House and Garden

Glenn Kirby 021 041 5128

glenn.kirby@bayleys.co.nz

Your real estate sales, marketing and communication specialist

Licensed Under the REA Act 2008

quirky pieces of furniture. Our mix of old and new really fi ts Bianca’s style,” Simone says. “I would call her style brave and quite exciti ng, I get a real buzz out of look at Bianca’s creati ons, they are just amazing … I’m completely in awe watching her do what she does, how it just evolves so quickly and naturally, and the scale is always perfect, her eye for balance is perfect.” Simone has been working on cosying up her store, swapping out cooler whites and

sea-tones for warmer colours like reds and oranges. Cinnamon House has recently turned fi ve, and has grown from strength to strength since opening alongside her work designing interiors for clients’ homes, Simone says. “The interior design side of it feeds the shop and likewise the shop feeds the interior design, they both go hand in hand,” she says. “I really opened the shop because I didn’t feel like I could fi nish my houses, it started off as an idea to have a showroom but over the last fi ve years it’s grown legs and turned into a really busy retail space.” Simone has loved enabling others to feel inspired by the items and displays in store. “I really like the fact that people are able to come in and look and they may never intend to buy but they may go home and fi nd things that they have shoved in cupboards, that’s cool with me,” Simone says. Recently, she established a mancave in store, a space adorned with vintage machinery and gentlemen’s magazines from the 50s, complete with hand painted ‘poster girl’ cutouts. “It has things from their childhood that they haven’t seen for years and years … a man cave where wives can deposit bored husbands who are trying to hurry them out of the shop,” Simone says. Bianca and Simone have been working together on a range of ideas to bring warmth into the home during winter, from lighti ng candles during the day to careful placements of lamps to swapping cooler toned light bulbs to warm-toned bulbs. Creati ng cosy and inviti ng spaces during the winter does not have to be an enti re redesign, but is a matt er of starti ng with items already in the home and building on and rearranging them to create a new look and feel. “For me it’s layering up textures, chunky knit throws or fur, be it real or fake, things like hydes, skins and feathers,” Simone says. “Use what you have at home, bringing the outside in is always nice,” Bianca adds.

In the meantime, below are a few tips from Simone on creating warm spaces in your home this winter:

1Add a couple of warm toned cushions to your existi ng mix. Think shades of autumn leaves like mustard golds, copper oranges and rusty reds.

2Layer up textures with chunky knits, fur and soft wool throws on sofas and chairs. Have extra blankets folded in a basket on the fl oor.

Change your light bulbs from bright white to warm amber to soft en the light with a cosy glow.

3

4Use a round mirror as a tray underneath a collecti on of candlesti ck holders of diff erent heights. When lit, the fl ame will refl ect in the 5 mirror creati ng a stunning eff ect. Dot tea light candles in small glasses and jars everywhere. Old crystal and cut glass works well to add litt le pops of sparkling glow. 6Put sheepskin rugs on the fl oor in front of your favourite chairs. If real skins don’t appeal, there are great false opti ons available.

7Put tall branches of winter greenery in vases and urns to bring the outdoors in when it’s too cold venture out.

8String warm white fairy lights along the top of consoles and sideboards. Batt ery powered opti ons are great as you are not limited to where the power points are.

9Wipe essenti al oils such as cinnamon and apple spice onto low watt age light bulbs in lamps; the smell will evoke memories of 10 grandma’s house and fresh baking. Finally, if you’ve been considering it, get a cat - nothing feels as cosy as a kitt y curled up on your lap on a cold winter evening.

In with the Old:

STORY BY KAT DUGGAN SARAH HODGETT

5 Tapped Bar Strikes Balance Between Old and New.

Tucked away amid three of the Blenheim’s most central streets is it’s best hidden bar.

For many it’s ‘the old Tux factory’, for other’s it’s home to Creatures of Habit, Blenheim’s newest barbershop, and while some know it for what it is, 5 Tapped Bar, others are yet to discover the hidden gem. Co-owner Haydn Mearns says it’s not uncommon to have a visitor who has just discovered their existence, despite having been open for a year this month.

Prior to that, Haydn and his wife, co-owner Nikky Mearns spent another year turning the former factory into an eclecti c and cosy space, kitt ed out with an array of vintage pieces from furniture, painti ngs and displays through to instruments, old bikes and old cars. Walls in the women’s bathroom are donned with vintage mirrors and hairbrushes, a vanity has been put together using old weatherboards and cabinet draws collected out of a rubbish bin, while the foot pedals of two drum kits are used to operate its taps. “The bathroom is all new but it’s been designed to look old,” Haydn says.

Some of the doors for the bar were salvaged from a post-earthquake house demoliti on in Kekerengu, while many other pieces were stumbled upon at scrap yards or were too hard to walk away from in anti que shops. “It’s just evolved, obviously I like old stuff , old cars, old bikes, just old ,” Haydn says. “This is kind of my take on a similar concept that’s not new, but to be honest it was all done low budget so there was a lot of recycling, a lot of repurposing and cost cutti ng which is how it’s ended up giving it a bit of atmosphere and character.” Haydn considers himself lucky to have been able to set up 5 Tapped Bar, a project he says pulls on all the best bits of a range of diff erent career paths he has mastered; including engineering, mechanical, electrical and automoti ve trades to servicing espresso machines and making great coff ee. Originally from the United Kingdom, Nikky had two decades in the hospitality industry under her belt, and had previously considered opening a restaurant and bar both there and here in New Zealand. Opening a bar seemed a natural step, she says. “It doesn’t surprise me that I’ve ended up setti ng up and owning a bar … I’m also an accountant so I managed all the fi nances for the project.” Haydn says he has Nikky to thank for allowing him to take the risk and set up his dream business in a town they had not long called home. “With my trade history it was a 14 month set up, which was the best gap year ever for me, because I got to fi t out the inside of the place and was lucky enough to be in a positi on to be able to take a year off and create this place,” Haydn says. “Nikky, my wife was just the key to encouraging me and putti ng me in this positi on where we were able to do it and a lot of her ideas and input are here too, it has been very much a joint venture. If I had run out of ideas and got stuck then she would fi ll in the blanks, so I was super lucky to have her support and encouragement … without that it would never have happened.” As the name alludes, 5 Tapped Bar has fi ve beers on tap at any one ti me, however no replacement keg is ever the same. The same goes for the coff ee beans, which are refreshed with something new each ti me the supply runs out. “Cafés are typically committ ed to one brand, usually by supply contracts and I always

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