Table of contents for Feb/Mar 2016 in homestyle

“Carrying the weight of your belongings on your back tends to remind you of the advantages of living lightly!” RETURNING FROM A MONTH-LONG SOJOURN IN South America over my summer break, I’m determined to live with less this year. It was the first time in over 10 years that I’ve travelled overseas with a pack instead of wheeled cases and carrying the weight of your belongings on your back tends to remind you of the advantages of living lightly! Before I left home at the end of last year, I took a few small steps to start putting this plan into practice with a wardrobe purge. Sorting, washing and donating clothes I no longer wear to the charity Dress for Success not only gave me a leaner closet, but there’s…

TOP OF THE SHELF THE MAKER, BEYOND DECORATING: CRAFTING A UNIQUE SPACE. BY TAMARA MAYNES. PUBLISHED BY MURDOCH BOOKS, $70 This is one of those books that makes you happy before you even open it, with its delightful carved cover totally in keeping with its crafty contents. But inside The Maker gets serious, providing helpful info on mastering your chosen craft and on how to use these skills to create an individual interior for your home. Tamara Maynes encourages those who are already crafty, while not leaving beginners out in the cold without an individual house to come home to. She shows you how to create an original space that has your name all over it – possibly, if you choose, literally.…

WHEN YOU WANT A FRESH PRODUCT design you look to a fresh product designer. But while our young creatives are known for their wow-worthy work, function often falls by the 3D-printed wayside. Wanting to change this perception by altering the reality behind it, in 2013 AUT’s Head of Product Design set out to find a leader in the New Zealand design world to mentor his second-year students. “We were looking to collaborate with someone who had the right mix of artisanal design and pragmatic production smarts,” says Shane Inder. “Rebecca Dowie from Douglas and Bec was an obvious choice – and luckily for us she jumped at the chance to get involved.” Rebecca confirms: “I did! I loved being at university myself – it was my happy place with the…

COFFEE HAS LONG BROUGHT PEOPLE TOGETHER – but not usually in as dramatic fashion as it did with Christchurch-based AW Architects and Deflux Design. Following the demolition of both offices in the 2011 earthquake, AW’s Andrew Watson found himself working alongside Deflux’s Jono Ross and Simon Courtney in the premises of their mutual friend’s business, C4 Coffee Roasters. And they liked it. “Sharing a space worked well for all of us,” Andrew says. “So we collectively started looking for a building where we could create the same kind of relaxed environment, with our own aesthetic vision in mind.” Tracking down this building in post-earthquake Christchurch also required the help of friends. Through Deflux’s association with Croft Print, the group secured a two-level building on centrally located St Asaph Street. As…

The house encircles the vineyards, appearing to hover slightly above the ground.  IT WAS THE SWEEP OF UNDULATING vineyards bordering the site in South Africa’s Constantia Valley that clinched the deal for New Zealander Victoria Bresler and her husband Matt. “They fell in love with the view,” says architect Jan-Heyn Vorster. “We all did.” So they snapped up the site and started on a view-maximising plan to build on it. Although this was criterion number one, the Breslers also briefed Jan-Heyn to design a relaxed but contemporary home for themselves and their three young children, Jonty (8), Hannah (6) and Ollie (4) that featured a lot of “good, honest materials” such as glass, wood and concrete. And the couple got what they asked for – and then some. Today the…

YOU WILL NEED Reinforcing steel, availablefrom Mitre 10 (ask them tocut the size down for you).Resene GP Metal PrimerResene Black in flatPaint brush3 small nails 1. This reinforcing steel usually comes a bit rusty, so brush it off before priming with Resene General Purpose Metal Primer. 2. Once the primer is dry, brush on a coat of Resene SpaceCote Flat in Resene Black for a flat powder-coated look, or a Resene Lustacryl for a more wipe-able surface. 3. Hang it up using three small nails; two at either end and one in the middle. And voilà! An industrial moodboard to clip up ideas for your next DIY project! Low triangle pendant, $390, douglasandbec.com. Seagrass basket, $69.50, tessuti.co.nz. Twist desk, $498, bauhaus.co.nz. Brass bowl, $29, theblackbird.co.nz. Fort Standard bowl, $128, douglasandbec.com.…

THE KAUFMANN MERCANTILE GUIDE. BY ALEXANDRA REDGRAVE AND JESSICA HUNDLEY. PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS, $46 We could write a description of this fun reference book that was written for the utilitarian in us all, but the cover sums up the contents perfectly: “how to split wood, shuck an oyster and master other simple pleasures”. And this is truly one of those cases where you can judge a book by its cover. Buy this considered collection of how-tos, read it and master your daily life, grasshopper. SPARK JOY: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE JAPANESE ART OF TIDYING.BY MARIE KONDO. PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE, $37 We may not like to admit it, but the Japanese just do it better. And when we say it, we mean minimalism – perhaps explaining why…

“Use your dream chair in creative ways like this, until you can afford to buy the whole dining set.” Gem Adams, stylist and store owner…

LIFE IS A WOVEN TAPESTRY – ITS UPS AND DOWNS, INS and outs, an intricate interplay that often produces unexpected results. As a student on Auckland’s North Shore, Toni Brogan couldn’t imagine that one day she’d be living between an apartment on New York’s Lower East Side and a cottage in the Catskills. Now, when she looks out the window of her 16th storey city pad, the span over the river takes in the Brooklyn Bridge and sweeps all the way to the angular beacon of the Freedom Tower in downtown Manhattan. Toni is a freelance food stylist who works on magazines such as Bon Appetit and Oprah and for clients such as Delta Airlines and Kraft. It was a career she fell into, then doggedly pursued, after starting out…

“This place is the result of great collaboration. It has all just come together.”  WELCOME TO THE HOME OF PETER, PAUL AND LULU LAMOUR. Peter Allen is a business facilitator whose penchant for good wine extends to owning an industrial glass washer. Paul Smith is a wholesale bakery owner who refers to his cookbooks as “good friends”. And LuLu Lamour is a Devon Rex cat who demands her water served directly to her mouth via the Grohe kitchen tap. Then there is their 120-year-old home in Grey Lynn, Auckland – which has the kind of personality you’re also strongly drawn to. Once a grand old villa-y villa, she had her traditional features stripped out slowly – first in the 50s, when she was converted into two flats, then more thoroughly…

YOU WILL NEED: Rogue Society GinPineapple and ginger syrupFresh limesIceEast Imperial Grapefruit TonicMint sprigs Pineapple and ginger syrup: 1 ripe pineapple, roughly chopped100g ginger, sliced2 cups water½ cup caster sugar To make the pineapple and ginger syrup, combine the chopped pineapple and ginger with the water in a blender and whizz to a purée texture. To remove the excess fibre from the purée, strain through a fine sieve over a pot, scraping through with a wooden spoon to extract all the liquid. Add the sugar, bring to the boil over a medium-high heat, then reduce to a medium heat. Simmer until a syrup forms (30-40 minutes). Transfer to a sterile container and store in the fridge until required. To serve, measure 60ml of Rogue Society Gin, 120ml of syrup and…

LIVING IN CENTRAL AUCKLAND, with two young boys and a day job as a freelance wardrobe stylist in the film industry, life is busy for Jasmine Edgar – yet, she has always found time to indulge her lifelong love of plants and pottery. But a year ago, when plant life literally began to take over the family home, she realised things needed to be readdressed. “Sill Life basically started because I had too many plants in the house,” she laughs. Jasmine and her partner Ian Ferguson had always wanted to work on a creative endeavour together – and they realised this was it. So they turned over their conservatory and shed to the project and got started. With his own graphic design business, Friends of Design, Ian was charged with…

WE’RE COVETING DESERT DREAMS Local design duo Penney and Bennett have released their second collection of silk and linen bedding called The Night Dynasty. Inspired by an open-air overnight stay in the Thar Desert in India’s Rajasthan, the designs reference the celestial sky and the people who have thrived in the harsh landscape under it for centuries. penneyandbennett.co.nz CANE COMEBACK When Cheshire Architects asked Ben Glass to help them fit out new Ponsonby restaurant Saan, the team decided to use the collaboration as an opportunity to help bring cane back. We’re taken with their modern take on the cane screen in a European bleached beechwood. If you’re wanting to use this look in your own home, look out for more of Ben’s designs later in the year. benglassfurniture.com CARRY A…

Colours from the Resene Total Colour System collection, available from Resene ColorShops and selected resellers. www.resene.co.nz  0800 RESENE (737 363)…

MY NAME IS ANDREW J. STEEL, I’M A LITTLE OVER 10,000 days old and I’m a creative. I create some of the largest scale public artworks in the country and meaningful experiences for people through tailoring artworks into their lives. I add value to the streets people live on, to the walls of their homes and businesses. I’m from a diverse background of science and vandalism. I was living a double life, a Bruce Wayne/Batman kind of thing – academic by day and painter by night. It’s obvious which one of those things is more appealing, so I decided to pursue the paint. People become artists for different reasons. I became one because I love the hustle, the freedom and being able to impact people’s surroundings. For a long time…

GUY AND KATRINA NURSE AREN’T professionals in the building trade, nor are they winners of a reality TV home renovation show – but they can give both parties a run for their money. Five years ago the couple had been living in their first home in Lyttelton for just six months when the big Christchurch earthquake hit. While they loved their cottage, it was time to find a new place to live – and a new location while they were at it. Their list of prerequisites read thus: somewhere out of town, close to the coast, with a sense of space but at an easily manageable size. When Katrina’s dad Jim sent them a link to a 2.5-acre piece of land a short drive north of Christchurch in Waikuku, those…

“There are great communal areas throughout the house. It’s always busy and full with children everywhere, but somehow it just works.” “Annique Heesen came into our home and listened to who we were; understanding our needs perfectly and helping us create something that worked but still allowed us to be us.” ASK LEE-ANN COLLETT AND LEON WRATT “WHAT’S the most special thing about your home?” and you’ll get a quick answer: “love and family”. Creating a perfectly functioning home in Auckland for a family of six was not a straightforward task, but it’s a challenge that they’ve succeeded in meeting. “Our home isn’t massive, but by maximising each room’s potential everyone now has their own personal space,” Lee-Ann says. “That said, there are great communal areas throughout the house too.…

CHOCOLATE BOUTIQUE CAFE Cafe Chocolate Boutique Cafe is as yummy as it sounds. A dessert cafe and retail chocolate shop in Auckland’s Parnell Village, Chocolate Boutique has lovely surrounds and reasonable prices. Open 11am to 10pm every day, call in for one of their famous Italian densos (pictured) or a waffle, sundae, coffee and, of course, chocolate. 09 377 8550 chocolateboutique.co.nz EDWARD GIBBON Bathroomware See the very latest in bathroomware from some of the most famous brands in New Zealand and from around the world, at prices you can afford. Visit the Edward Gibbon website to receive a free copy of their catalogue, to shop and more. edwardgibbon.co.nz LEFT FIELD DESIGN Design Make your overseas friends and family want to come home with these special kiwiana gifts. Fun, functional and…