KEY POINTS:
There's a particular kind of challenge associated with renovating a classically-designed home, but it's one interior designer Anna Cuthbert approached with both professionalism and nostalgia.
Her 1970s-built Remuera home was designed by the late Duncan Wood of Babbage Consultants. Cuthbert lived in the street as a child and used to play with the daughter of the couple who built the house. She bought it six years ago after returning from London and has subtly turned it into the ideal family home for her two pre-school children, Sophie and Charlie.
"I saw heaps of potential," she says. "It had lots of light and space for a garage alongside it and the ability to excavate the basement area." She has added that double garage, featuring the same painted concrete blocks, cedar cladding and dormer-style windows as the house.
Inside the house, a wall has been opened up between the kitchen and family room, combining two small awkward rooms into one light-filled, child-friendly hub. She designed the kitchen using shop-bought cabinetry and installed a stainless steel benchtop and white ceramic tiles to lift and lighten the mood of the room.
As far as furniture goes, Cuth-bert's taste has been shaped by her training at London's KLC School of Design. She brought much of her furniture back from Britain, including GP and J Baker tub chairs, a Le Corbusier couch and lounger and an Eileen Gray coffee table.
But her love of beautiful things is grounded in practicality. "Everything here has been done with an eye on the budget."
Young, design-savvy home owners are an increasing portion of her client base. "They might start on their big renovation and then come back 18 months later to do the blinds or put in a new kitchen. Then, a bit later, they may be in a position to start a new project and it might be about getting new sofas," she says.
"Good design is about creating a space that works for the people who live there. That includes children," she says.
"This house is not a show home. It's a real home with all its warts and wrinkles. As every parent knows, chocolate icecream gets spilled. That's why there's no carpet in here."
DESIGNER ADVICE
Start with a good neutral base and then get a colour theme happening to unite the main living rooms throughout the house. In Cuthbert's home there's red in the lounge rug that picks up the red of the feature wall and flows into the leather couch in the family room. The blue in the kilim rug leads your eye from the lounge into the kitchen.
Green and white never fail in a bathroom, especially if there's a leafy view worth framing through a window.
A dramatic black and white wallpapered wall in the entrance is a real "wow" introduction beyond the black and white of the painted concrete block and black cedar exterior cladding.
* Leanne Moore is the editor of Your Home & Garden. For more on this home, see the issue on sale now, or visit www.yourhomeandgarden.co.nz.
