Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Your Home and Garden

On the cover Our cover brings us great joy. We’re also hoping for world peace with our handcrafted doves on the Christmas tree. To see how to recreate this look turn to page 10. Joy neon sign from radikalneonsigns. com. Styling Lauren Olive. Photography Helen Bankers. Get ready with your hot-glue gun. This Christmas we’ve gone extra on the craft and DIY. Not only is there a sense of achievement making some decorations, but it’s generally more budget friendly. So, in no particular order, here’s a rundown of the crafts this issue: ● Nikki Kettle’s life-size nutcracker on page 88. Put it on your front doorstep and watch the neighbourhood kids gather. Also, turn to page 50 for a look at Nikki’s house in full festive kit. It is a…

Trim the tree with our homemade white doves, add pink and white baubles and top with a neon velvet ribbon. Then turn on the neon Joy sign over the mantelpiece and set the scene for a very joyful Christmas 1 Start by threading the lights around the tree from top to bottom. 2 Add three oversize balls, one at 12 o’clock, another at 3 o’clock and the final one at 6 o’clock. We painted ours with chalk paint to fit our pink and white theme. 3 Add the white balls evenly over the tree. We used Jolly & Joy leaf baubles from Spotlight for texture. 4 Using the secondary pink colour, we hung the pink balls individually, but also grouped them in threes and hung them as one. 5 Place…

GET 20% OFF EVERYTHING ON THE WEBSITE UNTIL 15 DECEMBER BY USING THE CODE CHRISTMAS20 AT CHECKOUT. A FRESH START NO BATHROOM IS COMPLETE WITHOUT THIS STARTER KIT. IT TACKLES SOAP SCUM WITH ESSENTIAL OILS AND OTHER PLANT-BASED CLEANERS. $30. BACH LIFE Enjoy the delights of cashmere and merino together in one luxe throw. Bach throw blanket XL, $325. ONE TREE THRILL Enjoy one of Auckland’s icons from the comfort of home. Coming Home: One Tree Hill limited edition print, $570 (unframed). STANDING OVATION YOUR CHRISTMAS CAKE OR PAVLOVA DESERVES TO BE PUT ON A PEDESTAL, SO GIVE IT SOME LOVE AND HEIGHT WITH A SNOW HEIRLOOM CAKE STAND. IT’S A BEAUTIFUL, TIMELESS PIECE YOU’LL WANT TO PASS DOWN TO YOUR KIDS – THAT’S IF THEY DON’T “BORROW” IT FIRST.…

1 Flora: Celebrating Our Botanical World ($80, Te Papa Press). Our national museum delves into their archives and the natural world. 2 The Writer’s Garden by Jackie Bennett and Richard Hanson ($75, Quarto UK). Peek inside the gardens of literary giants, from Tolstoy to Woolf. 3 The Art of Home by Shea McGee ($64.99, HarperCollins) The Netflix star showcases high-end design on a budget. 4 Rewi: Āta Haere, Kia Tere by Jade Kake and Jeremy Hansen ($75, Massey University Press). A coffee table book paying tribute to one of the country’s best architects. 5 Here is Hare by Laura Shallcrass ($22.95, Beatnik Publishing). Peek-a-boo with pictures. 6 The Forgotten Forest by Robert Vennell ($50, HarperCollins). A walk through our forests in this search of lost plants and fungi. 7 Living…

FAMILY GATHERING A Wabi linen shade and Trois Disque pendant add a merry glow to Christmas lunch. A Sandringham wool rug and Kansas rug adorn the floor. The circa 1950s French stool is from The Vitrine. home profile MEET & GREET Nick (branding and design studio director of Non-Fiction) and Ginamarie Riley (stylist, founder and creative director of Ornament), their sons Zachary, nine, and Sebastian, six, and Tonkinese/Rex cat Obi, weimaraner Edie and griffon-pug Leia. THE PROPERTY Five-bedroom, two-bathroom 1900s North Shore villa in Auckland. HOLIDAY TABLESCAPE Standing paper trees add a festive flourish to the Bauble linen tablecloth, which is matched with Bauble linen napkins, Broste gold cutlery, Amalfi goblets and Provence plates and bowls. Ginamarie Riley has been thinking about Christmas for months. As the owner of Auckland’s…

Simple sophistication Light, bright and just waiting to be filled with celebratory toasts and plenty of laughter, this simple Christmas scheme includes vintage furnishings in an eclectic mix of styles, a seductively simple table setting – and lots and lots of fine-leaved greenery. The crisp whites add a note of purity and peace, the furniture is all about warmth and nostalgia, and the plethora of greenery provides a feeling of harmony, freshness and growth. + The key to making this scene feel festive and abundant is to add greenery everywhere. Hang wreaths from the chairs and walls; arrange branches of evergreens on the tabletop and pile into glass vases and vintage tubs. More is more. + Dressing the table with chunky wine glasses and simple white crockery makes for an…

Need help with your painting projects? Don’t pick up a paintbrush without consulting Resene’s vast vault of how-to advice, which is easy to access online, in person or on video. Where to find it 1 The Resene website, resene.co.nz, is a wonderland of free resources to help you choose and use paints and stains, from how to prepare a surface for painting to how to hold a paintbrush. For an index of all the how-to advice see the Problem Solver page. And if you have a paint question, chances are someone else will have had the same dilemma before you, so check the Paint Experts Q&A for hundreds of instant answers to common queries. 2 Resene’s paint experts are your free DIY coaches. To use the online Ask A Paint…

Falling stars You will need • Cardboard or paper, cut in squares • Cotton or fishing line, for hanging 1 Fold square in half horizontally, then fold into a smaller square. Unfold back into rectangle ensuring opening is 2at top, fold at bottom. (a) 2 Fold bottom left corner to top centre. Unfold. Fold top left comer to bottom centre. Unfold. (b) 3 Fold top left corner across to meet centre diagonal crease on left half (c) and fold to meet left edge (making a 4kite shape with that half). (d) 4 Fold right corner to centre fold. (e) 5 Flip over your paper and fold right over left so the kite shape 6is sitting in front. 6 Use scissors to cut at the angle 7 shown in diagram (red…

Garden diary Fitting in gardening around the usual pre-Christmas rush of shopping, preparing food and partying as well as organising the holiday away can be a strain but not if readying the garden for Christmas is broken down methodically. Three weeks before Christmas: Deadhead flowers to encourage more blooms. Brush and wash down outdoor furniture. Two weeks before: Lightly trim hedges and topiary to sharpen up. One week before: Mow lawns, trim edges, weed and sweep paths. Before you go away: Give the garden and pot plants a deep soaking. Place outdoor pot plants together in a shady spot. Indoor ones may be best in the bathroom. Michaelmas daisy • Pay special attention to any shrubs or trees planted in spring. Ensuring they get enough water is essential for their…

EDITOR Fiona Hawtin ART & EDITORIAL Deputy editor Caroline Moratti Art director Nicola Feeney Chief sub-editor Michelle Joe Garden editor Mary Lovell-Smith Designers Anna Petursdottir, Debby Wei, Hayley Pearce CONTRIBUTORS Daniel Allen, Helen Bankers, Jane Binsley, Anna Briggs, Bureaux, Jo Cribb, Eleanor Cripps, Gina Fabish, Guy Frederick, Nikki Kettle, Living Inside, Babiche Martens, Lauren Olive, Ginamarie Riley, Sarah Rowlands ADVERTISING | CORPORATE Sales director Claire Chisholm Commercial brand manager Bridget Hewitt, bridget.hewitt@aremedia.co.nz, 021 1591265 Senior account managers Chloe Jordan, chloe.jordan@aremedia.co.nz; Jacquie Fraser jacquie.fraser@aremedia.co.nz Senior campaign manager Angela Wei, angela.wei@aremedia.co.nz Classified sales Kim Chapman, classifieds@xtra.co.nz Head of digital Melissa Walsh Shopping editor Hemma Vara EXECUTIVE Chief executive officer Jane Huxley General manager Stuart Dick Editorial director Sarah Henry Distributor Are Direct + Contact us Email yhgnz@aremedia.co.nz. Postal address: PO Box 52122,…

DOVE TEMPLATE Cut out this dove and use as a master template. Cut as many doves as you like from stiffened felt or you could use white card. Place in the tree, create a garland for the mantel, suspend over the festive table on fishing nylon, glue them to a wreath, or wherever else you fancy. TIP Scale this master template up or down using a photocopier depending on whether you’d like bigger or smaller doves. 12 Window shopping What’s hot in store. 16 Trending Tree ornaments and gifts galore, get extra merry with the Christmas decorating.…

1 Wicker reindeer, $69.95, from Freedom. 2 Muskhane felt Christmas trees, $79 (for three), from Moi on George. 3 Light up gingerbread house, $249, from Ballantynes. 4 Santa sack, $44.99, from Bed Bath N’ Table. 5 Mercury tabletop glass tree, $49.99, from Farmers. 6 Kip & Co velvet stocking, $69, from Moi on George. 7 Felt mistletoe, $19, from Ballantynes. 8 Sitting Racoon soft toy, $39.99, from Bed Bath & Beyond. 9 Baby fig and berry garland, $99.99, from Bed Bath N’ Table. 10 Star gingerbread house, $54.99, from Adairs. 11 Porcelain village houses, from $18.99, from Bed Bath N’ Table. 12 Holiday mistletoe garland, $60, from Spotlight. 13 Cat scratcher, $12, from Kmart. 14 Santa sack, $44.99, from Adairs. 15 Bristle trees, $24.99 (for eight), from Bed Bath N’…

TREE-TOTAL Harper and Jude decorated the tree this year, with most ornaments from Farmers or Nikki’s nana. A train from Spotlight runs underneath the festive scene. SET THE TABLE The recycled rimu table and chairs are Facebook Marketplace finds. The table runner is from Spotlight, paired with speckled Kmart tealight holders, which the family use as glassware. The floral arrangement on the table and the wreath on the front door (right) were gifted by @scintilla.nz, a florist friend of Nikki’s. home profile MEET & GREET Nikki Kettle (builder and Your Home and Garden columnist), Tom Taylor (builder) and their children, Jude, five, and Harper, three. THE PROPERTY A 1920s four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Eastbourne, Wellington. Everyone knew that Your Home and Garden’s DIY expert Nikki Kettle’s house would be amazing.…

SEE MORE AT YOURHOMEANDGARDEN.CO.NZ There comes a time in any race or project when you need to dig deep into your reserves of stamina and focus on the finish line. For double Olympic gold medal rower Eric Murray, the ground-up renovation of a 1912 villa in Cambridge has turned out to be a marathon rather than a sprint, but after nearly a year of working nights and weekends alongside his day job in business development and coaching, the end is in sight. “It has been both bigger and harder than what I expected,” he says. Although there have been none of the absolute horror stories he had been warned about by friends, he has made a few unsettling discoveries, like pulling down a wall and finding that the ceiling in…

FLAG IT Customise the tree with unexpected objects, such as this paper flag bunting. MERRY MAXIMALIST The living room wallpaper, Artichoke in Moonlight, is one of Lotta’s designs for Handprinted Wallpaper and is the perfect foil for the spruce Christmas tree, which is decorated with the flags of Scandinavia, candles and frilly silk paper ornaments. AT MY TABLE Lotta, Hakan and their sons are all foodies and have special holiday rituals, which includes making a favourite rice pudding on Christmas Eve and putting special candy in jars in the cabinet. TRIM THE TREE The Christmas tree is decorated a few days before Christmas and Lotta admits it takes a long time to do because of all the things she’s accumulated over the years. home profile MEET & GREET Lotta Kuhlhorn…

You will need • 80mm PVC pipe for legs • 40mm PVC pipe for arms, keeping the end caps • Hacksaw • Skin-toned, blue, white, black and gold paint and a paint brush or roller • 75mm timber to fit in leg pipe • Timber screws • Electric screwdriver • 1 large timber round for the base • 2 medium timber rounds to form the body • Wooden tray or base for nutcracker to stand on • Cardboard for the body. I did a double layer • Hot-glue gun and gun stapler • Old baubles for hands • Detailing like buttons, sheepskin for beard, ribbon and fringing for epaulettes • A piece of foam for the nose Making a nutcracker is a good excuse to repurpose many of the parts…

When Bonnie Slade and Jason Callister moved into their “1980s fibre cement board box” home on a heritage street in Nelson, they knew they couldn’t match the character features of the other homes in their neighbourhood. “So, we went with an architecturally designed ‘complete opposite’ to fit in by being so different,” says Bonnie. That decision led to a bold, brilliant renovation of fearlessness that “extended to the inside where we have used a lot of colour to add personality”. Using a mix of Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen and Resene Lustacryl semi-gloss, the couple set about transforming their home, with the help of Jason’s company, Callister Builders. In the living room, the floorboards are painted in Resene Spinnaker with Resene Aquamarine used as a green feature wall, adding brightness and…

Make a lizard hotel Dedicated green spaces and wildlife corridors are so important in cities and, well, everywhere, really. Sadly, though, some of the larger species we share our ecosystems with are often seen as pests, especially in urban areas where they have to battle for space, food and water. But they’re all essential parts of our ecosystems, and no ecosystem thrives when only one animal (that is, humans) dominates. So, by actively increasing your garden’s diversity, you can show up for your wider ecosystem – of which we are residents every day, whether we realise it or not. Australian permaculture author Rosemary Morrow recommends that at least 10 percent of any home and garden design should give back to native plants and animals. Doing this is an active way…

Note: Biscoff is a caramelised biscuit spread originally from Belgium. It’s widely available in supermarkets. SWITCH UP Swap doenjang for miso paste, gochugaru (Korean chilli powder) for smoked paprika, palm sugar for caster sugar or macadamias for peanuts for different flavour profiles. Note: Almonds will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one month. PHOTOGRAPHY ARE MEDIA SYNDICATION …

REJOICE IN FASHION Sixty extravagant works by celebrated Chinese couture designer Guo Pei (creator of that yellow gown Rihanna wore to the Met Gala) are on display at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki as part of the Guo Pei: Fashion, Art, Fantasy exhibition. God is in the detail. aucklandartgallery.com 136 Downtime Rest, relax and get more you time. 138 Women we love Bakery owner Bridget O’Sullivan’s sweet tastes of Italy. 142 Flaw show Eleanor tells how to embrace our imperfections. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF GUO PEI.…

Cantabrian Bridget O’Sullivan’s macaron empire started small at the Christchurch Farmers’ Markets in 2008. After selling out most weekends, she and her then-business partner signed a year-long lease for a store. Now, the mother-of-two has a sideline in Tusca making Italian treats such as festive panfortes, which she started in 2020 while on maternity leave with her daughter, Florence. You were originally a lawyer. Was it hard to make the switch? My background is commercial law but I decided upon leaving London, where I’d worked for five years, to follow my passion. Most people think it’s a huge leap from law to a small business. Actually, I felt like I had some commercial experience, and started applying it to an industry I felt passionate about. By that stage I had…

AROUND THE TABLE The modern round table with its handy turntable is custom made and matched with Hans Wegner replica elbow chairs from Cintesi. The glass pendants are by Soktas. CHRISTMAS DRAMA Add some height to your festive centrepiece. Chinese toon branches add a sculptural effect to this bouquet. home profile MEET & GREET Annika (kitchen designer) and Brad Rowson (joiner), sons Deacon, 17, and Lukie, 14, and their cats Jedi and Poppy. THE PROPERTY Three-bedroom, three-bathroom 1940s house in New Plymouth. Annika Rowson admits she’s not traditional when it comes to Christmas, preferring a relaxed approach to the big day. Her decorations also buck the trend, with her New Plymouth home swathed in a sea of florals and rosy tones as opposed to the usual red and green trimmings.…

1 Resene Idyllic paint, $5 (testpot), from ColorShops. 2 Resene Good To Go paint, $5 (testpot), from ColorShops. 3 Coir doormat, $56.90, from shopyourhomeandgarden.co.nz. 4 Hello Cocky! print, $321, from Minted. 5 Twist candles, $12.99 (two), from H&M. 6 Castille table lamp, $249, from Early Settler. 7 Orla Kiely storage jar, $109, from Bolt of Cloth. 8 Apollo occasional chair, $249.99, from Mocka. 9 Provincial oak sideboard, $2099, from Early Settler. 10 Knotted pillar candle set, $71.99, from shopyourhomeandgarden.co.nz. 11 Dale dining chair, $329, from Freedom. Make it work + Colour on the walls and in decorative pieces doesn’t have to be chaotic. Focus on one area or a couple of pieces per room and keep the rest restrained. + Mixing bought furniture with DIY projects will ensure your home…

Make it work + This house is a case of “if you love it, it’ll work” decorating. + Collections don’t have to be expensive. Scour secondhand shops for gnomes – or whatever it is you collect. + Using lived-in pieces gives a home a feeling of warmth. 1 ’Tis the Season table runner, $59.99, from Adairs. 2 Iittala Katchelmi votive, $49.95, from Smith & Caughey’s. 3 Multi Stem rug, $1345 (120cm x 180cm), from Bolt of Cloth. 4 Resene Wallpaper Collection 64293 wallpaper, $345.95 (roll), from ColorShops. 5 Flemington acrylic jug, $59.99, from Shut the Front Door. 6 Star paper lantern, $22.69, from Dick Smith. 7 Kartell Napoleon gnome table-stool, $865, from Smith & Caughey’s. 8 Medusa tray, $198, from Bianca Lorenne. 9 Resene Aloe Vera paint, $5 (testpot), from…

MY PRETTY White flowers such as magnolia, moth orchids or hellebore are perennial favourites in bouquets. So, taking the theme of white flowers and making an all-white wreath with a single type of flower will be a winner. Start by selecting your faux flower. Magnolias are used here but any of the whites will look just as good. Pick up a dried twig or rattan wreath at the craft shop and position your stems around it, securing with florist wire as you go. Using faux flowers means you’ll be able to reuse this in the years to come. WILD TIMES For this natural beauty, rustic imperfection is the name of the game. Start by soaking a florist foam wreath (you can get these from craft stores or florists). Raid your…

TIPS It is important that both fish fillets are similar in length and thickness as this will ensure the fish will cook evenly. Combine the dressing ingredients close to serving to preserve the colour of the herbs. TIP You can pan-fry slices of the lentil loaf to serve in a burger bun, for a vegetarian burger patty. TIP Wild hibiscus flowers in syrup are available at select delicatessens and liquor stores. Alternatively, top the semifreddo with amarena cherries in syrup. TIPS You will need about 6 passionfruit. Omit folding the passionfruit pulp through the cream, if preferred, and spoon over the cream layers instead. The Lemon Passionfruit Cream can be made several hours ahead and refrigerated. Recipe is best assembled close to serving. TIPS Whisk caramel before using. Swap butternut…

There’s a lot to get our heads around at Christmas. Presents, food, end-of-year break-ups. We deserve a glass of something special to celebrate making it through in one piece. You might also be in charge of drinks on the Big Day or at gatherings in the lead-up. Finding wines that will make both your millennial niece and father-in-law happy is a tough gig. To make life easier, here’s a guide to festive drinks that are easy on the wallet (all are under $25), and not hard to find at a supermarket near you. Pretty in pink Nothing screams “special” more than a glass of sparkling rosé, IMHO. There’s something about the pink-orange hue and those bright, ripe strawberry flavours that say it’s time to celebrate. Choose a sparkling rosé with…