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EASY DOES IT

An Auckland couple took a slow and steady approach to renovating their tranquil city sanctuary

WORDS MARIA HOYLE PHOTOGRAPHS JANE USSHER

An Auckland family creates a getaway vibe in the city.

If ever a house embodied that “aah” sensation of kicking off your work shoes and slipping on your jandals, this is it. With its laid-back, beachy vibe, the living is easy in this renovated 1960s home. The approach to the reno was relaxed too; having transformed a couple of homes, owners Jo and Stu Williams were in no hurry to complete this one. They did it in stages over 10 years, preferring to quite literally let the dust settle between bouts of construction. Result: a beautifully streamlined home that is carefully thought through and elegantly executed. So convincing is the illusion of beachside retreat, it’s hard to believe you’re minutes from a busy thoroughfare in the country’s largest city.

Head down the driveway and it takes a moment to register that the sleek cedar-panelled facade that greets you is a huge garage – extended to give cycling-mad son Alex room to train and maintain his bikes. A side entrance leads to a large lawn fringed by hedges and lush greenery, with a magnificent sinewy pōhutukawa standing sentry opposite the front door.

Jo and Stu’s vision for the reno was “inner-city beach house” and architect David Simiona nailed it… helped by the couple’s clear brief and Jo’s eye for interiors.

“It wasn’t like this when we moved in; it was pretty sad,” says Jo, who’s enjoying a break after selling the Auckland waterfront gastropub she co-owned and managed.

Jo and investment manager Stu, with children Alex, 20, a professional cyclist and part-time business student, and 22-year-old Jess, a Wellington-based design graduate, moved here in 2011 from a big traditional villa just around the corner.

“We had a massive formal lounge with pressed iron ceilings, and a big formal dining room – they were beautiful but we hardly used them. We wanted a house we could use every part of and that flowed seamlessly indoor to outdoor,” says Jo.

This property appealed as the section was large and flat – it was once two clay tennis courts for the houses in front. “We loved that we could put a pool in for the kids at the rear and still have a big lawn out the front.”

Light now floods through massive sliding glass doors to sparkle off the all-white kitchen; just outside are a pool, alfresco area and subtropical garden. Jo explains how at first they reconfigured the home without changing the footprint. The previous layout was piecemeal – French doors went from the kitchen to a “funny little patio”. Two lounges, also with French doors, led separately to that same outside area. The kitchen was dark with “skinny little windows across the top”, snubbing the potential of its north-facing aspect.

Says architect David: “It was inward-focused, with the bench along the outer wall. We turned everything around and went out towards the pool, then put in the sliding doors to open the whole thing up.”

Then they committed “the cardinal sin”, laughs Jo: shrinking a four-bedroom home to three. There was a master plus three bedrooms along the hall, so they knocked out the middle one to give more space to each of the kids’ rooms. Always intending to reinstate that fourth bedroom, they recently added an extension that wraps around the pool area. It houses the master bedroom (the old master is now Jess’ room), a powder room and a second lounge.

The effortless, organic flow is largely thanks to working with the existing structure. “The important

thing was to keep a consistent eave line, from the existing house. When we added the lower lounge, we continued that line all around so it looked like it was all part of the same thing,” says David.

Similarly, there is a commonality between new materials and old. The cedar on the garage, for example, continues in the kitchen and living areas – blurring the line between inside and out. This blurring gets a helping hand from nature and decorative touches. Stand in the hallway, and through the open front door you see the great gnarly trunk of the old pōhutukawa. Look into the house from the pool area, and the effect is reversed; you glimpse nature on the inside – a feature wall papered with a swirling botanical print.

Adding to the harmonious feel are pieces chosen by Jo for their clean, no-fuss aesthetic and to make the best use of space – like the BoConcept dining table with a folding leaf, or the corner couch, ideal for the “not massive” lounge.

From the mirroring of nature to the easy transitions between spaces and that blissful backyard sanctuary (with a pool Jo understatedly dubs “a water feature”), this home certainly lives up to its brief.

Ask Jo what her favourite room is, though, and she laughs. “I love our new lounge but, ridiculously, I also love the scullery. It has a sliding door, so I can hide away in there and bake cakes.”

A sanctuary within a sanctuary. How perfect is that?

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