Our reno revealed: the bedroom

New French doors were installed in our bedroom. You can just see them on the right of this shot.

And this is how it looked when we bought it. The windows on the right were replaced with the French doors.

Here are a few more shots. The ceiling to floor wardrobe is in walnut (the same as the kitchen). You can also see our new en suite through one of the open doors.

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Our reno revealed

It's been a total labour of love but our house is almost complete. Here are a few before and afters. This is the kitchen.

It used to look like this.

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The view from my desk

I admit I've been a bit interiored out lately. I've been struggling with finding inspirational stuff to share with you. It's probably a combination of the big Xmas shoots I've been doing for House & Garden and the fact that I've been working like mad to get the house finished. But I noticed a strange (ha!) thing the other day. This is a pic of the view from my desk. I realise now how similar it is to my Mac screensaver below. Delete the ferns and it's very close indeed. Talk about the power of visualisation.

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Ahead of the bed

We're back in the house. Can't say I can see much of it – there are boxes everywhere – but at least I'm no longer cooking in a workshop next to the weed-eater and old paint cans. Now comes the exciting bit when we start to pull it all back together. We still have no wardrobes, no bookcases, things still need painting and the exterior is a total mess but we're sleeping in our own bed (albeit looking at a big hole in the ceiling where a speaker will eventually go). I'm looking forward to making the finishing touches. High on my list is an upholstered headboard. Headboards make a huge difference to a room. If you're after one, too, a great place to look is the new website of Lis Burt, formerly of Mercatini. Called Privato, it offers a fabulous made-to-order luxury headboard range – from buttoned to paneled to studded. I'm thinking panels in our room, in either black satin, linen or velvet. Yum...

Here are some more images of headboard treatments, some a little over-the-top but you get the picture.

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Bookworms

I've been a bookworm since I discovered Enid Blyton. Tales of towering trees and the adventures of Timmy the dog coloured my childhood. For as long as I can remember I've had at least one book on the go and have developed a rather unhealthy fascination with crime novels (what's that about?) It's no surprise then that the house of my dreams has a proper library – a cosy space with comfy chairs that I'd retreat to whenever I had a spare moment. Sadly, there are no rooms left in our current house to dedicate to books so I'm making do with a huge, floor-to-ceiling bookcase in an converted hallway just off the kitchen. We're planning how it will look now. Here's some inspiration. Click on the images for a closer view.

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Renovation update

This isn't our house but it is how our new floor will look. Ours is currently covered in tarps and still to be grouted (so I can't take a pic and reveal all) but how gorgeous will it be! Picking the tiles (it was going to be wood) for the dining/kitchen area was one of the hardest decisions we have had to make. For a start, tiling is expensive. There is the stone itself, the underfloor heating, the tiler, the sealer... it goes on. But, now that I have an idea of how it's all going to look I'm rapt. Can't wait to show you. PS Our tiles are in our kitchen... don't think I'd like them in the lounge unless they were covered with a rug. This looks a bit cold.

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In the kitchen...

Like the fabulous Christina Fluegge (Greige Design), kitchens are currently on my mind. How to best organise my cupboards and drawers has become an obsession. I'm spending far far too much time channeling my inner Martha Stewart. My drawers will be perfection. It's not enough that I have non-slip liners, I have to have the best ones. Forget the usual cutlery trays; mine are made out of bamboo and are expandable. I've been thinking about this stuff for months, if not years. I've been poring over sites specialising in storage – my current idea of a good time is a visit to The Plastic Box or Howard's Storage World. Fluegge, an interior designer and blogger with impeccable taste, really rates this kitchen. I love it too but does anyone else think aspects of it look a bit too much like a cafe?

All images reblogged from Griege.

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All covered up, part 2

I've been totally distracted all day by textured and grasscloth wallpaper. Found these images in my travels. None of them really represent the look I'm after but they are a source of inspiration. Gawd... I really hope our wallpapering skills are up to the job! Will soon find out. We've been Googling like mad to try and upskill ourselves. Thankfully for me, Stu has so far proven himself a dab hand at DIY. I shall just put him in charge! It can't be that difficult can it? No obvious patterns to match up? Oh dear...

Source: Bill Barr

Source: DelBene Interiors

Source: Belle Vivir

Source: Belle Vivir

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All covered up

We spent the weekend wallpaper stripping. Not an activity I'd recommend but needs must. We're getting to the pointy end of the budget (our remaining funds are now pointing down towards us being broke) and we can't afford to get it done professionally. We're also going to have to learn how to wallpaper pretty quickly because we've also ditched the professional wallpaper hanger. We've chosen a gorgeous range of grasscloth Vision wallpapers, available through Resenes Colour Shops, which will give the walls a lovely natural texture. The whole house is being wallpapered; the only painted walls are in the ensuite and bathroom. Have even gone for a grunty black/chocolate brown in the bedroom we're poshly naming our 'media room' (really just a room with our TV in it). Fingers crossed our wallpaper skills are equal to our wallpaper stripping ones...

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Mouse rules...

Animals are funny. Two months ago we were kicked out of our house but one member of the family steadfastly refused to go. This is Mouse. Anyone familiar with a Burmese knows how tenacious they can be. While we hunker down in our granny flat, Mouse has decided she would prefer to continue to live in the main house. She has her own room (one that's been least affected by the renovation) and she sleeps there in her basket – often during the day – with all the banging and crashing going on around her. The builders have been totally accommodating, almost working around her. She might pay us a visit downstairs during the day. Sometimes she wanders around the property and catches up with the neighbour's cat. But, at night, she packs herself off again to her own room to bed (only this time she goes with a cuddle, a bowl of food and a hot-water bottle to see her through the night). Bob the dog, on the other hand, has fully accepted his new home, which is the size of a motel unit, and is currently snoring on the couch.

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Let there be light...

We have new window frames. We have glass. And yesterday I spent three hours – and what seems like a fortune – sorting out locks and handles and other window hardware so that we can open them. Everywhere we turn there's a new challenge; a topsy-turvy floor (not necessarily a huge problem unless you're tiling it, which of course we are), a rotted window frame, the need for new safety glass for an existing window, an unreliable tile supplier, quotes we thought set in stone turning out to be incredibly fluid, things we imagined to be cheap turning out to be expensive... There are budget blowouts and time overruns. Welcome to a renovation! But we've become so bogged down in the day-to-day stuff that we've almost forgotten to look at the bigger picture: our builders are courteous, helpful and tidy (believe me it helps), ditto all the tradespeople on site. What was once an odd-shaped, dated, kitchen is now a huge and light-filled space thanks, in part, to the addition of floor-to-ceiling windows. We have insulation and a new hot-water cylinder. The house has been completely rewired and enough data cables installed to future proof it so we can keep up with new technology. (When we're finally able to afford speakers we'll be able to change a CD from any room in the house with our Smartphones.) Tomorrow, hopefully, the Gib goes up and Friday I get to see how our new kitchen is shaping up out at KitchenWorks. And I'm currently looking out of the window watching the light-play on the kauris and ferns and I'm not regretting the decision we made to turn our lives upside down one bit.

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Hold the faith

Budgets are being tested, we're sick of cooking in the shed and, to our untrained eye, the work the builders are doing isn't actually showing any result. It's apparently all normal. We're in what seems to be known as the renovation 'icky bit'. "When was the last time you heard someone say: 'Our renovation came in on time and under budget?'" said my good friend Kate the last time I moaned to her about it all.

Rob, the tiler, also tells a similar story. According to him, tilers (who are pretty much the last on site along with the carpet layers) always get short shrift. "You start the renovations and everyone gets beers at the end of the day and it's all friendly. And, by the time I come along, it's pretty much "thank you and we haven't got any money left and forget the beers!"

Rob, who comes to us thanks to Euan the builder, has been helping out on what could have been a tile disaster. A couple of weeks ago I emailed the tile supplier (who at the moment shall remain nameless) re our basalt stone tiles, which were  due. "Sorry," they said. "Flood at the mine in China. You won't be getting them at all."

I was gutted. Flooring was the hardest decision to make re the renovation. To be told the tiles I'd so carefully chosen were no longer available a week before they were due to arrive was a nightmare. All my interior decisions were based around these tiles: carpet, wallpaper, curtains... I've been running around all week trying to find a supplier who can fix us up with 70sq/m of dark grey basalt within a week or two (not an easy task). Rob's been a big help. But it seems like the best solution is to go for a lighter version of basalt in a different shape and size to the 60cm x 60cms we originally ordered from the same supplier. The cost remains the same and we are assured of supply but the grey is a bit too 'mid' for me.

But after my minor meltdown at the kitchen-makers, there's only one thing to do: keep calm and carry on...

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Let there be light

Some people love shoes; others handbags. I'm obsessed with light fittings. My search for the perfect pendants for our house has taken me all over Auckland. I see them as accessories; as capable of 'lifting' our house as a designer handbag is of an outfit. These are some of the ones currently catching my eye. I have a budget of $5000 for all the entire household lighting (everything including wall mounts, recessed and vanity lights) which I know to some is a fortune. But to others – like the lovers of the $2000-plus Simon James Octo pendant featured here – it's miniscule. Needless to say I can only dream about the Octo but I have managed to pick up a few gems, mainly on sale.

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The house speaks

Our house has started speaking. It hates white. It loathes bleached or blonde wood. And it also doesn’t appear to much like the fine-boned furniture that comes attached to its mid-century heritage. A house of straight lines and sharp angles, it’s screaming out for softness, luxury and just a bit of glamour.

Since glamour is so subjective, it’s better restricted to fittings rather than fundamentals. This means I’m keeping the flooring, kitchen cabinetry, the bathrooms, paint and wallpaper, and appliances as timeless as possible and injecting bling into items that can easily changed, such as lighting. So my search for flooring has me running around showrooms that specialise in natural materials, such as stone and wood. I’m researching natural-textured (or grasscloth) wallpapers and wooden veneers and I’m looking for simplicity in the kitchen – the fewer buttons, bangs and whistles the better. But I’m going for serious glam in the lighting, finally selecting this Tom Dixon pendant for the open-plan dining/kitchen area.

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'Kitchenzilla'

These are the images that have inspired our new kitchen. They are all very sleek and minimalist; quite unlike anything I've ever chosen before but somehow right for the house. Their simplicity puts a huge emphasis on detail – one of the reasons why I found myself almost having a complete meltdown at Kitchenworks a week or so ago. There to finalise the kitchen plans, we were told that although the inners of our  cupboards and drawers are going to be black, the hardware required to make the drawers close properly (we're not having handles, just touch latches) only comes in grey and white. This meant I would be looking into a black drawer with contrasting white/grey plastic panels on the side. I suspect I may be the only woman in the world to care, but care I do. Problem was, at that stage (all the materials had already been purchased) there appeared to be no other option. It took a few deep breaths and the steadying influence of Stu to get me to accept it all and move on. I resigned myself to covering the black drawer bottoms with grey non-slip mats and mentally crossed my fingers it would look ok. And, then, a few days later I get a call from Tony, the Kitchen Guy. They had managed to source a new brand of drawer hardware that – joy –  actually comes in black (and had done some clever wrangling to ensure it didn't cost any more). By now, a little over my 'Kitchenzilla' moment, I felt vaguely embarrassed. But very grateful; I know I shall appreciate our kitchen-maker's willingness to go that extra mile every time I reach into the drawer for a knife and fork.

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Nerves are natural... I think!

Our lovely kitchen (not) is no more and the wall between it and the dining room has been knocked out. This gives us a chance to actually see the space – rather than imagine it through an architect's eye – and work out whether our kitchen will look any good. I'm really excited that it will. One of the things I'm learning is that no matter how developed your eye is, when it's your own project nerves are natural. If I'm styling a cover, consulting on an interior or helping someone with their wardrobe, I'm always confident that what I'm recommending will turn out well. (I guess that's just as well since it's my occupation!) But when it comes to our home – or my own wardrobe for that matter – there's always a degree of anxiety. It's probably cos I'm a control freak... I didn't actually design or draw up the space myself... but one of the things I'm learning from all of this is how much creative buzz you can get out of a project like a renovation or house build even if the design itself is essentially in the hands of someone else. The guy who remodeled our home is an architect called Dean Mackenzie, and the process of how he approached it was illuminating. It was (unexpectedly) connective and very reassuring. He caught hold of our vision and reflected it back to us perfectly. I guess it's all in the communication: 'how to speak to your architect/builder etc so it doesn't all turn to custard'. But more on that later...

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