Worth the wait

A neutral palette of white and beige now provides an ideal backdrop for the couple's artworks. Photo / Supplied

When Martin Haughey and Sharon Stephenson decided to buy a new home, they didn't realise they were setting themselves up for months of frustration.

Ten years ago, the couple returned home after living in London and found that their Wellington townhouse was too small and too far from the centre of the city.

"As a first home it was fine," says Stephenson, "but I wanted to be able to walk to work and, after four years of living in terraced housing in the UK, to have a stand-alone place with a decent-sized garden." But what followed was months of futile searching, attending endless open homes. "It got to the stage where I would refuse to go," says Stephenson.

"Instead, Martin would visit open homes and ring me if he thought one had potential." But things began to fall into place when a real-estate agent friend with whom Stephenson had flatted in London rang to let them know about a Kelburn villa for sale. "It was a bit out of our price range, but this house ticked so many of our boxes, I probably would have sold a kidney to be able to afford it," says Stephenson.

The three-bedroom house, built in 1910 for the daughter of a local businessman, had been rewired, replumbed, and repiled. "Most of the walls were in the right places, but the decor was pretty tragic and the paint colours were so bright they almost burnt your retinas," says Stephenson.

The couple couldn't wait to get rid of the kitchen's salmon pink Formica benchtop, which was replaced with stainless steel. "I know some people love concrete and granite, but I wouldn't have anything other than stainless steel work surfaces - they're so practical, easy to keep clean and they never date." Other casualties of the renovation were the heavy floral curtains spread liberally around the home. The couple had gas central heating installed and called in the painters.

"The exterior was a horrid orange colour, which always made me feel slightly ill," says Stephenson. "And as for the interiors, well they were a psychedelic mix of bright blue, orange and yellow." The bathroom was also in need of modernising, so Stephenson and Haughey replaced the dated gold shower and had the gold tapware chrome plated.

They gave the bathroom a striking black and cream colour scheme and painted the ceiling black to make it feel lower. But when it came to the living room, they wanted to emphasise the three-metre stud, so they ripped up the original cream-coloured carpet and painted the floorboards white.

A more neutral palette of whites and beige now provides an ideal backdrop for the couple's artworks, most of which were painted by Haughey, who has also built some of the furniture and created sculptures out of things such as old steering wheel columns.

Haughey and Stephenson like to mix and match new and old pieces, with an emphasis on simplicity. "Having an artistic husband is great," says Stephenson, "because I never know what he'll create or bring home from one of his artist friends."

Villa basics

Space savers: Storage in a villa isn't always the best so try to make your furniture do double duty. Haughey and Stephenson use wooden blanket boxes to store their paperwork.

Simple rules: Go for simple and timeless furniture in plain textures and colours, then add accents with colourful accessories.

White on: If you're going to have a predominantly white colour scheme, use different types of textures and tones to keep it from being too stark. Stephenson is a big fan of the Scandinavian white-on-white look and would, if Haughey agreed, paint all the floorboards white. Keeping the walls neutral helps draw attention to artwork.

* Leanne Moore is the editor of Your Home & Garden. For more achievable home ideas that you can create at your place, see the latest issue, on sale now.