Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2024 i homestyle

I’m writing this letter as afternoon sun streams through the west-facing window in my home office. I’ll down tools shortly to head out to the chirping cicadas in the garden, where my son Ted has taken to dining alfresco while I squeeze in a bit of weeding, which occasionally turns into a water fight. We relish the lingering daylight and this time spent together, and enjoying moments like these is something I want to continue as we settle back into the structure of the new year. Rather than a complete rehash of our regular routine, though, I’m inventing ways to hit refresh. They’re not grand gestures — right now I’m all about the smallpleasures approach to making the most of everyday life at home. This issue, we’ve visited some inspiring…

There’s a must-see show on now until March 3 at Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland gallery Objectspace that examines a single item from its earliest documented period of local production. Curated by Kim Paton, with exhibition and graphic design by Inhouse, The Chair: A story of design and making in Aotearoa covers 170 years in New Zealand’s annals — and a book of the same name is set to be published (Objectspace, $45) as an extension of it. The result of a 12-month deep dive into a domestic object that’s essential from the minute we clock in in the morning till our downtime at night, the potted history profiles 110 chairs by 83 designers and makers — 14 of them unknown. Since many chairs have gone unrecognised in related records (which began with…

PEOPLE —— Artist profile MAGIC EYE If you ask Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland’s Loren Marks what painting is to her, she’ll describe it as a chaotic blend of exploration, discovery, risk, experimentation, vulnerability, expression, dialogue, balance, harmony, energy and reflection. Some of her earliest memories are of wanting to paint, and she says it’s always felt as if it’s been part of her life in some way. Recently, after a decade spent working full-time as a textile designer in the fashion industry, she established a regular studio practice on the side. So Loren, how do your various creative outlets feed into each other? I find it incredible how the human mind is able to subconsciously absorb what it sees and reinterpret it as art. I didn’t consciously intend for them to be…

HOMES For most of us, getting away from it all would not involve staying home. At architect Eva Nash’s, there’s no place like it for feeling as if you’re in another realm — and not just one. The experience begins at the front gate. The brief given to landscapers Babylon Gardens described three distinct outdoor areas: a tree-lined entry with hints of a Nordic forest, a leafy courtyard surrounded by lush natives, and a separate magical fairy garden to grant the wish of the resident seven-year-old. Each now acts as subtle portal to a new mood, while inside, Rogan Nash Architects’ expert harnessing of light has made the house its own little world— with several others within it, all designed to uplift and inspire. In their full-service practice encompassing architecture…

WINDSOR ARCHITECTURAL HARDWARE —— Product profile Leading with the best when you enter your home and the rooms within it requires getting to grips with your door handles as a key part of your design process. They can ultimately see your abode age terribly if you don’t, so to ensure lasting appeal, be guided by your architectural aesthetic while considering how you want them to feel to the touch. Ensure cohesion throughout your home, but know your handles (and other hardware) don’t have to match exactly — you could champion a common thread other than colour or material, such as the same shapes with different finishes or different shapes with the same finish. Currently celebrating 40 years in business, Invercargill-based Windsor Architectural Hardware’s on-point artisan finishes began back in the…

Case study —— FISHER & PAYKEL Aquintessential Queenslander in Queensland but updated through an unpretentious approach to minimalism, Coorparoo House by Brisbane architects Nielsen Jenkins strikes an expert balance between openness, connection and privacy. The essence of this iconic style of Australian architecture — which originated in the early 1900s and responds to the region’s subtropical climate through characteristic details (like the classic verandah) that encourage passive ventilation and enable outdoor living — is evident in spaces that lend themselves to a relaxed lifestyle that blurs the boundary between inside and out. Architects Lachlan Nielsen and Morgan Jenkins wanted to stay true to the Queenslander typology while responding to the context of the site. “We’re lucky up here in Queensland, because we can have a really direct connection to the…

FULL EYE CONTACT We’ve got some serious chemistry with Woodwrights’ insanely handsome SBR T01 table and C01 chair, a pulse-quickening collaboration with Te Whanganui-a-Tara/ Wellington architecture and interiors studio Seear-Budd Ross. Manufactured in Motueka from sustainably sourced American oak or ash finished with a special matte lacquer that keeps the timber as close as possible to its natural state, an attractive feature of the minimal yet weighty table is its repeated negative detail, and we can’t stop staring at the chair’s three tapered legs that convey a potent combo of strength and sophistication. woodwrights.co.nz L IS FOR LOVE IT You don’t spend seven years in London as an associate partner at the world’s largest independent design agency and put just anything on your baby’s bedroom walls. Now working remotely back…

Marilou, you collaborated with New Zealand interior designer Rufus Knight on your new Naarm/Melbourne store’s fit-out — how did that play out? This is the third store Rufus and his team have designed for Kowtow, the first being the flagship in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/ Wellington and the second in Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland. Each space is different but the brief is always the same: what materials can we use that are sustainable and natural? Like our clothing, the design started with circularity in mind; both of our teams are inspired by finding beauty in functionality and natural materials. The new store was once a home and is quite narrow, with high ceilings, and I love how the design embraces the verticality and height. Our stores always appear more pared back than our…

Having attended kindergarten, primary school and intermediate together a year apart, Catherine and Lee Wilkinson were students at the same high school when they were ‘officially’ introduced by a mutual friend. “We kind of just started hanging out and never stopped,” she says. “It feels like we’ve never been apart.” It’s a wonderful life the interior designer/stylist and her husband are creating — and in the renovation of their mid-century family home, they’ve embodied that sentiment in bricks and mortar. The luck of joining forces at such a young age and the good fortune that’s followed might lead one to ponder the role fate could be playing in this twosome’s trajectory. Does she believe in destiny? “Oh, 100% — especially with houses, because there’s so much that’s not under your…

Departing Ōtautahi/Christchurch on a misty morning, I travel north with some apprehension as to what the weather will be like for our photoshoot. Luckily, as I pass through the small towns beyond the city, the low cloud dissipates, and by the time I’m making my way through the Waipara Valley, the green hills are meeting bright blue sky as row upon row of vines flash by on either side of the road. I’m on my way to Kumiko’s Guest House, a stay I’ve heard plenty about and have been eager to visit for a while. The North Canterbury microclimate has made this area an excellent spot for grape growing — and a pretty great place for a getaway a short drive from the city too. Winding up the drive past…

Architects Diana Żurek and Gutek Girek of Furora Studio say they try to create spaces that are “comfortable but not obvious — with a pinch of salt”. This pastel project, a shortterm rental apartment dubbed Pops, is more sweet than savoury, but is unbelievably nifty and initiates cravings of all kinds. A pale palette, circular shapes and a wave motif are key contributors to making this abode a flavour explosion. We’re getting notes of unique sophistication paired with lashings of functionality and seasoned with a sprinkling of ‘curiouser and curiouser’ as you move through the rooms, each with as many unexpected details as the last. Deliciously complementary greens, pinks and blues are served against a creamy white background, along with mostly customdesigned furniture and geometric forms that read like the…

WEBB’S —— Specialist profile Art is not just for other people. As Head of Art at New Zealand’s top auction house Webb’s Tasha Jenkins (above left) says, “People may not realise, but it is possible to acquire fantastic artworks at any price point.” We brought her in to teach us how to shoot for the stars. So Tasha, give us an overview of the Webb’s annual art auction calendar… Webb’s has galleries in Auckland and Wellington and a few different tiers of live and online art auctions that cater to first-time buyers right through to seasoned collectors. Our premier sale is Works of Art, a highly curated live auction held three times a year that includes works by New Zealand’s most notable artists and is for serious collectors, or anyone…

When design professionals Matt Genefaas and Dan Craig started searching for their first home, they quickly realised that in order to be truly happy, they’d need to start from scratch. Having relocated to Tauranga from Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland just before Covid hit, the founders of homeware brand Made of Tomorrow had found themselves feeling a little displaced. “We’d been burning the candle at both ends, working really hard to further establish Made of Tomorrow, and felt that we needed a change, so I took a job at a magazine in Tauranga,” says Matt. “The offer was a great opportunity that forced us to move here, but due to Covid, the job didn’t last very long. Eventually, though, as many people found during those times, our flame for Made of Tomorrow was…

Outside in —— FIRST WINDOWS & DOORS Whereas some renovations start with carefully plotted-out plans for a long-awaited dream home, Eastbourne’s Niki Pennington and Andrew Cathie were launched into the process by necessity, after discovering a small but pressing problem. “When Niki and Andrew first came to me, the conversation started simply with: ‘We’ve got a leak in the deck upstairs and think we want to resolve it by turning it into an ensuite,’” recalls architect Liz Wallace of Wallace Architects. “That was their brief — but it certainly expanded from there.” Through site meetings and plenty of robust discussions, Liz managed to tease out that there were bigger issues at play in their family of five’s home, namely a general discontent with the lack of interior flow. “It was…

There’s no question coloured concrete flooring is a good look, but what’s it like to live with? Just ask Built Chch’s Hat Hall and Karl Saunders. At their house in Ōtautahi/Christchurch’s Sumner (as seen in our December/January 2023 issue), three young kids and one dog plus proximity to the beach equals practicality being paramount. Hat describes their coloured concrete as “a lifesaver — a real winner for our sanity”. Despite the pooch, it’s texture that’s top dog around here, with the concrete grounding the overall effect. The couple choose the hue PFL137 from PeterFell’s Neutral range, with a minimum grind and polish for a matte finish to complement other tactile elements in their material palette, such as their plastered walls. “As builders, we get to see a lot of products,…