KEY POINTS:
When fashion designer Angela Lewis decided to renovate her seaside home, she approached the project just as she would a new-season clothing range.
Lewis and her partner Grant Brown, who run two fashion labels from Auckland, had been looking for a coastal escape for some time when they came across the three-bedroom cedar home at Brick Bay, near Matakana. "Privacy and seclusion were absolutely top of our list," Lewis says.
"We wanted to be close to the beach with good access for boating, and we wanted it to be spectacular with the drama of an open sea view."
Initially, they were more interested in the 1ha bush-covered site than the house, which they intended to relocate so they could build anew. But once they took possession, they realised the 6-year-old home was well-built and perfectly adequate - plus they didn't want to wait two more years while a new home was designed, approved and built. "We wanted to be here straight away," Lewis says. "So we thought, 'Why don't we just do a renovation and put some of our personality into the house?' And that's what we did."
Lewis began, as she would for a fashion collection, by collecting ideas and a range of colours in a portfolio, then refining them to produce a look that was sympathetic to the home, yet inspirational too. "I built up a whole picture book of things I liked and could see myself incorporating," she says.
"I wanted it to feel like being by the sea, with lots of sandy colours. I'm not a black sand, west coast person - I'm an east coast, tropical beach person. I wanted to capture that 'we're on holiday' feeling, yet I didn't want it to feel like a beach house - I wanted a home."
To achieve this look, she opted for wide-plank white oak floorboards for the main living areas, with carpet in the hallways and bedrooms and Italian ceramic tiles in the bathroom. The sandy tones give the house a beachy feeling, right down to the small, sand-coloured glass tiles used for the kitchen splashback.
"We wanted to give the interior spaces a light, uplifting and contemporary feeling - then throw in a bit of our personality," she says. Lewis deliberately kept the colour palette very restrained throughout. "Because it has this marvellous 360 degree vista, I felt the green of the bush and the blue of the sea provided enough colour. I wanted the interior to be a haven with no particular contrast."
Instead of colour, she has used texture to create interest. The open-plan living, dining and kitchen area features animal hides, white leather, rustic hand-stitched cushions and loose linen covers.
The combination of these materials and the soothing colour scheme produces a sophisticated yet relaxed environment where family and friends frequently gather for weekends and holidays. "The idea of Brick Bay was for us all to have a family gathering point and that's what it's all about," says Lewis.
While she and Brown spend three or four nights a week at their Parnell apartment to be close to the office and the SAGA store in The Chancery, they call Brick Bay home. "Mentally we have moved up here," she says. "We're in Auckland for work and going out, then we ditch it as quickly as possible to jump in our car and zap up here."
Serene style
Texture mixture: If you're going to have a mainly neutral palette, add interest by using different textures such as animal hides, leather and linen.
New frontiers: Don't be afraid to mix different styles or eras. Lewis has produced an eye-catching combination of traditional tribal art and modern abstracts.
Artful placement: Try not to put art on every wall. For impact, group pictures on one wall, but leave another blank.
Sound and vision: If you're renovating, budget for a good entertainment system or at least allow for it by putting in all the necessary wiring and sockets.
* For more affordable home ideas you can create at your place, see the latest issue of Your Home & Garden, on sale now.
