Home New Zealand October 2017

There are many lovely things about what my son Ira calls “our NEW house”. Three bedrooms instead of one; two fabulous new decks with places to perch; a material palette that runs to weatherboards, fibre-cement and cedar. In short: it’s even better than we thought it would be. Now I just have to finish painting the bloody thing so we can move back in. One of the bigger changes, though, is something we never expected. Wall space. After years of juggling our (very modest) collection to fit a house that had few walls and lots of windows and slightly too much light, we suddenly have space to hang art, including a couple of lovely shadowy spots for works on paper. Meanwhile, the HOME team has been busy making our annual…

Sara Black HOME’s new senior designer-stylist reflects on art-student days in Whanganui, and a recent art purchase. You studied in Whanganui. What are your memories of it? Whanganui was an idyllic spot which allowed me to harness my creativity without the distractions of big-city living. Residing in the picture-perfect Virginia House on Somme Parade, a 10-minute stroll led me to the Whanganui School of Design in the beautifully brutalist beast, Terrace House. Our farewell, aboard the iconic Waimarie Paddle Steamer on the Whanganui River, was the perfect ending to a magnificent three years. What was the last piece of art you bought and why did you buy it? My latest (and first) piece of art was purchased mere months ago. And now, a circular painting by Australian artist Sandra Eterović,…

Design— Exhibitions, product launches and eatery openings across the country, from Aro Valley to Hastings.…

“We’d been looking at this building for a little while,” says designer and retailer Simon James, of the modest brick building on a corner in the backstreets of Newmarket, Auckland, where he recently opened a new store. “It’s a great location, but it felt quite enclosed.” On Kent Street, next to Aesop and part of a gaggle of businesses down a cobbled laneway, the area has changed radically in recent years as panel beaters and furniture restorers have been replaced by boutiques. James called in Cheshire Architects and interior architect Rufus Knight to rework the building. Cheshire’s design called for new, bigger windows – including one large square that pops up and out, drawing light inside – and demolished a rabbit warren of small stock rooms, creating one large, airy…

Specialist Wellington ‘bikery’, Bicycle Junction, recently moved from a tiny store in Newtown to a much bigger space in Te Aro designed by Proffer. “We sell bikes, we fix bikes, we teach about bikes and biking via our workshops,” says owner Dan Mikkelsen. “We hold events that celebrate the fun of biking. And it’s all tied together through the café.” What are you riding at the moment? I’m riding a Yuba Spicy Curry electric cargo bike. I can fit our three young children on board and it serves as our family runabout. What’s a ‘bikery’ and why do you describe it as friendly? We often refer to the butchers and bakeries of past that served a community’s daily needs, while being a place where people said their hellos and shared…

Rita is a new restaurant in a former worker’s cottage in Aro Valley, Wellington. You might be familiar with its owners – Paul Schrader, Matt Hawkes and Kelda Hains are behind Nikau Cafe, which they opened in 1998 in City Gallery Wellington. Nikau is a daytime cafe; Rita is a nighttime restaurant. The latter seats 30 and offers a set menu for $65 (salt-roasted beetroot, say, followed by Longbush pork, broth, dumplings and watercress, followed by a kiwifruit and olive-oil sorbet). There are two sittings, one at 5.30pm and one from 7.30pm. “Even in a two-hour bracket you can have quite a story or a narrative,” says Schrader of the approach. “It’s quite hard to create that ordering off a menu.” The trio had their eye on the house – built…