofa, POA, boconcept.co.nz. Almonte rug, $1299, achomestore.co.nz. Kigi Large table, $4365, ecc.co.nz. Curl Curl candle by Black Blaze, $80, achomestore.co.nz. Tumblers, $39 each, unknown.co.nz. Terracotta urn, $80, babelogue.shop. Vase, $99, unknown.co.nz.

Rocks puzzle by Printworks, $50, achome store.co.nz. Sunrise print by Brenda Clews, from $49, endemicworld.com. Mirah chair, $5000, ecc.co.nz. Tony cushion, $109, houseofhazar.com. Laconia Air fabric (used as curtain), $129.95/m, jamesdunlop textiles.com. Foliage and books stylist’s own. ADDITIONAL ITEMS BELOW, FROM LEFT Arnold Circus stool by Martino Gamper, $260, achomestore.co.nz. Frank cushion, $109, houseofhazar.com. Alberto cushion, $130, achomestore.co.nz. Curvy artwork, POA, studioro.co.nz. Long Wool sheepskin rug, $330, achomestore.co.nz.

Dulux Kauri Cliffs

Dulux Tarras

Dulux Pōrangahau

Dulux Haast Half

The stylist Dulux colour ambassador Alex Walls What seems like a lifetime ago, I used to enjoy travelling the world for my job, but there was nothing better than coming home to New Zealand. As I flew in, I’d gaze at the lush green landscape with its patchwork of farms and appreciate the contrast to the concrete jungles of other countries, quietly hoping we’d be able to keep it that way.

I’m always inspired by nature when it comes to interiors. Given many of us aren’t so lucky as to have homes with views of bush and rolling hills, I love the idea of bringing that kind of freshness inside.

With this look, I’ve created a natural backdrop by grounding the grey-green of Dulux Hoon Hay on one wall with native green Dulux Tarras on the floor.

This pairing is right at home with the everyday neutrals Dulux Kauri Cliffs and Dulux Haast Half I’ve used on the other walls, combining to create a warm, inviting setting. I’ve brought character into this scene with vibrant orange-red Dulux Pōrangahau, which channels the bright pops of rooftops, autumn leaves and pōhutukawa flowers I also love seeing from above. >

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BACKDROP Main wall in Dulux Dunsandel Half; pillar and right wall in Dulux Cardrona Double; floor in Dulux Cashmere, dulux.co.nz.

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Two ways with —— DULUX

The stylist

Dulux; Worth doing, worth Dulux; and Colours of New Zealand are registered trademarks of DuluxGroup (Australia) Pty Ltd. Please note that due to limitations in the printing process, photographic and printed images and swatches may not represent the true colours. Always confirm your final colour choice with Dulux sample pots.

Dulux colour ambassador Michelle Halford My paint selection was inspired by the changing seasons in the South Island — from the snow-capped mountains in winter to the sandy tones in summer and the deciduous trees turning burnt orange in autumn.

Key colours include Dulux Dunsandel Half (which reflects the buttery hues of the Canterbury Plains) and alpine white Dulux Cardrona Double on the walls, and soft grey-brown Dulux Cashmere on the floor.

I’ve styled this space with pieces in complementary colours made from natural materials like wood and wool to create a warm, cosy feel, adding handcrafted ceramics in earthy browns and subtle orange to inject extra texture and reflect seasonal changes. The strong lines of the bookshelf are offset by the gentle curves of the seating and coffee table, while the statement wall lamp is a playful touch.

To try these Dulux colours at home, order free large colour swatches or purchase sample pots at dulux.co.nz.

OPPOSITE, FROM FRONT LEFT Journal coffee table by Cameron Foggo for Nonn, POA, simonjames.co.nz. Galaxy bowl by Kristina Dam Studio, $199, tessuti.co.nz.

Vase by Shiho Hayashi, $950; clay ribbon

by Elena Renker, $35, publicrecord.shop.

Books, from $90, seagardesign.com.

Etoile rug by Armadillo x House of Grey, theivyhouse.co.nz. Par sofa, $4599; Friday rack, POA, dawsonandco.nz. Cushion, POA, exhibitone.co.nz. John Pawson blanket by Tekla, $715, simonjames.co.nz. Lamp de Marseille lamp by Le Corbusier for Nemo Lighting, $2215, matisse.co.nz. Customupholstered Isabella chair by Simon James, POA, exhibitone.co.nz. ITEMS ON TOP SHELF Shino vase, $166, and sake cups, $85 each, by Elena Renker, publicrecord.shop.

SECOND SHELF Asymmetry vessels by Kerryn Levy Ceramics, $600 and $415; This Building Likes Me book by John Wardle Architects, $90; John Galliano for Dior book, $215, seagardesign.com. John Derian book, $175, tessuti.co.nz. THIRD SHELF Bobby candle by Marloe Marloe, $280; Tube vessel by Michaela van der Laan, $130, seagardesign.com. BOTTOM SHELF Vase

by Elena Renker, $295, publicrecord.shop.

Ursula vase by Margi Nuttall, $380, simon james.co.nz. Foliage, books and remaining objects stylist’s own.

Dulux Dunsandel Half

Dulux Cardrona Double

Dulux Cashmere

Dulux Maheno Double

Dulux Lindis Pass

homest yle 37

EDGE OF TOMORROW In part two of our series on futurefocused kitchens, we shed light on a set-up that foresees the indoors very closely linked with out.

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KITC H EN D ES IG N Annique H es sen 3 D VI SUALI SATIO N One to One Hundre d

Led by design —— FISHER & PAYKEL

Natural companions

Allowing this kitchen to feel like a genuine extension of the landscape, the material palette champions walnut timber, 3D-printed concrete, stainless steel and basalt cobblestones. Their sophisticated yet down-to-earth appeal is backed by leading technology in the form of Fisher & Paykel appliances designed to fit unobtrusively. They include a column fridge/freezer with a Variable Temperature Zone that lets you create the optimal storage climate for food fresh from the garden through to frozen, and high-performance ovens, each with sleek styling and a touchscreen that offers full recipes and helpful tips.

Encased in concrete, the rangehood is remarkably quiet, and has five fan speeds and dimmable lighting, so you can clearly see what you’re cooking.

It’s positioned over a new hybrid gas and induction cooktop that provides the best of both in one appliance. An ideal match for the floating cabinetry, the integrated DishDrawer has six wash programmes that also do the hard work for you, so you can stay relaxed and in tune with the rhythms of the day. >

Ahead of the trend

In imagining this multi-purpose kitchen/utility area, Annique Hessen of Bay of Plenty-based Gezellig Interiors designed for a future that caters to our growing desire to connect with the environment.

“My forecast for kitchens increasingly locates this zone in close proximity to the garden and home-grown food,” she says. “Here, the blurred boundary between inside and out is reinforced through a natural material palette that takes its colour cues from the earth. The soft, sculptural form of the kitchen island brings an organic tactility to this space and contrasts with the linear, furnitureesque bench and cabinetry, while the Fisher & Paykel appliances are minimal and integrated.” homest yle 39

FISHER & PAYKEL —— Led by design

Dynamic trio

Hidden behind the Kumiko-style screen beside the ovens on the previous page is a scullery/laundry/mudroom serving all three purposes in one space. The layout’s divided into sections according to function, all of which make everyday activities more beautiful.

Within close reach of the adjoining kitchen, an integrated column wine cabinet by Fisher & Paykel houses 91 bottles in two independent temperature zones, each with four wine modes. While

the kitchen allows easy access to the vege garden, here greens are even closer to hand, thanks to a pair of hydroponic pillars growing herbs and salad leaves.

Beside these sits a sink for scrubbing shoes or soaking clothing before it’s placed in the adjacent washing machine that’s neatly stacked with a heat pump condensing dryer and can be tucked away behind bifolds. A key feature of the washer is Fisher & Paykel’s new Steam Care tech, which saves time and water and nixes the need for ironing by

refreshing garments in just 20 minutes.

Above it, the dryer also offers Steam Care, plus a Speed mode to reduce drying times — and it has a 10-star energy rating that helps you minimise your impact on the natural world this design celebrates.

A skylight over the mudroom ushers natural light into this compact space that feels all the more intimate through the continuation of the warm timber, textured concrete and irregular stones — rustic materials that gently offset the high-spec essentials.

MAIN IMAGE PREVIOUS PAGES, APPLIANCES, FROM LEFT Fisher & Paykel 76.2cm Ice & Water Integrated fridge/freezer, RS7621WRUK1 $15,999; Fisher & Paykel 60cm 16-Function Self-Cleaning ovens, OB60SDPTDB1 $4799 each; Fisher & Paykel 90cm Gas & Induction cooktop, CGI905DNGTB4 $5499; Fisher & Paykel 90cm Integrated Insert rangehood, HPB9048-2 $3869; Fisher & Paykel Integrated Single DishDrawer™ dishwasher, DD60SI9 $2179, fisherpaykel.com. OTHER ITEMS, FROM LEFT Faceted vase

by Elena Renker, $600, publicrecord.shop. Pebble stools by Warm Nordic, from $695 each, goodform.co.nz. Amphora pot by Julie Cromwell, POA, sanderson.co.nz. Vola 590V one-handle mixer by Arne Jacobsen, $4143, metrix.co.nz. Drupe mill by Ferm Living, $95, slowstore.co.nz. Faceted lidded jar by Elena Renker, $480, publicrecord.shop.

Onishi vessel by Kerryn Levy Ceramics, $425, seagardesign.com. Disc tray by Arno Declercq, $1390, simonjames.co.nz. ABOVE, APPLIANCES, FROM LEFT Fisher & Paykel 61cm Integrated Column wine cabinet, RS6121VR2KL $15,999; Fisher & Paykel 9kg Steam Care Heat Pump Condensing dryer, DH9060FS1 $3499; Fisher & Paykel 11kg Steam Care Front Loader washing machine, WH1160F2 $3669; Fisher & Paykel stacking kit, $165, fisherpaykel.com. OTHER ITEMS, LEFT TO RIGHT, FROM MIDDLE Mayan wall-mounted taps by Perrin & Rowe, $810/pair, inres.co.nz. Vida towels by Seneca, from $22 each, fatherrabbit.com. Chanterelle hooks by Ferm Living, $85 each, slowstore.co.nz. Jacket

by Rains, $170, fatherrabbit.com. Rain boots, $149, marlo.nz. Fisher & Paykel column fridge/freezer, ovens and column wine cabinet available at harveynorman.co.nz.

40 homest yle

Nook here Turn your attention to a built-in detail that’s technically tucked away but can also really stand out.

ST YLIN G Sam van Kan PH OTO G R APHY M elanie Jenkins

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Paint trends —— RESENE

Get the look -

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OPPOSITE: BACKDROP Wall in Resene SpaceCote Flat in Resene Half Ash, nook in Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen in Resene Cinnamon, floor in Resene Walk-on in Resene Cinnamon and Resene Half Innocence, resene.co.nz. TOP SHELF, FROM LEFT Arch candle holder by Ferm Living, $235, slowstore.co.nz. Classic candles by Broste Copenhagen, $4 each, tessuti.co.nz. Burning Ears artwork by Alexi Willemsen, POA, melanie rogergallery.com. Incense holder by Walk in the Park, from $65, tessuti.co.nz. Moss Garden Nokiba incense stick by Shoyeido, $12/box, everyday-needs.com. BOTTOM SHELF, FROM LEFT Panthella Mini table lamp by Louis Poulsen, from $745, cultdesign.co.nz. Utensil holder by Misma Anaru, $220, instagram.com/mismaanaru.

MD Paper Products coloured pencils by Midori, $20/set of six; scissors by Penco, $25, everydayneeds.com. Screen glasses by Izipizi, $85, fatherrabbit.com. Vase by Shanalee James Ceramics, $140, bohzali.co.nz. RIGHT Felix stool by Hübsch, $549, bohzali.co.nz. Robusto mechanical pencil by Astier de Villatte, $28, tessuti.co.nz. Notebook, $16, fatherrabbit.com.

Scissors by Penco, $25, everyday-needs.com.

Build a nook new or repurpose a cupboard to become one. They work in any number of locations: for the mail and keys in your entryway, for the TV in your living room, as a study spot in a guest room…

Demarcate the space with Resene paint. Go for a bold, deep colour to accent the built form and draw your eye in, such as this copper brown Resene Cinnamon. Contrast that with a pale colour on the wall, like this dusty grey Resene Half Ash, and one that’s somewhere in between on the floor — we chose grey-green Resene Half Innocence. Use painter’s tape to ensure your lines are as exact as the architecture.

Designate the shelves for storage and display (or let one double as a desk), curating a selection of objects that get on well with your colour palette or repainting them with inexpensive Resene testpots so they suit.

For an ultra-matte finish in your nook, use Karen Walker Chalk Colour (available from Resene ColorShops).

It’s velvety and can be enhanced with one of two waxes: Vintage and Clear.

Resene Half Ash

Resene Cinnamon

Resene Half Innocence

Resene Empress

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MOROCCO SOFA

TOLV COLLECTION PENSIVE Design by Cameron Foggo

www.dawsonandco.nz

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Artist profile

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Designer profile

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Designer profile

Cartoonish portraits are artist Ayesha Green’s signature, but she often features detailed botanical patterns in her work as well, using native plants to anchor it to Aotearoa, and the way floral fabrics tessellate and repeat to suggest infinity.

Find out more overleaf.

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WO RDS Rosie Dawson - H ewes

THERE’S “NO WAY” AYESHA GREEN COULD PAINT A REALISTIC PORTRAIT — AND WE’RE ALL THE BETTER FOR IT. PH OTO G R APHY Holly Sarah Burges s

Artist profile —— PEOPLE

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PEOPLE —— Artist profile

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“I’ve come to realise that the art you grow up on is what informs your future work.”

At the top of a winding staircase above a dairy on Auckland’s Karangahape Road sit a couple of unassuming rooms.

Once an apartment, they’ve been used as artists’ studios since the ’90s, and award-winning painter Ayesha Green is the latest to create within their walls.

“The first artist to occupy this space was actually [renowned photographer] Ann Shelton and her girlfriend at the time,” says Ayesha. “They slept in one of the two rooms and worked in the other.”

Ann told Ayesha a great story about how they were walking along K’ Road looking for studio spaces and saw an empty spot upstairs. The butcher in the store below owned the building and allowed them to move in, and so the artistic legacy began.

Very happy to be here, Ayesha’s a deep thinker and a natural storyteller, and uses her work to examine themes of nationalism, colonisation and Māoridom.

“My painting is about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, using painting as a type of visual language that can change narratives of what we might think of ourselves as people within New Zealand, Aotearoa,” she says.

She’s quick to add that it’s in service to her iwi (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu) “and that service interrelates and acts in two different ways. One is service to the iwi and being able to tell stories of what it might mean to be a Ngāi Tahu and a Ngāti Kahungunu woman. But there’s also another service I do, which is to allow people to see the different ways that Māori might live, or to understand the nation in a broader way.”

When asked why she paints in such a cartoonish portraiture style, Ayesha says she “sort of just fell into it. What I’ve come to realise is that the art you grow up on is what informs your future work, and the art I grew up on was cartoons in the morning before school, cartoons after school, picture books.

“My dad was a painter and for our birthdays he’d always paint a picture that we wanted. It’d usually be a cartoon, so once he painted me a big portrait of the Little Mermaid. It was really cool and I think that’s had a huge, profound effect on my practice, even though it’s taken me a while to understand that.” >

ABOVE Ayesha — who’s represented by Jhana Millers Gallery — was recently awarded the Rydal Art Prize for this painting, All of my Lovers are Immigrants (Smooth my Pillow).

OPPOSITE Her studio has been home to loads of creatives over the years. “I know my friend John Ward Knox had his studio here, and my friends Yolunda Hickman and Johl Dwyer, and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy and Heidi Brickell. So many artists have come through, so I’m really lucky,” she says. She’s made it her own by dotting the walls with research, images of past works, drawings and mementos.

YOU KNOW WHAT? “A lot of my work is looking at the role knowledge plays in creating the stories we understand or how we come to know things in the world, and also who gets to create that knowledge and then disperse it,” says Ayesha. Her preferred style is evidenced here by this work from her series Puku (top right), depicting her great-grandparents.

Ayesha’s had a busy year. Her work was in landmark Auckland Art Gallery show Toi Tū Toi Ora and at the Aotearoa Art Fair, and soon after, she won the Rydal Art Prize, a national contemporary painting award that comes with a $20,000 prize and a solo exhibition at Tauranga Art Gallery.

She says it was a complete shock.

“That kind of monetary prize is life-changing, and being able to develop a big show for Tauranga Art Gallery is really exciting. These types of opportunities really push your practice forward because there’s room to grow and experiment. I want to do the most ambitious show ever.”

Before that, Ayesha has a show of new work, To the Best of my Knowledge, at Hastings City Art Gallery in August.

It explores the Native Schools Act (1867), which she says “uses Hukarere school [in Napier] as a way to think through what education looked like for Māori women at the time of colonisation and how those native schools functioned. “[At Hukarere] Māori girls would learn how to live and work as Pākehā women, and then they’d get sent back

to the kāinga [villages], which were generally in rural areas at that time, and they’d colonise from the inside, teaching the rest of the family what to do. The Crown understood the strength of women in communities, because women are the ones who make the domestic space run and have power in that, so they were trying to use Māori girls to colonise from within. The native schools were set up as Trojan horses.”

Ayesha says Hukarere students also had agency to change their own circumstances, which they did, starting the kohanga reo early childhood education movement and the Māori Women’s Welfare League.

“The Trojan horse flipped the other way and the Māori girls sent out into a Pākehā world then started reinstating tikanga Māori back into it.

“A lot of this show is portraiture of Māori women that acts as an acknowledgement of the work that’s been done,” she says. “I always use portraiture as a way to celebrate the sitter.” @ayeshagreen; jhanamillers.com; hastingscityartgallery.co.nz

Karimoku Case Study N-CC01 Lounge Chair, N-CT01 Coffee Table, and A-S01 Sofa

Designer Furniture, Lighting and Objects

15 Williamson Ave Ponsonby, Auckland goodform.co.nz

INTERVIE W Alice Lines

WHEN LIFE BROUGHT BEC SNELLING TO HER KNEES, SHE SAW THE LIGHT AND ROSE TO THE OCCASION. PH OTO G R APHY Dunc an Innes

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RIGHT The Lens Rabbit Sculpture (pictured here with the yoga-block-like Lens Block Lumen) echoes the shape of yoga’s Rabbit pose. “I loved the idea of a floor sculpture that has a light — it’s two things, and I thought it’d look quite nice,” says Bec, who also designed a mirrored Lens Reflection Sculpture. “That was how [this design] started, and then I thought, ‘Mirror reflection, lens, looking new, fresh eyes…’”

LEFT Like Douglas & Bec, Snelling is all about gorgeous things (including this Lens Pendant Minor Major 04) that are made to order, last a lifetime and be truly loved.

“I’d rather you save up to buy one piece you adore from me than have to have the set,” says Bec. “It’s a privilege to be in a position where we’ve built a solid foundation as a sustainable business that’s also a viable business that gives me the freedom to present new ideas that push the boundaries of what people expect.”

The past couple of years have been quite a journey for Bec Snelling of Douglas & Bec, the Auckland-based furniture and lighting brand she once ran with her father. In fact, the background to where she is today reads a bit like a Hollywood film plot. Having already reached what she believed to be her turning point, Bec was in recovery and just 30 days sober when the Douglas & Bec factory burned to the ground. But through adversity comes strength, and she decided to see it as an opportunity.

So then what? I thought to myself, ‘Right, this is really clearing the wreckage of the past; this is a new beginning.’ It forced our hand on

a lot of decisions we’d already been considering, but at no point did I have an inclination to give up.

Snelling into a beautiful place of maturity where my art and design can work together.

Ultimately the Douglas & Bec brand came to a natural end with Doug retiring, so now you’re reinventing yourself as Snelling Studio and doing away with launching collections to an output-driven, regular schedule…

For me, success is honing and mastering my creativity. I love the word ‘mastering’ because it means it’s a process — not an end point. Now there’s no clear business plan that says we must have KPIs that we meet. It’s more about creating and evolving and having a strong, authentic voice. I’m taking the learnings Dad and I discovered together to develop

Your launch collection is called Lens, and I understand yoga was its creative catalyst… I knew that it was time for a new collection, but I had a massive creative block. My therapist said, “You just need to go and do something else — how about yoga?” and I laughed at him, because yoga on a Friday night was not my idea of a good time.

However, I persevered.

At first I was very bad at it, but it taught me about learning a skill through committing to working on it regularly.

At the same time, I reconnected with my art practice and went back to my >

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formative training in blind contour drawing with charcoal. The yoga informed the drawings, shaping everything in the Lens collection: the forms, the tension, the simplicity, even the materiality via the light, mirrors and timber of the yoga studio.

As well as yoga, how are you prioritising looking after yourself on a daily basis?

Self-care is the most important thing — if I don’t put myself first, everything else falls apart. For me, meditation is massive. It’s so beneficial for a creative mind, to be able to let it have some resting space in a very short period of time. That comes through the yoga practice too.

One of my best pieces of advice is

do the hard stuff first in the morning, the stuff we creatives hate: the emails, the accounting. Also, the world isn’t going to fall over if you give yourself a break. We think life is destinationbased, but it sure ain’t. We’ve got to enjoy the process, the failures, get off the treadmill and enjoy all of these moments.

We’re looking forward to seeing where this journey takes you! Well, it’s a miracle that I’m even here, really.

At times I get very frustrated, but through looking at what I’ve been through, I trust more and more. I love that I’m able to have conversations about being a creative and the realness of the struggle of it.

The way Lens has been received has actually been really overwhelming because I didn’t know what was going to happen. I’ve never felt so comfortable in my own skin as I did launching it, and I’ve done the work now, so it’s for others to take from it what they want.

That’s exciting — it’s fun not to have it all carved out. It’s like each day is a new beginning for me and I love getting up in the morning and going, ‘Oh, it’s none of my business what happens today, I’m just going to go along for the ride.’

Look, it’s not always that blissful though, you know? The dog literally ate my wallet this morning, the car broke down… We’re all human, right?! snellingstudio.com

LEFT Lens Wall Sconce Major. The taller of the items below it is the Lens Webb Perch, which plays on the forms of the Rabbit Sculpture and its Camel counterpart. BELOW Tools of the trade in Snelling’s East Tāmaki factory, where Bec creates alongside six staff. In terms of inspiration, she’s into Futurism and Brutalist architecture right now.

“I’ve also always admired [British designers] Max Lamb and Faye Toogood. There’s some high-end fashion that I’m inspired by too, even that ultra-glamour stuff, the Kim Kardashian-type aesthetic, which is odd to pair with yoga, but that’s me, I love extremes.”

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INTERVIE W Emma Kanuik

SAMMY-ROSE SCAPENS IS ONE HALF OF A COOL NEW BUSINESS AND A FULLNOISE TALENTED, CREATIVE TYPE. PH OTO G R APHY Claire Mos song

Designer profile —— PEOPLE

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BELOW They bring different skills and strengths to their work, but Sammy (seen here at home in Tauranga) says she and Oliver share a lot of it, “like client meetings, design strategy, furniture-making concepts, site time…

We debate all aspects of our jobs, mostly at night once the kids are in bed. We’re polar opposites in our opinions and ways of approaching tasks, and although that results in a hefty number of arguments, it generally means the final result is well-considered and the best approach wins.”

Designer, writer and mum of two Sammy-Rose Scapens grew up between Tauranga and Christchurch in a wonderfully artistic family, with parents who encouraged individuality and innovation. She was regularly left to her own devices to make up her own games, and a lot of her time was spent with her head in a book, then debating with her parents about what she’d read. All this instilled in her an ability to imagine and think outside of her own small sphere — something she’s very grateful for today. She says books inform all areas of her life and practice, which includes Homewerk — the business she started with her partner Oliver Starr — and the services she provides via Tradespeople’s national directory of women and gender-diverse tradies.

So Sammy, Homewerk sounds pretty interesting — what’s it all about?

Homewerk’s a multi-functional building and design practice that creates homes, spaces and furniture that make people feel alive, self-actualised and fab. We aim to help people run their projects in ways that avoid financial strain, and to offer innovative and fun solutions. We’re dedicated to allowing as many people as possible to create spaces that feel good because they’re healthy, functional and aesthetically exciting, and we also have a growing desire to create sustainable and alternative housing solutions.

Oli’s and my personal interests. I often look to companies doing similar things overseas, and offering multiple services seems to work really well for them, whereas in New Zealand, I feel pressure to be very specific about what we do: are we a building or an interior design company, do we make furniture or are we a spatial solutions practice? We decided to be whatever we’re comfortable with and not feel the need to package ourselves in a certain way, so we’re just delivering whatever sparks our interest, primarily within the building and design sector.

It encompasses a broad range of projects — how has it evolved? We began Homewerk in lockdown and it’s been a natural evolution of both

Tell us about your new fit-out for the Sea People ice-cream shop in Mt Maunganui… That was such a fun project.

The owners had a very distinct vision >

Designer profile —— PEOPLE

“I’m very straight up, so luckily I have Oliver, who’s incredibly patient and jovial, and balances us out.”

THIS PAGE Scenes from ice-cream store Sea People. The flags were designed in collaboration with Parkby Projects and the ply furniture alongside cabinetmaker Paul Mossong; furniture restorer Avi Koifman of Dovetail Restorations made the squabs; the steel furniture was crafted by the couple’s friend Kolya de Reijger of Sigma Sheetmetal Products; and the lights are by late American artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi.

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PEOPLE —— Designer profile

LEFT The couple with their children Eugene (4) and Sybil (2). They’re also renovating their own home at the moment, though Sammy says it’s slow going, as it’s always the last thing on the to-do list. “I find it frustrating because I always focus on the bits that aren’t done, but the flipside of that is it’s exciting knowing there’s so much potential — so many more walls to fill with art, and more bookshelf space. I’m looking forward to getting all of our art pieces out of storage, arranging the cupboards, hosting friends, having a fire pit and challenging myself to a little contentment.” BELOW Sammy has an affinity for character-filled finds, like their “incredibly beautiful and wildly ugly sculptural tree” by their friend Debbie Harris.

for what they were trying to achieve, so we were lucky that they let us go wild. My favourite part was custommaking all of the furniture and the beautiful wavy island inside. It was such a pleasure creating something with clients who had zero interest in trying to appeal to a specific audience — they didn’t want to fit in or to be accessible, they just wanted to be interesting and progressive in their approach. I also worked with a range of artisans on that project, which really filled my love tank.

What new projects are on the horizon?

We’re working on a range of metal furniture and about to embark on a small series of self-contained artist cabins that act as minor dwellings. This is an exciting long-term project offering

beautiful alternative dwellings for people wanting to house more family or earn extra income with rent. I think in future we’ll see Homewerk come out with more long-term projects and solutions to the housing issues in New Zealand.

What makes you hopeful in these strange times? I’m a natural optimist, a big-time “Yes!” woman, a real cuphalf-full person, so to be honest I feel endlessly hopeful all the time. I’m trying my hardest to raise our kids as aware, kind, passionate people who’ll do everything they can to make the world a better, more accountable place, and that’s all I can really do, while showing them how to take care of the planet; how to notice and feel the seasons; how to sharpen a knife,

build a pot, write a story; how to be really alive in themselves and reflective in their interiority.

What else would you do if you weren’t doing what you’re doing? If I could do anything else, I’d run an alternative school. I’d like to see myself as a principal! And to see our education system become more progressive, allowing children and young adults to be fully themselves. Or maybe I’d run an organic orchard in Northland, or be a wool spinner in Central Otago…

Is there anything else we should know about you? Well, I mean, it’s hard to shut me up, so you could always find out more! homewerk.co.nz; tradespeople.co

Uncomplicated design, obsessively crafted

The Polson Light is part of an elegant new collection by Tim Webber, designed and made in New Zealand.

Discover the new pieces online or in our Grey Lynn showroom.

New Zealand and European Furniture Design Showroom 18 Westmoreland St, Grey Lynn, Auckland timwebberdesign.com

Ph 09 600 22 74

corcovado.co.nz

5/18 Westmoreland St West, Grey Lynn, Auckland

137 Victoria St, Christchurch

Homes 66

Where fantails flit

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There’s a softness

90

Love like ours

102

Listen to your heart

Introspective vignettes like this one are found throughout the apartment on page 102, which is home to a Kiwi ceramicist and her Danish husband. Skip ahead to discover what calls them to curate their interior this way.

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Wher e Fantai ls Flit Nature takes a front seat at this clifftop property, which elegantly embraces the elements.

WORDS

PHOTOGRAPHY

Claire M c C all

Jackie M eiring

THE PROJECT This three-bedroom home near Mangawhai Heads was created in collaboration with vanVeenendaal Rosnell Langley Architecture and Schwarz Design.

HOMES

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ABOVE A pair of classic PK22 chairs by Fritz Hansen from Cult provides a punch of russet in the living area’s neutral colour scheme, which is lit by a beautifully subtle Zerodieci globe by Prandina from Inlite. OPPOSITE The glazed walkway linking the living and bedroom pavilions gives you a glance at the Japanese-style courtyard on one side and coastal views through the branches of specimen trees on the other.

he journey to this beach house near Mangawhai Heads is punctuated by assertive bullocks (who must, gently but firmly, be coaxed off the rural road), sheep warming their bellies on the gravel drive, and a pair of pheasants that race the car, their triple-plume tails flying out behind them. It all feels rather adventurous, so the arrival into a courtyard sanctuary, where stately kahikatea stand sentinel above a gravel-and-grasses garden, is an instant change of pace.

Simplicity is what the owners of this home craved when they found this land on Bream Tail Farm more than 10 years ago. Located on a working farm and conservation estate, the site is a cross-section of natural assets. Its clifftop position delivers ocean, island and beach views; it’s surrounded by native trees; and the birdlife is prolific.

With such a jaw-droppingly awesome position, the building was always going to take a back seat, as it should. Architect Leo van Veenendaal of VRLA tucked two cedar-clad pavilions into the grassy hillsides. They’re connected by a glass bridge and sit in the landscape with minimal interruption, while generous eaves provide an elegant horizontal plane, and peel-away sliding doors let the elements become key players. A zen-like garden crafted with natives by landscape architect Trudy Crerar completes the whole.

Rose Schwarz, who runs Schwarz Design alongside her daughter Juliette, was called in at the very start of the process. She’d worked with the owners before, so she understood the nuances of their preferences. She settled on a contemporary Japanese aesthetic to elevate the atmosphere of calm, > homest yle 69

EXTERIOR “I wanted to replicate the colours of the kahikatea trunks on the ground plane,” says landscape designer Trudy Crerar, who achieved this in the courtyard garden with local basalt rock, native grasses oioi and libertia, and low-growing selliera.

The shrub Muehlenbeckia astonii casts patterns on the concrete walls all day long.

Shadows created by the cedar screens travel across the floor.

then presented it to the clients and architect. Rose describes the collaboration as “effortless” — an easy understanding between parties that shows in the result.

Schwarz Design’s aim was to provide a backdrop of neutral finishes that feed into the serenity but still have character. “We wanted to provide soul through texture,” says Rose — and they did so with subtle sensory touches, like plastering walls to negate the use of skirtings, using tiles with wonderful reflective qualities to contrast with the matte details, and specifying basalt floor tiles with variations in their tone.

The kitchen is a fine-lined insertion in the open-plan living space, with a sliver of ceramic bench and two-pot lacquer cabinetry. A window here overlooks a V-shaped valley where 72 homest yle

fantails flit above a mānuka forest that’s interrupted by flamboyant pops of nīkau. Rose worked with the architect to disguise the architraves behind the cabinetry, so the window is frameless, uncluttered.

Throughout the day, shadows created by the home’s moveable cedar screens travel across the floor, quietly marking the passage of time. In the living area, a blade wall of bagged bricks that runs the length of the room is a robust counterpoint to the lightness of the wraparound glass. Sea breezes lift the linen drapes in a delicate dance that softens the edges.

Courtyard and coast sandwich the bridge that links the living and sleeping zones, and the monochromatic palette continues in the bathrooms with customised cabinetry in Russian birch timber. “We chose the palest timber we could find to emulate that Japanese >

ABOVE The modular sofa in the living space provides plenty of room for extended family to stretch out in. It was customdesigned by Schwarz Design, while the Soori coffee table by Poliform beside it was inspired by the shape of traditional Balinese water vessels. OPPOSITE Among the objects expertly brought together on this sideboard by Artcopi from Corso De’ Fiori are an artwork by Martin Poppelwell (top) and a calligraphy ink work

by Tokyo-based Aona Hayashi from Public Record. The floor lamp — a Cho light by Established & Sons from Simon James — continues the Japanese aesthetic.

HOMES

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HOMES

ABOVE On the basalt flooring that runs through the living areas, reflecting light and shadows, a Super Elliptical dining table by Fritz Hansen from Cult is complemented by pale timber Tokyo chairs by Bensen from Tim Webber. OPPOSITE The walk-in scullery is so sublimely organised that even the stained pizza stone looks artistic. A place of visual pleasure for both the cook and guests, where form and function intertwine, the simplistic yet detailed design by Rose is decorated with items including bottle grinders by Norm Architects for Menu from Simon James, a wooden platter from Città and handmade Japanese tea towels by Claska Do from Everyday Needs.

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raw-wood look,” says Rose. Tiles with undulating surfaces feed into this natural, handmade effect.

With the bones of the home calmly cohesive, its owners entrusted the designers to curate the objects and art within it too. These are pieces — some useful, some beautiful, often both — that wind through the owners’ lives from dawn till dusk.

Juliette began to collaborate with Rose five years ago, expanding Schwarz Design. She’d studied visual arts, then worked in the luxury beauty industry for brands such as L’Oréal and Chanel. “I’ve loved Chanel since I was a little girl, but I always thought I’d end up in interior design,” she says.

It’s clearly the perfect place for her.

“Our style is so similar and her eye is amazing. She sees everything as a photograph,” says Rose.

This goes some way towards 76 homest yle

explaining the vignettes that populate every corner of this home: the circular forms of the pizza stone, timber platter and bowls lined up in the scullery; the pottery collection on the sideboard in the dining room; the artworks in monochromatic tones that are a contemporary continuation of Japanese ink drawings.

These chic snapshots are visually soothing and undeniably unique.

“We don’t want to slip into following trends,” says Rose.

In creating their own style, they hope the look will be timeless, that the spaces will adapt as beautifully as the ancient pōhutukawa on the front lawn, its bark stripped white, bare limbs stretching towards the horizon. It may no longer be in the full flush of youth, but as the Japanese believe: nothing is permanent, nothing is perfect. This place, here and now, comes pretty close.

ABOVE In the ensuite, the Pietra Del Cardoso granite benchtop is the dark yin to the yang of the Russian birch cabinetry. Charged wirelessly, the Nox table lamp by Astep from Good Form can be carried around the home, inside and out. OPPOSITE Birdlife’s abundant in the bush-clad hills, which makes this deck a magical place on which to sit on C317 Yuzuru Yamakawa chairs for Feelgood from Backhouse.

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INTERVIEW Alice Lines

PHOTOGRAPHY Larnie Nicolson

Th er e’ s a s o ftne ss A once city-dwelling family finds a more gentle, rural rhythm amid the rolling hills.

ENTRYWAY Step through the front door and you’re greeted by a shelf decorated with ceramics by Martin Poppelwell, some West German pottery — Miriam’s obsession — and an artwork by Patrick Pound. The Apple farmer’s basket is from Everyday Needs, and Spirit Level Painting No. 2 by Simon Ingram hangs on the connecting wall.

PAGE 78 This work in the dining space is Float by Ed Bats.

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THE PROJECT With Tane Cox of Red Architecture, marketing manager Miriam Shaw and planning consultant Stuart Penfold built this three-bedroom home in Pirongia for themselves and their children Georgia (13) and Maisie (4).

Miriam, why did you decide to move your family from Auckland to the Waikato’s Waipā District? My parents had made the move south a decade before, so we’d often go down to visit them or to stay at our family bach in nearby Kāwhia. Driving north back to Auckland, our hearts would sink as we sat in the motorway traffic wondering why we were driving away when we were happier there.

Eventually, Stuart and I decided to make a break from the city too. We took a deep breath, put our home on the market and started the hunt for a home or piece of land to build on in or near Pirongia.

What do you love about this spot? Pirongia doesn’t have any traffic lights. It has a Four Square, a pub, a café, a rugby club, a fire station and a great school. Our property is right on the edge of the town. It feels remote, but a round trip to the dairy for milk takes five minutes.

Our home is tucked into a sloping piece of land with no other dwellings or roads in sight.

The long, northern side of the house looks

down over a field to the Mangapiko Stream, which flows from Maungatautari, through the Waipā District, past our place and to the Waipā River. The verandah on the western side of the house faces the flanks of Mt Pirongia.

The hills and fields surrounding us provide ever-changing rural views. On a clear day, we can see the turbines of the Te Uku wind farm near Raglan spinning in the distance.

In winter, when the Waikato fog settles in, everything is hidden. A maize field to the east waves bright green for several months, then golden, then it’s harvested in an afternoon and it starts all over again.

Was this your and Stuart’s first build? We’d extensively renovated our home in Auckland, but this was our first time building from scratch. It was thrilling to think we could give each room a purpose and orientation based on the way we wanted to live, rather than the house defining the living. Once we’d pinned down the key spaces, the focus was on framing the views. >

ABOVE The house is clad in a combination of vertical cedar and Colorsteel. “We wanted to reference rural materials but have the softness of the bronze joinery and wood in some areas, such as our entryway and verandah,” says Miriam. A complex design with hidden fixings, the home’s roof and joinery provided some hurdles for the team to navigate and took a few attempts to execute. Miriam says, “We loved the look of anodised light bronze joinery and chose a thermally broken detail that added complexity to the manufacturing process. The result is beautiful and was totally worth the challenges it presented along the way.”

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You worked with architectural designer Tane Cox on the plan — how did that come about? Stuart works near Tane’s office in Hamilton and by chance wandered past during a lunchbreak and popped in for a chat. They immediately got on, so we subsequently visited some of Tane’s recent local projects in Tamahere and Raglan, which confirmed his expertise in the material palette we wanted: cedar, steel and concrete. His designs were elegant, modest and sat beautifully in rural environments.

How did you feel when he presented his design for your site? Delighted. It was important to us to work collaboratively as the design evolved. We had a detailed brief and a good idea of how we wanted a few key elements of the house to function.

When Tane showed us his concept, we were so happy because it was clear he’d listened carefully to what we wanted. He also surprised us with clever ways of enhancing the design with some Tane tricks.

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So what’s the house like? It’s a long, singlelevel house that sits within the contours of the land. We wanted to reference the meaning of Mangapiko — ‘winding stream’ — and acknowledge it in the plan and views from each room.

The home is angled gently into a sloping paddock running east to west. The roofline folds in places, from subtle corners to a more dramatic pitch up to a wide clerestory window. The entry is in the middle of the plan. Turning left from the front door takes you into a large communal space containing the kitchen, dining and lounge, and opening onto a verandah. Turning right takes you to our bedrooms, bathrooms and a second, more relaxed, living room, where people can watch television if they want to. A wall of books lives in this room as well.

You’ve got some pretty special art too — have you been collecting for long? We’re lucky enough to be custodians of pieces from our family art collection and have added to them over the years. Recent acquisitions include >

ABOVE The couple loved working with Luke Mackay of Mackay Construction, who managed the majority of the project. Michael Snookes of Construct designed and fitted the built-in American oak cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom, as well as the window seats, two desks and several areas of shelving. OPPOSITE In the kitchen, the American oak cabinets meet a stainless steel bench. Some of the décor details here include a light by Linetec over the island, an Olio teapot by Barber Osgerby x Royal Doulton and stools from Flotsam & Jetsam.

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DINING Miriam says her and Stuart’s most-loved feature in the house is the windows. “The views from the main living area and main bedroom never fail to amaze us.” Positioned to make the most of that is a dining table

by James Hacksaw; the Ambit pendant light above it is by Muuto.

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“We actually replaced windows with walls in some places to make more room for paintings.”

LIVING On this wall behind Georgia (in Dulux Cardrona, the predominant shade throughout the home) is Renovation at Silverdale by Julian Dashper.

Taking advantage of its thermal properties, the couple chose burnished concrete for the flooring in the main living space and bathrooms, then used wool carpet for the second living area and bedrooms.

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“It was thrilling to think we could give each room a purpose based on the way we wanted to live.”

ABOVE “Right from the concept stage, we were looking for built-in shelving to be a feature throughout the house for our books and collected objects,” say Miriam.

Beside this bookshelf in the second living area is a photograph

by Mark Smith, Main Trunk Line, which was taken near Cambridge.

The sofa from Forma is enhanced by a block-coloured bolster from Città. RIGHT This vignette in the dining room includes artwork by Richard Thompson (on the wall) and James Hogan (leaning below it), a West German lamp and jug, and a vase by Orla Kiely.

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a large photograph by the wonderful Ann Shelton from her A Lovers’ Herbal show, a painting by Ed Bats and a small textile work by Rachel Hope Peary.

While the house was being designed, we were constantly thinking about wall space and where certain pieces would sit. We actually replaced windows with walls in some places to make more room for paintings.

It all came together the day we hung the art.

Your ceramics are beautiful too — do you have a particular passion for certain objects?

I suffer a shocking addiction to West German pottery. There was a huge amount created when the German pottery industry was rebuilt after the defeat of Nazi Germany, so there are endless shapes and patterns to seek out. It’s a terrible affliction and I need to stop. Our shelves are heaving.

You’re happily living in the house now, but are there any ongoing projects, inside or out? The landscaping will keep us busy for the rest of our lives! We’re tackling it in zones. First was

the herb garden, because life without large amounts of Italian parsley isn’t worth living.

Last year, we sowed a spectacular wildflower meadow, which is something I’d always wanted to do, but that Auckland life would never allow.

Work continues on the native revegetation of the steep slope below the north side of the house and there are big trees to plant. It’s exciting to think what it’ll all become.

What are your and Stuart’s favourite times of the day here, and where do you enjoy them?

Sunrise from the window seat, sunset on the verandah with a negroni in hand, and Sunday mornings in bed watching the hawks fly past.

How does the pace of life here compare to what came before? There’s a softness here.

We live busy lives, but there just seems to be more time now. We laugh that we treat trips to Auckland as we would have visits to Melbourne in the past. It’s wonderful to go there for a weekend, catch up with friends, eat some good food and hit the shops, but

by Sunday we can’t wait to come home.

ABOVE LEFT For Georgia’s room, the team designed a window seat below a large sliding window to give her wide-open views to the northwest. It connects to a desk, above which is an artwork by Sue Novell. ABOVE RIGHT The kids’ bathroom is beautified by a shower curtain featuring The Great Wave by late Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.

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ABOVE LEFT A vase filled with fresh dahlias is a heartfelt touch in the main bedroom — they were grown in the garden outside from tubers taken from Miriam’s nan’s plant.

The artworks here are by Rodney Fumpston (left) and Leigh Martin, and some of the other items include (from top) a glass Aalto vase from Iittala, basket dishes found at an op shop and a set of Form bowls by Tom Dixon. ABOVE RIGHT The couple’s ensuite is a dreamy blend of materials that echoes the world outside, a view of which can be soaked up from the shower through a full-length window. They chose green tiles so it’d feel calming. “The idea was for it to be like a forest cave,” says Miriam.

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MAIN BEDROOM Behind the couple’s bed (with linen from Bed Threads and Città, plus a blanket by Eleanor Pritchard) hangs a large-scale artwork

by Dion Workman. Their bedside lamps are from Japan, the iO pendant light is by Maker and the carpet is Foss by Bremworth.

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Built for and by family on an heirloom plot, this home is a heartfelt continuation of history.

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Philippa Prentice

David Straight

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THE PROJECT Mother and creative Chelsea Thorpe and her husband Gene Walker, an artist and sales manager at Longbush Wines, built this four-bedroom home in Gisborne’s Whataupoko for themselves and their children Primrose (10), Coco (8), Orla (4) and baby-to-be.

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THIS PAGE Having noticed that the light-coloured homes below them reflect a lot of light, the couple went dark with Colorsteel in Ebony, so theirs settles back into the landscape. Much of their property was previously covered in pine trees, and removing those within falling distance has let the landscape change. “We’ve planted heaps of natives, but it’s also self-seeded a lot and I think that’s the best thing for it,” says Chelsea.

“The hillside’s regenerating and doing quite well, which is really good to see.” OPPOSITE “The large sliding doors face east, so we get dappled light through the trees in the morning; the tall windows face north, so we get the midday sun, which we framed so we’re not overwhelmed with heat in summer; and we get gorgeous sunsets through the west-facing kitchen windows that also capture the city lights,” says Chelsea. “Soon the trees on the south-west ridge will be removed, which will give us views of the bay and Young Nick’s Head too.”

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magnificent gumtree once stood on the spot that Chelsea Thorpe calls home. As little girls, she and her sisters would swing from its branches on a swing hand-carved by their dad, high over the hillside below. Decades later, the old tree rotten and felled, her own little girls are continuing its legacy, their bright eyes embracing its view of the valley in the home Chelsea and her husband Gene Walker have built in its place.

Founders of Longbush Wines, Chelsea’s parents have owned this Gisborne property for 35 years, and generously gave her and her sisters a section each. With three daughters (plus a fourth child now on the way) and budgetary contraints in mind, she and Gene imagined building a simple home on theirs that was a pleasure to live in, easy to maintain, and not too big but spacious enough to accommodate the kids’ home-schooling and Chelsea’s clothing-design side hustle.

They also wanted it to run on sun.

Admitting it’s pretty extraordinary that she “just drew a picture and gave it to a draughtsman”, the clever creative says she had a strong vision and simply put her maker’s mind to figuring out a design. “Even though I didn’t know how to design a house, I’m able to visualise space quite easily, and I knew the site and how we wanted to live. Honestly, I just trusted it would work. It’s amazing to stand back now and look at a house that not that long ago was just a sketch on a piece of paper.” > homest yle 93

With the foundations laid and some of the construction completed, March 2020’s lockdown threw a spanner in the works, but ultimately served to bring the project even closer to home, with artist/sales manager Gene and Chelsea’s winemaker/ ultra-handyman dad John taking over and completing the build after hours. The family raced around the day before lockdown, collecting paint, plywood, flooring — anything they thought they could use. Handily, they were all living with John, and Chelsea’s mum Wendy Baxter, at the time, so they were able to stick to their isolation bubble yet keep on keeping on.

They were aware of only a few homes in Gisborne that were off the grid, so their solar goal was kind of an unknown, but they thought they’d give it a go and see how it worked out.

Turns out “it’s life-changing” according to Chelsea, who doesn’t miss electricity bills one bit. “We have gas for our hot water and cooking, but that’s not a huge amount. I think more people need to look into investing in it — it’s not even that expensive, it’s crazy! It makes us feel good knowing we’re doing something right. Without a doubt, it’s one of the decisions we’re most proud of.”

The home’s key design features also contribute to this cause: a double-height void in the living area connecting to a mezzanine, and windows and sliding doors positioned to soak up the sun. “Our only heating is our fire, so the large void and open mezzanine work well, staying really cosy in winter,” says Chelsea. > 94 homest yle

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“I think when you have ideas, it’s good to put your foot down a little bit.”

LEFT The outlook from the Radial dining table by Città is leafy as far as the eye can see, so the home feels a lot more rural than it actually is. The walls throughout are in Dulux Haast Half, which Chelsea also used to whitewash the plywood ceilings, and the floors are Malmo Exquisit Waveless Oak laminate from Carpet Court. This Finn wall light is from Mr Ralph, the Ivar cabinet is from Ikea and the artwork above it is by James Robinson. OPPOSITE Chelsea stuck to her guns on certain design points, like her kitchen nook, which savvily borrows space from under the stairs. “Everyone said, ‘You should use [the empty space] for storage’, but I was like, ‘No, this will work!’, and now it’s the most usable spot in the kitchen,” she says. “A lot of this build was me putting my foot down. By the time we got to the end, Gene and Dad were like, ‘God, can we just get out of here?!’”

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ABOVE Chelsea landed on light-blue tiles for the kitchen (and laundry) — a less-pricey choice than more-popular white. The cabinetry was also made with huge savings.

“I wanted the warmth of timber, but all the options we were offered were expensive, so we chose to piece together bits and pieces instead, using base cabinets from Bunnings with plywood-veneer fronts that we measured and had cut by a joiner in exchange for wine.” The island was crafted from repurposed office furniture John had welded together for use at the winery; Chelsea achieved the textural finish on the front with half-rounds of dowel. OPPOSITE This large-scale artwork in the living area is one of Gene’s.

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BATHROOM The bathroom features tiles bargain-hunter Chelsea scored for less on Trade Me, including 6m2 of handmade tiles (not pictured) that had been stored in someone’s shed, which she bought for just $1. The Chap tapware by Progetto is from Mico, the Vogue Zurich bath is from Trade Depot, the stool is from Isla & Olive and the peg rail is from Bunnings.

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LEFT “The void allows our not-very-big house to feel very spacious,” says Chelsea of the hero design element, which soars up to the mezzanine.

“The openness allows us all to have our own spaces but with a sense of togetherness — and I’m a fresh-air freak, so the air circulation is amazing.” Now they’ve got their house sussed, the couple are in the process of converting a container into a studio for family and friends to stay in — and to rent out on Airbnb. “I’m excited to use techniques we weren’t able to use in our home,” says Chelsea.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do anything without Dad’s help and support.”

In keeping with the ethos of the build, the home is minimally decorated, guided by one of Chelsea’s favourite quotes, from late British textile designer/author/poet William Morris: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

“Obviously, that’s not always possible, but I try,” she says.

“I love vintage and the simplicity of Scandinavian design, and I am a bit of a minimalist, so I don’t have much that’s not functional.”

The pared-back nature of the spaces themselves means the family can repurpose them when the mood strikes. The girls choose to sleep solo or bunk down together, Chelsea’s workspace has moved from A to B, and she and Gene recently relocated from upstairs to the downstairs bedroom in preparation for the baby’s arrival.

Shaped by the family’s lifestyle and values, the house is in turn shaping them, working wonders on their wellbeing. “Even though we’re five minutes from the local village, we can escape into our own little world here,” says Chelsea. “I love being at home with the sun shining in and music playing in the background, while the girls craft and draw at the dining table, and I cook a meal or bake. These are the kind of days I dreamed of.”

This entire build has been about family — a beautiful thing if ever there was one. With a mountain on their doorstep to tame, it’ll be a life-long project, one that’ll see their collective roots grow deeper with the passing years, just like that wise old gumtree’s. homest yle 99

MEZZANINE“We rearrange our rooms all the time,” says Chelsea, who spotted this side table at Isla & Olive. “We decided not to put wardrobes in at the beginning because with spaces shaped like these, you don’t really know how you’re going to want to live in them. Not having anything fixed let us figure it out and move things around without too many issues.”

OPPOSITE “When rooms have ample height but not a huge square footage, it’s important to find little solutions,” says Chelsea.

Aiming to create more floor space in this bedroom, she designed these neat bunk beds, then put them together with Gene.

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The owners of this emotiondriven apartment believe care and attention changes everything.

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M arie Monrad Graunbøl

Mikkel Tjellesen

THE PROJECT Niels Strøyer Christophersen, creative director of Frama, redecorated this one-bedroom apartment in Copenhagen’s Østerbro with his ceramicist wife Franca-Christina Christophersen.

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he founder of multidisciplinary Danish design brand Frama, Niels Strøyer Christophersen, is known for design that embodies the contemporary longing for the simple life, quality materials and sense of inner peace found through a mindful interior. The apartment he shares with his New Zealand-born wife Franca-Christina Christophersen in Østerbro, Copenhagen, exudes a special kind of toned-down, urban elegance and is a lesson in making a little more effort with something as important as your home and the life you live in it.

Truth be told, Niels is more interested in behaviour and emotions than he is in design, the people who create it and the objects he and Franca decorate their home with. According to him, most people really only need half of what they own, and what ultimately matters is how we feel when we’re in a room. He says simplicity creates peace and is essential to finding balance in modern times.

“The way a room is decorated does something to us, often without us being able to put our finger on what it is or why, and I like the idea that it’s our intuition and emotions that really control us.

Nothing in our home is chosen based on what would be a practical and logical solution — instead, it’s about learning to be present in the moment and appreciate what surrounds you.”

He notes that he and Franca don’t own a sofa on which you can put your feet up or a TV to unwind in front of — the very definition of relaxation to many of us. But that’s what meets their needs.

The emotional approach the couple has taken to the interior of their 1905 abode also means that a worn stepladder and a pair of boards stained with clay are just as valuable as their classic Alvar Aalto chair and Noguchi lamp. Niels doesn’t care much for the way some people fawn over award-winning designers. “At Frama [which is available in Aotearoa at Slow], we’ve never been concerned with name-snobbery and fame — and that also applies to my home,” he says. “If something’s here, it’s because it works and feels right.”

Funnily enough, Niels didn’t always feel this way. Before moving in here and even longer before he met Franca and invited in her aesthetic, he lived in an all-white apartment decorated with smooth, futuristic-looking furniture by celebrated designers such as Philippe Starck, Jasper Morrison and Piero Lissoni.

“I needed to break out of it, because my life felt imbalanced,” he says. “My home was a backdrop emptied of any real content, and none of it was truly me. My passion for interior design was present, but it wasn’t as personal or experienced and, most importantly, it wasn’t filled with the same joy and tranquillity as today.” >

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This apartment became not only a home, but also a personal project about honesty, through which Niels found his way back to something more basic and meaningful. First, he removed the wallpaper, leaving the walls exposed and raw. Then, he began to create a universe in which the colours come from nature, décor items are chosen from an emotional standpoint and function is a key focus.

“I care about understated and humble objects that carry out their function,” says Niels. “If there’s a small scratch or dent in something, it still has the same value — perhaps even a higher one, because then it’s more unique.”

Fortunately, Franca shares his sentiments, so when she moved in two years ago, she immediately respected the apartment’s original features. Today, her influence on the home is unmistakable, in pieces such as the gorgeous unglazed vases and mugs she’s spent the past year developing and refining, and the books and art arranged in piles throughout the otherwise sparsely furnished rooms.

“Our common goal of creating different and interesting spaces is the same as when people use colours and distinctive furniture, but our tools for accomplishing that are different,” says Niels.

“Our décor can probably be best defined as subtle and understated, yet I think we’ve also managed to find something that can provide a new experience of what a room can be.”

Another passion the couple shares is Franca’s craft, which she works with daily (producing a range of commissioned works and a soon-to-be-released solo series, Edition 00) and Niels encounters through Frama. Unsurprisingly, it’s particularly unique objects made by experienced craftsmen that carry value for them.

“There’s something beautiful in rare and fragile objects — like when you find a handmade spoon of which there’s only one, or a vase that’s fine and delicate,” says Niels. “You often take better care of it and appreciate it more. Something changes in our behaviour in a positive way when we become aware of what we surround ourselves with, and we stop moving around like clumsy elephants.”

The world is becoming more aware, he says, “and when you become aware of what you have, you take better care of your home and your neighbourhood, and care more about what you eat. Caring changes the way you relate to the things around you — not just the place you live, but also the rest of your world.”

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RIGHT This apartment once belonged to a local watchmaker; now, time almost appears to stand still within the walls stripped back to their beginnings. Sunlight drifts in through tall windows shrouded in curtains from Dedar Milano (a thin layer of linen canvas and a thicker layer of raw silk), gently interacting with the muted, nature-inspired colour palette and creating a sense of balanced serenity. The dining table (a marble slab set on stacked gypsum blocks) is dotted with Franca’s ceramics and teamed with 01 chairs by Frama, simply shaped pieces that express the couple’s love of clean, uncomplicated design that never speaks louder than an object’s function. “Copenhagen is a small city but has dense creative opportunities,” says Franca, who graduated from her two-year apprenticeship at Tortus Copenhagen last year.

“It’s very supportive of the arts, so I constantly find myself eager to be working in my studio or on a collaborative project.”

LIVING Niels designed this Farmhouse table himself and produced it through Frama.

As well as an 01 chair, the vintage seating around it includes a Swedish orchestral chair, a chair brought home from Budapest and a classic design by late Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto. On the radiator is a sketch by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, while the Pilaster bookshelf by John Kandell for Källemo invites books to be arranged horizontally while it climbs vertically up the wall.

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“If there’s a small scratch or dent in an object, it still has the same value, and it’s more unique.”

ABOVE A contemplative view of the dining space from one of the two living rooms. In this home, small details matter as much as larger elements, so throughout the apartment are decorative vignettes comprised of objects that complement each other’s shape, colour or material. RIGHT Books on architecture, art, design and philosophy play an important role in Niels and Franca’s décor, and here they’ve stacked them on a timber board retrieved from a demolished local building.

Two more pieces of solid wood, designed by Frama and titled Strandboulevard Form, have been sanded to a smoothness that invites you to run your hands over them. They’re positioned in the centre of the living room as a set of simple sculptures.

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ABOVE Frama’s The Shelf was made to fit the width of the kitchen wall, then filled with Franca’s ceramics mixed with gifts and travel finds, including brass spoons found in Tokyo, jugs brought home from Korea and Japanese cedar cups that Franca’s father bought them as a wedding present. Though they’re all good-looking, each object is defined by its durability.

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KITCHEN The kitchen also features marble-topped, metal-framed Douglas-fir cabinetry, custom-created by Frama along with the timber sink that forms a natural extension of the drawers. All are treated with protective water repellent to improve their longevity. “I adore the fluidity in our kitchen,” says Franca, who also loves to cook.

“The layout is simple and the design is reflective of a purpose, without unnecessary elements.

I often think of it as a blank canvas.” The wall here is an example of a surface that most would regard as uninteresting wear and tear, but which in her and Niels’ home is allowed to appear in all its arbitrary beauty.

BATHROOM “Tranquil” and “humble” are words Franca uses to describe their dimly lit bathroom, which “doesn’t ask for much”. Its minimal, functional fixtures include an MS-1 mirror shelf by Frama, a recycled sink and a marble-topped cabinet for storage, on which sits soap and a scented candle from Frama’s St Paul’s Apothecary line.

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“When you become aware of what you have, you take better care of your home and neighbourhood.”

ABOVE Pressed up against the plaster and slate-tiled wall, the classic enamel tub was given custom-sealed iron feet. RIGHT A throw from Slowdown Studio adds some unexpected colour to the bedroom’s soft, harmonious hues of beige, brown and grey.

Inspired by theatre spotlights, the Projecteur 365 lamp was designed by Le Corbusier in 1954 and today is produced by Nemo Lighting. Here, it serves as a reading light, clamped onto a Crate bookcase by Jasper Morrison for Established & Sons.

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Woman in architecture

Built on a site its owner has adored since he was a kid, this indoor/outdoor space is undoubtedly special, but wait till you see the rest of the bach on page 118. It’s in amazing shape.

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BREMWORTH —— Product profile

Walk this way Every little step we take makes a difference, and you can help build a greener future from the ground up.

NATURAL TALENT The environmental advantages of ditching synthetic carpets and rugs go without saying, but how does choosing wool benefit your home? Among its many skills, it naturally resists odours, stains and fire, and helps control moisture. Wool rugs are also great for adding warmth wherever you need it — the Customisable style pictured top is Galet in Sage and above is Strata from the Handcrafted range.

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In a world in which there’s a lot of talk about sustainability but not nearly enough walk, you can get the warm fuzzies knowing Kiwi company Bremworth is legitimately making great strides towards protecting our precious planet. They’ve been frontrunners on the carpet scene for more than 60 years now, and today they’re leaders of the pack for their commitment to natural-fibre-based products — including their rugs, which also step up the game.

We’re rapt that just like their carpets, Bremworth’s rugs are designed in Aotearoa and manufactured from 100% New Zealand wool — a sustainable, biodegradable, renewable and much healthier local resource. Characterised by bold texture and earthy tones inspired by our landscapes, the Handcrafted collection is made from felted yarn for a luxuriously thick result, with a premium cotton backing. If those statement rugs don’t sweep you off your feet, go Customisable by selecting your ideal style, shape, size, colour and edging. Whatever you choose, you’ll be onto a genuinely good thing. bremworth.co.nz

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CIRCLING Behold a beach house with a childhood connection that makes it a curve in exactly the right place.

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Alice Lines

Simon Wilson

BACK Tom Bowden’s holiday home is at one with the landscape. In a natural amphitheatre on a coastal site near Northland’s Matapouri, the building is shrouded in understated charcoalstained cedar below a shingle roof, allowing it to visually blend into the surrounding bush. There is one distinct feature that sets it apart, though: the floorplan is a semicircle.

Fond memories of a childhood spent playing with his five siblings on their family farm here informed Tom’s decision to build a bach in the same place. “The commitment was made a long time ago, but like many things, the execution was the difficult part,” he says. “It’s taken 30 years to get 118 homest yle

around to building, because we subdivided the land to create a plot for each of the siblings, along with a few others with an interest in conservation, to help raise funds to regenerate the native bush, and we’ve left 92% of it as QEII-covenanted land and bush.”

After having some initial sketches drawn up that didn’t quite fit with his hopes and dreams for this special spot, Tom turned to architect Belinda George for advice. “Belinda’s a friend and someone I’ve worked with for years,” he says. “She came by to do some work on my home in Auckland, so I asked her to have a look. She took it away and came back a few days later with a drawing of this semicircular design.” >

Outside in —— FIRST WINDOWS & DOORS

EXTERIOR The house isn’t quite clifftop, but you can look down the steep bank to a pebbly bay below that ensures the sound of the waves is ever-present. “The other night, I walked down the drive in the moonlight, and I heard a kiwi scuttling into the bush,” says Tom. “You can actually sit here and hear the males and females calling to each other.”

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LIVING Metro Series joinery

by First Windows & Doors was used throughout the home, powdercoated in Matt Black and with Elemental hardware.

In the living zone, picture windows and custom-made raked windows combine with bi-parting over-the-wall sliding doors (which also appear in the kitchen). Tom says the joinery is so well-insulated he was able to do away with curtains here.

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Outside in —— FIRST WINDOWS & DOORS

RIGHT Taking a holistic approach to the project, architect Belinda also specified all aspects of the interior, from the material and colour palettes through to the furniture, which includes a tōtara dining table she designed herself and teamed with Fifties chairs by Calligaris from Dawson & Co. Against the backdrop of cedar timber, her colour palette hints at the blues of the ocean, plus the greens of the pōhutukawa and other plants outside.

BELOW The first time Tom laid eyes on the granite benchtops, they were in a dusty row in a factory in West Auckland, but when they turned up at the bach, they made an undeniably beautiful statement. The curved kitchen island below the slab on the right is finished with fluted iroko timber.

It’s a plan that references marae buildings, with spaces to gather together in and retreat to. Half of the semicircle contains a communal living zone, and the other houses bedrooms, bathrooms and a laundry connected by a breezeway that’s open to the outdoors.

“I told Belinda I’d like not to have any windows limiting that space,” says Tom. Over-the-wall sliders from First Windows & Doors cater perfectly to this request, opening it — and the front of the living zone — right up.

The flexibility to open and close the bach works purposefully to make days here feel ultra-easy. Site-specific furniture such as the dining table and built-in seating were designed by

Belinda, while other pieces, like the outdoor furniture, can be moved to follow the sun, whether for breakfast on the eastern deck, or drinks and dinner beside the outdoor fire in the covered courtyard by the kitchen.

“When I was a kid, we used to play here, and on wet days we’d make our own sleds and come screaming down the hill into this lovely little semicircle above this piece of bush,” says Tom. These days, he enjoys swimming and boating out to the Poor Knights marine reserve and “there’s always plenty to do on the farm itself. On days when I’m an early bird, getting started on the environmental work while the sun rises over the islands is amazing.” > homest yle 121

THIS PAGE The house has fireplaces indoors and out, so “with the big concrete pad, the good windows and double glazing, it manages to stay really warm,” says Tom. “Even in winter, you can walk across the deck from the bedrooms rubbing your hands together, but when you open the door to the main living space, it’s a nice temperature inside.” Speaking of warmth, a cedar hot tub has recently been added to make the most of the magnificent views, another of which is framed below by a picture window by First Windows & Doors.

Tom’s spirit of adventure boded well when realising such a technical design (“The figures required to get this right were huge,” he says. “The builders ended up with a lot of timber offcuts around the site with calculations scrawled all over them”), but he mostly puts the ease of the process down to having trusting relationships with the people he was working with.

“The partnership between Belinda and builder Pete Brown was very important,” he says. “Pete’s built a lot of very good houses on the Tutukaka Coast, so he also knows all the right tradespeople.”

Thanks to its openings on all sides, there’s no formal entrance to this house, and Tom runs an open-door policy for 122 homest yle

friends who want to grab the keys and head here for some downtime. Being off the grid, it’s a place in which to enjoy simple pleasures and a connection to the land captured in the well-planned views and felt through the journey between the public and private zones, making unwinding effortless.

“No matter how long I’ve been away, I always feel relaxed when I arrive here,” says Tom. “When you open up the living space, the scent of the cedar hits you and the warmth is really inviting.”

Deliberately informal yet thoroughly considered, at this coastal retreat, time need only be measured by the tide, and the rising and setting of the sun. firstwindows.co.nz

Outside in —— FIRST WINDOWS & DOORS

LIVING The vertical cedar cladding on the exterior of the bach is repeated inside, but with a tongue-and-groove treatment. Inside, the ceiling pairs cedar battens with Meranti plywood, while outside, the Alaskan yellow cedar roof shingles have been left untreated so rainwater can safely be collected.

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MAIN BEDROOM The sleep spaces feature Metro Series stacker sliding doors and custom-designed raked windows by First Windows & Doors. In contrast to the openness of the living zone, these rooms are designed to cocoon, with heavy linen curtains on the windows and carpet underfoot. Here, a Bloom pendant by Resident echoes the living area’s lighting look. The bedding is from Città.

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Outside in —— FIRST WINDOWS & DOORS

ABOVE At 162m2, the bach is relatively small, but it’s bumped up by 235m2 of deck (a perfect proposition in this sunny part of the country), every board of which had to be shaped to fit the unique building’s curve. Last year, Tom threw a New Year’s party, sliding open the front of the house and both ends to comfortably accommodate 120 guests. BELOW LEFT Per her nature-inspired palette, in this bathroom, Belinda opted for soft green and terracotta tiles. The bespoke vanity pairs a copper sink with the same granite used in the kitchen.

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WINDSOR ARCHITECTURAL HARDWARE —— Product profile

LEFT In a Rumbled Brass finish, this Charleston handle from the Italian range has a cylindrical shape that encourages a sense of balance. It draws from an industrial aesthetic, making it a good match for interiors with similar elements, such as exposed beams. BELOW With a subtle colonial vibe, this Federal design joins the straight edges of the lever to the rose with contoured detailing. The handle pictured has an OilRubbed Bronze finish that, like the rest of the Italian range, works well with other natural materials, including timber, steel, stone and concrete.

Star turns A well-chosen supporting cast can put on an impressive performance.

Your ongoing happiness is in your hands when you’re renovating or building, so we advocate investing in as many seemingly minor details as possible. Of all the easily overlooked aspects of a home, door handles are up there, but consider them key players from the start and you’ll reap the rewards on the regular.

Locally crafted but with a European sensibility, we can’t help but notice Windsor’s high-end Italian range. Forged and machined in Italy from top-quality brass, then hand-finished in Invercargill, this handsome selection of architectural hardware encompasses six collections of handles in rose and longplate form.

To create the Italian range’s 15 different finishes, Windsor uses a variety of metal treatments that specialists then perfect by hand to create a natural patina.

Bespoke but batch-processed for cohesive colour, some finishes can be left raw to age gracefully and others sealed with your choice of matte or gloss lacquer. Open the door to the look that suits you, inviting premium pleasure into your everyday. windsorhardware.co.nz 126 homest yle

Interview: Andrea Hammond. Photography: (this page) Michelle Weir and (following pages) Jessica Chloe Gernat. Interior styling: Sam van Kan

Can you feel it?

Continuing our series with Architecture+Women NZ, we talked to Lisa Day of Auckland’s DonnellDay.

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Woman in architecture —— DESIGN

ABOVE “I believe spaces need to be inspirational, restorative and healthy, as well as functional and responsive to the ecosystem in which they’re located,” says Lisa. The home pictured here and on the following pages is DonnellDay’s Beachlands House. It centres around the living room, where the owners like to come together — a gabled space that captures their favourite view. Elements throughout, like the oak flooring, were chosen to stimulate the senses and encourage touch — by walking barefoot, for example.

Lisa, you take an intriguing approach to your craft… The approach I’ve developed over the past 10 years at DonnellDay Architecture follows principles of intuitive design. It combines a responsiveness to the individual requirements of the client, the site and the environment with elements of biophilic design, which adopts aspects of the natural world to contribute to human health, wellbeing and performance.

I think a home needs to feel as though it’s ‘meant to be’. It should gently encourage and enable people to focus on the core aspects of the architectural brief they identified as being important to them: to rest, to share meals with their family…

Can you tell us a little more about intuitive design? It’s tailored around the use and experience of a space — people’s innate response to being and belonging there. It’s about homes, not houses — spaces that connect people to their environment and community, which means emotion, warmth, comfort, sustainability and how the place works need to be in harmony.

It’s sustainable design with soul.

At the heart of it, we’re designing around real life, rather than generic expectations of or assumptions about how someone ‘should’ live.

Collaboration is important to us, our clients and the builders; projects grow around these discussions and become something everyone has a core role in.

Just as people need food, air and community, we thrive on a connection with nature, and integrating this understanding into the design and materials of a building is another key way to create an emotional attachment to settings and places, and to encourage our psychological wellbeing. These biophilic principles are integral to the way I design, and their benefits have been well researched over the years. Studies have also shown that a visual connection with nature — a green outlook, natureinspired imagery, natural materials, daylight — reduces stress, and enhances cognitive function and mood. Even non-visual links with nature, through textures, sounds and smells, have been found to have benefits. > homest yle 129

ABOVE The natural environment is incorporated through the home’s outlook, materials, textures and colours, which reflect the world outside. RIGHT The journey through the building follows the sun, and is designed around a pair of stairwells that allow sunshine and moonlight to penetrate the middle of the main and guest wings.

How should people brief their architect if they want to achieve such results?

They should explain how they want to feel when they close the door behind them and when they move through and settle down into a space. It’s also helpful to discuss where you feel most like yourself.

How did your international career inform what you do in Aotearoa?

After graduating from the University of Auckland’s School of Architecture, and before founding DonnellDay with my husband Scott Donnell, I worked at a number of high-profile practices, including Allies & Morrison in London.

There I worked on the refit of the Royal Festival Hall, which in some ways is 130 homest yle

a ‘music box’ and saw me take a sensory approach. I learned about acoustics and the emotional effect the space has on the audience, which influenced the way I design around the senses today.

Is there a recent local project that brings all this to life? Our Beachlands House in Auckland is a good example. The building is designed to appear as a simple weatherboard cottage from the road, but against the scale of the cliff, it unfolds into a larger form. The layout has a sense of mystery as you discover the different wings and levels; there’s a journey through it that encourages exploration.

The materials were selected with a tactile approach in mind. The floor is lined with rustic timber, the stairwells

are lined with weatherboards, and other robust detailing brings to mind the old baches that are common in this area.

Meanwhile, the colours were intended to tie in with the natural environment.

It probably goes without saying that the house heats and cools itself through responding to the sun and passive ventilation through electronic skylights.

How can a home like this improve the everyday? No building can solve every life problem, but architects can create environments that, if used well, have the potential to have a positive impact on how you live. Then it’s up to you to do that to the full. donnellday.co.nz; architecturewomen.org.nz

Woman in architecture —— DESIGN

“When you’re in our spaces, we want you to instinctively and intuitively feel ‘at home’ — that this is a place you’re meant to be in.”

ABOVE The simple form of the exterior — traditional cottage proportions with a low entry volume between them — belies the differing floor levels within the two gabled wings that offer new ways of seeing the landscape as you move through the house.

LEFT A quiet library corner. With this home, DonnellDay provided a rich experience, but not a complicated one. Sight lines towards the sea and the main living areas provide a guiding feeling of clarity, organisation and connection.

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EDITIONS

A curated offering of furniture and lighting designed and made in Aotearoa. homestyle-editions.co.nz

Living 134

Shop

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Self-care

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Intentional interiors

Even when you really want to make the change, it can be hard to grasp whether solid-bar haircare will work for you, so we road-tested the products profiled on page 136 and can confirm they’re all that.

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STYLE —— Shop

Well & good

Everyday delights that make life more liveable.

DOSE WITH THE MOST If you haven’t been using mushrooms to enhance your health, you’re a few thousand years behind the medicinal wisdom, so let’s catch you up. We’d start with these lovely Relax capsules

by Auckland’s Mother Made. Containing 100% organic reishi mushrooms expertly prepared for maximum potency, they’ll stop you feeling so strung out, while supporting sleep and immunity. mothermade.co.nz

KNOT TODAY… … gone tomorrow, once you get hold of one of Re-Comb’s cool tools. Devised to combat waste in the haircare industry and reframe a throwaway material as something that can be useful, beautiful and long-lasting, they’re crafted entirely from recycled plastic. This Lavendar Pink comb is in one of three different styles in myriad marbled hues. re-comb.com

STEP ON IT

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Yes, of course, toys are for kids, but would it hurt to make them fit with the adults’ aesthetic? Melbourne brand Jnr Life doesn’t think so — their play shapes and mats are pleasingly pared back and a pleasure to have around. Plus, they’re built to last from non-toxic materials and delivered in reusable packaging.

widdess.co.nz

jnrlife.com

Words: Philippa Prentice

PLAY & DISPLAY

You might want to get onto the fun new range of socks by Auckland label Widdess — they’re already proving so popular, they’re practically walking out the door. Named Sokken (Dutch for ‘sock’) as a nod to designer Yvonna van Hulzen’s heritage, they’re available in cotton, wool and cashmere blends in all kinds of colours intended to jazz up your outfits not just in winter but year-round.

VESTED INTEREST There are major personal benefits to be gained from the hot tip that vests are back in vogue — and from the knowledge that Monday Journal makes them (and other sweet pieces) by hand in Wanaka. You can buy your vest ready to roll or via a custom order, or knit one by purchasing the downloadable beginner’s pattern.

It’s for the stripey number pictured and can come with needles and your choice of wool if you want. mondayjournal.co

ONE FOR ALL Ever wondered what the difference is between dish and laundry liquids, or why you’d use products in the bathroom that are too toxic for the kitchen? If you think about it, the modern lifestyle raises many, many questions, but the Kiwis at Everdaily actually have the answer: one plant- and mineral-based concentrate you blend with water in refillable bottles. everdaily.co

ODE TO JOY Dedicated to happiness and padded for comfort, the Ione slides and mules in the Nelson Made x Maggie Marilyn capsule collection are great for walking on sunshine and dancing the night away. Handmade in an ethically accredited familyrun factory, they also uphold both brands’ environmental standards with details like their low-impact recycled leather. nelsonmade.com.au

Solid decision

Photography: Grace Gemuhluoglu and Sphaera

Ready to make a great choice for your hair and the planet? Get your hands on Sphaera’s new range. All its beautiful benefits are explained here by its creator Ali Johnson.

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Self-care —— LIVING

Soon after my sister-in-law Suni Hermon and I launched our first range of Sphaera cold-process soap bars in 2015, customers started asking us for solid-state shampoo and conditioner products as well. Combined with our interest in new ideas and production processes, those early enquiries inspired us to create a fully resolved haircare solution — one that meets high standards of clean beauty and sustainability, is a pleasure to use, and delivers tangible results for the look, feel and health of your hair. Three years of research and development later, we’ve now released our new haircare collection.

Many of us are becoming conscious of our impact on the environment and looking for ethical products that don’t compromise on performance. Suni’s and my first goal for these new products was to formulate premium shampoo and conditioner that we loved, then translate that into bar form, without losing any of the good stuff. This involved extensive research into many areas, including the latest in green chemistry, and the needs of the hair and scalp microbiome.

At Sphaera, we believe washing your hair is an opportunity to have a quiet

moment to yourself in a busy world, and beautiful products you can use with a clean conscience can enhance that precious time. With that in mind, as well as offering great results, it was important to us that our haircare be enjoyable to use, so we considered all aspects of the bars very carefully.

After much testing, we settled on a distinctive puck shape that sits comfortably and securely in the hand and supports the bars to dry well between uses. But the evocative effect of fragrance on memory and mood has always fascinated me, so my favourite part of creating these new products was definitely the scent profile. Balancing the interaction between the beneficial, therapeutic aspects of the essential oils while offering lovely scents, the resulting custom botanical blends infuse this new range with an uplifting mix of bright citrus notes grounded by warm, woody undertones.

We enhanced the bars’ advanced formulations with effective natural plant actives such as hibiscus flower, quinoa protein and green tea extract, each of which provides their own unique benefits. In three options to suit all hair types, the shampoo bars

have a satisfyingly rich lather that gently cleanses while respecting the hair and scalp’s pH balance. A choice of three different conditioner bars offers light to deep conditioning depending on your needs.

Suni and I crafted this collection in our Wellington studio. What we decided to leave out is as important as what we put in, so it’s free of sulphates, silicones, soap, palm oil, phthalates, parabens, and artificial colours and fragrances — and it comes in home-compostable packaging.

Products for the hair and body are something that can easily be changed in our routines to reduce our use of plastics. They offer so many added benefits, including being biodegradable, super-concentrated and long-lasting.

Formulating this collection has been such a privilege and taught us so much about truly sustainable practices, our community of friends and customers, and the possibilities of conscious green beauty products without compromise.

It’s our hope that this new generation of shampoo and conditioner bars will inspire more people to make the switch to sustainable haircare — while enjoying gorgeous, healthy hair, of course. sphaera.co.nz

SETTING THE BAR Sphaera’s expectation-exceeding shampoo and conditioner comes in Balance & Volume, Hydration & Shine and Nourish & Restore formulas. The ones on these pages are the former, enriched with an alchemic blend of activated charcoal, passionfruit seed oil and rice protein to exfoliate and refresh the scalp, balance oil production and enhance your hair’s shine, bounce and volume.

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FISHER & PAYKEL —— Intentional interiors

Playing for keeps ST YLIN G Sam van Kan PH OTO G R APHY Wendy Fenwick

Editor Alice Lines talks textiles and ways to make them live well for longer.

BACKDROP (throughout) Walls in (from top) Resene SpaceCote Flat in Resene Double Spanish White; Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen in Resene Black; Resene Spacecote Low Sheen in Resene Travis, resene.co.nz. ABOVE, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT Pebble Weave rug, from $3595, nodirugs.com. Gingham Merino throw by John Atkinson, $255, tessuti.co.nz. Daily armchair, $2313, cittadesign.com. Arum lamp by Ferm Living, $1589, slowstore.co.nz. Charlton fabric (used as curtain), POA, jamesdunloptextiles.com.

Disc Squab cushion by Klay, $160, tessuti.co.nz. Cotton Velvet cushion cover, $50, cittadesign.com. Cushion by A&C Linen, $100, achomestore.co.nz.

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LEFT, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT Conic Stem vase, $200, monmouthglassstudio.com.

Tablecloth by A&C Linen, $110, achomestore.co.nz. Theo chair, $309, thecanecollective.co. Square cup, $65, monmouthglassstudio. com. Scalloped platter by Rachel Carley Ceramics, $207, tessuti.co.nz.

Japanese Tenugui towel, $45, everyday-needs.com. Salad servers

by Petley, $175, everyday-needs.com.

Citrus juicer by Gidon Bing, $61, everyday-needs.com.

To help your favourite fabrics live and look lovely for longer, you need both a will and a way, and the top technology of Fisher & Paykel’s newest front-loading ActiveIntelligence™ Steam Care washing machine and Heat Pump Condensing Steam Care dryer is a great pick for the latter. Between them, these leading appliances have 48 cycles (many of which are complementary) that enable you to give your textiles proper TLC.

You do hue

How do you make your house your home?

I think it’s important to focus on making it a place in which you can truly live — day in, day out. Beyond aesthetics, decorating to create such an intentional interior is an opportunity to level up by paying extra attention to the ‘ordinary’ things you actually need and use — like your textiles.

Whether it’s the pillowcases you wake up on every morning or the curtains you draw every night, buying what you really need, buying less and buying well is the first step. Caring for your pieces then becomes crucial to ensuring you get the most out of them.

A simple way to stay on course when curating an interior that reflects your lifestyle, not trends, is to establish a colour scheme — and remember: opting to invest in quality items in beautiful, natural materials doesn’t mean resigning yourself to only neutral hues.

The palette on these pages shows how a selection of bolder shades — chocolate, blue, yellow, terracotta and black — can punctate a neutral base and transition from room to room. Let this concept be your buyer’s guide — you’ll find having a list of four or five colours to refer to will provide clarity when you’re shopping.

To keep your chosen colours vibrant, wash them at lower temperatures, and as well as combining whites with whites and brights with brights, make sure you clean similar textiles together.

The aforementioned Fisher & Paykel washing machine has an LCD display that makes customising your washes a breeze, while the dryer boasts TangleProtect tech that ensures each load dries evenly, helping to preserve the integrity of your colours.

You could also opt to steam rather than wash, taking advantage of the washer and dryer’s new Steam Care >

FISHER & PAYKEL —— Intentional interiors

LIFESTYLING Living

Living room textiles are ideal for layering in ways that link to your lifestyle.

Incorporate cushions of different sizes and shapes for any occasion — from creating a Netflix nest on the couch to meditating on the rug — and mix wool throws with lighter cotton ones kids can use for their DIY forts.

Dining

When building a collection of table linen that’s interchangeable for any event, let yourself be a bit playful. Classics such as the gingham and stripes we’ve used here are back, and in cohesive colours can work together to create a modern mood.

Bathroom

It’s such a simple touch, but even just one high-end hand towel can brighten your bathroom and your day. Have a couple on rotation so you can alter the atmosphere week to week. Statement prints like the one hanging here are stylists’ secret weapon.

Bedroom

Why devote yourself to only linen or cotton bedding? Both have their benefits, so overleaf we’ve teamed linen with jersey knit. Bright, stacked pillows make a statement against the paler duvet, while the throw is a patterned yet tonal extra.

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I like to consider the elements that provide physical and mental comfort during those at-home rituals.

feature. It lets you refresh textiles without the need for a full wash cycle and helps to remove creases, so you don’t need to iron afterwards.

Get in touch

In deciding how a room should come together, I like to consider the elements that provide physical and mental comfort during those regular at-home rituals. For me, comfort is also about thoughtfulness, so think ahead and layer your space with textiles your future self will thank you for.

Satisfy your senses by choosing materials in contrasting textures for tactile appeal, pairing woven and velvet cushions with woollen throws, say.

Keep them in good nick with regular steaming or gentle washing. This Fisher & Paykel washing machine has an 11kg drum and a Delicate cycle that are brilliant for large or finicky items such as cushion covers, and a Woolmark-certified Wool setting that’s perfect for knits.

Do the right thing

Sometime in the past few decades, price

OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM FRONT LEFT Grace plinth (used as vanity), $2889, thecanecollective.co. Hayes bath towel, $80; Tama hand towel, $45, shopbaina.com. Arc wall mirror, $490, cittadesign.com. Akebia table mat, $45; Citrus & Poppy Seed soap by Sphaera, $26; facial massage brush by Iris Hantverk, $50; Bio-Nutrient face oil by Maryse, $62; Bio-Boost serum

by Maryse, $44, everyday-needs.com. Dome pendant light, $490, monmouthglassstudio.com. Josephine hand towel, $45, shopbaina.com.

and convenience began to trump quality, and now stores are overflowing with cheap pieces poorly and unethically made from environmentally harmful synthetics. So what’s the real cost?

You might be in the swing of questioning the origins of your clothing, but do you ever wonder who made your sheets? If not, it’s time to let important details such as sustainability and traceability inform your homeware purchases. Do your research, and choose small, local and reputable brands whose production processes are kind to both people and the environment.

As an excellent alternative to washing that saves both water and energy, this washing machine’s Steam Care can help to uphold your principles while caring for well-made textiles; washing less is a way to increase their longevity, keeping them out of landfill. The machine’s ActiveIntelligence™ tech also cleverly adjusts your wash times for maximum energy-efficiency, while its Auto Dose feature intuitively determines the amount of detergent you need, so you never overdo it. Meanwhile, as well as its heat pump condensing >

RIGHT, CLOCKWISE FROM FRONT LEFT Bed socks by General Sleep Store, $69, tessuti.co.nz. Balanced lamp by Petley x Monmouth Glass Studio, $3200, monmouthglassstudio.com.

Luisa Bon Nuit glassware

by R&D Lab, $275, tessuti. co.nz. Yoko fitted sheet, from $99, dehei.co. Linen Standard pillowcase

by Cultiver, $119/pair, fatherrabbit.com. Mimosa pillowcase, $60/pair, dehei.co. Linen flat sheet

by Cultiver, $255, father rabbit.com. Eucalyptus duvet cover, from $155, dehei.co. Throw by Finn Godbolt, $495, everydayneeds.com. Tasseled Wool rug, from $2295, nodirugs.com.

technology designed to effectively dry at textile-friendly low temperatures, the dryer has a class-leading 10-star energy rating.

making old tablecloths and napkins as good as new, even removing odours.

Age & wisdom

Meeting the needs of your lifestyle, your favourite pieces and the planet feels good — and so does treating yourself right. Everyday luxuries like organic towels are self-care tools that can really boost your wellbeing. And while you’re using them to care for yourself, the Hygiene cycles of this washer and dryer care for them, killing more than 99.9% of bacteria and reducing allergens. Talk about living well…

Vintage textiles have a certain charm that adds a graceful patina to an interior, but if you keep these precious pieces stored away for best, you might find they’re musty and creased when you come to use them. Steam Care is the ultimate hack for nipping this in the bud (as well as when you’re styling with contemporary textiles and time is short),

Better living

Intentional interiors —— FISHER & PAYKEL

Take advantage of this washer and dryer’s new Steam Care feature. It lets you refresh textiles without the need for a full wash cycle.

ABOVE, APPLIANCES, FROM LEFT Fisher & Paykel 11kg ActiveIntelligence™ Steam Care Front Loader washing machine, WH1160F2 $3699; Fisher & Paykel 9kg Steam Care Heat Pump Condensing dryer, DH9060FS1 $3499, fisherpaykel.com. OTHER ITEMS, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT Ash Beam slide handle, from $319, powersurge.co.nz. Woodford pool towel, $110; Hayes bath towel, $80; St Clair bath towel, $80; Beppu bath mat, $90, shopbaina.com. Chequerboard towel by Classiky, $25, everyday-needs.com. Tama hand towel, $45, shopbaina.com. Curvature double hook by Ferm Living, $120, slowstore.co.nz. Japanese table brush, $70, everyday-needs.com. Vase and foliage stylist’s own.

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GODFREY HIRST —— Flooring

POWERSURGE —— Homeware

FREEDOM —— Furniture & homeware

Godfrey Hirst believe the quintessential easygoing Kiwi lifestyle should resonate in our interiors. They’ve built a reputation as one of New Zealand’s premier carpet manufacturers and hard-flooring distributors through consistently providing consumers with innovative, high-quality and stylish floor-covering solutions.

Elevating home essentials into artisanal accents, Powersurge’s Winter 21 collection presents a timeless suite of brass pendant lights alongside handles, mirrors and furniture.

Visit the website for the full Home collection of brass furnishings and accessories, handmade in their Auckland studio.

For nearly 25 years, Freedom has been sending you home with beautiful furniture and homeware at great prices — and now they’re excited to bring you new styles curated especially for you. These gorgeous pieces are designed to fit seamlessly into your home, making it easy to personalise your buys, piece them together with old favourites and create your own unique look.

godfreyhirst.com

info@powersurge.co.nz powersurge.co.nz

freedomfurniture.co.nz

PHOENIX —— Tapware

THREAD DESIGN —— Interiors

BLANCO —— Kitchens

Phoenix’s award-winning Lexi MKII collection builds on the distinctive linear profile of Lexi with a sleeker, more sophisticated aesthetic. The tapware’s slender-profile outlet and pin handle is now elongated, offering a more streamlined, complex engineering element. Another standout feature of the new collection is the energy-saving Cold Start cartridge technology in the basin and vessel mixers, which have achieved a WELS 6-star rating for water-efficiency. Available at Mico.

Bring the natural beauty of mountain scenery into your home with this unique print by Thread Design. Inspired by New Zealand landscapes, the Altitude collection is created for adventurers and nature lovers. It’ll elevate your home to new heights.

Since 1925, Blanco has encapsulated sinks, taps and appliances that combine quality, design and service. Established in Germany, they pioneered the innovative Silgranit sink and tap material that’s scratch-resistant, and easy to clean and maintain. Now providing refined kitchen essentials to New Zealand homes, Blanco aims to be recognised and respected as the leading brand in kitchen technology solutions.

phoenixtapware.co.nz

threaddesign.co.nz

blanco.co.nz

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DULUX —— Colour design service

BLUM —— Hardware

CORCOVADO —— Interiors

With Dulux’s Colour Design Service, a skilled interior designer can help you select the right hues for your home. Choose either the In-Home option (from $125 per hour) or the new Online Colour Consultation service ($89 for one hour). Conditions apply; to book and for more information, visit the website or call the number below.

Blum has opened its new destination for storage inspiration in Christchurch at 16 Avenger Crescent in Wigram. Featuring high-tech, sustainable designs and materials, it’s an innovative space where South Island customers can experience how creative interior design can be implemented throughout the home in the form of high-quality fittings.

Come and see for yourself.

Corcovado’s Swiss armchair is now available in a new shade, Copper. Designed by Corcovado, the cushions are made in New Zealand from 100% Belgian linen and commercial-grade foam, wrapped for softness to create the right level of comfort and support. Sustainably sourced, the frame’s teak timber ensures each piece has its own unique grain, warmth and beauty.

0800 800 424 dulux.co.nz/services

blum.com

corcovado.co.nz

FELTEX —— Carpet

BOCONCEPT —— Interior design

PLUMBLINE —— Bathrooms

Synonymous with style, luxury and integrity, Feltex design for and are inspired by New Zealand. As leading manufacturers of the finest carpet, they set the benchmark for quality in wool and wool-blend options.

When you choose a Feltex carpet, you can rely on almost 100 years of manufacturing experience and expertise.

BoConcept are experts at making design, furniture and colour come together in your home. If you need someone to bounce ideas off, their interior decorators are on hand to help you complete any scheme — single rooms, small apartments, big houses or corporate spaces. Book a free consultation with one of BoConcept’s interior decorators today.

Plumbline’s range of contemporary and traditional bathroom and kitchen products is carefully selected for their enduring quality, exceptional design and outstanding value. With one of the most extensive bathroom collections in New Zealand, it’s your one-stop destination for your bathroom or kitchen project. Visit a Plumbline showroom or the website for the latest ideas.

feltex.com

info@boconcept.co.nz boconcept.co.nz

plumbline.co.nz

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Winter 21 A contemporary collection of homeware, furniture and lighting elevating home essentials into artisan accents.

powersurge.co.nz

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Made in New Zealand

100% Pure New Zealand Wool

GRANDIOSE Featured Colour: Country French