This project got us outside our comfort zone, and we learnt that a caravan renovation is very different from a home renovation. In this blog, we showcase the project reveal images and provide you with all the details of the products and materials we used and where we got them from.
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The Master Bedroom in our Original Reno had a colour scheme that was all kinds of dark and dreary and it needed design salvation. With the power of wallpaper, oriental inspiration, and a wardrobe upgrade, we created our zen bedroom haven. Check out our latest blog with all the images, break down of cost and product information.
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This colourful, playful room was inspired by our little girls. It is a sugar and spice (and everything nice) kind of space, with soft pastel tones throughout the interior design. Find out all the details of how we renovated this kids room and (more importantly) the reality of much it all cost.
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Renovating a bathroom isn’t an easy project and there a lot of things to consider as you make your selections. In one space you need to fit in a shower, vanity, storage, toilet, bath, mirror, towel rail and lighting… and that’s just the essentials. Discover how we took on our this challenge task in our latest video…
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Our original master bedroom came with challenges - two different ceiling heights, a wardrobe in front of a window, a power plug from the spa bath sticking out of the wall! The long and narrow shape of the room meant we had to be intentional as we designed and problem solve the poor renovation choices we had inherited. We took a space that felt problematic and created a space that feels bold and sophisticated. Discover how we made it happen…
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Our guest bedroom renovation was all about giving this space a distinct look with bold design. We took a room that blended into the rest of the house to a show stopping zen retreat! See our reno recap to discover how we did it…
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As soon as a house is on the market it is not only the place you live but a product you have to sell. Whether you are selling your house with an agent or doing it by private sale, consider yourself a key part of the marketing team. Furniture placement, cleanliness and styling are crucial to making the images of your house stand out, your open homes successful and ultimately getting your house the sale price it deserves. Here is how to do just that within your own home...
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After Christopher purchased his first home - a brand-new 136m2 3 bedroom Fletcher Living Home in Awatea Green Development in Christchurch, he needed a whole lot of help. He didn’t own any furniture or décor. He knew he had a blank canvas – but he had no idea how to paint!
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The Reno Race Rookies, Dan and Claire had a project on their hands when it came to their master bedroom and the temporary guest bedroom (which will hopefully be a nursery one day - no pressure). The rookies nailed the brief to create a space that is all about comfort with touches of their own personality and style.
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Designing a kids room is always an adventure. Creating spaces for kids to play, learn and sleep (hopefully!) that suits their personalities and style – but doesn’t look like they have designed the room themselves. We decided early on we wanted to create a shared bedroom and a playroom, rather than one girl’s bedroom and one boy’s bedroom. As we renovated and designed there were a few things I focused on; adding storage solutions, creating defined areas in the rooms and adding details the kids would love.
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Every room in a renovation needs a starting point. The point of difference in the living room is that my starting point is the last thing you add to the room - the furniture. I don't mean a furniture floor plan, it is more calculated. The accent colour of cushions influenced the wall colour I selected, the placement of the TV determined how we repositioned a window, the tone of the wooden furniture impacted the finish I selected on our hardwood floors. I have found the best way to renovate and design a lounge is when you know exactly you want to furnish it in the end.
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Our brief for our dining room is all about what we want as a family, not how to fit in eight people for a dinner party that might only happen every few months at best. What we wanted from our dining room was a place for the family (including toddlers) to eat meals together, a place for Caleb and I to work and a relaxing adult space that won’t constantly be covered in toys and small hand marks! This has lead us to a final design that we love, for so many reasons.
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I love the boldness that’s required when you design a kitchen. From small samples you select what will be the complete look of your kitchen. There’s no room for changing your mind - once it’s installed, it’s there for good. No matter how good your imagination, it’s hard to be totally sure what the end result will look like. And if that isn’t challenging enough, with this kitchen we wanted to push our creativity. Our objective was to create a kitchen outside the comfort of our “go-to” choices. It was exciting, thrilling and a little bit terrifying.
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Our master bedroom may not be much to look at in its original state. But it had my heart from the very start, thanks to its position in the house - mainly because of its distance from the kids bedrooms! This new master bedroom will be a retreat in our own home and therefore deserves our time and attention. Unfortunately, those are two things we don’t have in abundant supply.
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In renovating there is no way to avoid decision making and even though we have done six renovations so far, deciding how I will transform a project takes a significant amount of my time. Renovation is about finding the potential within a space, it requires clever and creative design, so when it comes to interior design within a renovation - I call it DIY, design it yourself.
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A common question that we get asked by friends who follow our renovation journey is: WHY? As in why would you consider regularly renovating and give up a significant amount of your spare time? Answering that completely would be a whole blog in itself – but simply because we love it. One of the things I love is the decisiveness required to renovate, there is a skill to making decisions in renovating and experience provides opportunity to develop that. While this is a small-scale renovation, there are still a whole lot of interior design decisions that that took us from Our Plan to Our Presentation.
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I couldn’t stand in the house a moment longer - the smell was overwhelming. We had been to long lists of open homes and Caleb had been focusing on some select suburbs trying to find the next project for us. I got to see some things I would rather have unseen - inappropriate drawings on walls, bedrooms that feel very “fifty shades of grey” (I don’t mean the wall colour), hoarding. But this was the most memorable of them all. At the open home we entered a room with a male tenant laying across a bed in the lounge, shirtless, smoking, who said we had to keep the door closed as there were four cats who weren’t allowed outside. I counted 8 litter boxes - though from the smell I could tell it wasn't the only place these cats relieved themselves. I stood outside trying not to vomit, Caleb looked at me not sure what to expect and was getting ready to start his sales pitch.
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Recently I heard someone making banter about lounge spaces – claiming they had no idea why it was called a ‘living room’. Sure if you have a formal lounge, a family lounge, a kids playroom and entertainment room – the options for living are vast but if you live in our home (or most older homes in NZ) you have one option – the lounge. Our lounge truly is the living room in our house - it caters for our children’s play, our family dance parties, quality TV viewing, hang out with friends and wrestle time with Dad (I’m referring to playtime with Alek in case there is any confusion). For our lounge I focused less on creating a magazine cover look that everyone would be wowed by, rather keeping it simple and flexible, functional for our needs and keeping unity in style with the rest of our open plan dining and kitchen.
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Style isn’t something some people have and others do not, the reality is while you flick through a home magazine or walk through an open home, you will either like the room or don’t – that originates from your style preference. When some people claim they have no style – their problem lies in the vast space from I know what I like to I can create that in my own home. To style well, every piece of furniture and décor needs to work together to create one complete look – this is where a lot of people getting frustrated, waste money or give up before they even give it a go. There is an art form to interior design and styling. It is creative and driven by emotion but at the same time there is structure and calculated decision making.
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At the beginning of this year I had the honour of working with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust through the Kāinga Tuatahi project, a 30-house village located on ancestral land at Bastion Point. The project has a strong emphasis on providing affordable housing for their tribe, while achieving stunning contemporary design and community. My role was to stage their first completed whare for their own portfolio.
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