Page 82 - homestyle New Zealand (February - March 2020)

HOMES

the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms because we ran out
of money,” says Hannah. “If we had continued at that point,
though, we would have ended up with a very different result,
so it was actually quite good!”
Beginning again with builders Built Spaces after two years’
regrouping and saving up, the couple felt emboldened to be
braver with colour for a striking, personalised finish in the
remaining first-floor spaces. “We made more interesting
choices in the second stage,” says Hannah. “In phase one,
we’d never renovated before and were scared things were
going to date. Then we realised that if we like something,
it doesn’t really matter, and once we’d painted downstairs
ourselves, we discovered it’s not that hard to paint over
something if we decide we don’t like it anymore.”
Today, there’s no drama in this house, only delight. “Every
part of it is something we made a decision on together, and
that’s awesome,” says Steve.
“The house very much suits our style and the way we live,”
says Hannah. “We really enjoy sitting in the living area in
the sun and being out on the deck in the summer, and love
having friends over. We’ve always said we want to build a grand
design one day, but I’d find it really hard to leave this now.”
The moral of the story? “Don’t dig under your house! Don’t
dig in winter! Just the basic fundamentals,” laughs Steve.

TOP Hannah and Steve sought to make their home more comfortable and functional, and the living area ticks both boxes. It captures the sun that now streams in all day,
and is great for entertaining, allowing the cook to stay connected to guests hanging out in this adjacent space. The couple designed the built-in shelving and bench seat
themselves to make a feature of the wall surrounding the Samsung TV and Regency gas fireplace. A Parallel Chair by Simon James in mustard Raf Simons fabric hints at the
colour to come in the bedrooms off the hallway behind it.

80 homestyle